Tag Archives: South Korea

IBIT TRAVEL Digest 2.26.12

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A roundup of the good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media ​

Juffureh, Gambia

Juffureh, Gambia | ©IBIT G. Gross

RETURN OF THE TRAVEL AGENT?
The Internet has given us all the ability to search out the lowest price on all things related to travel, so we really have no need for travel agents anymore, right?

Not necessarily.

An admittedly non-scientific side-by-side test by the New York Times matched the Web and a travel agent to see which produced the best deals — and the live-human travel agent came out on top.

Seasoned travelers know there’s nothing like having a knowledgeable travel agent in your corner when reservations fall through or unforeseen events blow up your travel plans. Now, it looks now as if the old-school travel agent might be able to hold their own when it comes to scoring travel bargains, as well.

FLYING LOW OVER ASIAN WATERS
The only thing I love more than traveling by sea is traveling cheaply by sea, which means I’m naturally drawn to ocean-going ferries, and Tripologist.com has come up with a trip that satisfies on both counts.

As close as Japan and South Korea are to one another, it would only make sense to visit both while you’re traveling in that part of the world. But a round-trip ticket for the two-hour flight between Tokyo and Seoul could cost you $500 and up, which is insane.

For almost $200 less, you could take a three-hour cruise on a high-speed hydrofoil between the two countries, and pass easily and cheaply from the ports to the anywhere in either country via their high-speed rail networks.

Two high-speed train rides, connected by a hydrofoil? That’s me, all right.

Tripologist breaks down the particulars here.

THE (AMAZING) RACE IS ON…AGAIN!
That’s right. CBS is coming back at you with its 20th segment of the world travel contest show, The Amazing Race. The format is the same, 11 teams of two competitors each. The prize is the same, $1 million.

Being the travel addict I am, I’d probably watch this, anyway, despite all the artificial drama and instigated conflict the show’s producers try so hard to generate. But this time around, I have extra incentives.

The first is that, once again, there are contestants from San Diego on the show. Or rather, there were. The two Asian golfing sisters were eliminated the first night. Poor girls, they barely got their passports open and they’re already gone.

The other is that I have reason to believe that the race is returning to Africa. I’d watch for that reason alone. Some may watch this show for the conniving and the cattiness, but for this traveler, it’s all about the destinations.

And now, here’s this week’s Digest:

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AIR
from Smarter Travel
The new rules requiring airlines to fully disclose the cost of a flight have prompted online travel agencies to limit their flexible options — in some cases, drastically. But there are still ways to use flexible search to your advantage.

from TIME
First, they were feeling up old ladies, frisking little girls and looting people’s luggage. Are TSA screeners now using their screening machines to ogle young women’s bodies? One woman says yes, and she’s suing.

from USA Today
The merger with United has caused Continental Airlines to disappear in all but name. Now, even that is going away. ​

from msnbc
Have one of those unbearably long flights coming up in Coach? Would rather not have a seatmate, maybe even prefer having a whole row all to yourself? That can be arranged.

LAND
from Framework Cycle & Fitness
Ready to really challenge your bike and yourself? Head north to Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, Canada and ride the Cabot Trail. This ride is no joke.

from The​ Times, London UK
Better driving by motorists would make things a lot safer for cyclists. What makes this statement remarkable is that, in London, at least, it’s the motorists who are saying it.

from the New York Times
The NYT’s Michelle Higgins tells us how to get elite status from the better hotel chains. The way the hotels are adding on surcharges these days, you almost owe it to yourself to do it.

​from Away.com
TV chef Anthony Bourdain shares his five top travel tips. This could cost him his Bad Boy membership card.

SEA
from the San Francisco Chronicle
The Costa Concordia disaster is giving folks in Venice second thoughts about how close they want these massive mega-ships passing by their fragile icon of Italian history.

from USA Today
Talks are underway that could bring a cruise to the capital city of Haiti for the first time in a quarter-century.

from Cruise Critic
Twenty-two passengers from the cruise ship Carnival Splendor robbed at gunpoint in Puerto Vallarta. This probably will trigger a massive response from the authorities to crime in the Mexican port, but it might be too late to save the Mexican Riviera.

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AFRICA
from CP-Africa
Is this the footprint of God?

from The Daily Observer (Gambia) via allAfrica.com
New Fajara Craft Market opens in Kotu, part of an ongoing redevelopment of the Fajara waterfront.

from the Business Daily (Kenya) via allAfrica.com
Tourism figures are up in Kenya despite worries over tourist kidnappings and conflict with Somalia’s al Shabaab religious extremist militia.

from The Citizen (Tanzania) via allAfrica.com
Mafia Island. In more ways than one, it’s not what you think. On land, lush, green, and largely unspoiled tropical landscape. Offshore, world-class diving and snorkeling.

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AMERICAS/CARIBBEAN
from State.gov
The State Department breaks down its travel warnings on Mexico, going state by state.

from the New York Times
This piece is all about how to spend a weekend in New Orleans. But if you approach this city in the right spirit, a weekend in “the NOLA” can last all year.

from USA Today
A new exhibit at a Phoenix museum shows there’s more to the Apache legacy than the legend of Geronimo.

from the San Francisco Chronicle
Hawaii’s lava flows are equally fascinating to scientists and tourists, but if you plan on taking in this breathtaking sight, a little caution is in order. Actually, make that a lot of caution.
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ASIA/PACIFIC
from Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan)
From giant paper floats to a private train heated in winter by a pot-bellied stove, Aomori prefecture puts Japanese culture on display.

​from the Japan Times
Tokyo’s famed Tsukiji fish market, which feeds this nation’s insatiable appetite for seafood, is a whirlwind of sights, sounds, aromas and characters. It’s also due to close in three years. So if you want to see a historic piece of daily Tokyo life, go soon.

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EUROPE
from the Guardian (London UK)
An interactive map showing the best bargain-priced restaurants around Britain, Scotland and Northern Ireland. You’ll want to keep this one in your “mobile.”

from the Guardian (London UK)
If you’re one of those people who think camping would be great if it weren’t out in the wilderness, Berlin has the hotel you’ve been waiting for. it’s called the Hüttenpalast. AUDIO SLIDESHOW

from the the Guardian (London UK)
Speaking of eateries, here’s one Parisian’s list of the ten best Paris bistros. I wouldn’t call any of these places a bargain, but they’re probably worth every euro.​

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MIDDLE EAST
from France 24
Iraqi town uses history and heritage to turn from terrorism to tourism.

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IBIT in CHINA: the world’s fastest train

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Seventh in a series

For railroad enthusiasts, or folks who just like getting from Point A to Point B faster than anybody else in the world, the Shanghai Maglev Train is the ultimate E-ticket ride.

Shanghai is a long way to go for a train ride, especially one that covers less than 20 miles and lasts for less than ten minutes.

But if you want to experience the sensation of flying low over the ground, you ought to come here. If you want to get a feel for what the latter half of the 21st century may look like, you have to come here

The reason: the SMT, the Shanghai Maglev Train. For any railroad enthusiast, this is the ultimate E-ticket ride.

The fastest passenger train on the planet, and the only one of its kind in commercial service anywhere in the world.

Faster than Japan’s “Bullet Train,” the Shinkansen. Faster than the French TGV, the German ICE train, the Spanish TALGO or the Eurostar Italia.

Faster than Amtrak’s…oh, never mind.

It runs between Shanghai’s ultramodern Pudong district and the Pudong International Airport, a distance of 18 miles. I don’t know how long it takes to drive those 18 miles on a busy weekday, but on the SMT — depending on the time of day — it’ll take you somewhere between seven and eight minutes.

If it takes eight minutes, it means they’re running at 301 kilometers or 187 miles per hour. In other words, cruising speed. If they shave a minute off the time, it means you’re flying over the ground at 431 km/h or 268 mph.

Shanghai maglev train prearing to leave for Pudong Intl Airport — © Derrick Neill | Dreamstime.com

And it’s capable of going even faster than that.

A small electronic billboard over the door inside your passenger car will tell you just how fast you’re going at all times.

At 187 mph, freeway traffic at full speed on the elevated highway next to you looks as if it’s barely rolling. At 268 mph, it probably looks as if it’s going backward.

The train itself is a German design known as the Transrapid. But it’s not in regular service even in Germany yet, nor anywhere else. Only here.

It’s very quiet. Even at top speed, you can hold a conversation without raising your voice. There’s a little bit of vibration as the SMT hits its top speed, nothing startling. Where you’ll really feel it is when the train leans into the turns, its guideway banked like a racetrack.

You can’t call it the fastest train on wheels, because there are no wheels. No rails, either, at least not in the conventional sense of a railroad.

Maglev is short for “magnetic levitation.” Basically, rows of powerful, electrically charged magnets are used to lift the train just off its guideway and send it down the line. With out wheels rolling over rails, there’s no friction, which means the train is really flying low over the ground.

And you’ll experience that feeling of flight as you ride the SMT — minus the occasional bumps of turbulence you got on the flight to China.

But even knowing all that does nothing to prepare you for the moment when you look out your window at the cars and trucks on the freeway, all of them at full speed — as you’re blowing right by them as if they were toys.

The technology is German. Indeed, the idea of maglev propulsion was first developed in the United States and Germany, and several nations have toyed with the concept for decades. But China was the first to put a high-speed maglev into commercial service.

By now, you may be wondering, “Why hasn’t the rest of the world switched to maglevs?”

One reason: cost. Maglev lines and trains are expensive to build, especially since no other convention train can use a maglev guideway.

At least, not yet.

Still, China is slowly moving ahead with plans to build more maglev lines, with trains of their own design. So are the South Koreans.

Japan, not to be outdone by its biggest Asian rival, has plans in the works for a maglev passenger train even faster than the SMT.

The United States? Your grandchildren may one day travel on an American maglev train. Or maybe their grandchildren.

Meanwhile, you’ll have to settle for getting your E-ticket punched in Shanghai.

All images by Greg Gross and property of I’m Black and I Travel unless otherwise identified. All rights reserved.

ALSO CHECK OUT:
IBIT in CHINA: An introduction
IBIT in CHINA: Beijing
IBIT in CHINA: The Wall and The Way
IBIT in CHINA: All is vanity
IBIT in CHINA: Shanghai
IBIT in CHINA: Tough history, tough people

IS THIS THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS MUSEUM?

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The Gangwon DMZ Museum in South Korea is dedicated to peace and reconciliation with its northern neighbor. But while its aim may be noble, its location falls within easy bombardment range of North Korea, whose leaders have their own ideas about what constitutes good aim.

The word these days out of South Korea from Associated Press is that they’re moving some advanced missile artillery batteries closer to the DMZ, the Demilitarized Zone that separates them from North Korea.

They’re doing this just in case the North’s Kim Jong Il has another sudden case of mental indigestion and decides to do something crazy and lethal, like bombard a South Korean island without warning.

You can read the brief AP report, courtesy of Yahoo!, here.

It’s all part of the crazy dance the two Koreas have been doing for the last six decades since the end of the Korean War — which officially has never actually ended.

I bring all this up because of something I stumbled across recently on the Web — the Gangwon DMZ Museum, which opened three years ago in Goseong, not far from the Sea of Japan.

It’s all apparently part of an effort to turn the DMZ, what may be the most tense, most unpredictable and most heavily armed international border in the world, into…

…wait for it…

…a tourist attraction.

The museum tells the story of how Korea first came to be divided, and the Korean War that followed, along with its aftermath.

It’s a three-story hall with more than 6,000 exhibits at a cost of about US$40 million. Four exhibition halls, each with a different theme, a theater, a special showroom.

Its organizers say the museum will serve not just “as a space for inter-Korean exchange and cooperation to restore cultural homogeneity of the two Koreas,” but as a step to prepare the two Koreas for “an era of national unification and turn the DMZ area into a world-class historical and cultural attraction.”

That’s not all. South Korea is actually wants to turn DMZ (or at least some sizable chunks of it) into an ecological preserve. The rationale: Since no one has been allowed to even set foot in this no man’s land between the two Koreas since 1953, it’s pristine wilderness.

What North Korea thinks of all this, only they know. But they have a long history of creating “drama” along this border.

Which makes the Gangwon DMZ Museum potentially the most high-risk cultural exhibition on the planet.

South Korea actually has a lot that could interest a traveler, whether it’s the country’s 5,000 years of culture and history or its cutting-edge status as quite possibly the most digitally “wired” place on Earth.

But wandering around under the gaze — and possibly the guns — of North Korea could give a whole new meaning to the term “tourist trap.”

This Week on IBIT

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Fly like a rock star. See how America and Africa are both getting their roll on. And remembering other heroes on Memorial Day.

In my old life as someone else’s employee, I used to love short work weeks. Now that I’m doing my own thing, not so much. Why? Too much to do! See what I mean below:

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Today is Memorial Day, one of the days that America sets aside to honor the servicemen and women who risked all — and ultimately gave all — in service to this country.

But not all those who serve their country do so in uniform, or with weapons in hand, nor was it always this country’s freedom that they fought for. They too are worth remembering.

And today, IBIT will remember some of them.

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In the midst of the nightmare that is today’s air travel, have you ever wished you could travel in the ease and comfort of your own little chartered jet, minus the cramped quarters and the TSA nonsense?

Well, maybe you can. The trick is to save your coins, and have some like-minded friends. You may still pay a pretty penny, but the experience you get back in return could be more than worth it.

This week, IBIT will show you how that works, and point you to some of the outfits that make it happen.

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Whether for the sake of getting more exercise, saving money on gas or just having a good time, more and more Americans are taking to bicycles.

And that very much include black folks.

From community-based cycling groups organizing urban rides for fun and fitness to hard-core racing clubs advancing the legacy of Major Taylor and the Buffalo Soldiers, African-Americans are getting their roll on.

We’ll show you the whos, hows and whys…and how you can get out there yourself.

Heck, they’ve even inspired this digital couch potato to push back from the iMac and return to the road, which is why you may be periodically reading mini-sagas of me and the mountain bike known as Big Lizard.

Does it make a difference? Well, I did lose ten pounds last week.

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Here’s what else this week holds in store for you on IBIT:


GANGWON DMZ MUSEUM
Would you visit a museum within easy artillery range of North Korea? The South Koreans have one, right on the 38th Parallel. Check out what could be the world’s most dangerous exhibit hall.


AIRLINES: A SILENT MONOPOLY?
Lodged in a wire service story about airlines cutting back on trans-Atlantic service this summer is a little nugget about the way the airlines, through their burgeoning alliances, are creating monopolies that effectively govern air travel. We’ll unearth that nugget and take a closer look at it.

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Yep, it’s gonna be a busy week here on IBIT, without a doubt. But not busy enough to keep me from making my appointed rounds with Big Lizard! Come along for the ride!

Passports: The 63 Percent Solution

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©Quinton Davis photo

Two out of three Americans don’t have a valid passport. We have the power to change the world, maybe even destroy the world, but two-thirds of us can’t even legally step out and see the world?

That’s just embarrassing.

The good news from our State Department is that after the number of American passport holders dropped by nearly 3 million in 2009, the numbers began to creep upward again last year, albeit by a measly 400,000.

About 114 million of us have passports, which makes us about 37 percent of the population, well above the 25 percent mark that stood for years.

The bad news: That means that 67 percent of us are without a passport. We still have about the lowest per capita rate of passport holders of any nation in the developed world.

In some respects, we may not be as “developed” as we think.

CAN’T GO ANYWHERE
Nowadays, the lack of a passport can be pretty limiting to a person. Forget about seeing any part of Europe, Asia, Africa, Central or South America.

Forget about taking a cruise anywhere, except Hawai’i or maybe one of our quasi-colonies in the world: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa.

In today’s post-9/11 world, you can’t even drive across the border into Mexico or Canada without a passport or a passport card.

What’s up with this?

We’ve long been living on a kind of cultural island, protected by friendly neighbors north and south, buffered by the world’s two largest oceans to the east and west. Behind those shields, the American nation grew powerful and rich.

We also grew isolated, and a lot of us were just fine with that, so long as we remained powerful and rich.

STUCK ON THE PORCH
One decade into the new century, things are a bit different. Waves of technology — from the telegraph and the airplane to the telephone, the computer and finally the Internet — send information, culture and people back and forth across the planet almost as easily as air travels over water.

No place is out of reach anymore. The world is well on its way to becoming one large neighborhood, joined by commerce and communications.

But here we sit, two-thirds of us afraid to venture off our sheltered cultural porch, fearing and loathing large parts of a world of which we know little or nothing.

Is this how a great nation behaves?

It’s holding us back economically. A lot of the great opportunities today are turning up beyond our shores, but only those who are culturally agile will be able to make the most of them.

It’s also endangering our safety, because our lack of understanding of the world we live in makes it harder for “we the people” to make smart decisions about our dealings with other nations.

OUR PLACE IN THE WORLD
Whether we like it, understand it or not — and let’s face it, we often don’t — we are a part of this world. We need to be able to function it, thrive in it, get along with others in it, take our full and rightful place in it.

And after four centuries of second-class citizenship, that especially applies to black Americans.

There are places in the world where an ambitious young man or woman who’s got the skills and the drive can find success, regardless of their “paint job.” And if you do a little traveling, you’ll see that for yourself.

That’s why I love seeing see talented young black 20somethings and 30somethings making their way out into that world with determined hearts and passports in hand, making names for themselves as students or professionals in virtually every corner of the globe.

In the process, they’re finding that they can more than hold their own, anywhere.

Writing this blog has afforded me the chance to connect with some of them, and through my Out There series, you will, too. They inspire me, and I hope they inspire you. I’m proud of them.

I just wish there were more of them.

Time to step into the sunshine, America…and step off the damned porch.

GET YOUR PASSPORT!
The State Department has a Passports Page with all the information you need to get you started on the process of obtaining a passport. If you have a computer and printer at home, you can print out the application and mail it in, along with a regulation-size photo of yourself and the required fee.

This link from State will show you where you can apply nationwide. You can search by state or city, or just enter your ZIP code.

You also can apply at your neighborhood Post Office, the advantage there being that their fee includes taking your passport photo on the spot, instead of forcing you to make a separate trip.

If you need a passport in a hurry, there are passport agencies that will expedite the process for you — for an additional, naturally. The bigger your rush, the bigger the fee.

CHINA: Parking in pink?

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Ladies, does your fashion sense come into play when you park your car? Someone in China’s Hebei province seems to think so. File this one under “Things That Make you Go ‘What the eff!’”

Remember when we first heard about this earlier in the year? A shopping center in the Chinese city of Shijiazhuang has opened up an underground parking lot exclusively for women.

You can read the BBC story on their original plans here.

I thought it was a joke. It’s not. The link is provided on the off-chance that you think I make this stuff up.

Then I found out that it’s not even unique.

Women-only parking spaces already existed in Germany before the Chinese came up with their pink parking palace. And in Seoul, South Korea, pink-striped parking spaces are similarly being set aside for women only.

This falls in line with the women-only train carriages in Japan and more recently, Mexico City’s pink taxis, not only exclusively for women, but exclusively driven by women. And like Japan, the Mexican capital’s Metro trains have set aside rail cars for women only.

The rationale behind the gender-exclusive trains and taxis is readily understood. Female passengers feel safer in the taxis, and they’re less likely to get groped by modern-day troglodytes on the trains.

The Chinese venture, on the other hand, seems to be following that old cliché about “women drivers.”

Figuratively speaking, I’m not going there.

America — Overworked and under-vacationed?

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Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico | © Greg Gross

So I’m reading this press release about a new pitch being developed by one of the cruise lines, Royal Caribbean International. The theme: “Cruise them or lose them.”

The “them” refers to your vacation days, and the tendency of we Americans to kiss off far too many of them. Yeah, they’ve got cruise ship cabins they’re desperate to fill, but behind the funny pitch are some serious issues.

It’s long been known that the average working adult in the United States gets the least amount of vacation time per year in the industrialized world:

  1. Italy, 42 days
  2. France, 37
  3. Germany 35
  4. Brazil 34
  5. Britain 28
  6. Canada 26
  7. Japan and South Korea, tie 25
  8. United States 13

The Japanese and South Koreans, neither of whom have a reputation for slacking off in the workplace, are the next lowest — and they still average almost twice as much vacation time as Americans.

What’s more, workers in many countries, including Japan, have a certain mininum number of vacation days required by law. Not here.

THE $19 BILLION GIVEAWAY
And of his or her 13 average vacation days, the typical American will give three of those back to their employer. According to the folks at Expedia (another outfit with a vested interest in getting us to travel more), that saves American employers an average of $19.3 billion a year.

Did you even get a thank-you card last Christmas for your share of this $19 billion gift? I’m betting you didn’t.

According to some numbers crunched from 2009 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, we Americans collectively worked through a whopping 459 million vacation days last year.

That’s shade over 1 million years of time off you could’ve taken, America, and didn’t.

It gets worse.

A travel industry survey showed nearly half of those polled, 45 percent, blew off vacation time last year, and 78 percent expect to forfeit ten days of vacation in 2010.

Such surveys have even shown that more than a few Americans actually feel guilty about using their paltry vacation time.

The rest of the world looks at this and thinks we’re nuts. I look at it and think they’re right.

MORE PRODUCTIVE, MORE STRESSED
Nor is this a function of the Great Recession. We’ve always been like this. You know, that whole Puritan work ethic thing? And we wonder why we constantly feel weary in body and spirit?

(Perhaps somebody should’ve reminded our ancestors that the Puritans were religious extremists who basically got run out of England.)

Juliet B. Schor, Harvard economist and author of “The Overworked American,” was tracking this stuff back in 1990:

“Since 1948, productivity has failed to rise in only five years. The level of productivity of the U.S. worker has more than doubled…Yet hours have risen steadily for two decades. In 1990, the average American owns and consumes more than twice as much as he or she did in 1948, but also has less free time.”

We as a nation are among the most stressed out people on Earth, and we have no one to blame for it but ourselves. To paraphrase an old TV commercial from back in the day, we’re creating more and earning more, but enjoying it less.

Some folks, especially those in the mental health business, might well look at all this and wonder: What is the point?

Many of us actually love our jobs; the problem is that the job will never love you back.

KILLING OURSELVES
Face it, it’s not as if your workplace can’t go on without you. The 6.3 million men and women laid off in the last three years can attest to that. So why are you killing yourself for an employer who not only doesn’t love you, anyway, but who may not even know your name?

And if you’re one of those Americans who routinely gives away vacation days every year, you are indeed killing yourself.

John de Graaf runs a non-profit outfit that calls itself Take Back your Time. He has some stats of his own.

“Men who take them are 32% less likely to suffer from heart disease than those who don’t.  For women, it’s 50%.  And women who don’t take vacations are more than twice as likely to suffer from depression.”

So if your doctor ever writes you a one-word prescription that just says “MAUI,” he may just may be trying to save your life.

Medical tourism

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Spanish colonial tax house, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

For many travelers, surgical procedures are becoming an excuse to vacation in distant lands. But if EVER there were a case of “let the buyer beware,” this is it.

Every day, somewhere in the world, some American unpacks their bags in a foreign country to start their vacation — and prepare for surgery. It’s called medical tourism, and Americans by the hundreds of thousands are literally buying into it.

Hospitals around the globe are actively seeking American patients whose bank accounts will never be confused with those of Donald Trump — and they’re exploiting the fact that their countries also happen to be among the world’s more popular tourist destinations.

What places am I talking about? Try:

  • Argentina
  • Canada
  • Costa Rica
  • Cuba
  • Hong Kong
  • India
  • Malaysia
  • Mexico
  • New Zealand
  • Philippines
  • Singapore
  • South Korea
  • Thailand



Surgery and suntans
In some 50 countries around the world, Americans are getting everything from cosmetic surgery to life-saving procedures, all for a fraction of what they would pay back home.

A coronary bypass that might equal the cost of a four-bedroom house in California may set you back only $10,000 in India — and that might well include a post-surgery vacation package and your round-trip airfare.

What’s more, for the money spent, tourist-patients often receive a level of medical care that would leave their hometown hospitals slack-jawed and glassy-eyed. Countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America are investing millions to create state-of-the-art medical centers. Guest houses and other lodging have sprung up specifically to serve medical tourists.

Then, there are facilities that combine both those functions.

One example is the Bumrungrad International Hospital in Thailand. You may have to look twice to confirm that you’re even in a hospital. Blue Cross of South Carolina thought enough of Bumrungrad to add it to its network of hospitals.

You think a U.S. insurance company is going to include a malpractice magnet as part of its own network?

Increasingly, there are web sites designed to walk people through the process of finding facilities and physicians overseas, even helping with travel arrangements. One example of such a site is Planet Hospital.

In a sense, medical tourism is as old as recorded history. Centuries before that term was coined, ancient Romans journeyed to “spa towns” in England, France, Italy, Germany and what is now the Czech Republic to drink and soak in their healthful springs.

For many years, until the wait times to cross the border became just too oppressive, my own optometrist was in Tijuana. For decades, Americans have gone down to Mexican border towns — not for trinkets, but for dental work.

Today’s medical tourism has gone far beyond the spa town. The treatments you can buy for yourself cover the entire spectrum of modern medicine, including psychiatry.


THE COMING THING?
There are those who predict that medical tourism will soon be embraced by both government and the health insurance industry in this country.

As with anything else, there are tradeoffs — especially if something goes wrong with your care. The rest of the world isn’t nearly as lawsuit-happy as we are. Lacking the need for hugely expensive malpractice insurance is one reason why medical care is so much cheaper overseas.

The flip side of that means that if Dr. Idun No in the Republic of Idontunderstan reattaches your lip where your ear should’ve been, your prospects for winning a huge malpractice judgment may range from slim to are-you-kidding?

The country’s political stability matters, too. I mean, do you really want to go under general anesthesia when there’s a coup d’etat going on outside?

There also is the potential for some localized resentment. In Thailand, for instance, so many doctors are rushing to cater to foreign patients that locals can have a hard time getting care.

Even so, studies have been done showing that 750,000 Americans left the United States to seek medical care in 2007, a figure that was expected to double last year, and could multiply by a factor of ten over the next decade. A Gallup Poll from earlier this year suggests that nearly 30 percent of Americans are willing to go outside the United States for health care.

Maybe if we had a true national health insurance system, as nearly every developed country in the world does, none of this would be necessary. But, we don’t, so—

WHO SCREENS THESE PLACES?
But how can you be assured of getting quality health care abroad? If ever there were a time for the buyer to beware, this is it.

Luckily, you’ve got some allies there.

There are accrediting agencies that check out these hospitals and give them their stamp of approval…or not. Among the better known and more credible of these are the Joint Commission International in the United States and the Trent International Accreditation Scheme in the United Kingdom. There also is an umbrella group for international accrediting agencies, the International Society for Quality in Health Care, based in Ireland.

Cheryl Clark, good friend, veteran medical writer, and now senior editor for HealthLeaders Media, has some added suggestions:

* Make sure that the doctor who’s going to do your procedure is board-certified in that field (this is something you probably should do anywhere, even at home).

* If your procedure is going to require transfusions, ask lots of questions about the hospital’s blood supply and where it comes from.

* Make sure the anesthesiologist is going to be on hand throughout your procedure.

* Last but not least, be certain that the facility where your procedure is going to be done has a full-fledged emergency room — or has a good working agreement with a hospital that does — just in case something goes wrong.

So, like anything else involving travel, do your homework before you commit your body to something like this. On the other hand, if the choice for your post-surgical recuperation is a condo in Omaha or a beach chair on the Copacabana, well…

The View from the Train

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Local trains, Florence, Italy. | © G. Gross

These days, there are two kinds of air travelers — those who are sick of flying and those who soon will be. A good train makes a great alternative.

My friend Walt flies all over the world for his job. He has enough frequent flyer miles to circumnavigate the globe 40 times. Do you envy him?

Don’t.

“I hate flying. I’m sick of flying. I almost can’t stand to get on an airplane anymore.”

French TGV at Roissy CDG airport, Paris

Back in the day, air travel was fun, romantic, thrilling. In the immortal words of B.B. King, the thrill is gone. In its place are security screeners who treat you like luggage, baggage handlers who treat your luggage like garbage, and airlines that treat you like cattle.

Did the airline overbook your flight? Too many ounces of Listerine in your toiletry kit? Do you have to run through terminals like O.J. Simpson? And why do the screeners want you to take your shoes and your belt off?

What’s next, a lap dance?

TORTURE, NOT TRAVEL
Just getting yourself to the airport often means long drives through hellish traffic, only to descend into a maze of taxis, shuttle buses and other travelers, all jockeying for the same unavailable space.

This is not travel. This is torture.

Okay, I freely admit to being a train nut. My friend Carl tells me that true rail fanatics are called “foamers.” Not sure I qualify; I’ve had all my shots. But I love traveling on clean, comfortable, well-run trains.

Pullman porter

There’s also a personal connection. Back in the 1940s and 1950s, one of my great-uncles was a Pullman porter on the Sunset Limited, the first train I ever rode. The story of the Pullman porters and their struggle for dignity plays a major role in the Civil Rights movement.

Today, there’s a growing movement among Americans to return to a modernized and faster rail system.

Buy your ticket. Head to the platform. Climb aboard, stash your bag, find your seat. Show the conductor your ticket. That’s it. Leave from and arrive in the heart of town.

You can watch all the scenery you’ll never see from “our cruising altitude of 39,000 feet.” There’s a place to plug in your laptop or spread out your picnic lunch and your bottle of wine. If you paid extra for a compartment, you have a cozy little bedroom by night. An attendant will turn the bed down for you.

WORLD-CLASS SPEED
You will not be told to fasten your seatbelt because of turbulence. There is no turbulence. There is no seatbelt.

The high-speed passenger trains of Europe and Asia are the best of all. Trains like Japan’s pioneering Shinkansen and South Korea’s KTX, the French TGV, the German ICE train (the pun can’t be helped, but that’s just a cool name for a train), Spain’s AVE and the Eurostar Italia whisk you to and from your destinations at speed approaching or exceeding 200 miles per hour.

A Eurostar train takes you from London to Paris, under the English Channel via the famous tunnel, in a shade over two hours.

Bar car, Napa Valley Wine Train | © G. Gross

When traffic is at its worst, you can’t get from Roissy CDG airport to central Paris in two hours.

Most of these lines are so fast that they don’t even bother with sleeper cars. You’re going too fast to read the signs telling you the names of the picturesque little villages and towns you’re bypassing (those are left to slower local trains).

In Europe, many airlines don’t even try to compete with them on short-haul routes anymore.

SLOW BUT SCENIC
Here in the United States, even bedraggled Amtrak is gaining travelers weary of the air nightmare and rising gas prices. In summer, Amtrak’s more popular lines are selling out and running full at peak times.

Go north and you’ve got one of the most beautiful transcontinental rail trips in the world, the Trans-Canada.

Stations in New York, Chicago, Washington DC and Los Angeles have regained the buzz they maintained a half-century ago, when train travel was “it.”

Being slower allows Amtrak to run sleeper cars across the American continent. They charge per trip for one of their compartments, regardless of the number of people using it, which makes them cheaper than first-class airfares. All your meals are included — real food in a real dining car.

Lunch, Napa Valley Wine Train

Speaking of food, there are excursion trains and dinner trains that don’t really take you anywhere except to a great time, day trips lasting just long enough to treat you to gorgeous views and sumptuous meals aboard restored antique trains. The Napa Valley Wine Train is an example.

Want ultra-luxury? A few well-heeled rail buffs maintain their own antique railcars, which Amtrak attaches to their own trains for trips around the country. When their owners aren’t using them, they’ll often rent them out.

Bottom line: If you’re willing to be miserable for the sake of speed, flying still wins. But when you’re ready to actually enjoy going somewhere, think rails instead of wings.