Following on my post about the Li River, near Yangshuo, China, here’s a shot I took from the kayak. The rain had just finished, but we could hear thunder in the distance. The river was moving swiftly, carrying us past this “commuter.”
Asia
Travel through Asia by country:
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Russian Federation, Singapore, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam
Travel through Asia by popular city:
Bangkok, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo
Travel through Asia by popular things to do:
Travel through Asia with our writers:
Infiltrating North Korea, Keyhole Into Burma, Band on the Run ... in China, Chinese Buffet, A Canadian in Beijing, Volunteer Vacation: Tajikistan
Wordhum Wins Gold
Big time hats off to one of our favorite travel Web sites Worldhum for winning the gold medal in the Internet publication category. The 2006 Lowell Thomas Awards were held on Friday at its convention in Santiago, Chile. That’s a very big deal for the Worldhum guys and we offer them congrats. We link to them often, so its been obvious to us for a long time that they are doing something right…and this is exactly the kind of recognition they deserve.
If you want to catch the whole list of winners and runners-up, you can check out this page. I should add that the two runners up were Lonely Planet, edited by Helen Souness and Amy Langfield’s Newyorkology.com, which we actually blogged about just the other day.
On Chinese Street Food
Go World Travel features a fine culinary travel piece by Larry Jer who after spending months in China decides to risk everything to sample – Chinese street food. We’ve all been tempted on one journey or another to give into the aromas drifting off the grill or pan from some street chef looking to tantalize your taste buds, fuel your stomach as well as make an honest living. Sometimes trying those delicious smelling street treats isn’t as easy as one might think. For Larry having Chinese street food was much like a trip to the circus. I can understand that, but it wasn’t until Larry found he needed to get the weight he’d lost by avoiding most foods in China that he gave in to the street vendors. In addition to developing balls or courage to try the food for weight concerns, he also found gobbling down silkworm added dimension to his stay in China. How about that? Dimension in silkworms? Mmm…
Read the rest for yourself. Foodies can surely appreciate Larry Jer’s very nicely written travel tale.
Lowell Thomas Awards Announced
You might call them the Oscars of Travel Writing…but without the flowing gowns and/or long acceptance speeches. Oh, and the awards were held in Santiago this year, not Los Angeles. But despite their relative low-key nature, for travel writers, The Lowell Thomas (pictured) Awards are a big deal. This year’s selections came out of 1,392 entries, and consist of the very best travel writing that was published on dead trees or on the internet over the course of last year. The biggest award given is probably the one for Travel Journalist of the Year, and 2006’s awards went to the following:
Gold: Jane Wooldridge, The Miami Herald
Silver: Carol Pucci, The Seattle Times
Bronze: Millie Ball, The Times-Picayune, New Orleans
Someday, we assure you, we’ll be at least runners up. But for now, we content ourselves with congratulating the winners, and trying to soothe our festering envy with thoughts of upcoming trips.
Jails, Homeless Shelters, & Soup Kitchens Turned Hotels
Call it coincidence, but in this month’s edition of concierge.com they’ve listed 10 hotels across the globe with a spooky past. (Coughs, can we say perfect timing for Halloween, hmm?) After going through each one, I noticed the history of some were creepier than others depending on what you tend to get spooked by. Shack up in a past crime den, nun’s cell, jail or my personal favorite an old soup kitchen. From the photos featured one might not ever know that these places have a tale to tell, but don’t let the looks deceive you. When you’re at rest in bed the howling you hear isn’t coming from the outside. It’s the cry of the mentally unhinged resident that stayed there before you. (Insert: horror laughter.) I’m only kidding – sort of.
Check out the Poor House: Hopper Hotel Et Cetera in Cologne, Germany which now sits as a cheap-chic boutique hotel, but was once a homeless shelter and soup kitchen. Heading to Puerto Rico? Stay at the old Carmelite convent, now one of San Juans’ most luxurious hotels was once home to 11 nuns that moved out in 1903. If you’re in need of prison time look at their picks out of Turkey and the U.K., just don’t say I didn’t try to warn you of their bone-chilling ambience.