NYT on Vietnam

by Erik Olsen on


So as I mentioned, I was out for a few days, spending time in beautiful (and damn cold, IMHO) San Francisco. I also
managed to get myself down to Ventura and spent one very fine weekend paddling the sea caves of the Channel Islands. Oh
man, oh man, was it great. A detailed account will be forthcoming along with photos, but right now, I have to step back
a few days and catch up on some missed stories in the New
York Times and other papers, since the Sunday travel sections are always filled with goodies.

To wit:

here is a story that should not be missed from the Sunday Times about Vietnam. Now, I confess I’ve never been to
Vietnam. I consider it a “must see” destination and am more or less just waiting for the right opportunity. But stories
like this whet my interest and make me wonder if the time should be sooner rather than later.

The writer visits Hue and several places in center of the country, along the dividing line of North and South Vietnam,
where some of the Vietnam War’s fiercest battles were fought. Here she takes an old wooden motor boat down the Huong
Giang, or “Perfume River” and later wanders some of the local ancient tombs and temples. Then it is on to Da Nang and
Hoi An, where memories of the war are still very much alive. Vietnam’s main cities are changing so rapidly due to
globalization and tourism, that the mind swirls when imagining what they will look like a decade from now, but as the
article suggests, in some places the past remains very much alive.

Ah, Amsterdam

by Erik Olsen on

Slate’s travel series are sadly few and far between. The last time we heard from them was the
Cynthia Barnes piece on Timbuktu, a fine piece if you missed it.
Now we have another week-long series of dispatches from Seth Stevenson, who penned an earlier
piece on India that had me laughing yet wondering if we’d visited the same country (I was in India about this time last
year).

In this series, Stevenson riff on the joys of Amsterdam, where he revels in the city’s “coziness”, finds virtue in the
slow food movement and indulges in many succulent bitterballen

along the way. Of course, no trip to the city of no-restraint would be complete without some indulgence in the city’s
famous vices, and Stevenson does not disappoint. A visit to one of Amsterdam’s coffeeshops (a helpful side note,
Stevenson helps make clear that “coffeehouses” sell coffee, while “coffeeshops” sell cannabis)
finds him extolling the virtues of a little mary jane and
ruing the presence of legions of pot-smoking British teens who he likens to a “plague of retarded locusts”. Very nice.
There is also a hilarious account of his experience with
shrooms, which should be required reading for all who are
considering the consumption of psychedelic fungus.

Stevenson’s discourse on the easy availability of
intercourse is slim, a disappointment, perhaps, but since he has a girlfriend, I suppose we can excuse him for not
delivering the full measure of devotion expected to of today’s travel writers. The series is an excellent read,
especially if Amsterdam is on your traveling radar screen. The account is far more honest (and hilarious) than you will
find in most mainstream travel pubs.

Flex Mussels

by Adrienne Wilson on

Does the sound of mussels and French fries make your mouth-water with a foolish delight? Over
the weekend New York Times ran a
small food piece on Flex Mussels, which I’m
sure has to be a rare find. The take-out restaurant located in Prince Edward Island, Canada offers
patrons a variety of scrumptious mussel options and freshly fried spuds cooked to order in only four minutes.
You don’t have to travel far to get the most out of your cooked mussels. Flex
Mussels has three picnic tables for eating and a counter to enjoy your meal. Chef Quain notes that
the cooked mussels don’t taste too hot after traveling maybe a ways back home, so he offers
make-your-own-kits containing live mussels, prepared sauce and cooking instructions. Both cooked to order and
make-your-own-kits are priced somewhere around $6 to $7.50 a pound.   

Love to Louisiana

by Kelly Amabile on

I’ve been to Louisiana twice, and have developed quite the soft spot for New Orleans. My heart goes out to the
residents of the city and the entire southern region affected by Katrina, as the difficult tasks of assessing damage
and rebuilding slowly begin. Here are some memories from my February 2005 visit to the Pelican State, which I hope
inspires others to plan future trips to the area:

We stayed in a grand home on the Esplanade, where the French Quarter meets the
Farbourg Marigny. Walking the streets, we discussed architecture and
noticed signs of spring — blooming magnolias, live oaks and banana trees. We stopped for brunch at
La Peniche, named after the disassembled
barge wood used to make the homes in the area. I feasted on chicken and andouille gumbo at
Arnaud’s, tasted a
muffuletta at Frank’s Restaurant, sipped
an Abita Turbodog, and polished off some beignets around midnight
at Cafe du Monde. We danced to James Brown at the Blues Cafe on Bourbon, and
waited an hour to hear the famous Dixie-land jazz band at Preservation
Hall jam to Sweet Georgia Brown.

We left the city limits as well, visiting Brusly (Bru-lee), LA,
(population 2,000) along the Mississippi outside of Baton Rouge, where we stayed with local friends in their 1835
historic Creole cottage a block from the levee off of
River Road. We were treated to the trifecta of
southern cooking, a trinity meal, catfish style – salad, stew and pie. Dessert was homemade pecan pie and chocolate
cream pie with fresh strawberries on top, probably from Ponchatoula.
Before departing, we spent an hour wandering through
Beauregard Town, a historical section of
East Baton Rouge, and visited the tallest state
capitol building in the nation, where Huey Long was shot.

The list of things I’d like to do on my next visit to Louisiana keeps growing: play video poker at a truck stop
casino, visit a sugar mill and sugarcane fields, eat pralines for breakfast, suck the meat out of the tail of a
crawfish shell without looking like a Yankee, spend more time checking out the nightlife on Frenchman Street and attend
Jazz Fest, which is slated for late April 2006.  I’m optimistic that the
spring music festival will take place as planned, and I hope that many folks consider heading south to the region as
soon the situation improves. They will really want us all to visit.

Classic New York Trips

by Kelly Amabile on

The Gothamist provides much more than the latest goss on NYC
happenings. Last month, they began featuring a series of classic New York trips that go beyond the traditionally hyped
attractions and remind us that there is more to the great city than just Manhattan.

When planning a trip to NY, even if it is your first visit, be sure to make it out to at least one other borough
besides Manhattan. Use the subway and see just how easy it is to explore all parts of this great metropolis!

Here are the first five trips suggested by writer Garth Johnston to get you started on an urban adventure:

Ride the Staten Island
Ferry

Visit the Queens Museum of
Art (which I didn’t mention in last week’s post)

Visit Wave Hill in the
Bronx

Visit the New York Transit
Museum in Brooklyn

Visit the New York Marble
Cemetery

One side-note, for those who may want to venture even further from the city, I was happy to see Gothamist food
writer Tamara Lover suggest a trip through the Hudson Valley to sample
Wine on the Road. NYC rocks, but don’t
forget that there really are many wonderful things worth seeing outside the epicenter of the city.