Weekend travel media top five

by Alex Robertson Textor on

This weekend’s most interesting travel stories include a look at Egypt’s seldom explored coast west of Alexandria, a long weekend guide to Singapore, a travel guide to solar eclipse runs, a profile of Boracay, the Philippines’ popular holiday island, and a 12-day Great Australian Aircruise.

1. In the Guardian, Belinda Jackson takes a road trip from Alexandria to Marsa Matruh and on to the border town of Sollum. Highlights include the beaches of Marsa Matruh and friendly coastal Bedouin villages.

2. In the West Australian, Veronica Matheson outlines a three-night Singapore visit, full of good restaurant and neighborhood tips.

3. In the San Francisco Chronicle, April Orcutt describes her decades-long interest in solar eclipses, detailing eclipse-chasing trips to Hawaii, Chile, and Curaçao and closing with a calendar of five future total solar eclipses.

4. In the New York Times, Lionel Beehner writes about Boracay in the Philippines (see above), wondering if the island might be morphing into the next Phuket.

5. In the Australian, Judith Elen does an Australian Aircruise over the course of 12 days, exploring the awe-inspiring natural beauty and cultural eccentricity of Australia’s “Red Centre.”

[Image: Flickr/~MVI~ (surviving on globe tattoo)]

Gone to Cairo, learned to jaywalk

by Grant Martin on

The best thing that I brought back from Egypt wasn’t a chintzy souvenir pyramid, photo in front of the Sphinx or bottle of scented oil. It was experience — or more specifically, experience in properly crossing the street.

This is mostly the result of the traffic situation in Cairo, Egypt’s largest and capital city. Cars swarm through the streets like termites into a mound, filling every square pavement with hard rubber and steel. Traffic lights have no meaning, and even if there was a crosswalk to follow it would always be blocked by vehicles.

In turn, the pedestrians adapt. With a never-ending stream of traffic ready to run any passer-by over, people quickly learn how to dive between cars, ducking between lanes and standing on curbs as death passes a mere inch or two away. It’s Frogger in real life — and to be honest, it’s almost fun. CNN’s Ben Wedeman sums up the experience pretty well below:

Luxury designer brand Louis Vuitton enters the hotel industry

by Melanie Nayer on

The designer-inspired-hotels trend is ramping up. The Villa by Barton G has taken over the former Versace mansion, and Armani is getting set to open its first hotel in the Burj Dubai. Ralph Lauren and Bulgari have helped design exclusive hotels around the world, and now, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the parent company of Louis Vuitton, announced plans to manage two luxury hotels in Egypt and Oman.

The two hotel project will cost $100 million and is financed by Egypt’s Orascom Development Holdings and private investors, including the Sultanate of Oman, according to an article in the Financial Times.

According to the article, the Oman hotel will feature 32 private villas, each with its own beach and swimming pool. The 40-suite hotel in Egypt will be set on an island overlooking the Nile. Both of the hotels are set to open in 2012, complete with a suite of luxury accommodations and amenities.

Paris-based LVMH, already famous for its leather handbags and watches, said the creation of LVMH Hotel Management was a “natural extension of activities in luxury hospitality”. LVMH alluded that there are more designer hotels in the pipeline, but the story gave no indication on when or where these hotels would launch.

Photo of the Day (1.5.10)

by Stephen Greenwood on
Today’s Photo of the Day comes from contributor muddynights. The natural light, composition, and layering in the photo are well captured, which really puts the proximity of the mountains and sea in perspective.

The photo was shot on the Sinai Peninsula – the official land bridge between Africa and Asia – which lies atop the Red Sea. Over the past 30 years, the Sinai has become a tourist destination due to its natural setting, rich coral reefs, and biblical history.

So where do you want to go in 2010? Tell us with a comment below! And if you have any travel shots you’ve been hanging on to from 2009 – put them in our Gadling Flickr Pool – it could be our next Photo of the Day…

Egypt in a rift with the Louvre over stolen artifacts

by Kraig Becker on

The head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, took a bold move yesterday in his on going struggle to get foreign museums to return antiquities taken from that country illegally. Hawass severed all ties with France’s the Louvre over that museum’s refusal to return fragments of 3200-year old painted wall frescoes that were taken from the Tomb of Tetaki in the Valley of the Kings back in the 1980’s.

According to this story, this isn’t the first time Hawass has taken steps to close relations with a museum. He made a similar move with the St. Louis Art Museum over a golden burial mask that that museum has refused to return as well. This is, however, the first time that such a move has been taken against a museum of the incredible stature of the Louvre. Upon alerting officials at the museum of his actions, Hawass also suspended an archeological excavation being conducted under the direction of the Louvre, in Saqqara and canceled a scheduled lecture by former curator Christiane Ziegler, who was in charge of the Egyptology department while employed there.

A response from the Louvre and the French Cultural Ministry was swift in coming. Both said that they were interested in putting this incident behind them by returning the disputed pieces, indicating that Hawass’ decision to play hardball was already paying dividends. When these pieces are returned, they’ll join more than other artifacts that he has recovered since taking office in 2002.
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