The small, countryside town appeared to be nothing but a playpen for Japan’s dime-a-dozen office workers, the sarariman (literally the Japanese pronunciation of “salary man”), or a dismal yet generic destination for any package bus tour covering this section of the country.
I observed that after arriving at Beppu with a group of eight or 10, a sarariman’s leisure ...
Host of the Month
Although East Asia has snatched bragging rights as home to the tallest skyscrapers in the world, it was in New York and Chicago that the modern high-rise first appeared. So, it’s only fitting that a museum devoted exclusively to the skyscraper would be located in New York, and that some of its exhibits spotlight buildings from America’s two great skyscraper cities.
The most fas...
Museum Pick
On any other inhabited continent, Uluru (Ayres Rock) and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) would be minor attractions. Although these rounded landforms in Australia’s “red centre” are beautifully shaped and colored, were they moved to America’s Southwest they’d probably be lost among that region’s abundance of fantastically shaped monoliths and precipitous red-rock canyons...
National Park Pick
South Africa's birding paradise
Written By Andrew Attwood Posted on Nature
The premier birding paradise in South Africa has got to be KwaZulu-Natal. Its sub-regions, like the Drakensberg, the bushveld and the wetlands, make for a spectacularly wide diversity and spectacular birding. With more than 400 avian species recorded – including the unique and endangered bearded vulture, largest of Africa's birds of prey – the region is justifiably regarded as a prime destination for South African and international birdwatchers.
Amongst the towering peaks of the majestic Drakensberg, the bearded vulture (more commonly known by domestic birders as the lammergeyer) is undisputed monarch of the skies. To many visitors a morning in the lammergeyer Hide in the Giants Castle Reserve is a lifetime experience. Carrion...
Ready for a cultural adventure beyond your wildest expectations? Hawaii has it.
The 2005 Hawaii Arts Season mega-list of cultural events begs the questions: On an Island visit, have you ever chanted up the sun? Played a nose flute? Woven a fan from lauhala leaves? Attended a symphony concert featuring giant Taiko drums? Or heard storytellers reveal the...
Travelers to and from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Panama, Mexico and Canada will be required to have a passport or other secure, accepted document to enter or re-enter the United States. This is a change from prior travel requirements and will affect all United States citizens entering the United States from countries within the Western Hemisphere who do not currently possess...
Among the Americans who have traveled to Asia, those who have visited Thailand are quick to place it among their favorite travel destinations. A land of magnificent architecture, scenic beaches, a bountiful supply of spirit houses, incredible food and smiling people – never mind among some of the most affordable travel available – it quickly captures the imagination and attention of the serious traveler. Best known for its elephants and...
It was unusually hot for an August day in the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. By 10 a.m., the air was like a blow dryer on speed mode in the face. I was driving north along the track from Kumaga to Phuduhudu. Bull elephants, wildebeest and an ostrich, were feeding in the desert scrub.
A young elephant mock charged from the right as I drove along the corrugated sand track. I...
In 1819, British officers hunting tigers in the hills north of Aurangabad, India, came upon a horseshoe shaped cliff riddled with what they thought were caves.
They decided to explore, climbing midway up the scarp, pushing aside vegetation that partially obscured entrances and scrambling over debris that littered the interiors. To their astonishment, they found that the "caves" were actually a series of ornately carved and painted...
Monemvassia: "Where the scenery is as harsh as the silence." Yannis Ritsos
It was poetry that first brought me to Monemvassia, a medieval fortress ferociously hugging the cliffs of a monolithic rock. On a rusty magazine rack in the Greek village of Molyvos I spied a slim blue volume by Greek-American poetess Eleni Fourtouni. Titled...
When the taxi turns off the highway from Guatemala City onto the bone-rattling cobblestone streets of the former capital of New America, time doesn’t stand still – it reaches back 400 years. Visitors find themselves in a surreal setting of 16th and 17th-century Spanish architecture, where ancient church bells toll every hour and bougainvillea flows...
After nearly five years of publication, we have a potpourri of leftover articles, that for no other reason than our dedication to thematic cohesion we’ve not previously included in our online magazine. But the dilemma. just what is this month’s theme?
With the holidays just past, “leftovers” seemed be an apt description: “a remnant or an unused portion.” But the less-than-appealing connotation, unwanted bit of scraps, left a...
If you fly across the country to California, the first sign that you’re nearing the Golden State is when you look out the window to see a giant mountain rampart stretching north and south as far as the eye can see. This is the east side of the Sierra Nevada, the largest single mountain range in the continental U.S. and its highest, too, in terms of the distance from its base to its...
What would you do if your town and your own house were bombed, shattered into mere rubble? Clean up and invite the tourists to stay? That is exactly what the resilient residents of Dubrovnik have done – and for that we should be thankful. For this wonderful old town to have slipped into obscurity after suffering through the Balkans wars of the 1990s would have been a terrible shame. But,...
Bordering the lower eastern leg of South America’s largest ice field (the Southern Ice Field), Torres del Paine National Park might be considered by many as a rough and unfriendly environment, combining as it does a mixture of massive, rugged granite peaks and ancient glaciers at the end of the Andes in Patagonia. Some of the world’s strongest winds and coldest temperatures...
Intrepid Travel bills itself as a group tour for those not normally interested in traveling as a group. Group size on one of its trips maxes out at 12, which allows for taking advantage of local transport and spontaneous adventures, and makes travelers feel more like a group of friends than a herd of sheep.
I thought I’d be living my dream upon moving to Tuscany from California several years ago. I had traded my career as a clinical psychologist to host art workshops in an idyllic setting just outside the Renaissance hilltop town of Pienza. Immersing myself in the local culture – its people, patterns and peculiarities – consumed and invigorated me during the first year. But instead of...
»
South Africa's birding paradise
It was unusually hot for an August day in the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. By 10 a.m., the air was like a blow dryer on speed mode in the face. I was driving north along the track from Kumaga to Phuduhudu. Bull elephants, wildebeest and an ostrich, were feeding in the desert scrub.