Stories about Travel from February, 2006
Albania: Dajti Mountain Cable Road
Anna of annasblog writes about skiing in Montenegro and taking a recently installed cable road to Tirana's Dajti Mountain.
Albania: Tirana To-Do List
Alwyn Thomson of Our Man In Tirana posts a Tirana To-Do List: “Experience the last outpost of post-communist chaos while you still can.”
Vietnam: Visiting Pagodas
Our Vietnamese God describes visiting pagodas in Vietnam. “Food served at pagodas is usually good, really healthy but a wierd thing is that sometimes they make it into animal shapes, which I'm still confused about.”
Russia: Moscow's Suburbs and Sightseeing
Snowsquare.com and Two-Zero visit the more remote Moscow neighborhoods – Konkovo and Tyoplyi Stan – and take pictures. Jane Keeler of From Russia With Blog has lots of stories and photos from her sightseeing trip to Moscow, too.
Russia: Moscow's Tverskaya Street
Snowsquare.com writes about Moscow's central street, Tverskaya: the unique way of lighting it at night, and the final days of Hotel Minsk (22 Tverskaya), built in 1964.
Russia: Krasnaya Polyana Ski Resort
W. Shedd of The Accidental Russophile reads “the story of a complete ski-wimp on a trip to Krasnaya Polyana” in SKI Magazine. Krasnaya Polyana is Vladimir Putin's favorite ski resort.
Ukraine: Faces and Churches of Lviv
Carpetblogger has visited the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and shares photos of local churches of various denominations and of the creatures that look at you from the buildings.
Laos, Singapore: Swords to Ploughshares
Preetam Rai visits the Singapore air show. The sight of the weapon merchants’ wares reminds him of what he had seen in Laos: war material turned into flowerpots.
Georgia: Dangerous Destination?
Susan of SueAndNotU takes issue with Forbes listing Georgia as one of the world's most dangerous destinations.
Russia: Airports and Aerial Views
Marina Litvinovich (RUS) posts pictures of several Russian airports and pictures of Russia taken from the plane. The airport of the town of Magas in Ingushetia is populated by cows.
Russia: Moscow Diggers
Tim Newman of White Sun of the Desert links to a fascinating story in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, about the Diggers of the Underground Planet, a Moscow group formed in 1990 to “study the historical, ecological, and social aspects of the Moscow underground.”
Russia: Moscow Metro, Honey, Driving and Cinema
As part of an ongoing virtual tour of Moscow, snowsquare.com provides a few more glimpses of the capital's landmarks, obvious and not so: male/female voices of Moscow Metro; yet another Honey Fair; Moscow “migalki” and irresponsible driving; and the recent re-opening of Oktyabr Cinema.
Barbados: Hospitality on the bus
Linda Thompkins at My Barbados Blog receives an e-mail from a visitor who was alarmed at an offer from a young Barbadian woman riding with her on a crowded bus to hold her packages. “Let me say it is quite natural for bus riders that are seated to hold packages,”...
Ukraine: Kyiv on a Saturday Night
Carpetblogger, now in Kyiv (not Baku), describes the feel of the city on a (comparatively) warm Saturday night in February.
Cambodia: At a Crematorium
travel-itch visits a Buddhist crematorium in Cambodia: “It looked like most Southeast Asian temples: walls of whitewashed concrete topped with curlicues of gilt plasterwork, and shiny bas reliefs jutting out from dark-painted surfaces. But there was a large pile of wizened-looking logs next to it.”
Thailand: Airport Odors
A Daily Dose of Words ridicules a Financial Times travel writer who described inhaling “the smell of mint, of jasmine and perfume” on stepping out of Bangkok's Don Muang airport. Exhaust fumes, perhaps, he and his commenters point out. But no, no herbs and flowers.
Albania: Trivia Quiz
Sitting in an Internet cafe, with the electricity out and a generator running, David Sheern of David in Albania comes up with Albanian Trivia Quiz. Answers provided at the end of the post.
Russia: Sandunov Bath House in Moscow
Two-Zero writes of how he became a fan of the Russian banya while living in New York City's East Village, and explains why he hasn't been to Moscow's famous Sanduny (Sandunovskiye Bani) yet, now that he lives in Moscow. His friend Michael Haertfelder, however, visited Sanduny and took some pictures.
Cambodia: The Shadow of the Past
In 1970 a boy of ten Nhem En joined Khmer Rouge. He was sent to study photography in China, and six years later became a photographer of death at Tuol-Sleng genocide museum, the site of S-21. He told journalists in 2001 about his past work that “they [the prisoners] always...
Escape into Albanian Countryside
Anna of annasblog shares pictures from a Saturday escape from the capital Tirana to Albanian countryside: sheep, brides, ancient ruins – and modern bunkers, some 700,000 of them scattered all over the country that's slightly smaller than the state of Maryland…
Story of a Ukrainian Grandmother: Baba Omaha
Stefan from Dykun tells a story of his grandmother, who was kidnapped and brought to Nazi Germany – like many other Ukrainians – to work at a munitions factory at the age of 17. When the war ended, she didn't return to the Soviet Union but escaped to the United...
