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Archive for the tag “travel”

Myanmar

Now that Myanmar has opened its doors to tourists, we are beginning to see some intoxicating travelogues taking in the sights in the southeast Asian country, formerly known as Burma. Here’s one of the better introductions to Myanmar, from Patrik Wallner with Visualtraveling. The colors, the culture, the countryside are all reminiscent of neighboring Thailand, but everything looks less developed and commercialized. The visuals here are strong, and so is the accompanying music by Jean-Claude Vannier. H/T Kuriositas

Have Cardboard, Will Travel

Israeli inventor Izhar Gafni has designed a bicycle that costs $9, can carry weights of up to 485 pounds and last two years or longer. The beauty of his bicycle: It’s constructed from cardboard. Gafni is now approaching investors and hopes to mass-produce his bikes soon in Israel, Europe and North America. H/T Geek Press

Meanwhile, in Germany, Tom Hambrock and Juri Spetter have unveiled the FLIZ, another new bicycle that’s pedal-free. Their design is based on the world’s first bicycle, the “Laufrad,” created by German inventor Karl Drais in 1817. It also operated without pedals. H/T iOwntheWorld

Politics of Travel Guides

“Travel guide writers are obsessed with authenticity,” says Reason Contibuting Editor Michael C. Moynihan. “You’ll find people who say ‘isn’t it adorable when you go to Havana that they have all these Packards from the 1950s?’ Well, no it’s not. This is a pretty grim assessment of the economics of Cuba.”

In a recent piece in Foreign Policy, Moynihan dissects several popular travel guides and finds “the guidebooks are clotted with historical revisionism, factual errors and a toxic combination of Orientalism and pathological self-loathing.”

Moynihan sat down with Reason TV‘s Kennedy to discuss his article, the political and cultural biases in travel guides, and why the burqa should not be considered “a tool for social mobility” as Lonely Planet‘s guide to Afghanistan suggests.

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