C O N T E N T S

Sleepless in L.A.
By Don George, Editor

Giving good gnocchi
A five-course seduction in Venice
By Linda Watanabe
McFerrin
- Books on Venice
- Getting there

Meeting Moses
on Mount Sinai
By Deb Fellner
- Getting there

D E P A R T M E N T S

Postmark: Lamu
God's Wake-up Call in Kenya
By Don Meredith

Passages:
On China's Yangtze:
"The River at the Center of the World"
By Simon Winchester

Table Talk
- Boycott Burma?

Salon Taste
Adventures in eating

- - - - - - - -

Katharine Hollister | Boycott Burma?
09:30am Apr 9, 1997 PST (#7 of 8)

Not only are we able to let people in third world countries etc. know we are aware of them, but we can also come back and let people here know what is going on. But I do think it enriches our lives to travel to other countries; to see not only the beauty/art etc. but also to know the pain.

There are also ways of getting around the government and putting money in its pocket. Avoiding tour groups when at all possible is one way. And even if the airfare goes to the government, once inside the country you can make sure some of your money goes to the people, if that's what you want to do.

I'm glad you responded Jane. I was hoping you took my question in the spirit it was intended. It is a difficult question but ultimately an individual one - where we draw our own lines. For example, do you buy any clothes at the Gap? Gap clothing is made in Central America using the labor of very young teenage girls. By buying their clothes we not only support the exploitation of these children, we also support the government. and we didn't even need to leave the country!! Or how 'bout when we send money to some country where people are desperately in need of food. Lots of times the money/food never reaches the people who it's really intended for. Do we stop sending money, or do we just make better informed decisions about where to send it.

If you ever take a look at any of the reports from Amnesty International, there are a whole lot of places you may never visit. I dont think it is a bad idea to boycott some countries such as Burma, the same way we boycott certain agricultural products. But still, it is the people of the country we want to know, it is their cultural we want to experience.

In Central Amerca in general, and in countries like Honduras, Nicargua, El Salvador, etc. government upheavals, coups, and dictatorships are a way of life. That has been their history for years and years and years. And yet the people there are some of the most beautiful, spirited, people you will ever meet. And to experience them you have to experience their culture and their history as well.

I do think one has to have a conscious, and if going somewhere that will most likely end up in only supporting the government, than maybe you/we have a moral obligation not to go.

John Demeter | Family Vacations from Hell
08:12am Apr 17, 1997 PST (#2 of 2)

This one I'll file under "The Working Class Goes to Heaven," an Italian film from the 70s that's one of my favorites. Or, more appropos of the destination in this story, and if there's a good travel bargain, "The Working Class Will Go to D.C."...in the middle of August.

It was 1961 and our travelling band of working class Catholics from the Bronx were still flush with excitement over the election of John F. Kennedy. My father, an astute Greek immigrant who five years earlier had finished night school at the City College of New York with a B.B.A. had scoured the papers for bargain deals. He did his research well and came up with Washington as the destination, lured by the outrageous offers put out by downtown hotels there. Of course, once we arrived there, we realized why they were bribing tourists to come to the concrete jungle that is D.C. during the dog days of August.

I was 14 at the time, my sister 11, and this was to be the only vacation we would share as a family, outside of trips to Long Island or New Jersey. As anyone who has done the D.C. shuffle knows, particularly if you've got children, and want to linger at your own pace, you walk. And walk we did from the Washington Monument, through the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, to the Smithsonian and Museum of Art and, of course, to the Cathedral.

Vivid memories of those heat waves wrinkling off the pavement remain to this day. I remember my absolute fright at leaving one air-conditioned destination for the trek to the next. That, in fact, became a prerequisite for my sister and I, regardless of the historical significance of the place. One of these days I plan to have the 8mm home movies of the trip transferred to video. Packing up my parents belongings after their deaths, I remember coming across those small yellow Kodak packs. As I placed them in a bag with the family photos, I could almost see those heat waves rippling again.

ian perlman | Roma
07:34am Apr 10, 1997 PST (#15 of 16)

The trick is to go again. The first time I went I was a kid with my family. I was impressed but it was one of those horrible whirlwind tours of Europe. The second time I was 19 and it was winter - I didn't like it. I didn't go again until I ended up there killing time between planes, and it just hit me. It sank in. I got it. I was besotted.

Then, having decided I would return I decided to concentrate on Roman era things and ignore the later eras. I went to Hadrian's Villa and Ostia Antica and the Terme de Caracalla and of course the Pantheon. The next time I was there, 2 or 3 years later I concentrated on the architecture of Bernini and Borromini. Only those two. The next time it was Michelangelo. On later trips I got more esoteric - Fascist era, film reference spots, the architecture of Paolo Portoghesi.

Two years ago, flying into Rome just before sunset, planes were stacked up over Fiumicino and we circled the city slowly. I had a window seat and there it was, all laid out before me like a model. (BTW there is a great city model at the Museum of Roman Civilization, in EUR) It felt so satisfying that I knew those areas so well at ground level. It seemed we were circling in a tight spiral around the obelisk in Piazza del Popolo. The afternoon shadows threw everything into relief. What a thrill!

And then I discovered Napoli ....!

So enjoy your few days. And in the future, go again.

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Readers' Tips and Tales Issue No. 3 | 2