Bill Murray's Blog, page 167

Separated at Birth?

I know, I know, it could be just me, but I find the forced-happy über-resort genre as seen at the top (which we Americans all recognize from those never ending TV commercials), just ghastly. Sort of like a Disney cruise if you don't have kids.

But that doesn't make Belgrade's Genex Tower much easier on the eye, does it? Perhaps a rule of thumb, here: Let us all endeavor to avoid both monster resorts and anything designed in the Brutalist style.

The Allure of the Far Away and Exotic

Here's a ruse we hadn't seen: The local boys use signs with people's names to get access inside the pass control gates, then they make like officials who are going to open up another pass control lane for you, grab your passports and expedite you through the lines, with the acquiescence of the real pass control clerks, for tips.

They're on you like a glove until you tip them, at which point they're joined by the baggage cart cadres just outside the pass control desk. These guys...

Friday Photo Quiz #132 - Where in the World?

Looks like a fairyland. A theme park. Las Vegas. In fact it's a national capital. Here's a clue: It shares the third largest island in the world with two other countries, but it's the only one of the three that's entirely on the island.

Can you guess the city? The country?

The answer is after the jump.

And a good weekend to all from Common Sense and Whiskey and EarthPhotos.com.

And the answer is ..................................................... it's Brunei Darussalam...

When the Hotel Is the Destination

Check out the photos on the left. Next to the Harbour Master's office on a dock in the town of Harlingen, Netherlands, there's a working crane you can spin around. Better, you can rent it and drive it around all night. It's been converted to a hotel room. How could any former little boy resist?

That's my top find in a fun, nearly 300 page directory of strange places to stay from the web site Unusual and Unique Hotels of the World. I recommend you spend some time with it when you're not...

Wednesday HDR: Likoma Island, Malawi

In this week's Wednesday HDR, a tailor works at his open air shop on Likoma Island, Lake Malawi.

The story of our journey across Lake Malawi to Likoma Island is Chapter Fourteen of Common Sense and Whiskey, the book. We're excerpting the book here on the blog, and you can read the entire chapter here later this year. Not that you need to wait.

This is a single shot HDR, re-exposed at +2, 0 & -2 ev, saved as .tifs, tonemapped in Photomatix and finished in CS5. There are 341 more photos in...

Eid al-Adha: A Guest Post

Eid al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice, is celebrated annually on the 10th day of the 12th and the last Islamic month of Dhu-al Hijjah. Use of the lunar calendar explains why the date drifts each year by 11 or 12 days. 

This year's festival was celebrated yesterday. A year ago, my friends Bobby and Carol Long took part in the festival in Morocco, and Bob has contributed this guest post:

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We were in Morocco for last year's feast, and it was an extraordinary experience. Hamid, our driver...

Instructive List of Greek Austerity Measures

If all this were about to happen in your country, you might go out into the street and wave a banner, too.

St. Helena Island to Become Less Remote

Jamestown, capital and main town on St. Helena Island

It's timely that Sharon, a St. Helenian (or, as they call themselves, "Saints,") commented in the St. Helena Gallery at EarthPhotos.com over the weekend. It prompted me to check the St. Helena news, and - this is something you can't say every day - there is some. Big news, in fact.

It might be the most-debted subject among the 4000-odd Saints. For sure it's a perrenial. And now comes word that, at last, apparently, St. Helena is to get...

Friday Photo Quiz #131 - Where in the World?

It's gorgeous but it's poor. And it's usually in some level or other of political turmoil. It's the cultural but not political capital of the country.

Can you guess the city? The country?

The answer is after the jump.

And a good weekend to all from Common Sense and Whiskey and EarthPhotos.com.

And the answer is ..................................................... it's La Paz, Bolivia.

See the Bolivia Gallery at EarthPhotos.com, and there are almost a thousand photos of cities all...

Tough Call: Conrad Murray or the Drachma

From the Climbing Mt. Kinabalu chapter in the book, Common Sense and Whiskey (Kindle):

"Twice we passed Japanese girls in flip-flops, and the last one was really hobbling, on her boyfriend's arm. Mountain climbing may involve stepping over rocks. Apparently they were not told."

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Reading and writing about travel is fun for some of us, just like for others, Conrad Murray and Kim Kardashian are important. But right now, travel news, news from the popular culture and news about the usual...