TIME: Traveler's Advisory

	TRAVELER'S ADVISORY	AUGUST 17, 1998 NO. 33
Traveler's Advisory By SIMON ROBINSON NORTH AMERICA SALINAS The central Californian city where Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck was born has built a museum celebrating its most famous son, who chronicled the sufferings of Depression-era rural workers in novels like The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. The National Steinbeck Center houses much of the city's Steinbeck archive, together with dioramas, interactive displays, and Rocinante, the truck Steinbeck drove across the U.S. and wrote about in 1962's Travels with Charley. The first temporary exhibition, "This Side of Eden: Images of Steinbeck's California," includes paintings of migrant field workers and portraits of the author. Through Sept. 13. TORONTO Having settled on a list of the 100 best cars, an international panel of motoring journalists is about to begin an even more difficult task: choosing the car of the century. As well as predictable nominees like the Volkswagen Beetle and Model T Ford, the contenders include such little-known models as the 1967 rotary-engined NSU RO80 from Germany, and the 1909 Alfonso, an early sports car built by the Spanish company Hispano-Suiza and named after the country's monarch. Automobile enthusiasts can see the cars under consideration at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto from Aug. 21 to Sept. 7, and in Melbourne, Australia, from late October. Members of the public will be able to vote for their top 10 cars at the exhibitions and on the Website www.cotc.com. The judging panel will take these votes into account as they winnow out the winner, to be announced late next year. ASIA INDIA Traveling by rail in India can be tough: trains are often crowded and slow, turning long journeys into nightmares. But services are rapidly improving. The Konkan railway, an $800 million line which opened in May, connects the business capital of Bombay, on the west coast, with Mangalore, 760 km to the south. The new link, which includes 92 tunnels and nearly 2,000 bridges, reduces the previous travel time by about five hours. A new express service which runs on the Konkan line for part of its route will cut 14 hours off the trip between the southern city of Cochin and Agra, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. MIDDLE EAST BAALBEK Every summer during the 1960s and early '70s, this ancient town in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley hosted a prestigious cultural festival that drew performers as diverse as American jazz musician Miles Davis, legendary Egyptian singer Oum Koulsoum, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Bolshoi Ballet. The outbreak of civil war in 1975 ended such innocent pursuits, and by the 1980s Baalbek had become a stronghold for Islamic fundamentalist Hizballah guerrillas. With the return of peace, the festival has resumed, and this year's performers include American jazz diva Nina Simone, the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra and Lebanon's own Fairouz, one of the Arab world's most popular singers. Through Aug. 29.
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TRAVELER'S ADVISORY

AUGUST 17, 1998 NO. 33

Traveler's Advisory

By SIMON ROBINSON

NORTH AMERICA

SALINAS
The central Californian city where Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck was born has built a museum celebrating its most famous son, who chronicled the sufferings of Depression-era rural workers in novels like The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. The National Steinbeck Center houses much of the city's Steinbeck archive, together with dioramas, interactive displays, and Rocinante, the truck Steinbeck drove across the U.S. and wrote about in 1962's Travels with Charley. The first temporary exhibition, "This Side of Eden: Images of Steinbeck's California," includes paintings of migrant field workers and portraits of the author. Through Sept. 13.

TORONTO
Having settled on a list of the 100 best cars, an international panel of motoring journalists is about to begin an even more difficult task: choosing the car of the century. As well as predictable nominees like the Volkswagen Beetle and Model T Ford, the contenders include such little-known models as the 1967 rotary-engined NSU RO80 from Germany, and the 1909 Alfonso, an early sports car built by the Spanish company Hispano-Suiza and named after the country's monarch. Automobile enthusiasts can see the cars under consideration at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto from Aug. 21 to Sept. 7, and in Melbourne, Australia, from late October. Members of the public will be able to vote for their top 10 cars at the exhibitions and on the Website www.cotc.com. The judging panel will take these votes into account as they winnow out the winner, to be announced late next year.

ASIA

INDIA
Traveling by rail in India can be tough: trains are often crowded and slow, turning long journeys into nightmares. But services are rapidly improving. The Konkan railway, an $800 million line which opened in May, connects the business capital of Bombay, on the west coast, with Mangalore, 760 km to the south. The new link, which includes 92 tunnels and nearly 2,000 bridges, reduces the previous travel time by about five hours. A new express service which runs on the Konkan line for part of its route will cut 14 hours off the trip between the southern city of Cochin and Agra, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

MIDDLE EAST

BAALBEK
Every summer during the 1960s and early '70s, this ancient town in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley hosted a prestigious cultural festival that drew performers as diverse as American jazz musician Miles Davis, legendary Egyptian singer Oum Koulsoum, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Bolshoi Ballet. The outbreak of civil war in 1975 ended such innocent pursuits, and by the 1980s Baalbek had become a stronghold for Islamic fundamentalist Hizballah guerrillas. With the return of peace, the festival has resumed, and this year's performers include American jazz diva Nina Simone, the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra and Lebanon's own Fairouz, one of the Arab world's most popular singers. Through Aug. 29.

time-webmaster@pathfinder.com