Traveler's Advisory
By
Leora Moldofsky
Islands
Port
Moresby
By
the time a Hawaiian monitoring center detected the earthquake
30 km off Papua New Guinea's far northwest coast on July 17,
1998, three 10-m-high waves had obliterated several villages
and swept away thousands of people. Three years on, an exhibition
commemorating the Aitape-area tsunami-the worst natural disaster
to befall P.N.G. last century-has opened at the National Museum
and Art Gallery in Port Moresby. Photographs and stories of
life in West Sepik province feature alongside documentation
of the rescue effort, accounts of how survivors are rebuilding
their lives, and information on tsunamis.
Europe
Sighisoara
Nicolae Ceausescu was nicknamed "Vampirescu" for iron-fisted
policies that sucked Romania dry. Eleven years after the communist
dictator's execution, his countrymen are hoping a theme park
dedicated to the original vampire-Count Dracula-will help
boost their struggling economy. Sighisoara, a central Romanian
town that claims to be the birthplace of Prince Vlad "The
Impaler"-a bloodthirsty 15th century prince who served as
the model for English novelist Bram Stoker's fictional count-was
selected this month as the location for "Dracula Land." It's
hoped that a million people a year will visit the theme park,
which will include a Gothic-style castle, a "Dracula institute,"
and a golf course.
Motorways
Fights, boredom and fatigue can make family
road trips stressful-and dangerous. But a host of free activities
on offer at rest areas beside French motorways this summer
will make it hard for families to stay angry-or in the car-for
long. Autoroutes du Sud de la France, which covers the road
network leading to the Mediterranean coast, and the Paris-Rhine-Rhône
autoroute network are the unlikely venues for fencing, golf,
archery, yoga, kayaking, birdwatching, Basque pelota, mountain
biking, rugby, baroque concerts, conjuring shows, pony rides
and bouncing castles. For program details (in French), see
www.saprr.fr and www.asf.fr.
North America
New
Orleans
Growing up in poverty on the streets of New Orleans, Louis
Armstrong (1901-1971) danced for pennies, raided garbage cans
for food and got his first cornet in the city's Colored Waifs'
Home for young troublemakers. Now, Satchmo's birthplace wants
to celebrate the jazz great's centenary by changing the name
of its airport to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International.
The African-American trumpeter joins an elite club, including
John F. Kennedy (New York), Charles de Gaulle (Paris), Leonardo
da Vinci (Rome) and former Beatle John Lennon, after whom
his home town, Liverpool, will name its new air terminus,
due to open in 2002.
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July 30, 2001 | No. 30
COVER
STORY
Secrets
of The Shark
A savage attack on an eight-year-old boy in Florida has stirred up ancient
human fears. But scientists and researchers are shedding light on why
sharks behave the way they do-why they bite, when they attack and what
you can do to protect yourself
TRAVELERS
ADVISORY...
PACIFIC
BEAT : Whaling war; stranded travelers...
SOUTH
PACIFIC
AUSTRALIA: Holiday in Hell... An outback
vacation ends in abduction and suspected murder
THE
ARTS
MUSIC: Moby's at play in Area: One...
ART: Tibetan art finds sanctuary in Switzerland...
BOOKS: Thumbs down for John Irving's The
Fourth Hand...
CINEMA: Zellweger vamps in Bridget Jones's
Diary...
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