Hot on the heels of The Atlantic’s trend piece on the growing popularity of travel to desolate locations like Roswell and Chernobyl, our friends at Gadling have put together a photo roundup of 10 abandoned cities that might strike your fancy. Our favorite of the bunch? The Sanzhi District of Taiwan, which is home to abandoned pod-shaped buildings (also known as “UFO houses”) like the one above; originally built back in the ’70s, the strange structures were intended to be part of a resort marketed at US military officers, but funding fell through.
Where have all the young artists gone? Well, they’ve been priced out of Melbourne, New York, Barcelona, and all of those other city enclaves that promised low-rent and lots of encouragement. But new art communities are popping up every day on unexpected parts of the globe. Creative hubs, city funded projects, and lots of public works are just some of the perks these locations offer to young artists who seek refuge. Click through for our eight favorite cities for young artists, and leave a comment if we forgot your favorite.
Consider yourself brave? Outlandish? The kind of person who, in the privacy of your own home, contemplates trading it all in for a shot at competitive luge? Or do you prefer to read about the world in books, rather than experience it directly? A desk jockey with a Kayak/Qixo obsession, forever running the numbers on the ticket to Bangkok you’ll never buy?
Either way, you’ll find some serious inspiration in our list of the world’s most extreme art vacations. Use them for fuel for your next hijinks, or simply read on, and weep with relief in the knowledge that you’re safe at home.
Last month, we followed the lead-up to the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project, which saw 14 countries trading culture to create international mash-up parties simultaneously around the world. Along the way, we headed to Thailand and India, to explore the unique culture of each country and document what we found.
The second stop on the trip was Mumbai, India, a city marked by non-stop activity, rich cultural heritage, diverse nightlife, and, of course, a striking divide between the rich and the poor. We were in town during the second anniversary of the 2008 terror attacks in the city, which added gravity to the visit, but the resilience of its residents was both striking and inspiring.
Last month, we followed the lead-up to the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project, which saw 14 countries trading culture to create international mash-up parties simultaneously around the world. Along the way, we headed to Thailand and India, to explore the unique culture of each country and document what we found.
The first stop was Bangkok, Thailand’s most well-known destination, and for good reason. The city hums with life, bustling with art, music, fashion, and infinitely eclectic cuisine. While there, we bore witness to an extremely colorful annual national festival, navigated the maze-like aisles of a weekend marketplace, cruised down a river lined (and filled) with captivating sights, discovered some of the best shopping areas (and some of the most strangely familiar), explored art and design, and met more fantastic people than we can count.
Of course, we also meticulously chronicled the journey in photo form, in order to share it with you. Join us for a virtual tour of Bangkok highlights, and start planning your next vacation now.
Wanderfly is an easy-to-use travel site geared toward a fast-paced, social media-using, nomadic generation. What makes it unique is that you don’t even need to know where you want to go to start planning your next vacation. You can restrict or expand your travels however you like, from “Europe” to the default “Anywhere” and see where your budget and the algorithms take you — the virtual equivalent of throwing a dart at a map. In this way, Wanderfly brings the fun and infinite possibilities back in to traveling.
If you prefer your vacations to be on palatial boats crammed with like-minded tourists and you have an obsession with 1980s boy band heartthrobs, then you’re in luck! The New Kids on the Block just announced that they’re hitting the stage cruise-style with a four-day vacation from Miami to the Bahamas, packed with NKOTB performances. Tickets start at a mere $700 per person, which is like, totally worth it to see Donnie Wahlberg walk past your cabin. But the NKOTB cruise is merely one in a long line of increasingly specialized cruises. There are now cruises for Star Trek enthusiasts, Twihards, and Elvis believers. Click through to see our compendium of pop culture cruises.
It would have been easy enough to write an essay of ridicule. That’s what state fairs, with their abundance of fried food and the overfed, carnies and hucksters, freak shows and 4-H-raised llamas lend themselves to most easily. But the heart of this assignment – to write an homage to David Foster Wallace, who in 1994 published his iconic “Ticket to the Fair” in Harper’s, and who hanged himself two years ago this month – poses a task weightier than merely satirizing the 12 days of New York State Fair that recently wrapped just outside of Syracuse.
As in any comedic tradition, we promise to make you smile before we make you sad. A tour-de-force of emotion, after the jump.
Airship Ventures’ Eureka passenger airship is longer than a blimp, bigger than a 747, and has a cabin that holds a mere 12 passengers. Yet already, over 5,000 people (including us!) have had the rare opportunity to take a fancy sky ride in one of the world’s three operating Zeppelins. Berthed in San Francisco, the Eureka occasionally makes its way south for Los Angeles-themed flight adventures, offering “flightseers” an opportunity to check off “ride in a Zeppelin” from their bucket lists.
The Shanghai World Expo has been conducting a trial run this week in advance of the opening on May 1. What is a World Expo? you may wonder. Well from what we can tell it involves a gigantic baby, a hefty helping of LCD lights, a pavilion or two, and interpretative dance.* Boston Globe’s Big Picture site has some most excellent pictures of the preparations at hand. Click through for a world vision that will knock your American socks off.
*Technically it’s a World’s Fair-type event that lasts six months, expects to host 100 million visitors, and costs more to throw than the Beijing Olympics. Way to show ‘em, Shanghai.
