TravelMASity
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The opulent Nile cruise that evokes Agatha Christie's Egypt
Tonight I'll be watching Death on the Nile, which is already on HBO Max if you didn't know, and imagining my own trip to Egypt. I've always wanted to go visit the pyramids, and have been off-and-on obsessed with Egyptology as long as I can remember. But until I read this lovely account of a river cruise, I'd never considered that my Egypt adventure could also be relaxing and fancy. -C
Issue 84
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Editor's note: A dude named Chris Arnade does a substack where he travels around the world and just walks through normal places. He does something like 10-15 miles a day. A month or so ago he did Kyiv. The actual substack for Kyiv is paywalled but you should consider subscribing. The twitter thread summary linked above and the actual original twitter thread below (same content but in two different styles so CYOA) is fantastic in and of itself and will make what is going on over there even more poignant. I include all this as context for Paul's words below from his own previous experiences in Ukraine.
The Twitter Thread of the Kyiv Walk
The paywalled substack if you are interested in subscribing
July in Ukraine is magical. I remember walking along the river and through the countryside, drinking juice compote under the grapevines from which it came, talking with students, craftsmen, clergy, grandmothers, security guards, families and young couples— I will never forget how the warm people of Ukraine welcomed me into their homes and lives.
And in the cold winter, their hospitality was all the more heart-warming. My new friends in Ukraine were delighted to share about their lives and their land, their songs and their soups, their grief and their gratitude.
I miss being with them and experiencing the wonder of their country with so much hope and promise. I pray for their safety. I hurt with them. I want their plight to be known, and for them to not be alone. I can’t fathom the horror of what they are going through, the darkness of this valley of the shadow of death. Father, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Spirit, have mercy.
Post Tenebras Lux
-Paul H.
Issue 83
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I'm tempting fate here with an NYT link which seem to be the number one recipe for a link that works for me (I don't have a subscription) but people hit a paywall when they click and send us nastygrams. Whatevs.
I've traveled a lot and have cultivated a "Travel Zen" which is bascially refusing to be upset when things inevitably go wrong and you get stuck sitting in an airport or on a plane for hours on end. I call it the way of the zipper which I take from the casual chill required for the zipper merge, which has been scientifically proven to be the correct way to merge, to work correctly. So stop blocking lanes or blocking people from merging in. They are doing it right and you are doing it wrong. CHILL bro and listen to the universe. -B
I appear to have perpetually reached my limit of free NYT content. But oh well, I know what the zipper merge is because, as I loudly and often proclaim to Amanda, I am the best driver I know. For those who are unfamiliar with the way you're supposed to drive, here's a YouTube video that won't ask you to subscribe. -C
Issue 81
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Virginia officials apologize to stranded I-95 motorists, defend storm prep amid criticism
C'mon America... only 1 day? What's the big deal? No wonder China is kicking our butts on the world stage.... -B
Issue 81
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China's nine-day traffic jam stretches 100km
A Chinese friend of mine named Leo was stuck in this greatest of traffic jams and spent 3 or 4 days hunkered down in his car. More or less what happened is the Chinese middle class all reached a point where they could afford cars all at the same time which was quite a bit ahead of when the Chinese highway system was ready for the middle class to all have cars. Everyone went super Jack Kerouac all at the same time during a national holiday and the results were spectacular. -B
Issue 81
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Mongolian Wrestlers Eating SHORLOG Meat on Frozen Steppe
So I'm traumatized by the smacking and eating noises but also this is amazing and I want to participate. -B
I know at least a handful of our readers truly appreciate the warning about the mouth noises.
This looks very good, but bruh that was like a whole bottle of oyster sauce which is...a lot of oyster sauce. I was reminded of how satisfying it is to successfully cook anything outdoors when it's cold. And also that cooking outside is generally fun, but it is messy and not precise and if you don't do it very often it's pretty touch-and-go.
Anyway if you're cooking your family's meal outdoors during the holidays, best of luck to you! -C
Issue 80
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Draw all roads in any city at once
This website allows you to select a city and then draws every single road on your screen and it is complex and beautiful. -C
This is so cool! -B
Issue 78
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Amtrak should bring in foreign experts to make trains great again
I'm actually just seriously concerned in general about the USA's complete inability to build infrastructure of any sort. With our resources we should be doing so much cool stuff right now. We should be building out so much power generation of all kinds that energy is free. We should be building thousands of miles of HVDC power transmission. We should be building pipelines and LNG export terminals to become Africa and Europe and South America's gas buddies (witness what Russia is getting up to now since it now more or less has the ability to shut down the entire European economy with the flip of a single physical switch). We should be building high speed rail in about 5 different places that make sense now with the long term option to connect them. But apparently we don't know how to do any of those things. This is one of the reasons I've recently decided to become a libertarian monarchist. -B
Who was I talking to about trains recently? It was probably Brian but I feel like it was someone else. I should tweet Elon about doing it. Just build trains that work, they can be electric since that's his niche but if they could JUST EXIST that would be dope. They don't have to be fancy. They can have a punny name if they need to. You got this Mr. Musk. -C
Issue 78
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Decentraland is a blockchain world that allows you to purchase digital real estate. This reminds me of back when everyone rushed to purchase awesome domain names, except this is way more expensive and a little more complicated.
They've written decent documentation about getting started, but there's a better overview here, as well as many more links to get distracted by.
I missed out on the land auctions and can't afford any now, but I'm playing around a little to see how I like designing digital assets and avatar wearables since their builder seems very straightforward. -C
Issue 77
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2nd scuba diver sucked into FPL power plant pipe
The second scuba diver was sucked into the power plant? Maybe we should fix that somehow? (Also he survived and had a wild ride that made me shiver to read about.) -B
Issue 74