If you're visiting Cape Town for the first time, you’re in for something completely different. This town that started off as an isolated supply post at the end of the world is now one of South Africa's largest, most colourful and thriving cities. Safaris, beautiful beaches, the winelands and a thriving metropolis can all be found fairly close to each other.
Victoria & Albert Waterfront
If you arrive by sea the first place you're likely to land is the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, and that's as good a starting point as any.
The V&A is one of Cape Town's premier tourist and shopping districts, but it's not all for show. The surrounding port is still operative and you can watch the busy operations as you visit the V&A's hundreds of shops and cafes or the Two Oceans Aquarium.
Nelson Mandela Gateway & Robben Island
From the waterfront, you can head through the Nelson Mandela Gateway and board the ferry to Robben Island, where Mandela and many others spent years as political prisoners. And if a sea voyage is not on the agenda, take a stroll around and see Cape Town's iconic Cape Dutch architecture. It's an intriguing mixture of French, German, Dutch and British stylings unique to this part of the world.
The Cape Town Coastline
If aquatic pursuits are more your style, Cape Town's unique geography makes for an interesting day at the beach. The Atlantic waters to the west are substantially colder than the Indian Ocean to the east, and each one harbors different creatures. The Indian Ocean is perhaps better for diving and wildlife while the Atlantic coast has more developed residential areas and restaurants.
The Winelands
Ranging a bit further out can be rewarding as well. Within a short drive of Cape Town are the South African Winelands, a UNESCO recognized region where many exquisite wines are produced.
Whites, reds, German and French styles are all well represented here thanks to the region's rich colonial history and an extremely grape-friendly Mediterranean climate.
You can take one of many guided vineyard tours or set out on your own. Many visitors find that it's best to rent a car because public transit in Cape Town, while quite good by African standards, is still somewhat lacking. The Winelands spread out in a northeasterly direction from Cape Town and into the increasingly hilly terrain of the interior.
Constantia Valley, Franschhoek and Stellenbosch
Locals call this region the Boland, Afrikaans for "uplands." The Constantia valley region is home to some of the Winelands' oldest estates and poshest dining.
Go a little further and you'll find the origin of some of South Africa's best wines in the area around Stellenbosch, the oldest town in the country.
The Franschhoek region was once settled by the French, and this small town still hosts more than thirty farms. Many of the vineyards of the Winelands have excellent restaurants on-site, and almost all of them offer tastings and cellar tours.
The U.S. has virtually no chance to bring home its bid to host the 2018 World Cup, officially submitted today, because of the anti-Hispanic police state created in Arizona by that state's off-the-rails Republican Party. And two major Mexican soccer teams, Club América and Club de Fútbol Pachuca, cancelled their July 7th match at University of Phoenix Stadium. That's because Arizona Republicans have been doubling down on their sociopathic jihad against Hispanic residents. As Austin joined San Francisco and Los Angeles in announcing a boycott of Arizona's new anti-Hispanic police state, tourist officials there are bracing for the worst. In Phoenix alone, David Krietor, a deputy city manager who is tracking the issue, said this week the city faces lost business worth about $90 million over the next five years. Debbie Johnson, president of the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association, said a boycott might be disastrous for the state's more than 200,000 hospitality-industry workers. "We really don't need another hit," she added. As of April 30, the lodging association had identified 19 conventions canceled, worth an estimated 15,000 room nights, or $6 million. This is getting more and more serious and it's time to really wake up here. Yesterday when I was reading Sebastian Doggart's wonderful post on unindicted war criminal Condoleeza Rice and his reference to Martin Niemöller's chilling 1940s-era poem, I couldn't help thinking about what the Republicans are doing to the state of Arizona. Original translation:
When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews, I remained silent; I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.
Arizona is getting out of hand. And it isn't about controlling the borders or controlling crime. It's pure fucking racism and narrow-minded, self-righteous bigotry. The accidental governor signed another hate-filled bill to tell Hispanics they're not welcome in Arizona, another piece of the Republican ethnic cleansing push. Latest to be banned: "ethnic studies."
HB 2281 bans schools from teaching classes that are designed for students of a particular ethnic group, promote resentment or advocate ethnic solidarity over treating pupils as individuals. The bill also bans classes that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government.
The bill was written to target the Chicano, or Mexican American, studies program in the Tucson school system, said state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Horne.
School districts that don't comply with the new law could have as much as 10% of their state funds withheld each month. Districts have the right to appeal the mandate, which goes into effect Dec. 31.
Tucson Unified School District officials say the Chicano studies classes benefit students and promote critical thinking. "We don't teach all those ugly things they think we're teaching," said Judy Burns, the president of the district's governing board.
She has no intention of ending the program, which offers courses from elementary school through high school in topics such as literature, history and social justice, with an emphasis on Latino authors and history. About 3% of the district's 55,000 students are enrolled in such classes... Ethnic studies are taught at high schools and colleges nationwide, but the Tucson district officials say their 14-year-old program is unique because it's districtwide, offered to grades K-12, and can satisfy high school graduation requirements.
Yesterday the Los Angeles City Council, in a 13-1 vote (lunatic fringe nutcase Greig Smith from Simi Valley being the "1"), decided to ban travel and future contracts with Arizona over their anti-Hispanic policies.
During a morning-long debate on the resolution, council members compared Arizona’s action to Nazi Germany and the beginning of the Holocaust, as well as the internment and deportation of Japanese Americans during World War II. A new Arizona law, which will take effect July 23, will require police to determine whether people they stop are in the country illegally, which critics say will lead to racial profiling.
“Los Angeles the second-largest city in this country, an immigrant city, an international city. It needs to have its voice heard,’’ said Councilman Ed Reyes, one of the resolution’s sponsors. “As an American, I cannot go to Arizona today without a passport. If I come across an officer who’s having a bad day and feels that the picture on my ID is not me, I can be … deported, no questions asked. That is not American.’’
Even national Republicans (though not McCain) are embarrassed by the out and out racism-- they usually prefer it carefully cover-up-- and yesterday it was announced that the heavy favorite for the 2012 GOP Convention, Phoenix (who "had it in the bag") was suddenly replaced with Tampa, a very open and multi-ethnic, all-American city. As disappointed as they are, beleaguered Arizona tourism officials aren't even a little surprised. Tourism, one of the state's most important industries-- first because of the violence and now because of the racism, is in the crapper.
Hispanic civil rights groups are boycotting Arizona and urging others to do the same. Officials at the National Council of La Raza, one of the groups driving the boycott, had privately asked the RNC not to meet in Phoenix.
The city risks losing as much as $90 million in hotel and convention business over the next five years because of the controversy, according to city estimates released Wednesday. The state's hotel and lodging association has counted 23 canceled meetings for a loss of between $6 and $10 million. On Wednesday, Los Angeles became the largest city to join the boycott.
...Arizona Republicans, including Gov. Jan Brewer, have stood more solidly behind their immigration law as a necessary tool for dealing with illegal immigration. She has also pushed back against the boycott, particularly the call for Major League Baseball to pull the 2011 All-Star game out of the state.
MLB owners, who have not commented on the boycott, begin a two-day quarterly meeting in New York this week. No major action items are on the agenda, but advocates of the boycott hope it will be discussed.
"You have a sport that the Latino community loves, whether you are a recent immigrant or native born, Latinos see baseball at their sport," said Clarissa Martinez De Castro, the director of immigration and national campaigns at NCLR. "The question is: As a sport where do they stand?"
The MLB Players Association has come out in opposition to the law, as have the Phoenix Suns. The team wore its "Los Suns" jerseys last week specifically to push back against the state's law. The decision came from team owner Robert Sarver, who suggested the players wear their Noche Latina alternates.
Concert promoters are also starting to feel their business disintegrate, Cypress Hill being the latest band to cancel a show and announce support for a boycott of Arizona. There's no chance I will go to Arizona while these Republicans are doing this kind of thing. Blue America is also urging everyone to support the only federal elected official in the state who is standing with the Hispanic community, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) at the One America page. Grijalva and his staff have been threatened-- with serious violence (one gunman has been arrested so far)-- and he has had to close down his constituent services offices in Tucson and Yuma. Arizona isn't behaving like its part of America. I bet we couldn't get the Mexicans to take it back though.
Meanwhile Faith in Public Life announced today that an “emergency delegation” of Bishops and prominent religious leaders from Arizona will fly to Washington tomorrow to ask Sen. John McCain and White House officials to set politics aside and take immediate action on comprehensive immigration reform.
These religious leaders-- who will also meet tomorrow with DOJ, DHS and other Members of Congress from Arizona-- are on the front lines of the immigration debate, as their state enacts Arizona SB-1070-- an extreme measure that will likely lead to increased discrimination and racial profiling, and penalizes families and faith communities already living in fear. This draconian legislation, which has been denounced by religious leaders from across the theological, political and ideological spectrum, demonstrates the urgent need for political leadership from Arizona’s Senators and the President to move on comprehensive immigration reform immediately-- before other states follow in Arizona’s footsteps.
Yesterday I booked my flights from L.A. to Marrakesh. Roland said it'll be his 5th trip there. It'll be my 14th! The first time I went I drove. Not from L.A.-- from Germany, where, in 1969, I had purchased a VW camper van, which became my home for several years, and drove around Europe, wound up in Spain, and then took a ferry, with the van, from Algeciras to Ceuta. (Algeciras is at the bottom of Spain and you can get a ferry to Ceuta, a lonely Spanish colony they haven't given back yet, or directly to Tangier, which is what I've always done since that first trip. Except when I take a plane-- which is what I'm doing this time. No carefree two-three months to drive around Iberia and Morocco this time-- just 3 week conventional holiday in Morocco. And in the old days, you had to more or less fly to Casablanca and then get to Marrakesh or Essaouira from there.
Now it's almost convenient to just fly directly to Marrakesh. I say "almost" because it's still a small regional airport and not many international flights-- other than charters-- go in and out. I found one on a subsidiary of Royal Air Moroc, Atlas Blue, which I had never heard of. But it flies from Heathrow to Marrakesh. The only thing I'll miss about Casablanca is Le Port de Pêche, one of my favorite seafood restaurants anywhere, a consolation for anyone who is forced to travel to an otherwise must-to-avoid (more or less) Casablanca.
Anyway, today's New York Times Travel Section is all about Morocco. The raison d'etre for all that space is a music oriented piece on Essaouira, the wonderful seaport on the Atlantic Ocean I discovered after Marrakech back when I first started coming to Morocco. I knew Jimi Hendrix a little from New York and he was there too, taking a rest before going to play at the Isle of Wight Festival (where I was headed as well). Essaouira was a lot sleeper then than it is now. And now-- every June-- a guy I met years and years ago hosts a big (5 day long) music festival. It highlights gnaoua music which is a mixture of African and Arab musical traditions.
Unlike festivals staged, à la Woodstock, in muddy, middle-of-nowhere pastures, or worse, in vast, overheated football stadiums, the Gnawa’s setting, in a small, friendly and almost impossibly picturesque, wind-cooled seaside city, is as magical and mesmerizing as the music.
Roland's pissed off because the article on Eassouira doesn't mention any of the really great seafood restaurants that make the city one of the culinary capitals of the country. I'm delighted; the fewer tourists who have those places on their agendas, the more room for us when we're back the in a couple months. I'll do a more comprehensive guide to Essouira restaurants when we're there, meanwhile, suffice it to remember that it's the home of nutty, delicious argan oil.
Roland seemed pissed off yesterday when he told me that CNN reported that the new San Pellegrino list of the 50 best restaurants in the world was out and that there isn't one single Los Angeles restaurant on it. It probably didn't cheer him up any when I said that if Pellegrino expanded to the top 100, L.A. still would probably not make it. (I was right.) And the kinds of restaurants that Roland and I favor these days-- healthy ones-- don't even get considered. In fact, we were sitting in Life Food Organic when he mentioned it, munching tiramisu as delicious as anything we ate at Il Canto in Siena's Certosa De Maggiano Hotel-- only not harmful to our well-beings.
On the other hand, except for professional gourmands, who's eaten in as many of these restaurants as we have? The shock of Noma in Copenhagen being named the best restaurant in the world over El Bulli in Roses, Spain came as a bit of a shock-- although probably more to Ferran Adrià than to us-- but neither of us is that big a Scandinavian food fan anyway. And El Bulli (between Barcelona and Perpignan)... any time! El Bulli has been numero uno over and over again. This review by Sue Dyson and Roger McShane will give you an accurate idea of what we love about it.
A visit to El Bulli requires a willingness to suspend the reality that eating is a basic fundamental of life, something we do in order to survive. There is little about a meal here that bears any relationship to notions of eating for living. It's an experience that will give you sensual and intellectual pleasure, as far removed from eating to live as reading Kafka is to following a set of instructions on how to program a video recorder. The connection is there but it's not immediately obvious.
In a world where too many people struggle to get the calories they need just to survive, it is a luxury to eat just for the pleasure of a series of tantalising games, where the satisfaction of hunger doesn't seem to have any part in the motivation for preparing and offering the meal.
Once you accept all that, and it doesn't take long because from the moment you arrive it's so beguiling, then you're in for a memorable experience, one which the restaurant staff appear to enjoy as much as the diners. If you choose the degustation menu, and on a first visit almost everyone does, you'll experience some 25 different tastes, each one memorable and some exquisite.
...The meal is progression of some eleven courses. Some are a single dish. Others are a collection of three or four exquisite tastes. In all, you'll eat about 25 different dishes. Sometimes, you're given strict instructions on how to eat something, for example the famous pea soup, served in thin cone-shaped glass. Drink it all in one go is the advice. While the texture and colour remain constant, as you drink the temperature changes, starting hot and finishing cold. It's a fascinating education as the flavour changes along with the temperature, its ‘peaishness' more obvious as the temperature lowers.
Every dish is served with purpose-designed crockery. In fact every element of this place appears purpose-designed, not least the streamlined and beautiful kitchen, where each small masterpiece is constructed, and which chef Ferran Adriá's partner and master of the front of house, Juli Soler, shows off proudly.
Highlights? Although famous for his ethereal foams, which aim to capture the essence of a flavour, and which have now crossed the Atlantic and have even been sighted in Singapore, for us two of the most memorable flavours were ravioli. One, sea-urchin ravioli, served with a sea-urchin jelly, had a rich, creamy intensity. It was served with pineapple and mango jelly, a fennel jus, and a raspberry-coloured foam made from aromatic herbs! Another ravioli was almost transparent, revealing ahead of the first bite, small bright-green broad beans and just a hint of a strong ham. A later ravioli was filled with oysters, served with oyster jelly, with seaweed and tea foam. Hidden inside this were two tiny, invisible, pieces of extraordinary-intense lemon zest, revealed only in the mouth...
But this is Noma's year and everyone is raving about the young, aggressively Nordic chef René Redzepi. He's all about "a regional, seasonal agenda that is right on the cutting edge: if it isn't available in the Nordic region, he won't cook with it. The result is a very idiosyncratic style of food that speaks to concerns about the way a global food culture turns our eating experiences a uniform beige."
But it goes much further than the agenda: Redzepi is a gifted cook with an extraordinary palate who does amazing things with wild herbs and flowers, bitter green leaves and the freshest local seafood.
In some quarters, of course, the decision will be read as a slap in the face for the modernists, especially for El Bulli and the Fat Duck.
Heston Blumenthal, chef and owner of the Fat Duck, responds-- quite reasonably, I think-- that if his or Ferran Adrià's restaurants had plummeted down the list, then that might well be a viable argument; as it is, what we are really seeing is just a little bit of jostling in the rankings.
What other stories are there? The UK has just three entries, with Claude Bosi's Hibiscus making its first appearance, alongside Fergus Henderson's St John. There are a couple of other places in the UK I would happily see in there, but I can't argue with that overall result: three out of 50 for the UK seems about right. It was always absurd that London restaurants such as Nobu and Hakkasan ever made a showing. The best Japanese and Chinese restaurants in the world being in London? Ludicrous.
The fact that Chateaubriand is the highest ranked French restaurant, ahead of all the over-gilded gastro-palaces, is a breath of fresh air. It is a low key bistro, with apparently fabulous food (I've never been) and if the food is what matters more than the decor then that has to be a good thing. I'm delighted that Japan, with two restaurants, makes a showing, though it is still grossly under-represented.
We keep trying to fiddle with the judging system to up Japan's representation but it's very tough, because the interplay between Japan and the rest of the world remains low key. And that's what's needed for a restaurant to break through: lots of people from outside the country in which it is situated eating there.
Of course, lots of people will take issue with the list: in some European countries it has been decried as some sort of fix (though god knows how you are supposed to fix the votes of 800 people). As I've said in previous years, that sort of thing is taking it far too seriously.
Is it the definitive ranking of the world's top restaurants? Absolutely not, because there is no such thing as a definitive answer to the question. It is just a list, and we all love one of those. Each year, as a result of its publication we argue for a few days about the merits of certain restaurants over each other and, while it is only a tiny part of the conversation to be had around food, that has to be a good thing.
Aside from El Bulli. my faves from the list this year are-- in order of list rankings, not mine-- Daniel in NYC, Per Se (NYC), Pierre Gagnaire (Paris), Le Bernardin (NYC), Iggy's (Singapore), L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon (Paris), the French Laundry (Yountville, although they also have a wonderful affiliate, Mozaic in Ubud, in the middle of Bali that we love), the aforementioned Il Canto, Alain Ducasse (in my favorite place to stay in Paris, the Plaza Athénée), Biko (Mexico City), Hibiscus (London), Eleven Madison Park (NYC), and then in the bottom 50, Jean Georges (NYC), Chez Panisse (Berkeley), The River Cafe (London), Enoteca Pinchiorri (Florence), Masa (NYC) and La Pergola (Rome).
If there's a restaurant remotely like Spain's El Bulli in Los Angeles it's a new Basque, not Catalan, restaurant opened by José Andrés (who actually trained under El Bulli's Adrià) at the SLS Hotel on La Cieniga. The L.A. Times described the experience of eating there as "Fellini-esque, a gastronomical circus, a flirtation with the flavors and soul of Spain? Los Angeles has never seen anything remotely like this..." If any L.A. restaurant is ever going to wind up on that San Pellegrino list, it's El Bazaar. We took a friend from out of town there last weekend. When it first opened, the Wall Street Journalreviewed it and came away saying it "may be the future of fine dining." It cost over $12 million to put together. "It serves no appetizers or entrees: All meals are made up of tapas, and signature items include drinks and canapés dipped in vats of liquid nitrogen. First-time visitors might wander the ground floor of the SLS Hotel looking for the restaurant-- and not realize that they are already standing in it. A palm-reader roams the floor, offering predictions... A mobile cart of liquid nitrogen wheels up to tables that order a $20 Brazilian cocktail, which is dipped and instantly frozen in the steaming brew. Another cart offers 'Cotton Candy Foie Gras,' a block of rich paté that a waiter twirls in spun sugar. A third cart serves "caviar cones," fish eggs served in paper-thin pastry cones... Half the menu belongs to the category of avant-garde cuisine, or molecular gastronomy, which uses advances in culinary science to create new flavors and textures. Mr. Andrés's "olive oil bon bon," for example, looks like a tiny glass sculpture but is in fact olive oil encased in solidified sugar; bite down and it bursts flavorfully in the mouth. Avant-garde cuisine has transformed fine dining in Europe. American avant-garde chefs, from Grant Achatz of Chicago's Alinea to Wylie Dufresne of WD-50 in New York, are heroes to many young chefs."
We're having dinner at Cru tonight. The food is organic, healthfully prepared, delicious and... well eating there will add years to your life, rather than cut it short. Here's the menu (click to enlarge it):
I'll never forget the first sight I had of Morocco as I approached on a ferry from Spain early in 1969; I was in Africa. The smells, the sounds and the sights all hit me at once and I fell in love with it-- even though I wasn't really in Morocco yet, but approaching Spain's last toehold in Africa, Ceuta. Funny, how I've been back to Morocco a dozen times since then but never to Ceuta again. Even the first time I got there I left almost immediately, anxious to get to "real Morocco," hightailing it out for Tetouan and then on to Ketama in the Rif Mountains with its infamous kif (a kind of hash) fields; never been back to that part of the country either. I always gravitate to the south-- Fez, Marrakech, Essaoura, Taroudant...
Earlier this year I read about the life of Moroccan ex-pat writer Abdellah Taïa in Out. Taïa's from Salé in the north; he one of Morocco's bets-known writers and he lives in Paris. He's openly gay and living in Morocco would be uncomfortable. He lives in Paris.
Last year, when Morocco’s interior ministry announced a crackdown on writing and books “seeking to attack the moral and religious values” of Moroccan society-- code for supporting gay rights-- Taïa responded with an open letter, “Homosexuality Explained to My Mother.” “There is a generation of Moroccan people trying to express itself, and the government’s response is aggression,” he says. “I knew I couldn’t write to a minister-- he wouldn’t respond because they don’t recognize people like us-- but I could write to someone related to me.”
Taïa’s campaign goes beyond gay rights. After two young brothers died in a suicide attack outside the U.S. consulate in Casablanca in 2007, he wrote an editorial for Le Monde titled “We Have to Save Moroccan Youth,” in which he addressed the exploitation of teen disaffection by Islamic extremists. “But I realized I had to go further than that,” he says. “I had to break the isolation of young Moroccans.” Inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet-- a series of 10 letters written to a young man entering the German military-- Taïa approached artists and writers of his generation to contribute essays for an update. Eighteen responded, including Tahar Ben Jelloun, one of Morocco’s most famous writers-- a measure of Taïa’s success in transcending knee-jerk prejudice. “Books have given me a legitimacy that I might not have had without them,” Taïa says. “That a homosexual writer-- the one who is demonized, criminalized-- can unite these forces behind him is amazing to me.”
Letters to a Young Moroccan was published last August, but Taïa didn’t stop there. Aware that his target audience could not afford books, he approached millionaire philanthropist Pierre Bergé, who had owned a home in Marrakech with his lifelong partner, Yves Saint Laurent. Bergé agreed to fund the printing and distribution of 90,000 copies of the book in French and Arabic-- the kind of bold gesture Taïa himself would never be able to make if he still lived in Morocco. “They would say I’m crazy, and who do I think I am-- a political leader? Life is when you can think of something and make it happen.” He pauses and shrugs. “But maybe I’m talking too heroically.”
His newest book, a kind of autobiography, is Salvation Army, his first book to be translated into English. "Taïa has defied Moroccan society’s don’t-ask, don’t-tell attitude toward homosexuality-- and prison sentences that are still on the books in the North African kingdom-- to write five autobiographical novels about growing up poor and gay in the northern coastal city of Salé."
The novels, peppered with sexually explicit passages, have catapulted him to fame in his native country and made him the de-facto poster child of its budding gay rights movement.
His work has sparked harsh criticism. Taïa said some outraged critics have called on him to renounce Moroccan citizenship so as “not to bring shame” on the country.
It’s also alienated him from his parents and eight siblings, who figure extensively in the books and complain that Taïa has publicly humiliated them.
But the 35-year-old author insists he’s never been cowed by fallout from his work.
“When I write, I feel a sense of urgency, as if my life depended on it,” Taïa said in an interview in Paris, where he has lived for almost a decade. “When I first started writing, it never occurred to me to invent some fictional character and talk about made-up things.”
His latest novel, L’armee du Salut, or Salvation Army, focuses on his decision to move to Europe. An English translation recently came out in the United States, with an introduction by author Edmund White.
Though Taïa immigrated legally-- he was awarded a scholarship to study in Switzerland-- his experiences in Geneva paralleled those of thousands Moroccans living in Europe without papers.
After his older Swiss lover who was supposed to pick him up at the Geneva airport never shows up, a penniless Taïa seeks refuge at the Salvation Army, where he lives among illegal immigrants from throughout the developing world.
...Like nearly all Arab countries, Morocco considers homosexual relations a crime, punishable by fines and prison sentences of six months to three years. Such penalties are rarely applied, though, and in practice Morocco has a long history of leniency toward homosexuality and other practices forbidden by Islam.
Last week my friend Danny, knowing of my affinity for Morocco, sent me an article from Carnal Nation, First Arabic-Language Gay Magazine Scandalizes Morocco. The name Mithly has a double-meaning in Arabic: "homo" and "like me." It was published this month-- in Rabat... and in secret. "The editors and publishers of this bold new publication emphasize that Mithly is first and foremost a forum for those suffering under Islamic laws that criminalize homosexuality. Indeed, the appearance of the magazine has so incensed conservative officials that some have called upon the government to hunt down "sleeper cells" of homosexuals like terrorists.
Gay pride parade in Kathmandu
A couple of years after my first visit to Morocco, I found another country I fell in love with and have returned to many times, Nepal. It's more remote and, in many ways, even more foreign. But very live-and-let-live, at least in practice, and not homophobic, at least not for foreigners. It's a Buddhist kingdom that is mostly Hindu and now-- as of 2008-- a republic. And now live-and-let-live has turned into a gay-oriented marketing theme as tourist promoting Nepal looks for gay dollars by offering same sex weddings... on Mount Everest. I sure hope the grooms don't have to trek to the base camp the way I did in 1971.
“We’re completely changing this country. It’s a newborn republic-- and we want to showcase this change,” Sharat Singh Bhandari, the Tourism Minister, told The Times. “We also want to re-establish tourism as a major industry.” He aims to attract one million tourists in 2011, more than double the number last year.
He kicked off the marketing campaign in October with a written message to the International Conference on Gay & Lesbian Tourism in Boston-- an unprecedented gesture for an Asian minister. “As the world knows, Nepal is the land of Mount Everest, world’s highest peak and the birth place of Lord Buddha, light of Asia,” the message said. “I, therefore, would like to take this opportunity to invite and welcome all the sexual and gender minorities from around the world.” ...The tourism board is already talking about same-sex weddings on Everest, elephant safaris for gay honeymooners and other specialist activities.
Yesterday I picked Roland up at the airport. He had just returned from a couple weeks in Thailand and northeast India. Neither is on the list of the top 10 spring break destinations, which is more about Cancun, Acapulco, South Beach and South Padre Island. Not Roland's cup of tea. No, he wanted to see Benares (Varanasi) and visit a friend living in Bangkok. He got to Bangkok just as the government declared a state of emergency, flew to Calcutta and then took a train, the Vibhuti Express, to Varanasi just as reports came out about 76 Indian soldiers being slain by Maoist rebels. He was more concerned with the filth and sewer-like conditions that he experienced in town. "Why didn't I listen to you?" he asked, rhetorically, when he arrived.
China has already halted tourism to Thailand and the U.S. State Department is warning Americans about travel there. Roland said the atmosphere was "festive" in Bangkok, including among the Red Shirts.
"U.S. citizens are reminded that even demon-strations intended to be peaceful can turn confront-ational and escalate into violence with little or no warning," it said. "U.S. citizens are urged to avoid the areas that may be targeted for demonstrations and to exercise caution in their movements around Bangkok.
Tourism, which accounts for 6 percent of the Thai economy, is suffering after scenes of heavy fighting in Khao San Road.
The State Department said travel to Thailand remains "generally safe" but the possibility of explosive attacks could not be ruled out. "U.S. citizens are reminded to exercise caution and vigilance at all times." it said.
It's likely that the Thai tourist industry will be devastated by the unrest there as thousands of tourists cancel plans. It's probably a great time for intrepid risk-taking travelers to look for bargains. It's certainly safer than Kyrgyzstan.
UPDATE: Violence Escalates
I love Thailand and I've been there over a dozen times. But I wouldn't think about going there now. The pro-government yellow shirts and the teabagger/pro-fascist red shirts are turning increasingly violent. Suddenly the fireworks are now grenades and there are people dying in the Land of Smiles. Although the burgeoning medical tourism industry (mostly intra-Asian) hasn't been impacted much (at least not yet), the big, mainstream tourism industry is in really bad shape... again. The grenade attack at the Sala Daeng intersection and the adjacent BTS Skytrain station on Silom last night is a place where all tourists in Bangkok visit. The Federation of Thai Tourism Associations (FETTA) says tourists have been canceling their trips.
FETTA earlier estimated that if the political turmoil continues, the number of travelers to Thailand will fall by 2-2.5 million because the tourists have lost confidence in Thailand's safety measures.
Due to the escalating tension, Mr Apichart said, it is hard to see that there will actually be 15 million visitors traveling to Thailand this year as the government previously had projected.
Last year tourism accounted for 6.5% of Thailand's gross domestic product-- the country's single largest foreign-exchange earner. This year hotel occupancy in Bangkok was off by a third even before the grenade attack. And the hotels near the protests, including the big 5-star joints like the Four Seasons and the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel are closed as are malls, department stores and restaurants that cater to tourists. The carefully crafted "just like Disneyland" image is going down the drain-- with billions of dollars-- and, at least for a while, Thailand is going to be an adventurer's destination again.
UPDATE: Violence Escalates More... Much More
Going to Thailand now would be walking into the middle of a pitched battle. Soldiers have been told to shoot-- to kill. And they have. Thirty have died and hundreds are injured from this weekend's fighting. The government is fighting fascism with... fascism. What a mess! The Australian Embassy closed down and warned its nationals to leave the country at once and the British Foreign Office has told its nationals to avoid Bangkok, even if just for transit purposes. (Israelis, on the other hand, are ignoring the danger despite government warnings.) The Thai stock market is crashing and the bond market is soaring. The baht is a bargain against the dollar (32.41 per dollar). Meanwhile, Malaysia is trying to take advantage of the situation to horn in on Thailand's gigantic tourism industry, currently moribund. Tourists are generally avoiding the trouble spots but the trouble spots aren't always static and tourists are among the injured. In central Bangkok, a small number of hotels have either been caught up in the crossfire or have been used as sniper nests by the army. The tourist authorities are hoping people visit Phuket and Chiang Mai instead of Bangkok.
The 5-star Dusit Thani Hotel has one of my favorite restaurants in Bangkok, the Benjarong, and I always eat at least one meal there on any trip to Thailand. It was hit by a couple of grenades Sunday night.
Executives at the Dusit Thani Bangkok Hotel are in shock after the hotel was targeted in a grenade attack that is believed to be linked to suspicions that Maj Gen Khattiya Sawasdipol, a red-shirt leader, was fatally shot by a sniper who was hiding in the property.
Both the allegations and the attacks have shocked hotel staff and executives.
Grenades fired from an M79 launcher hit the five-star hotel late on Sunday night. The blasts sparked off fires on the 14th and 22nd floors when they exploded... The attack on the Dusit Thani may have been motivated by rumours that it was a sniper positioned in the hotel who shot Maj Gen Khattiya, also known as Seh Daeng, last Thursday night just moments after giving an interview to journalists from the protest camp outside Lumpini Park. Maj Gen Khattiya died from his head wound yesterday.
Revenues are down 13% over last year and the hotel posted a net loss of 107.9 million baht (around $3.3 million).
Earlier this month I was practically apologizing for writing about my favorite new restaurant in L.A. here because... well because it's in L.A. and so am I and I just have to drive 15 minutes to get there. And here I am back with the L.A. stuff again. Kind of. It's L.A. via Mali.
If you follow this travel blog at all, you may recall that a couple years ago I was wandering around Mali and Senegal. While waiting for my friend Roland to arrive so we could head out to the world's biggest mud mosque in Djenne and then on to the unpaved wilds of Dogon Country, I somehow wound up in Ali Farka Toure's recording studio watching Bassekou Kouyate complete I Speak Fula, the follow up to Segu Blue, his widely acclaimed 2007 international debut album.
In the way of context, let me tell you I've been very lucky with music in my life. Even before becoming president of Reprise Records, I had always had good music juju. I was knee-high to spit when I snuck off to the Brooklyn Paramount Theater to catch Maxine Brown. Not only did she sing my favorite song, Oh No, Not My Baby, but she came out the stage door afterwards and gave me a big kiss and an autograph that I treasured until I went to Afghanistan 5 years later. In the interim I booked concerts at my school by Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Temptations, The Fugs, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Pink Floyd, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Otis Redding, The Byrds, the Dead... all the regular stuff we used to dance around to in college back then. And I was a dj and so on. Even when my music juju screwed up, it didn't screw up too bad. I once drove all the way to some village near Lyallpur in Pakistan, the familial home of the famous Ali Brothers (of my most enjoyable acid trips) only to find the Ali Brothers, Nazakat and Salamat, the world's greatest Qawwali singers, away on a concert tour. Years later I was working in a meditation center in Amsterdam and someone persuaded me to go upstairs to hear some "trippy Indian music" and it was... Nazakat and Salamat Ali Khan. Point: I've seen everyone (except The Beatles, all of whom I've seen individually). And the further point, when I saw Bassekou is the Jimi Hendrix of the ngoni, a description that is now widely used, and that the concert I saw him play at the French Cultural Center in Bamako was one of the greatest and most inspired live shows I've ever seen in my life... well, it's not like some kid telling you about the first live music he's ever seen. I knew Jimi Hendrix when he was the lead guitarist for the Night Hawks fronting John Hammond. He did his first American concert after he became the Jimi Hendrix Experience for me and that night I watched incredulously as he and my mother smoked a joint. I hung out with him in Essaouira and saw him play at the Isle of Wight Festival before he died and I went off in search of the Alis.
That said, Bassekou is not just playing in L.A. tomorrow (Sunday), he's playing a free show-- at Amoeba Records on Sunset, around the corner from that favorite L.A. restaurant I was talking about! If you're in the L.A. area-- unless you're lucky enough to have tickets for one of the shows at the Getty Center-- don't miss this chance.
Bassekou plays ngoni on President Obama's favorite record, Kulanjan but he's not well know in the U.S. yet, although he's a superstar in Africa and on his way to being one in Europe. This is what I wrote after seeing him play in Bamako:
I don't know how to describe the concert without losing the essence of what the music did for everyone involved-- both on and off the stage. Let me tell you, though, as magnificent as the recorded versions of his songs are, the live show is what makes it so amazing. The concert defined hot. When those syncopated rhythms get going, there is no resisting their power. Mali is the birthplace of the blues-- and the blues is still very much alive and vibrant here-- and it is the ancestral home of rock'n'roll in every imaginable way. Bassekou has that coursing through his blood and he knows exactly how to convey it to the audience.
And the dancing was as good as the music! Absolutely breathtaking! Truthfully, I can't remember the last time music compelled me to jump out of my seat and dance in the aisle. Last night it did.
I found this video on YouTube-- Bassekou at the Orange Peel in Asheville, NC a couple weeks ago. I wonder if Heath Shuler made it to the show. Bassekou will be in Savannah on April 2nd and I'll definitely tell Regina Thomas to check it out; it's right up her alley. In this clip it looks like a local banjo player found his way onto the stage; you can tell who he is because he's the one with the store-bought instrument. If you're in L.A., hasta mañana. Otherwise, Bassekou's U.S. tour schedule is here. Wow! 4 nights in Minneapolis and three in Lafayette, Louisiana!
I don't write much about restaurants and hotels or any kind of attractions in Los Angeles, not because it's an unworthy of tourist attention, but because I live here. But it dawned on me the other day that with so many tourists flocking to L.A. I should point out my newest favorite restaurant. Sort of restaurant... most exclusive restaurant in town (only 6 seats)! I want to back track first.
A few weeks ago I was with some friends celebrating my birthday at an old L.A. favorite, A.O.C. Our regular wonderful waitress Suzanne (from Sweden) wasn't there and we got stuck with someone who would rather be an asshole than be helpful. So when I asked for the sublime Brussels sprouts in parsnip purée dish I had had earlier in the week to be brought with no bits of pork or ham or whatever pig flesh they use to screw it up with, she said it wasn't possible. But it was possible. Suzanne had gotten it for us a few days previous and I had been dreaming about it since. In fact, it's why I picked A.O.C. for the celebration. She said I was mistaken. I ordered the broccoli with garlic and chili instead and the meal was very good. Everyone loved everything they ate. Afterwards a cook came over to say happy birthday and discuss the Brussels sprouts problem. Turned out her name is Suzanne too-- Suzanne Goin.
I don't watch cooking shows on TV and I don't follow chef celebrity but my friend Heather was kvelling. Turns out Suzanne Goin is the chef-- and one of the most renowned in the chef celebrity circuit. She was very sweet too. Heather mentioned she's also the chef at Lucques, where I hadn't been since I turned in my company credit card. But Suzanne sure knows how to cook up some good food-- and Lucques is a lot closer than A.O.C. to my home so... a few nights later Roland and I tried to get into our favorite local raw vegan joint, Cru and, as happens more and more frequently these days, it was too crowded and we had to walk away. On the spur on the moment we decided to go "someplace different" and I called Lucques and they said, "Come on down." We did. Of course it was delicious. But I had a realization while I was eating. It was heavy-- really heavy. Everything was cooked in sticks of butter. And when I chatted with the waiter about... the Brussels sprouts, well... they were cooked in veal stock. The food tasted good but was clearly deadly healthwise and very, very expensive. Why bother? How had I drifted so far away from raw vegan to find myself, at least once or twice a week, in places like A.O.C. and Lucques?
The next day, I met up with Roland for dinner again and he basically had had the same thoughts. "Let's eat someplace simpler. Lucques was too heavy." I said "OK, I have just the place!"
Livefood Organic at 1507 Cahuenga in Hollywood, just a few feet from the corner of Sunset Blvd-- and very conveniently located to ArcLight and Amoeba, isn't really a restaurant. It's a raw, vegan take-out place. But there's a nice communal table in the window with 6 stools. It's only been open a few weeks and so far there's always been a little room at the table.
First of all, every single thing they prepare is absolutely delicious, healthy and incredibly inexpensive. And... you can order stuff to go with dignity. I mean that's what it's all about-- that and the healthy eating thing. My mouth is starting to water as I write because I'm thinking of the delicious lasagna I have in my fridge right now that I'll be eating when I'm done writing. Lasagna and blueberry cobbler. Eating at Lifefood Organic isn't about making any compromises with taste. Their food is unquestionably more delicious-- not to mention nutritious-- than the "same" dishes you'll find in conventional restaurants, including-- if not especially in the A.O.C.s and Lucques of the world. If you're a raw foodie, think about this-- their dishes are as good as anything you'll find at Pure Food and Wine in New York City! I've been all over Italy and-- more to the point-- I grew up in NYC and I've never tasted better tiramisu than at Lifefood!
Click on the menu so you can read it-- and a warning: they usually only have a few things on any one day-- but they're ALL yummy
In the past we've mentioned that gay tourists, not to mention people who are uncomfortable with racism, bigotry, and far right extremism, are thinking twice before booking vacations in South Carolina. Some South Carolina legislators are so contemptuous of the state's tourism sector that they're ready to make it next to impossible for tourists to come there even if they want to.
South Carolina isn't requiring passports or visas yet, but the first state that seceded from the Union is looking into banning the use of American currency now. Welcome to the South Carolina Republican Party!
South Carolina will no longer recognize U.S. currency as legal tender, if State Rep. Mike Pitts has his way.
Pitts, a fourth-term Republican from Laurens, introduced legislation earlier this month that would ban what he calls “the unconstitutional substitution of Federal Reserve Notes for silver and gold coin” in South Carolina.
If the bill were to become law, South Carolina would no longer accept or use anything other than silver and gold coins as a form of payment for any debt, meaning paper money would be out in the Palmetto State.
Pitts said the intent of the bill is to give South Carolina the ability to “function through gold and silver coinage” and give the state a “base of currency” in the event of a complete implosion of the U.S. economic system.
Or maybe they just want to market the state's tourist attractions to descendants of the sudden German emigration to Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil in the late 1940s.
I suppose this post should really be something like "Where I Stayed In Rome (And Albania)" but I'm hoping that some of the ideas-- even if not the specific locales-- will be helpful to travelers even beyond people looking to experience a vacation vicariously. But let me start at the very end of my trip, one night in Rome before catching a flight to London and then on to home in L.A. You see, the trip this time involved an extended stay in Rome in the beginning-- and I'll get to that in a moment-- followed by a week or so of busing around Albania. But it was that one night in Rome at the end, basically insurance against unreliable airplane travel, that had me worried.
I've been to Italy many times in the past, first when I lived in Innsbruck, Austria and could easily drive down to Verona or Venice for a weekend and later when I was running Reprise Records and could never find enough excuses to visit our wonderful affiliates in Milan, where I became so well known at the hotel, the Principi di Savoia that my suite was always my suite. (The Four Seasons Milano is also spectacular, arguably the best Four Seasons in Europe, and many of our bands preferred to stay there which is why I did sometimes as well. But in the end, it was the classic Principi I always preferred.) The Principi was a relative bargain too. They always gave me a room for around $600/night while the Four Seasons charged around $850. I felt I was doing the TimeWarner shareholders a solid by staying at the bargain hotel.
But Milano isn't Rome. And I'm no longer an employee of TimeWarner and now pay for my own hotels. In the past when I've gone to Rome on TimeWarner's dime I stayed at the Russie, conveniently located between the Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps. I would have been happy to stay there again on our one night in Rome at the end of the trip. The cheapest double in the joint was almost $1,000/night (breakfast not included). And it wasn't that fabulous, not when I'm putting up my credit card. Andre, the wonderful travel agent who first found me the Russie when we were both at TimeWarner, suggested a hotel nearby that he says is the only 5--star bargain in the whole city, the Parco dei Principi right on the Borghese Gardens surrounded by mansions, many of which are now embassies. It's just outside the Aurelian Walls-- so the $40 set fee taxi ride doesn't apply and the minute and a half it takes from the gate costs you about $25 in the cab-- but the hotel is just as nice as the Russie and much quieter. It cost us around $350 for a double which they upgraded (a courtesy to Andre) to a deluxe room. Roland wasn't a huge fan of the decor, which he termed "Louis XIV meets Liberace," and the antiquated awkwardness of not having a viable, usable Wifi system makes it a no-go for business travelers. But they did have the absolute most wonderful bath towels I've ever used and everything about the hotel is absolutely elegant.
One of the things about Rome that few tourists realize-- and the Romans never talk about (if they even realize it themselves)-- is that the city is tiny and as complicated as they try to make it, once you get the hang of it, you really can walk anywhere. Someone might tell you that the Borghese Gardens are a million miles from the center; it's a 10 minute walk to the Spanish Steps. We decided to say arrivederci to 2009 at an intense Michelin-star restaurant, il Convivio Troiani on a tiny pedestrian street near the Tiber just north of Piazza Navona. The concierge at the hotel was delighted we were eating at such a wonderful restaurant-- and was it ever!-- but he was horrified when I asked him if we could walk there. In his mind it would be like walking from the Four Seasons in Manhattan to Chinatown or from the Four Seasons in West Hollywood to the Water Grill downtown: undoable. It turned out to be a super-direct 20-30 minutes gorgeous stroll that added to the glamor of the evening.
I know this post is supposed to be about where to stay, not where to eat, but I can't not mention how over the top we both are about il Convivio. They describe the cuisine as a "modern, revisited version of traditional Italian fare. Don't expect pizza or meatballs and spaghetti. The chef kept sending out goodies all night and every single detail was explained to us by a superb waiter in the tradition of professionals whose job wasn't so much to write down an order and schlep out some dishes, but to make you feel you were having the best meal of your life. I started with orange scented organic barley with porcini mushrooms and black truffle uncinatum (hold the duck tartare) and Roland got going with fried zucchini flowers with buffalo's mozzarella, anchovies creamed, sweet and sour red pepper spicy sorbet. Between the incredibly rich starters and the stuff the chef had sent out, we were already full. My main course was salt cod cooked with artichokes, potatoes, truffle and sweet garlic sauce and Roland had organic oxtail "vaccinara style" with mashed spicy potatoes and mushrooms. He also ate 2 pieces of 6 varieties of homemade bread that he said was mind-blowing. Neither of us was interested in dessert but he wound up eating 12 of them that the chef sent us.
And, yes, Rome is a city you will have to work hard at finding a bad place to eat. Every meal we had there was fantastic, even in the restaurants with no Michelin stars. OK, back to the where to stay thing. If you follow this blog, you already know that my travel preference is to stay in places for weeks at a time and rent houses or-- in cities-- apartments. That's how we started the trip in Rome, a few weeks before our one last night at the Parco dei Principi.
I started my search online months ago, looking at the listings for apartments in Rome. There are tons of them. I found what I was looking for at HomeAway.com, a spacious two bedrooms/two bathrooms flat in an old 17th Century palace in the quiet, funky Monti neighborhood behind the Forum, a hop, skip and a jump from the Coliseum Metro station. There's a highly functional, well-equipped kitchen, a large dining room and large living room... and excellent Wifi (and free local phone calls). Here's the online description:
The aristocratic PALAZZO DEL GRILLO, 17th century, in the very heart of Old Rome OVERLOOKING the archaeological area called the IMPERIAL FORUMS between the Colosseum and Piazza Venezia, is the perfect location for all who want to have one of the great sites of antiquity right outside their windows. The Palazzo del Grillo, decorated by artists of the Bernini School, is a famous example of Roman Rococo architecture. COLISEUM is less than 5 MINUTE WALK from the apartment. Also EASY WALK DISTANCE TO ALL THE MOST IMPORTANT TOURIST SITES. THE APARTMENT: deluxe accommodation for 1-6 persons: 105sq m / 1135sq ft apartment (all modern comforts: dishwasher, washing machine, AIR CON, INTERNET) on second floor with ELEVATOR/LIFT, consists of: the large double LIVING ROOM with dinner area and relax area, 2 BEDROOMS (second bedroom usable as study too), 2 BATHROOMS, KITCHEN. Safe, quiet, easy walk distance public transportations and public garage.
It was a fraction of what two rooms in an equivalent hotel would cost-- or even one room! No, we didn't have the Frette sheets or the fancy towels but with what you save, you can afford to buy them and take them home! And after a few days you start to feel like you're part of the neighborhood and that you're living a normal life, not just a time and space cut-out from reality (which, no doubt, many people prefer).
OK, I know I'm going to give short shrift to Albania now. But let's be real; more people visit Rome in a day or two than Albania in a full year. Most people who do visit go in the summer and hang at the Adriatic beaches. We went in the winter and the beaches we passed, around Durrës on the way inland to Berat (AKA, Berati), looked overdeveloped, commercialized and distinctly unappetizing.
The best hotel in Tirana is the Sheraton. It's a kind of western oasis and makes the inevitable immersion into Albania-- if you plan to leave the capital, which is a MUST-- a little easier. The Sheraton has worldwide centralized booking and they charge too much. But if you book a night through them, you can make a deal with the hotel for further nights based on local rates, which are about half. The hotel is a typical modern business hotel with a great gym and indoor pool, decent rooms, wonderful bathrooms compared to anything else you're going to find in the country, Wifi, etc.
We booked the rest of our trip through Albania Holidays, paying in advance and leaving everything up to them. It couldn't have gone more smoothly. And the hotel rooms out in the country cost around $25-30/night-- so there's plenty of room for errors. We picked what looked like the best and most interesting hotel (mostly bed and breakfasts really) in each town. The one exception was in Fier, an unexpected find that is basically not even mentioned in the tour books but is a prosperous town in the middle of Albania's oil and petrochemical industry. It's kind of the Houston of the country. The Hotel Fier is smack dab in the middle of town and was a real hotel with all the amenities. In Berat and Gjirokaster we stayed, respectively, at the Mangalemi and the Kalemi, each very heavy on the charm, the cultural authenticity and a little light on the amenities. It was well worth the trade-off.
I guess I should mention that the weather is way nicer in Albania than an hour away in Italy, where it was really cold and rained almost every day. Albania is noticeably warmer and less rainy. We liked Gjirokaster best:
From the waterfront, you can head through the Nelson Mandela Gateway and board the ferry to Robben Island, where Mandela and many others spent years as political prisoners. And if a sea voyage is not on the agenda, take a stroll around and see Cape Town's iconic Cape Dutch architecture. It's an intriguing mixture of French, German, Dutch and British stylings unique to this part of the world.
If aquatic pursuits are more your style, Cape Town's unique geography makes for an interesting day at the beach. The Atlantic waters to the west are substantially colder than the Indian Ocean to the east, and each one harbors different creatures. The Indian Ocean is perhaps better for diving and wildlife while the Atlantic coast has more developed residential areas and restaurants. 
Whites, reds, German and French styles are all well represented here thanks to the region's rich colonial history and an extremely grape-friendly Mediterranean climate. 
