Welcome Back from ImprovEverywhere on Vimeo

Shouldn't everyone get this kind of greeting at the airport?

The happy pranksters at Improv Everywhere, dedicated to causing "scenes of chaos and joy in public places" such as the memorable and large-scale Grand Central Freeze, organized another travel-themed mission recently, this time at JFK airport. Twenty Improv Everywhere volunteers (aka "agents") showed up at the International Arrivals terminal with posterboard, markers, balloons, bouquets of flowers, and a giant "Welcome Back" banner, and prepared to welcome a random stranger back to the USA.

Prankster-in-Chief Charlie Todd scoped out the limo drivers holding signs with passenger names, and picked out a driver waiting for someone named Lori. He told the driver that his group was also waiting for Lori and wanted to welcome her back home. Driver Kevin, not knowing that these were total strangers, happily offered to bring Lori over to the group when she arrived. The agents quickly wrote Lori's name on their welcome signs and settled in to wait. And wait. Lori was delayed over an hour in Customs, but the incredulous, confused, and then joyous look on her face when Kevin brought her over to meet her cheering "friends" was worth the wait.
 
We love these guys. If you'd like to participate in a future Improv Everywhere event and you live the New York City area, sign up for their mailing list. If you live outside NYC, check the Urban Prankster Network for an Improv-Everywhere-style group in your area.

Jim Conaway's feature in this month's issue, "Is Baja on the Block?" looks at how the spread of tourism and development is threatening the integrity of Baja California in Mexico. Here, he introduces some of the people trying to help sustain the marine heritage of the region.

Peter Patterson looks more like an American teenager in designer sunglasses and a blue Coastkeeper T-shirt than a 27-year-old Mexican biology student holding a battery-powered device for measuring the temperature, oxygen content, and salinity of water. A wire dangles from it into the Bay of La Paz. Until recently, the view to the west was of blue water and, far away, dry and dusky mountains floating in a haze of heat and ambient yellow light.

Now the long sandy expanse in the foreground, with its necklace of green mangroves, supports the skeletal gray ramparts of a hotel and condos rising in the literal middle of nowhere, another baleful mirage in a desert seascape. This one has no drinking water, sewage treatment, or a direct link to the city. And strollers along La Paz's waterfront malecon, if they want to watch the sun set, must also look at a development on what was recently a federally protected beach and wetland.

On Wednesday morning, Traveler staffers Jeannette Kimmel and Janelle Nanos got a sneak peek at the newly renovated National Museum of American History, which opens to the public this Friday, November 21st. The two-year, $85 million project has breathed new life into the formerly staid building. The most dramatic elements are the sweeping, light-filled atrium that now stretches through the building's spine, and the original Star Spangled Banner, which is elegantly preserved behind a floor-to-ceiling glass wall and illuminated with relatively low light levels - evoking the "dawn's early light."

A cast of luminaries - including President Bush and the First Lady - turned out for yesterday's event. The President spoke for several minutes, calling the museum "one of our nation's greatest centers of knowledge," and saying that the "items on display here are as diverse as our nation." Laura Bush, he noted, was also integral in coordinating the current special exhibit at the museum, a handwritten copy of Lincoln's Gettysburg address that is typically kept in the Lincoln bedroom at the White House. Lincoln's words, said President Bush, which were spoken 145 years ago yesterday, "are written on the heart of every American."

As if to prove the point further, right after the President spoke, five people took to the stage to participate in a naturalization ceremony, tugging at our collective patriotic heartstrings.

"No city in America pays homage to its history more than this our capital city," said author and historian David McCullough, following the ceremony. "Washington D.C. insists we remember, it beckons us all to look and learn. And nowhere is this stronger than in the National Museum of American History's walls. There are no facsimiles here. At a time when so much around us is synthetic and artificial, here is the real thing. How can we love our country if we take no interest in its story?"

Calling the museum a "talisman," McCullough suggested that these "real things" have the power to share a multitude of stories. "Our stories," he said.

After watching the speeches, our private tour began. More photos and videos after the jump.

John Ur returns this week to consider the cinematic offerings of Florida, the Sunshine State.

 

Florida is a state with a strong personality. Its name evokes images of early-bird specials, Universal Orlando, or Miami Vice. But there's also a lot to see beyond beaches and buffets. From the edges of the Panhandle near Alabama to Miami and the Keys, the state of Florida sits very close to sea level. The highest point, Britton Hill - the lowest high point of any state - peaks at just 345 feet above the ocean. Seems like the place to be if you're afraid of heights. It's also the place to be if you're into sunshine. The state's temperature has only been recorded at zero degrees Fahrenheit once, during the Great Blizzard of 1899. Of course, the trade-off is the steady barrage of hurricanes that seem to hit the state every year. Without any large geographical features to buffer the winds, the damages are always severe.

But mountains and glaciers aren't the only path to geographical richness. Florida is home to three national parks: the Dry Tortugas, Biscayne, and the Everglades, all rich in animal and plant diversity. The Dry Tortugas are a group of islands in the Florida Keys known for their mangroves and sea turtles. Biscayne, just outside Miami, is home to four distinct ecosystems and hundreds of colorful fish. The Everglades is a subtropical marshland, home to over 360 species of birds as well as alligators, dolphins and manatees. Though the Everglades is considered unstable because of all of the development around it, the state of Florida is making efforts to sustain it and help return some land back to its natural state. Just this year, the state agreed to purchase US Sugar's plant and return that area back to nature.   

Apart from the national parks, you can find the rest of tourist Florida - Orlando has Disney World, the coastlines have great beaches and Miami is a nightclub hotspot. But the tourist brochures won't tell you about the downsides of Florida. The state is the third fastest-growing state in the country adding almost 1,000 new residents daily. The result is ever-increasing suburban sprawl, with property developments swallowing up large swaths of previously open and undeveloped land.

John Sayles' 2002 movie, Sunshine State, takes a look at this issue head-on. Set in northeast Florida around Jacksonville, Sunshine State tells the story of two towns and two women, one black, one white. The women (played aptly by Edie Falco and Angela Bassett) both deal with relationship issues within their family and their lovers, but the over-arching theme, and the plot points that connect the two of them is their community of fictional Plantation Island.

November 19th marks the annual Garifuna Settlement Day celebrations in Belize, when Garifuna descendents commemorate the arrival of their ancestors onto the shores of this small Central American country in the early 1800s. 



As the story goes, the Garifuna culture was born in the Caribbean in the 1600s, when a ship bearing captives from Africa was wrecked off the coast of St. Vincent. Those who survived integrated into the indigenous societies on the island, adopting the Carib language and customs. The resulting hybrid culture became today's Garifuna (also called "Garinagu"), who still retain ties to both ancestries. In 1796, driven from the island by British colonists, they made a second arduous voyage west and settled along the coasts of what are today Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Like many minority cultures, the Garifuna today feel the pressures of globalization and must fight to hold on to their language and cultural traditions.

While in Belize for Garifuna Settlement Day last year I had the opportunity to sit down with and interview Andy Palacio, the late musician and leader of the international movement to preserve Garifuna language and culture, two months before he died unexpectedly at the age of 47. Palacio's final album Wátina ("I called out"), released in 2007, propelled him onto the international stage and sparked a Garifuna cultural revival.  "Andy P," as he is affectionately known in Belize, passed away on January 19, 2008, after suffering a stroke.  

In the video above, Andy explains the significance of Garifuna Settlement Day.

Ahh, the open road. What could be more American than a cross-country road trip? Just pack up the kids and hop in the RV. But wait--isn't that an unsustainable way to travel?

Not for Sara and Matt Janssen, who converted their RV into a green motor home. The pair sold their house and has been living in the 36-foot motor home with their four-year-old daughter ever since, traveling the country promoting sustainable living, according to a recent article in the New York Times.

The greening of their RV included putting in bamboo floors, repainting with nontoxic paint, and installing a waste-grease fuel system that has saved them over $25,000 in fuel costs. "It's a self-contained lifestyle," said Sara, a photographer. In addition, the home's small size keeps their material waste at a minimum. "We can't buy anything because it won't fit," she told the Times.

Although selling their home might seem a bit extreme, the Janssens are part of a growing movement to green-up RV travel. Even celebrities are on board: Willie Nelson gained a lot of press attention a few years ago for creating his own biofuel, called BioWillie, which he uses for his tour bus. And the time couldn't be riper: Despite the recent fuel crisis, motor home ownership is on the rise, according to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association. As of 2005, nearly one in 12 U.S. vehicle-owning households owned an RV.

India tourism officials have recently launched a new branch of tourism in hopes of drawing British visitors to their country. The Times reports that India wants to raise its number of British arrivals from some 800,000 to over one million visitors in the next two years, and in order to do so, they're luring Brits with their favorite brew: tea.

India is the largest producer of tea, contributing over 30% of the world's tea at more than 500 plantations around the country. Many plantations have developed accommodations--from simple cottages to five-star resorts--for guests. Nathmull's Tea in Darjeeling (one of the oldest companies in the region and producing, of course, Darjeeling tea) provides a number of suites for tea enthusiasts for as little as $200 (10,000 Rs) for two per night, including transportation from local airports, all meals, nature walks, tours of the plantation, and, naturally, all the tea you can drink.

Close by, the Glenburn Tea Estate provides similar all-inclusive accommodation for some $400 for two people per night. Those seeking a more intimate experience in India should check out Mahindra Homestays, which organizes trips to smaller B&B-type stays, including places in Kerala from about $75 per night.

Photo: Sadaloha via the Intelligent Travel Flickr pool

Rainer Jenss and his family are currently on an around-the-world journey, and they're blogging about their experiences for us at Intelligent Travel. Keep up with the Jensses by bookmarking their posts, and follow the boys' Global Bros blog at National Geographic Kids.

There's a reason Thailand has been near the top of the list of favorite places to visit by travelers worldwide over the last few decades. Not only is the scenery some of the most striking on Earth - the culture, history, food, and friendly people all combine to offer a diversity of unique and enriching experiences. Like most of Southeast Asia, Thailand's affordability seems to set it apart from other exotic destinations. The key to revealing its splendor, however, required some preparation, or in our case, a good sense of improvisation once you get there. Most importantly, it required setting priorities.  

Unless you have more than a couple of weeks to explore the country, which most Americans don't seem to have, you shouldn't expect to see all that Thailand has to offer. Since we had sixteen days, we thought we could take in a little bit of everything. As we headed for the airport on our final day after touring Bangkok's Grand Palace and Wat Pho (easily one of the highlights of our trip and a "must see" for anyone visiting the country), we seemed to have visited everywhere we possibly could, but at a price: we were exhausted!

The islands to the south, as I reported in my last blog post, can either be a party paradise or rejuvenating retreat - normally not a lot of chance for error there as long as you don't mix up the two. From Bangkok up north, however, the options become more numerous, and the distances between them far greater. At a friend's recommendation, we hired a driver to take us from Bangkok up to Chiang Mai and beyond - into the mountainous northern region of the country where they offer elephant treks, an ideal adventure for the boys. We figured this was a good idea because it 1) kept us off of another plane; 2) was less expensive; 3) allowed us to see more of the country; and 4) gave us access to a set of wheels. There were also hill tribes to visit, including those with women wearing long metal coils around their necks. There were temples to see, history to absorb, restaurants to sample and shopping to be done. Did I mention relaxing or home schooling?