This as-told-to story is based on a conversation with 31-year-old circus artist Kong Viban, a performer at Phare, the Cambodian Circus . The show performs regularly in Siem Reap and will be on tour in New York in December .
28.08.2023 - 14:27 / cntraveler.com
“People will tell the same old story until they hear a better tale,” says Ahmed, an elder I meet by chance in Tangier's casbah—a Cubist jumble of white buildings beneath circling gulls that cry out over the morning call to prayer. We're chatting, perched on the high ramparts of the old Portuguese citadel, our heels in Africa, Europe on the horizon like a giant seabird gliding toward us. “Birds go back and forth without borders,” muses Ahmed, his words flying just as freely among Darija (Moroccan Arabic), French, and Spanish. Tanjawi—or Tangerines—are sociable polyglots who speak in a meze of languages. Ahmed's hair is as silvered as Moroccan sardines, his green eyes drizzled with amber like the olive oil in bissara pea soup.
A quiet street in the historic casbah
Colors pop in this city of white and pearly light: the emerald of mint sold next to nets of escargot and the jade roofs of mosques; the yellow stripes of hooded djellaba robes; the cumin-like sprinkles of gold bougainvillea—and everywhere, across the network of roof terraces, the oily indigo brushstrokes of the sea. The shifting politics of the Gibraltar Strait have endlessly recalibrated the fate of Morocco's northernmost port city and the identity of its people; Tangier has been held by the Phoenicians, Portuguese, Middle Eastern caliphates, Spanish, British, and French before becoming the Moroccan sultanate's diplomatic center in the late 19th century. “We have been a nexus of culture in the Mediterranean for thousands of years, and Jews and Muslims coexisted in peace,” says Ahmed. “Yet in the West, they only talk about the moment 20th-century colonists created ‘the Tangerine dream.’” Ahmed is referring to the era in Tangier's history, beginning in the interwar period and peaking in the 1950s, when the city served as a licentious playground for a motley assortment of artists, socialites, and hedonists.
I meet Ahmed near the casbah home of American heiress Barbara Hutton, who entertained US ambassadors, World War II spies, and libertines here after the city was carved up by colonial powers in 1923 as a tax haven. And so began that same old story. Tangier was hitherto defined by its brushes with countercultural Western “genius”: It was a playground for babouche-wearing lotus-eaters who experimented with kif and sexuality on the Afro-European fringes. What happened in Tangier stayed here. To visitors, palms along the Bay of Tangier were as exotic as belly dancers and the zellige psychedelics. The standard Tangier pilgrimage takes in the stomping grounds and brief encounters of Delacroix and Matisse—who respectively fell in love with the quality of the light and the depth of the blues here—and transgressive literary figures such as Jean Genet,
This as-told-to story is based on a conversation with 31-year-old circus artist Kong Viban, a performer at Phare, the Cambodian Circus . The show performs regularly in Siem Reap and will be on tour in New York in December .
This August, my four daughters, two sisters, and mom all hopped on a train from Michigan to Chicago with one special purpose in mind: to visit the American Girl store.
If you’re heading to Brazil in the new year, there’s an extra step to add to your to-do list. Beginning January 10, travelers from the United States, Canada, and Australia will need to acquire an e-visa in order to enter the country. Until then, citizens of these countries will be able to visit Brazil—for business as well as pleasure, per a press release—without these short-term visitor visas (so long as they are staying for no more than 90 days.)
A cyberattack has breached the computer system at MGM Resorts, forcing the company to shut down operations at a dozen of the most iconic casino hotels in Las Vegas—including the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay and the Cosmopolitan—as well as another half-dozen MGM properties around the United States. The attack has left hotel guests locked out of their rooms and unable to use their digital key cards to charge goods and services.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kayleigh Donahue, a TikTok creator who moved to Dublin, Ireland, from the US and lived there for four years. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Whispers of lunar vacations are causing a stir while down-to-earth astrotourism continues to bloom as a carousel of eclipses and supermoons light up the sky. You may not necessarily need to stray too far from home on your hunt for celestial spectacles. Rental cabins with moonroofs put sleeping under the stars on the table for those who prefer an alternative other than a traditional camping setup. These divine Airbnbs with a glass roof in the United States are made for lazy stargazing from bed.
It took the second thud to rouse me. Worried I’d slept through it, I slid up the blind to find our train pulling into the port city of Villa San Giovanni in Calabria, Italy. Not quite 6am, the last of the night’s sky was taking leave: navy clouds pulled apart before my eyes, a single neon-pink patch igniting the ridgeline of the Peloritani mountains in north-east Sicily.
It will soon be able to fly from the City of Angels to the City of Light. Norse Atlantic Airways, a discount air carrier based in Norway, just announced a new direct route from Los Angeles to Paris starting next year. The flight will begin service on May 1 and operate six times a week, just in time for next year’s summer travel season.
Some visitors to Venice will have to start paying a daily tourist fee of 5 euros ($5.36) next year. The initiative covers the introduction of a new tourist flow management system to discourage day trippers on certain dates.
Once associated with cheap package deals and a hedonistic party scene, recent steps have pivoted Mallorca into a luxury destination with an emphasis on cultural and sustainable travel. Late nights in Magaluf are slipping out of fashion in favor of catching the sunrise over UNESCO-listed mountains. Horseback wine tours, vintage train journeys, and sea kayaking excursions offer a far more memorable experience than the booze cruises that once orbited the island’s coastline. Venturing beyond the high-rise resorts, rural and oceanside Airbnbs in Mallorca, Spain, bring tourists even closer to the raw beauty of the Mediterranean island.
Bangalore is a sprawling, vibrant city in India and is well worth exploring. The city has a rich cultural heritage that can be experienced in its many temples, museums, galleries and other attractions. Bangalore is also known for its lively nightlife and bustling street food scene, offering something to suit every taste and budget. These Bangalore Airbnbs put you in the heart of it all.
If you want to start your little ones on a lifetime of travel and adventure, you have to dress them for the part. Forget the cute animals and pastels and opt for onesies and blankets that feature some of the world’s greatest destinations.