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Cappadocia’s Underground Cities Saved Christianity

Asia, Culture, History, Middle East, Travel

Today’s visitors to Turkiye’s Cappadocia come for two reasons – spectacular sunrise ascents over the rugged terrain in hot air balloons and stooped-over descents into underground retreats that protected residents from ancient predators traveling through the Tarsus Mountains. These hand-dug hideouts were elaborately engineered, multi-layered warrens of tunnels and rooms, some of which descended more than 275 feet into the earth. Among the people who hunkered down in them were early Christians determined to spread their faith across Asia Minor. The existential threats in the early centuries following Jesus’ resurrection came not only from Roman governors and Jewish Pharisees but also from Silk Road highway men passing through Cappadocia. Disputes could be doctrinal, territorial, or simply monetary. Regardless, the early Christians were not the first to seek underground shelter here.

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MAJOR FUN IN THE MINOR LEAGUES

America, Culture, Travel

Baseball draws together all generations and classes in the timeless celebration of the game known as America’s Pastime. Stadium screens may pulsate with pixels, but baseball remains proudly analog, played by rules largely codified in the 1800s. Americans learn them at an early age, as players and spectators. That familiarity and sense of continuity fuel the game’s widespread popularity. Major League Baseball, with its grand, big-city stadiums and lucrative TV deals, gets most of the attention. But most fans agree that minor league teams are more fun to watch. They play in smaller, more intimate ballparks with less distance between players and fans, who pay much, much less for a summer evening’s entertainment.

Koh Tuch beach, Koh Rong

PARADISE LOST? CHINA ALTERS CAMBODIA’S COASTAL VIBE

Asia, Business, News & Features, Travel

The Cambodian coastline is only 275 miles long, extending from the mangrove marshes of Koh Kong to the seaside community of Kep, famous for its crab market. At the heart of the Cambodian coast is Sihanoukville, the country’s second largest city and the primary hub for coastal tourism. Twenty years ago, Sihanoukville was a sleepy beach town with less than 90,000 residents. Then the Chinese arrived and began investing over $1 billion annually in property development. Today, the city has more than 60 massive casino hotels along with a hundred smaller gambling venues and Mandarin is replacing Khmer and English on street signs. Investment that was supposed to usher Khmers into the middle class has seen most of the good jobs go to Chinese. Indeed, 90% of the city’s expatriate community is Chinese.

Brunfels

Wilkommen in Texas Hill Country!

America, Culture, History, Travel

Hill Country settlements between Austin and San Antonio, 80 miles apart in south-central Texas, now form one of the most attractive and historic regions in the entire state. Young families yearn to move there for the good schools and a breezy lifestyle. Chocolate shops, cast-iron-pan factories, and gourmet-salsa-makers thrive. Nouveau-Italian restaurants, hat-and-boot boutiques, and yuppified “saloons” do a land-office business. And tourists are thicker than fleas on a lazy possum. You’ll find scads of them (tourists, not fleas) in Fredericksburg, which bills itself as the most German city in Texas. “On the town’s city limits signs, the population is given as 11,257,” says David Schafer, an author, historian, and driver of the Fredericksburg Trolley tour bus. “We get about 1.5 million visitors annually. Around 25,000 of them show up each year to the town’s Oktoberfest celebration. Fredericksburg has a Texas heart and a German soul.”

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Penang Festivals, Food, and Fun

Asia, Culture, History, Travel

By Nancy Wigston The view from our windows at Penang’s Eastern & Oriental Hotel stretches across the pale blue Strait of Malacca all the way to the horizon. It’s early morning and still tolerably cool. Yellow-beaked mynah birds squawk, coconut palms whisper in the gentle breeze and waves break rhythmically below the longest hotel sea…

Antarctica

Whales, Penguins, Oceans and Ice. Welcome to the Seventh Continent

Central & South America, Travel

Tours to Antarctica appeal to curious minds, nature lovers and adventurous spirits. They began in the late 1950s when a few scientific research ships began allowing some paying passengers. Today, as many as 100,000 tourists will visit the world’s seventh continent during the austral summer. There are many options from massive vessels that serve canapés while cruising past the continent to smaller ships staffed by marine biologists and ornithologists who prepare passengers to meet seals, penguins and whales on zodiac excursions after crossing the Drake Passage.