Egypt has devolved into a violent mess this week. A government crackdown on protesters has left close to 600 people dead, and the numbers are rising, seemingly by the hour. As the sun comes up here on the East Coast of the United States, protest leaders in Egypt are promising a Friday of Anger. The Guardian’s Rachel Shabi reports that the British government is warning against all essential travel to Egypt, and the U.S. State Department issued a warning against traveling to the unstable country, and advising Americans already there to leave.
Our advice? Don’t go. At least, not right now. The situation is too volatile at this point.
If your heart is set on traveling to Africa, there are plenty of other options. At CNN, Rebecca Weber is cautiously optimistic about traveling to beautiful Zimbabwe. And at the New York Times, Baz Dreisinger explores Kampala, Uganda, a city on the rise after the long terrible tenure of Idi Amin.
If you do travel to Africa, malaria becomes a concern. The disease is a concern in much of the developing world – each year, malaria infects about 200 million people and kills 600,000. But there is some very exciting news on the malaria front this week; the BBC’s Rebecca Morelle reports American scientists working on a new malaria vaccine have had some early success in clinical trials.
Volcanoes! If you’re like me, you find them fascinating – spectacular to look at, filled with danger, and offering a glimpse of what the center of the Earth is like. At AFAR magazine, Adriana Yampey has a great list of the world’s greatest volcano hikes. Perhaps the most famous volcano in the world is Japan’s Mt. Fuji… maybe too famous. At the New York Times, Ken Benson reports that heavy tourist traffic is taking an environmental toll on “Fujisan.”
Should you purchase travel health insurance when you’re traveling abroad? Hell to the yeah! At USA Today, Chris Elliot explains why travel insurance can make for a much smoother trip.
Hey, Easy Rider – at CNN, Christopher Baker provides us with a list of the 10 best adventure motorcycle rides in the world.
And, finally, The Oatmeal, which should be one of your regular web stops for yuks, offers up the very first rule of having Internet access on an airplane. Good advice, and you should follow it.
Photo by KTLA.com.
