Rapid Travel Chai

Chasing around Lebanon and Egypt this week, will need to get caught up on the flight back this morning. Until then, a few articles I bookmarked for the flight:

Travel:

• KLM’s Personal Headrest Messages from Family & Friends for Passengers (Point Me to the Plane). My first thought is what my wife might be inspired to write as I seek her tolerance of another trip of mine.
• Cuomo Wants Elevated Train Link Built to Ill-Served La Guardia Airport (NYT). And this train will go farther into Queens first, I don’t want to rely on the 7 train, however there are also LIRR trains at the proposed site. I am loving the current Q70 express bus.
• Bags No Longer Allowed Inside the Colosseum (Thread Tripping), and no bag check facility.
• Bamiyan: Can a small Afghan mountain town best known for its blown up Buddhas reinvent itself as a tourist destination? (Slate).
• Why are US visa questions so weird? (FT).
• Serendipity in travel: Why you should ditch Yelp and Google Maps (Slate).

News:

• With Subway in the Sky, Valley Meets Plateau (NYT) on the breathtaking city of La Paz, Bolivia, one of the most incredible to view on flight approach.
• Hotel Industry Enjoys a Boom in Persian Gulf (WSJ) and many are low category awards for points, like Egypt.
• North Korea Is the Worst Place in the World To Be a Standup Comic (The Atlantic).
• Charlie Hebdo, Hypocrisy & Saudi Arabia (Tony Wheeler).
• The Williamsburg Divide (NYT).
• South Korea’s $21bn alternative to Seoul lacks transport and soul (FT).