What The World is Reading about8230;

Just because you8217;re an enviably wealthy business traveller, doesn8217;t mean you can8217;t scrimp...

A Classy Place to Meet, With a Bonus, The New York Times

Just because you8217;re an enviably wealthy business traveller, doesn8217;t mean you can8217;t scrimp and scrounge. Even if you8217;re staying at The Ritz. According to Perry Garfinkel, it makes great financial sense to splurge on a suite and save time and money by using it for meetings and power lunches instead of booking conference rooms and enduring surly taxi drivers and snotty Maitre8217;ds. This growing trend, he writes, also helps cement better relationships with 8216;clients8217; in a hotel room? because of the intimate setting. And, save money by buying refreshments from a store. You8217;ll save at least 50 out of your 900,555,889 fortune!

Steaming into Bangladesh, The Times

8220;The miasma of corrupt odours8221; described by Nick Redmayne as he takes a trip into Dhaka on a century-old steamer should help us Indians feel right at home. Although he summons many standard South Asia cliches about our neighbour, his 8216;foreignness8217; allows him to see facets many of us in India cannot, perhaps because of our shared history. Such as the 400-year-old Armenian church and cemetery in Dhaka, ramshackle remnants of the Armenian community that once thrived here. Dhaka, he writes, is no world-heritage designate, 8220;but for an 8216;old town8217; experience it8217;s streets ahead.8221; Besides, it8217;s cheap.

Have Pantsuit, Will Travel, The Nation

To 8216;dress for success8217; is painful says Patricia J. Williams, as she ponders the role clothes play in the dreary march from conveyor belt to taxi stand to hotel: 8220;8216;Sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits8217; is how Hillary Clinton put it. And with those simple words, the peculiar misery haunting8230; my entire professional life flashed before my eyes.8221; Suited and booted, you can8217;t wiggle your toes, leave alone take off a sweaty jacket 8220;because you8217;re worried about bra straps8221;. More about clothes than travel, the article underlines how the power suit can be as confining as a corset when you8217;re on the go.

Europe8217;s Weird Ways, Der Spiegel

The August issue has something for every 8220;embarrassment-seeking tourist8221;. Spanish 8216;baby-jumping8217; festival; the battle of the oranges 8220;Italy8217;s biggest food fight8221;; or the 8220;flour wars of Galaxidi8221; in Greece yes, another food fight. At least it8217;s a change from karaoke and limbo dancing.

Vagabondish vagabondish.com

This e-zine-cum-blog, arguably the best of its kind provides a wealth of offbeat information. Did you know you could check out underground life in Paris with a sewer tour, go on Washington8217;s scandal trail or snigger at Iceland8217;s unmentionable parts museum? There8217;s advice on everything from flashpacking 8220;when backpackers grow up or get rich8221; to how to use the 8220;wondrously perplexing8221; bidet.