Visitors to Qatar's Brouq Nature Reserve who have seen “2001: A Space Odyssey” may be surprised to see something resembling the huge obelisk that appears in the 1968 film. However, the Qatar sculpture includes four “obelisks,” not just one. All four are visible in our September mystery photo.
Dear Globetrotter:
Welcome to the 536th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine.
Last year, an enigmatic email from a friendship begun six years before on an adventurous trip to Papua New Guinea piqued my interest. My friend Knox Bell shared that Original World/Spirit of India (San Rafael, CA; 888/367-6147, originalworld.com) was looking for “intrepid travelers” for a month-long adventure into the “Ancient Cultures of the Indian Himalaya” (plus Ladakh), and he thought of me! Within 30 minutes, I had called the travel agent and I was on board.
The closing of borders worldwide due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic led to the canceling and postponing of countless travel plans. ITN thought it would be interesting to compare how various tour operators, airlines, cruise lines, hotels, etc., handled the disruptions and travelers’ bookings, so we asked ITN subscribers to write in about their experiences. Many answered the call, and we printed several letters in the last two issues, with more to come.
Either lots of ITN subscribers have been to Iceland or they’ve got plenty of spare time isolating at home, because we got the most submissions ever for an essay, this time on the topic “I See Iceland.”
__________
(excerpt from the winning entry)
"... I smiled a lot in Iceland.
"How could I not, in a land of sprites, trolls and 'hidden people'? The latter, it is claimed, may invite humans for a chat and pancakes. Road builders, fearing repercussions, divert around elf stones. 'We try to accommodate,' said one. ..."
It is hard to believe we are embarking in this issue on part 8 of On-the-Road Travel Tips (each followed by my own comments). The response has been continuous and far beyond what we had envisaged.
At press time, active COVID-19 infections had been confirmed in 188 countries and territories, with more than 33 million cases. On Sept. 29, the worldwide death count surpassed one million. The country with the most confirmed deaths from COVID-19 continued to be the US, with more than 210,000. It was followed by Brazil (147,000), India (103,000), Mexico (79,000) and the United Kingdom (42,000).
The armed forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan, in the South Caucasus, clashed over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in late September. The first shots were fired on Sept. 26, with both countries blaming the other for starting hostilities. As of press time, at least 220 people had been killed and many more were wounded, mostly civilians.
