Weekly travel reads: A different kind of surf town

[The Travel Wire #112] A road trip along the North Korean border, going somewhere famous and feeling nothing, ‘Dalifornia’, and more travel reads.

Travel reads

• A different kind of surf town [Afar]
“In Cornwall, surfers and residents have spent decades protecting the beaches, waters, and wild landscapes that make this corner of England so special.”

• Road trip at the borderland [Longreads]
“A road trip along the North Korean border, with a Chinese father and his estranged daughter, plastic bags of food, and an 81-year-old grandmother who refuses to wear a seat belt.”

• Nobody talks about going somewhere famous and feeling nothing [The Nomad Dossier]

• What I learned in ‘Dalifornia,’ China’s laid-back capital of doing nothing (archive) [WSJ]

• The joy of ekiben—why Japan’s train bento boxes are worth traveling for [National Geographic]
“Ekiben pack diverse local ingredients and centuries-old Japanese culinary tradition into portable boxes — railway station snacks taking in everything from seasonal clams and heritage eel recipes to designs featuring Pokemon characters and beloved bullet trains.”

• From fish sauce to light shows: Exploring the two faces of Phu Quoc [Eastside]

• Notes on San Marino [Matt Lakeman]

• The Guizhou Grand Tour [Tales of the Orient by Simon Ostheimer]
“Seeking out a new side of China beyond the famous sites, a journey to the less traveled southwestern province of Guizhou provided a week of experiences that will last a lifetime.”

• Exploring the Frontier: Uzbekistan on my mind [Hanwil Holdings]
“Keen to escape all correlations with frontier models and the efficient frontier, I travelled to Uzbekistan in search of a deeper understanding of a country voluntarily undergoing structural reform.”

• How to get the most out of travel, and maybe even life [The Travel Paradox]
“Just be: My top 7 ways to see the world.”

• ‘Unable to tell morning from afternoon, I felt my sense of time opening up’: a (mostly dark) winter break in magical Swedish Lapland [The Guardian]
“With just a few short hours of daylight, the usual boundaries marking time fall away in Abisko, one of the most reliable places to see the northern lights.”