Jaunted

Names

Namely, a Place to Visit

August 14, 2006 at 10:05 AM | 0 Comments

What's in a name? A lot, if that's how you like to chose your travel destinations. Steve Knipp, over in the San Francisco Chronicle, points out that the name of a place can be considerably more evocative (and pleasant) that the reality. Atlantic City sounds pretty nifty to a Kiwi, right? Until they find out about the whole decay and Donald Trump thing, anyway.

We'd add that while the name changes of countries can be frustrating, not say a little bit disappointing, for the armchair traveler, they do tend to live on elsewhere. Ceylon is now Sri Lanka, but you can still buy Ceylon tea. Burma changed its name to Myanmar, but you can still listen to Mission of Burma--post-punk art bands and Southeast Asia go hand in hand, after all. Some names are just more fraught with excitement and possibilities: That's why there's not a single Vietnamese restaurant in the U.S. that's called Ho Chi Minh City Grill.

[Image via bluejacket/Flickr]

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