Sidney Pollack died of cancer yesterday. When I heard the news, along with feeling sad about his death, I flashed to a certain restaurant in Hurley, New York that's one of my favorite "when I go back home for a visit " eateries,although it's changed hands since Pollack used it as one of the settings for Tootsie.

The Hurley Mountain Inn where Dustin Hoffman bellied up to the bar with Charles Durning has been serving up family fare for years. My mom always headed here with friends for the spaghetti and meatballs. The last time I was there, my son was happy playing video games without the money to actually have them do anything.

Hurley is near Kingston in the Hudson Valley and the restaurant is worth the drive. Nothing fancy, but you'll feel like you're in a place that means something to the people who eat there. Along with Hurley, if you do a Sidney Pollack film tour of the world, you'll see a lot. Consider these alone and you'll be busy:

1. Sketches of Frank Gehry--Pollack followed Frank Gehry around with a camera and captured the architectural genius found in the Vitra Museum in Germany, Maggie's Centre, the Guggenheim in Bilbao, and the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
2. Out of Africa--The Africa scenes were filmed in the Ngong Hills in Kenya. The Denmark scenes were in Surrey, England.
3. The Electric Horseman--For the gorgeous scenery seen in the film, head to Zion National Park and other places in Utah. For the rest, head to Las Vegas.
4. The Way We Were--Bask in a bit of opulence at Ballston Spa, New York and in front of The Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.

Kenya, with its pristine white beaches and game parks teeming with wild animals, has been kind of a ghost town this winter. The post-election violence that killed more than 1,200 people and displaced 250,000 has left a huge dent on the billion-dollar tourist industry there.

Many countries advised their citizens to stay away from Kenya after the riots triggered by the December 27 election. According to Reuters, 99,602 holiday makers visited Kenya in January 2007. In January 2008, the number dropped to 55,906. The Kenya Tourist Board said the impact from the political unrest had been worse than after bombings in 1998 and 2002 that were blamed on al-Qaeda.

The dollar has hit a new low against the euro, America is on the verge of recession and global food prices are on an upward spiral. In fact, global food prices have risen by 40% in the last nine months. Add to that the fact that food reserves are at their lowest in 30 years and the global economic situation looks grim. But beyond percentages and figures what does this really mean?

To showcase the real effects of the global rise in food costs the BBC has put together an interesting piece featuring six families from around the world, their shopping lists and exactly how their shopping habits have changed because of the rise in prices.

The six families are from Guatemala, India, Kenya, China, Egypt and the UK. In Guatemala the Rodas family has gone from eating meat five times a week to two. In Egypt the Abdulwahab family speculates a household used to be able to eat for one Egyptian pound; today it costs more than five.

The article also itemizes each family's shopping list, which provides for some eye-opening figures. The Classik family from the UK spends 10% of its monthly income on food, while in Egypt, the Abdulwahab family spends about 80%. Makes you think twice about complaining about how expensive everything is going to be on your next trip to Europe; travel is still a luxury.

Read the whole BBC article here.

Kenya has long been one of the safest and most politically stable nations in Africa, a distinction that, given the media's typical coverage of Africa, is not unlike being declared the smartest individual to be arrested on Cops. Kenya usually places just behind South Africa in the amount of tourists that visit each year, thanks to its relative stability, its Indian Ocean beaches, and its wildlife safaris. All that peace and stability was disturbed, however, by the disputed presidential election that took place on December 27, 2007.

In a nutshell, the incumbent Mwai Kidaki was declared the winner of the election and he was sworn in on December 30. But the supporters of his opponent Raila Odinga, in addition to a number of outside observers, said the election was marked by corruption and possibly rigged. Immediately after the results were announced, rioting broke out among various ethnic groups, with Kibaki's influential Kikuyus clashing with Odinga's Luos. Hundreds were killed in the ensuing violence.

A spokesman for the Kenyan government recently declared, "We are not in a civil war," which is the second-to-last thing you ever want to hear from your government spokesmen.

What does all this mean for Kenya's positive reputation among tourists? The news is not pretty. "The Kenya Tourist Board had projected a total of 314,995 tourists would visit the coast in the first quarter. It has now revised that figure down, by more than half, to 134,450."

The chairwoman for a group of Kenyan tour operators had this to say about one coastal town: "Mombasa is down on its knees and we are now digging our grave, if something does not change immediately."

At this time, the US and British governments are strongly advising tourists to forego all but essential travel to Kenya.

The New York Times has more coverage of how tourists are affected by the recent violence, and check out Jerry Guo's recent post on Kenya here.

One of my college classmates, Alexandra, is spending her winter vacation in Kenya right now. That's a pretty unlucky place to be at this moment, as tensions and violence has flared up after their post-Christmas presidential election. But my classmate happens to be a writer, so I guess you could say it's the perfect place to be.

What has been surprising about Kenya's turmoil is that it happened in Kenya. No one would bat an eye if this had happened in Somalia or Sudan. But until now, Kenya had a stellar reputation as a stalwart pillar of African stability. They have a booming tourism industry and a steady flow of Western investment.

But will the tourists and investors return once the dust settles in Kenya? For some answers and insight, check out Alexandra's dispatches in Newsweek and Slate.

Like many other travelers, I usually don't spring for the easy-to-reach canonical tourist destinations. It's not that I feel that I'm better than Cancun or a Royal Caribbean cruise around the Dominican Republic, it's just that I feel like I should go to the difficult places while I still have the energy and wanderlust to get there.

Many of these places, though, have stringent visa requirements. And let's get something straight before I continue: you need a visa for any foreign country that you visit -- it's just that most places you can get a stamp at the border or can get waved through without stamps or papers. Trust me, when your 90 day tourist visa is up you'll still be in trouble, regardless of the country you're in.

But to go places like China or Russia it's necessary to apply and get a visa before you leave the country -- often times several months before you leave. This can be as simple as sending your passport into your local consulate or as difficult as paying some draconian service to take your passport into the embassy, fill out the forms and charge you a hundred bucks for their "service." Luckily, CNN has compiled a comprehensive list of countries in which you'll need visas in advance and procedures to get them.

My advice: plan ahead and go to the consulate in advance yourself. You may have to jump through a few extra ridiculous hoops to get your visa, but that's more time that your passport is in your hands and not in the hands of a middleman who could potentially lose the most important document that you own.

Tired of the boring old McMotel? Can't stand another night in a single-bulb hostel room?

Forbes Traveler examines 10 "themed" hotels across the world. You can stay in a treehouse in Kenya. or Costa Rica. At the Pitcher Inn in Vermont, all the rooms are decorated to represent the state -- down to the stars in the nighttime sky. My favorite is the whimsical Anatolian Houses (see photo), which houses guests in volcanic caves and looks like something out of a fairy tale.

Check out the slide show on msnbc.com and think about splurging on a wacky room during your next vacation. It might cost more than that rock-solid hostel bed, but the photos ought to be worth a thousand words.

Crafty Tribes people in the remote village of Tabaka in Kisii, Kenya have found a way to cash in on a phenomenon thousands of miles away -- British buyers have contracted them to produce traditional carvings which will be sold in craft stores across the UK. But while the methods are traditional, the carvings are of very un-traditional figures -- everyone's favourite dysfunctional family, The Simpsons! 12 different models in all will be produced, including this one of Marge.

Here's the thing: The carvers hadn't even heard of Homer and Co. before being asked to immortalize them in stone. But they're sure to have a great first impression of the Simpson family -- the carvings are earning them 6 times their regular asking rate. And with all the Simpson's-mania that's going on right now, I can see why.

Thanks to Marilyn at Intelligent Travel for the great tip!

Oh boy, a Butchery!

I can just imagine the quality of meat one might find inside this corrugated tin-roof meat store in Voi, Kenya along the Mombasa-Nairobi Highway.

What really makes this photo, however, are the little slice-of-life details: the smiling locals, the poorly built wooden box on the back of the bike, and the tiny skull and crossbones to the left of the Butchery sign. Not sure why that's there, but I think I'll pass on the side of cow and just keep moving.

Congrats go out to Pirano for this great capture!

Suppose you have time-lots of it. Let's say you have 44 weeks. Perhaps you'd like to go overland from Morocco to South Africa by way of Egypt. Here's a travel adventure that will take you through 10 game parks, various cultural and historical landmarks, and enough thrills like rafting and tandem sky diving that you'll have stories to tell for years. Countries not typical as tourist hot spots are included in the mix. Angola, for example, has only allowed tourists in since 2004.

In Angola you'll see Portuguese influenced architecture and gorgeous beaches besides the 3rd largest statue of Jesus in the world. The other countries in this multi-stop, pack-in-variety approach are: Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, DRCongo Zaire, Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Egypt.

The highlights of this tour calledTrans Africa. Europe--CapeTown-Nairobi-Istanbul read like a cross between an outdoor wilderness experience, a cultural bonanza and a journey through an African history book. Read the itinerary and you might find yourself chomping to take this trip on. I sure am. R&R opportunities and the chance to luxuriate are built in. Africa Travel Center also offers shorter version African adventures where only parts of this trip are included.

* photo taken in Benguela, Angola by zokete.