December 2014

Tickets now can be purchased online for North Korea’s state-owned airline Air Koryo. In September, Spain-based airline ticket broker Destinia (US residents, phone +34 91 524 24 00, http://destinia.us) became the first agency to offer the tickets online.

The website offers three round-trip routes: Pyongyang-Beijing, China, starting at $962; Pyongyang-Shenyang, China, from $1,233, and Pyongyang-Vladivostok, Russia, from $1,865. 

A new observation deck has opened in the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. An existing deck on the 124th floor was closed for two months in 2010 following an elevator breakdown (April ’10, pg. 80). The new deck, on the 148th floor and featuring an outdoor terrace 1,821 feet in the air, is the world’s highest viewing point within a building. (Now second highest, at 1,601 feet, is the one in Guangzhou, China’s, Canton Tower.)

A museum dedicated to culture and art of the Maasai- and Maa-speaking peoples opened in Nairobi in early 2014. It includes exhibits on marriage, livestock, mythology, medicine, religion and social organization plus a replica of a Maasai manyatta, or hut.

The Maa Museum, Kenya’s first privately registered museum, is located at the Enashipai Resort (office on 5th Floor, Prosperity House, Westlands Road, Nairobi, Kenya; phone +254 20 5130000, www.enashipai.com).

Morocco has opened its first major museum since becoming independent from France in 1956. Featuring modern and contemporary Moroccan art, the Muhammed VI Museum (Angle Avenue Moulay El Hassan et Avenue Allal Ben Abdellah, 10,000, Rabat, Morocco; phone +212 [0] 5 37 76 90 47, www.museemohammed6.ma [in French only]) opened in Rabat on Oct. 7, 2014, after 10 years of construction.

Its first exhibit, “1914-2014: 100 years of Creation,” includes pieces created within the last 100 years from more than 150 Moroccan artists. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wed.-Mon. Entry, MAD20 (near $2.30).

In Paris, the lower level of the Eiffel Tower now has a glass walkway through which visitors may gaze down 187 feet to the ground below. The walkway is part of a $38.4 million renovation in which shops, restaurants and a museum were added to the first level. To allow better views of the city, that level’s safety barriers now curve outward.

In Bois de Boulogne Park in Paris, the Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation (8 avenue du Mahatma Gandhi, Bois de Boulogne, 75116, Paris, France; phone +33 1 40 69 96 00, www.fondationlouis vuitton.fr/en) opened on Oct. 27. 

Designed by architect Frank Gehry and comprising 12 soaring, disjointed glass panels, the 41,441-square-foot museum is the new home of the Louis Vuitton company’s art collection. It will also feature temporary exhibits and artist performances. 

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 466th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine. Within the last month, I’ve heard several subscribers describe this magazine as “real,” by which, they explain, they mean it’s full of candid accounts from travelers who write for the benefit of other international travelers.

You’ll see that as you flip through the pages. For now, I have the following to report.

The iron sculpture shown in the photo in the October 2014 issue is one of nine power-operated, water-spouting pieces of art installed in the Tinguely Fountain in Basel, Switzerland.