T H I S+W E E K S t .+E l v i s - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Who took the grace out of Graceland? By Cintra Wilson Our columnist goes to Memphis The King and us By Christina Boufis The world's most maniacal Elvis fans Way dead Elvis By Greil Marcus A tribute to the King proves that his posthumous legend has become equal parts sincerity and trash D E P A R T M E N T S > Sleeping in strange places By Don George, Editor What's the most memorable place you have ever slept? The Surreal Gourmet By Bob Blumer Boozy smoothie Frozen fruit fusions for a festive fling Readers' Tips and Tales Venice - La Citta Piu Bella Del Mondo - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Your virtual travel agency - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - LA S T+W E E K Tuesday, August 5, 1997 Banks of forgiveness By Felicia Clark A pilgrimage to India's holy city A full list of all Wanderlust articles

BY DONALD W. GEORGE | i introduced a new Wanderlust feature, Mondo Weirdo, a few months ago by quoting from a San Francisco-based adventure travel company's newsletter. In that newsletter, Geographic Expeditions asked its globe-roving staff members to recount the strangest foods they'd ever eaten on the road. Their answers have inspired a veritable banquet of bizarre food tales in Mondo Weirdo every week since -- and the letters keep coming. Recently I have been wanting to introduce a new theme to complement the food stories, and serendipitously enough, the new GeoEx newsletter just landed on my desk with a new -- and eminently Wanderlustful -- question posed to its staffers: What was the most memorable place you've ever bedded down? Here are some of their answers. I hope they'll inspire you to write your own tales to me at wanderlust@salonmagazine.com. And look for your fellow travelers' strange bedtime stories in forthcoming weeks of Wanderlust. One night when I was working at Tiger Tops I fell asleep in a bird blind far from camp. At 3 a.m. I was awakened by the bone-chilling roar of a female calling her cubs to a feast of fresh kill just a hundred or so yards away, though it felt like it was just below me. The rest of the night was spent processing adrenaline! -- Carrie Law Bharibise, Nepal, 1972. Primitive, smelly, very dark tea shop. Kept awake all night by weird chewing sounds. In the morning discovered several sacks of sheep legs near head of bed. Rats had been nibbling noisily on legs all night long. -- Al Read Lalita and Dadabai's very non-tourist yurt in the Aksu-Dzabegly Nature Preserve in Siberia. We all -- my friend Phile the eccentric filmmaker, assorted drivers, guides, our Moscow buddies and bemused hosts -- feasted and drank madly before just rolling over and going to sleep, looking up through the yurt's smoke hole at the most glorious night sky imaginable. -- Ann Aylwin Not very exotic, but quite strange. I once slept for three straight nights in a grotty coffee shop in JFK's TWA terminal while a fierce storm raged outside. This is roughly when I learned the vital difference between good, bad and nightmarish coffee. -- Laura Belmont Two weeks into our raft trip down the Brahmaputra we were accosted at the riverbank by a group of ferocious-looking Mishmi warriors, and led to their village. We ended up staying two days, as the Mishmi turned out to be hosts in the grandest style. After much feasting and dancing, they gave us a great cheer as we rafted into the trip's longest series of rapids. -- Sanjay Saxena In a magnificently ramshackle building located over a broken sewer in the Soviet Far East's far north. We had wizened Algerian oranges and vodka to console us as we listened until dawn to our helicopter pilots swilling vodka as if there were no tomorrow -- which under the circumstances there might well not have been. -- Sarah Timewell Trekking during the rain-soaked, leech-infested monsoon to the Everest region, my wife and I were invited to stay by the head monk at the Trakshindo Monastery. It was quite an ethereal experience; the monks chanted throughout the night, and I found it difficult to distinguish the boundary between dream and reality. -- Jim Sano A few years ago I was the guest of the local governor in the Lhuntshi Dzong, an old fortress in Bhutan's remote northeast. I was in a tower room, with a small window overlooking the gorgeous Lhuntshi Valley, two days' walk from Tibet. I even had a "bathroom" -- which extended out over the fortress's 50-foot walls. -- Brent Olson A $2,000-a-night suite overlooking Hong Kong Harbor in one of the colony's ritziest hotels. I'd been unable to book any lesser hotel, and when I arrived they asked me if I minded an upgrade (they'd undoubtedly confused me with some more puissant potentate). I'm probably the only guy in history to munch on soggy take-out fried chicken in such glorious surroundings. -- Tom Cole Aug. 12, 1997 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

S A L O N +|+ C O N T A C T+U S + A R C H I V E S + N E W S L E T T E R + T A B L E T A L K + M A R K E T P L A C E + S E A R C H DAILY | COLUMNISTS | COMICS | FEATURE | MEDIA CIRCUS MOTHERS WHO THINK | NEWSREAL | SHARPS & FLATS | SNEAK PEEKS WEEKLY | 21ST | ENTERTAINMENT | GAMES | WANDERLUST