TRAVEL WATCH: October 4, 1999 VOL. 154 NO. 13

Trend Spotting

ALSO IN TIME

Seek Enlightenment, Off the Beaten Path Since the dawn of Buddhism, pilgrims have worn the soles off their sandals visiting the religion's hallowed sites Trend Spotting Not a fusty old guidebook, but a deck of cards, 53 of them, as user-friendly for visitors to Hong Kong as it is for residents Detour Cabbages & Condoms is no ordinary restaurant chain: it serves prophylactics in the place of after-dinner mints Off the Shelf Become the complete Richard Branson-branded traveler by picking up one of his new Virgin City Guides Web Crawling Doug Dyment's site is an obsessive's look at the joys of traveling light Hot Tip The world's top gymnasts will bounce, leap and vault their way into Tianjin, China, this fall for the World Gymnastics Championships

First there was Baedecker, then Lonely Planet and now there's Fun Excursions in Hong Kong. Not a fusty old guidebook, but a deck of cards, 53 of them, as user-friendly for visitors to Hong Kong as it is for residents. Artist Sabina Wong has bucked the book convention and designed a kaleidoscopic array of activity cards instead. Each recommends an outing in the territory--under titles like "Day at the Races" or "Hippie Day on Lamma"--along with descriptions of each excursion and step-by-step details on how to go about it. There isn't room for stylish travel writing, but the cards carry handy nuggets like historical facts, information hotlines, transportation tips and useful Cantonese phrases. That's plenty for the $8 you pay for the lot. And the best part is that if you're not sure where to start, you can choose your destiny--and destination--simply by picking a card ... any card.