relax outside!

(original article)

Filed under: Business, Airlines, Transportation

No matter how many articles about cheap airfare there are, there’s always room for another. Here’s one of the latest. In “8 tips to snag the lowest fare” Karen Aho gives some tips we’ve covered before, such as, check with sites like Travelocity and Expedia for the lowest prices, then go directly to the airline’s Web site. Karen mentions another advantage of doing this. In addition to a cheaper rate, by booking through the airline, you’ll get email messages from the airline.

When seeking out cheap flights, she suggests thinking about how a business traveler might think and do the opposite. Business travelers tend to travel at the beginning of the week and at the beginning of the day or the end of the day, therefore think middle of the week and middle of the day. As Karen points out, this doesn’t always work, but it’s a starting point.

What I found interesting is that you should look well in advance for cheap flights, as in several months if possible. The 21 day advance flights may not have the cheapest seats left. That’s certainly true with Skybus. And when booking, don’t hesitate since thousands of people are seeking out flights at the same time you are. I hesitated on booking Skybus and it cost us $100 per ticket. However, when we went to Florida last December, I assumed flights would be expensive since we didn’t start looking until the beginning of November. I was amazed to find flights for $160 round-trip from Columbus.

Checking alternative airports is also a great strategy. I’ve found this particularly true when traveling to New York City. Between Newark, La Guardia and JFK there seems to be a cheap flight somewhere. The downside is the cost and ease of getting in to and out of Manhattan, but even that is getting competitive.

To see if a fare is going up, Karen suggests checking with Farecast. This site tells what fares will go up or down over a 7-day period for specific airlines. The idea behind this is that you can decide to buy now or wait.

Another strategy that might work is being nice. For example, Karen switched seats twice on an airplane after being asked and was so nice about it that the flight attendant put her in first-class. This strategy also can work on merry-go-rounds. When I took my son to the Ohio State Fair, one woman asked if my son would switch horses so she could sit next to her son. When he switched, she gave me two ride tickets.

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(original article)

Filed under: Stories, Asia, India

When I was in India, the only time I ever felt even a little bit unsafe was in Agra, on our way to see the Taj Mahal. We had just heard on the news that morning that Saddam Hussein had been hung, and the citizens of Agra, many of whom are Muslim, were reacting to the news as we pulled into town.

“What’s going on over there there?” I asked our local fixer, pointing at a large gathering of people. “Some sort of festival?”

The scene was chaotic, but having been in India for a few weeks at this point, I knew that “chaotic” was a daily thing, and rarely a sign of danger. “They are burning an effigy of Mr. Bush,” he replied nonchalantly, as if burning an effigy of the President of the United States was a regular thing in Agra. Maybe it was. Even then — being the only white person within rock-throwing distance — I felt relatively little danger. We drove on and watched the sun set behind the Taj Mahal.

By the next day we were out of Agra and onto Jaipur, but the news that night told me that a small-scale riot had broken out in Agra and a tourist van had been attacked. I gasped when they showed the footage, because the van on the television looked exactly like ours, but this one had shattered windows and screaming tourists fleeing from it.

It came with little surprise today that I read the Taj Mahal has been closed to tourists. Apparently four members of the Indian Muslim community were hit by a lorry (large truck) after returning from “Shab-e-Barat or the ‘night of forgiveness or atonement,’ when Muslims pray for the dead,” and an angry crowd responded, according to Reuters. No word on how long it will be closed, but a curfew is in effect for many parts of the city.

(Thanks, Scott!)

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(original article)

Filed under: Blogs, North America, United States

Today — on the second anniversary of hurricane Katrina — our sister site Blogging New Orleans is hosting a day-long blogothon with posts every hour detailing the ongoing rebuilding process. New Orleans has always been like a second home to me. I’ve been visiting the Big Easy at least once a year every year since 2000, and the devastating floods that ripped apart the city two years ago remain a vivid and horrifying memory even today. I can only imagine what it must have been like for those who actually lived through the disaster. Here are some interesting posts from Blogging New Orleans two-year anniversary coverage:

• Mike asks, How far behind are we, really? “At Katrina+5 will the rebuild/tear down be complete? When those levee systems are ‘finished’ and I feel safe enough to think about buying house in this city, will that be the end of the recovery?”
• Watch the pilot for K-Ville online, right here, right now — Check out the pilot episode for Fox’s new cop drama set in New Orleans.
• NOLAvid: Going Back to New Orleans by Deacon John via AOL True Stories — Tonight on MyNetwork TV (formally UPN54 in New Orleans) you can watch the HD Documentary ‘Going Back to New Orleans’ at 8:00 PM EST. This movie tells the stories of various New Orleans musicians and their return to the city they love after Katrina from the point of view of Deacon John.

Head over to Blogging New Orleans to read the rest of their coverage on Katrina’s second anniversary.

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(original article)

Filed under: Cultures, Blogs, China, Taiwan

Chinese lettering is so art-like, so lovely. I bought a scroll of a Chinese poem when we were living in Taiwan and it now hangs on our wall. The translation in English was written on a piece of paper and paper clipped to the scroll. I assume that the translation is accurate. As lovely as the writing looks, however, beware when heading to a tattoo parlor. Make sure that what gets inked in your skin says what you want it to say–or thereabouts. The problem is that Chinese doesn’t translate to English word for word all that well. For example, since we couldn’t read the local movie listings when we lived in Taiwan, the only way we could ever figure out what was playing was if we described what the movie was about to our Chinese friends and they could let us know what movie title came close to what we described.

As Chris Mitchell points out in “Tattoos Gone Bad: Engrish in Reverse,” Chinese characters, when used as a direct translation from English, can make missives worthy of a laugh. One of his favorites is “Inferior goods.” Since the tattoo is over someone’s backside, the joke is even more poignant. Mitchell cites the blog, Hanzi Smatter, dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters, as one of his favorites for Chinese language butchering. The photo is from the last entry on this blog. According to Tian, the blogger, one of the characters doesn’t exist, and one is upside down.

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(original article)

Filed under: Video

>>>>

There’s nothing quite like Monty Python to really take the piss out of going on holiday.

In the video above, for example, we have a proper British gentleman making a simple inquiry at a travel agency (remember those?). The thought of going on another vacation, however, brings back a flood of discontent from other holidays gone bad, and our fine chap expresses his dismay by ranting on in a way that only the British can do… “sitting in cotton sun frocks squirting Timothy White sun screen all over their puffy, and swollen pile of flesh because they over did it on their first day.”

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(original article)

Filed under: Surfing, Photos, Africa, Tanzania, Photo of the Day

Besides the fact that this shot is gorgeous, it caught my attention because it reminded me of Surf’s Up, the movie I saw this past Monday with a slew of kids and parents. (50 cents per ticket on Mondays at the cheap theater if you have at least three people. There were 14 of us in a mix of Japanese, Bolivian and American.)

This surf photo by localsurfer looks a lot more relaxing than our movie experience. (All kids were five and under. Four of us were adults.) There’s a certain stillness in this shot, as if the surfers are as content to take in their surroundings (Tanzania) as they are to hang ten. The way the guy on the right’s hands are folded, the surfboards’ stillness and the beams of light through the clouds capture something about the divine. Kind of like when I heard the kids’ laughter at our own surfing experience.

To share your own shots, add them to the Gadling Flickr Pool and one might be picked for Photo of the Day.

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(original article)

Filed under: Russian Federation, Video

>>>>
I’m not sure I ever had much of an interest in visiting Russia before I started reading EnglishRussia.com. I mean sure, I’d go if the opportunity presented itself, but once my favorite Russian blog hit the scene and they started covering all sorts of “largest country in the world” oddities did I realize this was truly a place I wanted to go.

Take this video for instance, simply titled Moscow Taxi. “When you travel to Russia, choose your taxi carefully!” EnglishRussia.com reads. “Or you might get a ride with anybody like this Moscow taxi cab…” How could I watch this video and not want to visit Russia someday?

The embedded version above is actually an edited version. For the full video, head to EnglishRussia.com.

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(original article)

Filed under: Hiking, Photos, Camping, Ecotourism

Float plane fishing in Alaska has always sounded like a prohibitively expensive proposition to me.

Having just returned from my first time doing so, I can now definitively state just how wrong I was.

Sure, float plane fishing can indeed be VERY expensive, costing hundreds of dollars a day with private guides and First Class service. But there are much cheaper, do-it-yourself options available. The one my friends and I slapped together, for example, cost a mere $50 per day, making our “prohibitively expensive” vacation one of the most affordable I’ve been on in a long while. And, one of the most enjoyable.

It would have been a great trip no matter where we went because it was with a group of friends I’ve known since junior high school, no wives or girlfriends allowed. No one really knew what to expect, however; only two of us had ever been to Alaska before (click here to see the 17-part series from last year) and only one was enough of a fisherman to actually own his own rod. Nonetheless, the trip turned out to be the perfect Alaskan experience; bears, bald eagles, fresh salmon, and jaw-dropping scenery. And, great friends, of course.

Organizing such an excursion for a group of half-fisherman, Alaska neophytes, certainly took a bit of planning but the return on the investment was priceless.

The following is a detailed guide for preparing a similar trip yourself. If you’ve never fished or spent time in the outdoors, however, I wouldn’t recommend this option; you’ll definitely need a guide, some handholding, and plenty of money to spend. But if you do have rudimentary outdoor skills and are ready to tackle the Alaska wilderness on your own, please read on.

Ketchikan

We settled on the Ketchikan area because it’s the fastest way in and out of Alaska. My $540 Alaska Airline flight left Los Angeles at 6:15 in the morning and would have arrived in Ketchikan at 11:30 a.m. had it not been delayed four hours in Seattle. Thankfully we had decided to spend our first night in the city; otherwise we would have missed our charter flight out to the wilderness.

Spending a day in Ketchikan also allowed us to pick up supplies, eat a hearty meal, acclimate to the wonders of Alaska, and stay the night in an old bordello.

Although there are cheaper places to stay in Ketchikan, we opted for the historic New York Hotel. The main part of the hotel is on busy Stedman Street, but the two-level suite we booked for $240 was located 50 yards away, literally hanging over a picturesque river of spawning salmon (above).

This is the historic Creek Street area, a gangplank-connected row of turn-of-the-century buildings that served as the red light district up until prostitution was made illegal in 1953. Today, it’s overrun with t-shirt stores and souvenir shops but still remains a wonderfully beautiful location within walking distance of all the best restaurants, bars, and stores in Ketchikan.

The Charter Plane

If you’re not careful, the wrong charter company can set you back quite a bit of money. On the other hand, finding the cheapest crop duster to fly you into the wilds of Alaska is probably not a good idea either.

After plenty of online research and numerous telephone calls, we eventually settled on Alaska Seaplane Tours. The company had some of the more affordable rates and was very pleasant on the phone during the off-season when we were planning the trip. We ended up chartering their entire fleet for all seven of us; a five passenger DeHavilland Beaver and a two passenger Cessna 185.

The total round trip cost for the flight (20 minutes each way) was a modest $800 for both planes; just $114 per person. The pilots were professional and yet hilarious at the same time. They picked us up at our hotel in Ketchikan, drove us to their dock, loaded up the plane in moments flat, and then took to the air-all within a 30 minute time span. The whole time they were making jokes, having fun, and otherwise entertaining us.

My only complaint was some poor communication leading up to the trip. They were difficult to get a hold of during their busy summer season and never responded to emails regarding pickup times and weight limits. Otherwise, they were a great, lucky find and I highly recommend them.

The flight itself was a joy. I’ve never been in a float plane before and was rather surprised at the smooth take off and landing. Water is so much better than tarmac! The planes also fly rather low and provide wonderful opportunities to check out the surrounding mountains and lakes. Even if you’re not heading out to the wilderness, this would be a great sight seeing tour.

The Gear

Packing for a float plane trip is similar to packing for camping; everything you might need must be packed in advance because the nearest civilization is miles away.

The Alaska Seaplane Tours Lake Trip Rental Package was a huge help. The following items were packed into the plane and flown out with us for just an additional $89:

2 fold chairs
1 Coleman - double burner propane cook stove
1 back-up single burner propane stove
1 week’s propane supply
2 Therma-rest sleep pads
1 cooler for food
Necessary cook utensils
1 cook pot
1 fry pan
1 dish bowl
1 weeks plates/bowls
1 6hp two stroke Yamaha outboard
1 Coleman Propane Lantern
1 week’s mixed two-stroke engine fuel
Lifejackets

Fishing equipment was a bit more of a challenge. Only one of us had a decent pole. The guys at Alaska Seaplane Tours threw in three extra rods to help us out, but they were a little banged up and, as we would find out, strung with line that was too light to catch salmon. Luckily, we also rented poles from Alaskan Aquamarine for $10 per day. For an additional $10 they delivered the poles directly to the float plane dock and then picked them up again at the end of the trip.

We did, however, have to spend some time buying lures and other fishing equipment. The best place in Ketchikan to do so is the Tongass Trading Company located right on the docks. They’ve got a tremendous amount of fishing supplies and some very knowledgeable staff to point city-slicker neophytes like us in the right direction.
Lastly, each of us needed to buy a fishing license. It’s easy to do so in Ketchikan, but an even easier option is online here.

The Cabin

The US Forest Service maintains a number of cabins throughout Alaska. They are simple, Spartan structures that provide shelter, warmth, and not a whole lot more. The most important thing, however, is that they are very cheap. Our cabin was just $35 a night.

It came equipped with two wooden-plank bunk beds, the bottom of which was wide enough to sleep two each. That’s just barely room for six people. We had one extra person which meant we took turns sleeping on the floor of the cabin. With enough bed pads, it was actually quite comfortable.

The interior also had a small table, some shelf space for cooking supplies, and a wood burning stove. The stove wasn’t very practical for cooking but it did a great job of warming up the cabin. We did most of our cooking on a camp stove outside or wrapped up in foil and placed on the embers of an outdoor fire ring. Next time, I think we’ll bring a small grill to place over the embers.

The cabin also had an exterior outhouse as well as a completely loaded woodshed. Best of all, nearly every US Forest Service cabin in the areas comes equipped with a small skiff.

The cabin was awfully small for seven people but served its purpose well. I was a little disappointed, however, that there was no roof over the front porch. It rains a lot in this part of Alaska and this is where we spent most of our time in the evenings. Thankfully someone brought a rain tarp which we strung up.

One word of advice in booking a cabin; try to do so six months in advance. This is when the Forest Service opens up the reservations and the more popular cabins can disappear very quickly when this happens.

Tomorrow: Affordable Float Plane Fishing in Alaska Part 2

For a gallery of more Alaska photographs from this trip, click here

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(original article)

Filed under: North America, United States, Airports

The Federal Aviation Administration is hoping to use a new technology that relies on an aircraft tracking system based on GPS rather than radar. The new system, known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), will also have a high-speed data network that allows aircraft to transmit information to one another and the ground as if they were on the Internet.

This technology will hopefully allow jets to fly much closer to each other with less risk of collision, and therefore “save the aviation system from the stranglehold of flight delays.”

Currently, air traffic control relies on radar, which sometimes spins as slowly as once every 12 seconds. But jets at high altitude can travel more than one mile in 12 seconds, so the FAA has to keep planes 5 miles apart. With ADS-B, planes will be able to fly within 3 miles of each other, hopefully making your wait at the airport that much shorter.

Read the full article at USA Today

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(original article)

Filed under: Learning, Business, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Transportation

Okay, now we’re talking. For anyone needing recertification credits to keep a teaching license, here’s an option other than heading to a traditional classroom, or holing up at home squirreling away time with an on-line class. There are cruises designed for teachers and their families. If you set sail with Teacher Educational Cruises you’ll end up with 12 credit hours by the end. Only two days of the cruise is spent on coursework, the rest is spent having fun–not that taking courses isn’t fun, but still, keeping a teaching license current while sailing the seas seems like a great excuse for taking a cruise. “Honey, I have to cruise to Greece, I need the credit hours.”

The cruise through Italy, Egypt and Greece with the Italian Costa cruise line is next summer. Although the itinerary is in place, there isn’t information about what will be studied for the coursework. Hopefully, it’s connected to the travel experience. For people interested in expanding their trip, there are some suggestions.

There’s also a 5-night Caribbean cruise this Novemember. This one leaves from Galveston, Texas and may be connected to homeschoolers, another specialty Teacher Education Cruises offers. Here’s a link to onboard activities to see just what everyone else might be doing while the teacher in the family is studying. The Web site also mentions that people who are not teachers are welcome to join. Since keeping up certification is an on-going process with teachers, trips like what this company offers are a great idea.

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(original article)

Filed under: Cultures, Asia, Japan, Big in Japan

Let’s start today’s column with a warm-up exercise. Ready to waken up that brain?

Name the first five things that come to mind when you think about Japan.

Ready. Set. Go!

??????????Zero.

Need more time? Sorry - I’m working with a limited amount of space here! So, did you come up with sushi? Sumo wrestling? Cherry blossoms? Rock gardens?

How about Hello Kitty?

Easily one of the Japan’s most recognizable cartoon characters, Har? Kiti (Hello Kitty, ??????) is known and loved the world over. From Hello Kitty bento boxes and chopsticks to cell phone straps and designer tennis shoes, Hello Kitty is a global trademark that appeals to virtually all age groups and both sexes. According to estimates, Hello Kitty adorns over 22,000 products worldwide, and earns almost a billion dollars a year in revenue for the Sanrio Company of Japan.

Hello Kitty was created in 1974 by Sanrio - the very first product was a clear vinyl coin purse bearing the face of Hello Kitty, which sold for 240 yen or approximately two dollars. Surprisingly, Hello Kitty was intended to be named ‘Kitty White’ after one of Alice’s cats in the Lewis Carroll classic Through the Looking-Glass. At the time, British culture was the height of fashion amongst Japanese girls, and Hello Kitty was never intended to have any appeal beyond the pre-adolescent female market.

Of course, the designers at Sanrio failed to fully appreciate the Japanese obsession with all things cute.

One of the first words foreigners learn upon arriving in Japan is the all-important catch phrase kawaii (cute, ???). The favorite three syllables of most women in Japan, cuteness is a cultural obsession that few foreigners completely understand. While Western beauty and fashion stresses the importance of women looking sexy, a large percentage of Japanese females strive to attain the highest possible level of kawaisa (cuteness, ???). Incorporating everything from brightly colored hair-extensions and fluorescent eye make-up to knee-high socks and flowery dresses, Japanese fashion can simultaneously shock your senses and melt your heart.

With that said, cute culture extends far beyond the realms of beauty and fashion, and it’s by no means limited to the female segment of the population. If you look for it, kawaisa appears virtually everywhere in Japan, even in places that Westerners would consider juvenile. For instance, the Japanese think nothing of using cartoon characters and random bits of cuteness for public service announcements, office memos, government letters and even police notices.

So, it should come as no surprise that Hello Kitty is a marketing phenomenon unlike no other. Greying salarymen think nothing of dangling a hot pink Hello Kitty strap from their cell phone, while middle-aged housewives swear that the Hello Kitty toaster is the best on the market.

(And, truth be told, I’ve been known to rock out some Hello Kitty chopsticks from time to time).

Tune in tomorrow for Part II of Hello Kitty and Culture of Cute.

** Special thanks for Flickr users ♥ Cherie♥ (cute girl), ChaTox (Lolita Girl) and Seiya235 (Umbrella Girl) **

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(original article)

Filed under: North America, United States, Transportation

“Holiday weekend” and “traffic” go together like tequila shots and hangovers - if you’re enjoying the former, you’ll likely get of taste of the latter. While I can’t promise hangover-free margaritas, I can offer you a couple of ibuprofen for the next morning - and a few tips to save you a travel headache as well.

Traffic Jams:

When trying to avoid Labor Day traffic, a little planning can make a difference the size of the Pacific Ocean. Obviously the best plan is to leave as early as possible. (Wednesday would be ideal, but Thursday would work, too - why not turn that holiday weekend into a holiday week?) If you can’t leave in the middle of the week, see if you can put some extra hours in at the job later in the month and try to take a half-day on Friday. On Friday, every hour makes a difference. You might not be able to avoid traffic completely, but you could save some time.

A late start on Friday (and we’re talking no earlier than 9 p.m. here) is also a great tactic. You might arrive late, but you’ll avoid that agonizing idling in traffic - and by the time you get there, the party will be in full swing.

Just don’t start taking tequila shots as soon as you arrive in order to catch up with the rest of the group.

Speeding Tickets:

So you’ve found an alternate route, and you’re cruising along the back roads thinking about how soon you’re going to reach your destination. Then a police siren cuts through your revelry like a tequila migraine through your morning.

What do you do?

I did some research on how to get out of a speeding ticket. Most websites I checked out gave advice on what to do in court, rather than at the scene. But your goal should be to not get the ticket in the first place. Many people advised not admitting knowing you broke the law, because if you admit guilt you’ll never be able to fight the ticket in court.

But I disagree. Because here’s the thing: I’ve gotten out of a lot of tickets. And I mean a lot. I’ve gotten a few, too. But my ratio of police incidences to tickets is on my side. And it’s all because I learned early on that if you’re polite, respectful, and up front, cops tend to treat you the same way. If you get belligerent and try to deny that you were speeding, odds are the cop is going to write you that ticket and leave you to try to get it dropped in court.

So, if you’ve been going a bit over the limit and you get caught, don’t treat the cop like he’s an a**hole. Give the guy some respect, and maybe he’ll show you some as well.

Drunk Driving:

You don’t need me to tell you not to drink and drive. It’s wrong, and I don’t condone it. But, if you’ve had a couple drinks before you hit the road and find yourself in an uncomfortable situation, I offer the following advice (lifted from Cameron Tuttle’s The Bad Girl’s Guide to the Open Road):

Only try these if you are absolutely certain that your blood alcohol level will prove that you are drunk. Challenging a law enforcement officer is very serious business.

• Insist on taking a blood test instead of a Breathalyzer test. This will buy you time and may save you from a D.U.I. Some states, however, will automatically charge anyone who refuses a Breathalyzer test with drunk driving. So you had better know the law (and what state you’re in!) if you do this.

• If you’ve been drinking and have an open bottle liquor in the car, you’re already in deep sh**. So what do you really have to lose? Immediately get out of the car carrying the bottle of Jack Daniels or whatever. Keep both hands in the air so the cop can see that you don’t have a gun. Then, standing right in front of the patrol car in the headlights, begin to guzzle the contents of the bottle. Surprise is on your side, but you must act quickly for this to work. If the officer sees you getting drunk before his very eyes, it will be difficult if not impossible for him to prove that you were drunk while operating the car. This is a ballsy move, but it hinges on the law, not logic.

These methods are risky and not guaranteed to get you off, but they may help you avoid getting a D.U.I. Most likely, you’ll be arrested for a lesser offense. Understand that if you try either of these tactics, you are doing so at your own risk.

Drive safe!

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(original article)

Filed under: Where on Earth

Here’s a photo I took a while back and I’m not sure if it will stump our readers or not. There aren’t many clues except for the mountains themselves and perhaps the water, but I will tell you that this photo was taken in June

Any guesses? The location will be revealed on Friday.

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(original article)

Filed under: Learning

>>>>
So, why can’t 20% of Americans find the United States on a world map?

I’ve been asked this question a number of times while traveling, usually by Aussies or Kiwis who normally quote a much higher percentage when subtly mocking my fellow countrymen.

Frankly, I don’t know the reason why some Americans can’t find their own country on a map. It’s embarrassing.

Miss South Carolina has no idea either. She was recently asked this very same question by a judge at the Miss Teen USA contest and her baffling, Bushism-filled answer pretty much affirmed that she’s part of that ignorant 20% minority. Wow.

If you want a good laugh at the expense of a very pretty young woman, spend two minutes to check out the video above.

And to all you Aussies and Kiwis out there, you may now rest your case; I’ve no defense against this type of irrefutable evidence.

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(original article)

Filed under: Airlines

It’s almost physically painful for me to look at pictures of the fabulous first-class amenities that many long-haul airlines offer. Picture me on my last long flight from New Zealand, spending 12 hours trying to sleep in an upright position with the elbow of a 300-lb Maori man next to me (I feel more sorry for him than myself — he could barely squeeze into the seat.) Seriously — how great would be to kick back on a cross-Pacific flight in this kind of setting?

From a design perspective, first class is even more spectacular. I’ve never really considered it before, but the color and decor on a plane can have a lot to do with your overall experience, don’t you think? You want your plane to looks bold without being too overpowering; contemporary and sleek without being uncomfortable. Methinks drab shades of grey and brown will make the passengers feel drab, bored, maybe ever trapped. That said, if I had a choice between bright colours in coach and drab ones with a chair that folded into a bed and my own private nook with a TV, I could most definitely deal with drab.

Does this mean you should pick an airline based on the colour? I guess if you’re flying first class, you can afford to.

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(original article)

Filed under: Biking, Cultures, Vietnam, Transportation

When I was a kid, I thought it would be swell to learn to ride a unicycle. There’s something magical about a unicycle –something circus-like. Here’s a tour of Vietnam that might give the people who live there the impression that the circus has come to town, and it’s a happening you can join.

If you do know how to ride a unicycle, or think you maybe could master it before March of 2008, you can hook up with Grasshopper Adventures’ unicycle tour of Vietnam. Starting in Hanoi, a group of 24 unicyclists will travel through Hue, Hoi An (my absolutely most favorite town), Quy Nhong, Nha Trang and end up in Ho Chi Minh City. So far, 20 unicyclists from various parts of the world have signed up. As of August 27, there were four slots left. If you want to see who you will travel with, check out the riders page. The youngest person is 18, and the oldest is 51.

Since the tour is mostly along the coast, this will make for a gorgeous ride. I’ve been to Vietnam 5 times and have traveled on the same road in a car. That was an adventure of another kind. Not once did I see a unicycle.

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(original article)

Filed under: Photos

A while back, Willy posted what he called the greatest and most unusual travel photo of all time. Remember that? Well, Willy — my dear friend — I think I’ve found a photo that beats yours. It’s the new greatest and most unusual travel photo of all time. Have a look:

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(original article)

Filed under: Festivals and Events, Stories, North America, United States, Hotels, Airlines, Band on the Run

Ember Swift, Canadian musician and touring performer, will be keeping us up-to-date on what it’s like to tour a band throughout North America. Having just arrived back from Beijing where she spent three months (check out her “Canadian in Beijing” series), she offers a musician’s perspective on road life. Enjoy!

So I got on a flight out of Maui, Hawaii at 9:30pm island time on Friday and arrived in San Francisco at 5:30am PST. A quick transfer to my (already being held) Vancouver flight and I was back in the air and heading towards my band and the next gig…

without my guitars.

What is it with United? I have had more mishaps (re: lost baggage or stolen luggage) with this airline than any other.

[I guess in this case the transfer time was too tight because no one from that Maui flight who arrived in Vancouver got their luggage. But still, the stats are stacked against United and me. Am I alone here?]

What’s worse is that the call center is in India. The attendants speak English and are very polite, but they’re in India! While trying to track y guitars, I needed to give a geography lesson on Canada while giving my delivery address:

“No, it’s a province. Canada doesn’t have states. It’s the province of British Columbia. <pause> No, there’s no zip code. The equivalent is a postal code. <pause> Yes, postal code. There are letters and numbers. It’s…”

And still, they couldn’t locate them. They told me to call back in a few hours and hopefully their computers will have been updated.

This part of British Columbia is truly stunning. It’s hard to stay grumpy in the presence of such majestic beauty. By the time we got to Grand Forks, I was long recovered from my sleepless night of air travel and the anxiety of lost instruments.

Mountains heal.

We were kindly loaned a guitar that worked out perfectly (a hollow body electric the same shape and similar weight to my Gretsch) and I just geared the whole set to suit an electric guitar sound as opposed to an acoustic. We had a great time on stage and were well received by the modest but appreciative audience at The Festival of the Forks.

They put us up that night at a hilltop spa called Ponderosa Pines. Three kilometres up a rocky dirt road and it felt like we were driving into the clouds. There was nothing around except the view and a steep decline. This single lane path (or was it a long driveway?) seemed to be etched into the side of the mountain itself.

Adam, our drummer, said “These are the times people accuse you of exaggerating when you re-tell the story. You just keep saying ‘no, it really was like that’ and no one believes you.” And he’s right. Maybe these pictures I snapped the next morning will give it some credibility.

Back in the car again pointing west again towards Vancouver and we were following a Budget cube van. When it’s brakes came on suddenly ahead and it swerved right, we slowed too, just in time for us both to miss the young black bear that had leapt out of the bushes and struck out across the highway.

Just the night before, while sitting beside a British guy returning from Maui to the U.S. with his family mid-vacation, we spoke about Canada and all the cultural stereotypes of our country. He jokingly said, “Yeah, Canada, aren’t you shaking the black bears off your legs up there?” I laughed and told him that our legs have no room for black bears for all the beavers trying to take us out at the ankles. We both laughed then and I added the truthful statement that it had actually been ages since I’d even seen a black bear.

Not so now.

And I’m happy to report that the little black bear survived the highway.

When we got back to Vancouver, the guitars still had not arrived at the address we’d given. Another call to India and I found out that one guitar was still in San Francisco and the other was in Vancouver and was supposed to have already been delivered.

Now the reports were starting to conflict and I had memories of last year’s “missing” (read: stolen) pedal board that resulted in a $2,000 insurance claimed and a long fight with the airline. Also, this summer Adam’s custom snare drum (also on United Airlines) took two weeks to be returned to him. When my anxiety level started to spiral upwards, I knew it was time to run.

Running is my release of choice.

Forty minutes later, all stress having sweated out my body, I arrived back to where I was staying to a message telling me that both “red bags” (my cases are red, but the attendants rarely referred to them as guitars, much to my concern!) would be delivered that evening between 9 and 12 at night.

Nothing to do but wait. My flight back to Ontario wasn’t until today anyway.

11:48 on the hall clock and I got a call saying that they were just a few minutes away. To my relief, at 11:56 I was greeting the delivery man and my guitars at the doorway of the house we were staying in. Now earlier today, I flew back to Ontario with my (hopefully not-to-traumatized) guitars who haven’t made it out of their cases since Hawaii. I was so hesitant to let them disappear down the conveyor belt yet again!

But I’m here to report a great big sigh of relief.

When I picked them up in Ottawa, I loudly and gregariously thanked the special handling baggage personnel for not losing them. They laughed and responded with a hearty “You’re welcome!” while I was letting out my held breath.

And now I’m home. On the ground. Guitars in hand.

All’s well.

Reunited.

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Filed under: Airports

Where is everyone traveling to this Labor Day? Orbitz.com has compiled a list of the 10 busiest Labor Day destinations based on booking trends. Here’s what they found:

• Busiest U.S. airport: Chicago O’Hare (Last year: No. 3)
• Busiest International Airport: London Heathrow (Last year: No. 2)
• Busiest U.S. City: New York, NY (No. 2: Chicago)
• Busiest International City: London (No. 2: San Juan, Puerto Rico)

If you plan on traveling through O’Hare this weekend, give yourself plenty of time before your flight to battle the crowds. It may not be too bad, however, because for the third year in a row, O’Hare was ranked by Global Traveler as the best airport [PDF] in North America. I was there briefly this year and was really impressed at the speed in which I made it through security. Plus it’s so damned big, I can’t imagine it ever filling up beyond capacity!

Safe traveling this weekend!

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