Travel Blog: News and Briefs
The Pre-Flight Flight Attendant Rap
by Rob Verger | 03.18.09 | 4:06 PM ET
Have you heard the fantastic pre-flight rap that one Southwest Airlines flight attendant has been doing?
The flight attendant, David Holmes, was recently the subject of a short interview at the Middle Seat Terminal. It’s worth a read.
Here’s my favorite part of the rap, which is performed to the beat of the passengers stomping and clapping:
Before we leave
Our advice is
Put away your electronic devices
Fasten your seat belt
Then put your trays up
Press the button
to make the seat back raise up
The expressions on the passengers’ faces are just as entertaining as the rap is itself. Video below.
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Yahoo! BuzzThe Great Everest Clean-Up
by Joanna Kakissis | 03.18.09 | 12:13 PM ET
The climate-change watchdog group Eco Everest hauled off 2,100 pounds of trash and human waste from Mount Everest last year and is now paying visitors $1.00 per pound for waste removed from the mountain, according to Outside and Rock and Ice magazine.
The Nepalese have recently tried to prevent dumping by withholding a $4,000 trash deposit from climbers who leave rubbish on the 29,028-foot peak. But there still a lot of waste up there from previous expeditions—enough to inspire a documentary and an artist who recycles discarded oxygen bottles into eco-provocative bowls, bells and ornaments.
Dora the Explorer: Now Packing Lipstick
by Eva Holland | 03.18.09 | 11:09 AM ET
Yup, one of our favorite fictional travelers is all grown up. A “teaser silhouette” of the new Dora, released a couple weeks back, stirred up controversy, with parents worrying about the “sexy” image being projected to their children. Now the final image has been made public—and yes, as we suspected, Dora is now clearly packing makeup, accessories, and some serious hair product for her travels. “If the Dora we knew grew up,” laments one parent’s petition, “she wouldn’t be a fashion icon or a shopaholic. She’d develop her map reading skills and imagine the places she could go.”
What do you think? Is the new Dora too sexy, or is this a tempest in a talking backpack?
Morning Links: Misadventures in Bora Bora, Shawarma in Baghdad and More
by Michael Yessis | 03.18.09 | 10:08 AM ET
Young Turks: Paradise in the Caribbean?
by Alexander Basek | 03.17.09 | 11:45 AM ET
Good news kids! The Gansevoort Turks and Caicos soft opened yesterday. The property’s official kick-off date is April 1, once all the kids get back from SXSW. Or, you know, St. Mortiz. Located on Grace Cay Beach, it’s the first Gansevoort property outside the lower 48. Goodies include a 7,000-square-foot infinity pool, a Bagatelle Beach Club for eats and an “Exhale” Spa right on the beach. Fun times. The Gansevoort weathered the economic downtown here in New York quite well, so their $400-a-night-plus starting rates in Grace Cay may not prove to be an impediment to bookings just yet.
Still, the vibe in T&C is a little off this season after the hostage situation last fall, when Chinese construction workers building the Ritz-Carlton Molasses Reef project took their Israeli bosses hostage. (Freelancers take note: they did it when they stopped getting paid). Perhaps a simulated kidnapping could be a theme for a team-building exercise on your next workplace retreat?
How I Long For Thee, Boeing 787
by Rob Verger | 03.17.09 | 10:51 AM ET
With any luck, followers of Boeing’s newest plane, the 787 Dreamliner, should see its first test flight in the first half of 2009.
The 787 is currently “on schedule,” the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported last week, and notes that according to the president of Boeing’s commercial aircraft division, the company “continues to work toward the inaugural 787 test flight in the second quarter of this year and the first delivery in the first quarter of 2010.”
This comes after lots of delays and some order cancellations; recently, a Chinese airline threatened to “cancel or postpone delivery of part of its order for nine 787s.”
Blog to Watch: Cities on the Cheap
by Eva Holland | 03.17.09 | 10:27 AM ET
The site—which got its start simply as Atlanta on the Cheap—now covers the latest bargains and budget shortcuts in 30-plus locations across the U.S. and Canada. The emphasis so far seems to be on the Sunbelt, and on kid-friendly destinations (there’s an entire Disney on the Cheap page), but if those aren’t your bag, don’t despair: Cities on the Cheap is still expanding. (Via Arthur Frommer)
Interview With Ferran Adria: Spain’s Super Chef
by David Farley | 03.17.09 | 9:04 AM ET
REUTERS/Victor Fraile Superlatives and Spanish chef Ferran Adria seem to make the perfect pairing. His restaurant, El Bulli, located north of Barcelona, is often referred to by foodies, travelers and restaurant critics as a culinary heaven. The best restaurant in the world. And, as a result, nabbing a reservation is like winning the lottery: 100,000 requests for reservations per year come in. If you’re lucky enough to get one, you arrive in Spain hungry.
Adria spends six months out of the year in his Barcelona workshop, creating a menu (some have dubbed it “molecular gastronomy”) that is so avant-garde that it’s hard to find anything else like it (unless, of course, a chef is copying Adria—and many are).
I recently exchanged emails with Chef Adria and asked about his interest in travel—and I tried to be extra nice in the hope he’d grant me one of those impossible-to-get reservations.
Morning Links: Parisian Flea Markets, Life Before Lonely Planet and More
by Eva Holland | 03.17.09 | 9:05 AM ET
- Coming soon: new TSA regulations for your air ticket purchases. The request for each passenger’s birth date and gender is intended to cut down on misidentification of “suspect travelers.”
- Geist Magazine takes a provocative look at life before (and after) Lonely Planet.
- Four hundred lucky Londoners earned free flights on Aer Lingus, by stripping down to their strategically placed shamrocks. (And on that note: Happy St. Patrick’s Day!)
- Tom Swick imagines a future of illicit newspaper bars.
- NY Waterway, the ferry service that helped rescue US Airways Flight 1549 passengers from the Hudson, is contemplating a lawsuit to recoup costs from the effort; the company is close to bankruptcy, and “miffed” at the lack of recognition for its role.
- Juliet’s House in Verona, Italy, is now open for your destination wedding business—balcony photo shoot included, of course.
- Gawker (sort of) laments the recession’s impact on the nation’s museums.
- EuroCheapo goes flea marketing in Paris.
- David Farley, Tony Perrottet and Peter Wortsman—World Hum contributors, all—will be reading at New York City’s Book Culture this Thursday.
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The Forbidden Kebab in Tuscany
by David Farley | 03.16.09 | 1:33 PM ET
I once interviewed a chef whose Michelin-starred restaurant is tucked in the hills of eastern Lazio; when I asked what he thought of fusion cuisine, he said—without blinking an eye—that he liked it: using tomatoes from the Campagna region and basil from Genoa was great, he remarked. My question had broader ingredients in mind, but I got the point. Lucca, a walled medieval town in the northeastern part of Tuscany, made headlines a few months ago when the right-wing-leaning city banned ethnic foods from its historical center. The city claims it has since received mountains of letters from around the world supporting the ban.
Budget Air Travel Goes Long-Haul
by Eva Holland | 03.16.09 | 12:25 PM ET
Last week marked the first long-haul flight by a low-cost carrier—99 pounds for a 13-hour flight from London to Kuala Lumpur, anyone?—and the Guardian went along for the inaugural ride. Maxton Walker sets the scene: “As we budget guinea-pigs join the queue at check-in, horror stories swirl about non-reclining seats and the lack of legroom. There’s even a suggestion that if you don’t book a meal in advance, you’ll just have to starve. I haven’t, needless to say, booked a meal in advance.” His full review of the Air Asia experience is heartening, and surprisingly entertaining.
Hello? Is it Greece You’re Looking For?
by Eva Holland | 03.16.09 | 11:05 AM ET
With a new album on the way, Lionel Richie is making the media rounds—and he’s landed in the pages of the Telegraph travel section, dishing on his best and worst travel memories.
Turns out, the R&B/easy listening legend is itching to get to Greece, he dreads being spotted mid-meal at a restaurant (“all I need is if the pianist starts playing ‘Three Times a Lady’”) and his favorite hotel is Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace. (“Now I know why I couldn’t get the marble for my house—they have it all. I couldn’t find the bougainvillea I wanted—they have it. Everything I needed for my house in California, they have it.”) The average traveler may not be able to relate to his experiences or advice—remember: “don’t let your entourage pack for you”—but they still make for an entertaining read.
Morning Links: Bible Park, Pizza Vending Machines and More
by Eva Holland | 03.16.09 | 9:03 AM ET
- The Wall Street Journal goes way beyond Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
- Planning for Lebanon, Tennessee’s Bible-themed amusement park, has been suspended indefinitely due to “political differences”; the park’s developers are eyeing Kentucky instead. (Via The Book Bench)
- Coney Island’s famed Totonno’s pizzeria has been devastated by a fire.
- The San Francisco Chronicle has the little-known story of Iceland’s pizza pioneer.
- And in more pie-related news, the New York Times dishes on Northern Italy’s pizza vending machines.
- World Hum contributor Jenna Schnuer gets the local scoop on Houston’s finest cuisine, culture and more.
- New York City’s High Line may not be quite ready for visitors, but it is in bloom.
- Audrey and Daniel from Uncornered Market have just headed out on the road again; they reflect on five things they’ll miss about America.
- In the Huffington Post, Alison Stein Wellner goes looking for Jewish Barbados.
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What We Loved This Week: Twitter, Portland’s Cheap Eats, ‘Before Sunrise’ and More
by World Hum | 03.13.09 | 2:18 PM ET
Our contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days:
Valerie Conners
Trip-planning via Twitter and the fabulous tweeps following @worldhum. I’m heading to Buenos Aires in April and have been posting questions out to our twitterverse of followers, looking for tips on sights, food, estancia tours and more—the response has been so warm and incredibly helpful. What an amazing resource. Some great ideas have crossed my path and are making their way into my itinerary.
Eva Holland
I watched one of my favorite travel movies, “Before Sunrise,” again for the first time in a couple of years and was thrilled to find that none of the crazy, spontaneous magic of Jesse and Celine’s one night in Vienna had worn off. Here’s a classic sequence:
Detroit’s Exquisite Decay
by Sophia Dembling | 03.13.09 | 11:47 AM ET
Time magazine’s slideshow capturing Detroit’s decay in photos by French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre is stunning and utterly heartbreaking.
My thought as I watched: As travelers/tourists we’re a powerful economic force. Can we help save Detroit?
Here are some of my previous thoughts on Detroit.
