What about fun for everyone? Photo: havenholidaysAfter the election and inauguration of Barack Obama to the US presidency, some analysts suggested Americans were entering a post-racial era. Maybe they should visit Philadelphia’s Valley Swim Club. “A ‘Whites-Only’ Pool in 2009?” That was the subject line of an e-mail that landed in my inbox a few days ago.
Since its beginning almost 40 years ago, Southwest has been known as the airline that’s a little kooky, a little unconventional.Rather than conservative, pressed, navy-colored uniforms, flight attendants used to wear hot pants. Today, they’re dressed in khaki shorts.Instead of boring, predictable safety announcements, the crew tends to make the delivery of even the most rote information an opportunity for entertainment.
Takabisha, the world’s steepest roller coaster, accelerates to 100 km/h in 2 seconds, has a 43m drop, and a 121-degree free fall.From Tech Cruch: Opened at Fuji-Q Highland amusement park, the Takabisha beats out Le Timber Drop in France as the world’s steepest roller coaster with a 121-degree freefall (Le Timber Drop’s freefall is 113.
Rubbing soap all over has never felt so good.Taking a hot steamy shower is enjoyable. Taking a hot steamy shower and lathering up to Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap Bars takes it to another level.Believe me.I’m an addict. I have seven of these soap bars sitting on my bathroom window sill, waiting to be used.
It’s nearly 9:30 am in Macleod Ganj, and I haven’t even had my coffee yet, and for a Canadian, this is a serious predicament. Even the backpackers and the trendy young Tibetans are up by now, enjoying a morning latte at the Malabar café.I have just woken my driver from sleep with a desperate howl: “Move it!
Reporters’ Center is a YouTube channel dedicated to help users understand the power of citizen journalism and offers practical tips from the world’s best journalists.Ever captured a natural disaster or a crime on your cell-phone camera or filmed a political protest? Then you’re part of the enormous community of citizen reporters on YouTube, and this channel is for you.
Would it be too dramatic if I said that ‘Ghost Train to the Eastern Star‘ is the most anticipated travel book of the year?Maybe. But for me at least, dramatic or not, it’s certainly true.It’s been nearly 35 years since Theroux’s travel classic, ‘The Great Railway Bazaar‘, was first released – and in those years, I can’t be the only reader to have been electrified by those famous opening lines:“…I have seldom heard a train go by and not wished I was on it…”In the intervening years, Paul Theroux has covered plenty of other ground, in well-loved books like ‘The Old Patagonian Express‘ and ‘Dark Star Safari‘.
English teaching in Japan is still a lucrative gig, but the days of easy money and great benefits might be coming to an end.After teaching English in Japan with the JET Program for two years, I saved enough money to travel in Southeast Asia for over a year and launch my career in travel writing.I lived rent free, didn’t work very hard and sent home about $1,500 per month.
Sometimes we don’t realize how much we value our notion of personal space until we live abroad.Before travel, I never realized how little I like to be touched. Sure, hugs are fine. I don’t even mind a cramped car ride or overstuffed elevator. I thought that in terms of physical contact, my comfort zone was average.
St. Goustan in Brittany, France. Photo: Tc7 / Feature photo: jmhullotCouchsurfer extraordinnaire Delphine Mazars is currently traveling around Australia. My wife and I had the pleasure of hosting her for a couple of nights here in Melbourne.Since she left us, she’s trekked the entire 8-day Great Ocean Walk solo and has gone unplugged for a month and a half in Western Australia.
If there was ever a mantra from the Great Depression, it was “Waste not want not.” If there was ever another time that the statement holds just as true, it’s now.Photo: inhisgraceI grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and in my youth there were one or two days a year for “Big Trash Pickup.” The entire town put bulky items that weren’t worth holding onto out on the curb; the wilier citizens were free to comb through the discarded belongings before the garbage men picked them up.
A month in the Dominican Republic’s central mountains and my world feels small again.Kids I don’t recognize run up to me to play “Pollito Pleibe,” a hand game set to a song in which lovers get married in a restaurant and eat grilled chicken with a side of codfish. The fact that I don’t celebrate Christmas is a popular conversation starter with my bewildered neighbors.