Posts Tagged ‘travel’
Red Shirts on the roll
Trouble is looming over the weekend in Bangkok as the “United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship” assembles its largest protest in recent memory, predicting up to 600,000 protesters will be in the capital by Sunday. According to CNBC:
“Anti-government demonstrators prepared to launch Friday what they hope will be one of the country’s biggest protests ever, aiming to force Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to call new elections.
Leaders of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, called the Red Shirts because of their hallmark garb, have vowed to keep their “Million-man march” protest nonviolent. Demonstrators will start meeting around the country Friday, and converge in the Thai capital Bangkok on Sunday.
The group’s last major protest in Bangkok in April last year deteriorated into rioting that saw two people killed, more than 120 people injured and buses burned on major thoroughfares. The army was called in to quash the unrest.”
You wanted it, craved it, dreamt about it, and after the years of rumors, the unabashed hype, the gasping for bated breath, last week Apple finally unveiled his latest piece of techno idolatry – the unfortunately tagged “iPad”. Along
with the rest of the universe, travelers and travel bloggers have been waiting for the newest piece of Jobsian hardware to make their lives on the road a little easier. While the iPad is certainly one sexy piece of hardware that will undoubtedly change the way people view their media, travelers have reason to be disappointed for what it doesn’t quite do for their particular type of mobile lifestyle.
If this was something you’ve been hankering for, you’ve probably read your share of articles last week to find out what it can do (if not, here’s a great catch-all article). I won’t waste your time with specs. But I’ll say right away the sad and revealing truth: as a long distance traveler, the iPad is NOT what you’ve been waiting for — at least not yet. Sorry folks.
I’ll tell you why.
On a stale Tuesday afternoon at the office it’s easy want to get out there and travel—to see the crazy wild world you know is out there. However, when you start rearranging your life to fit in a big trip, you start seeing obstacles and creating reasons not to go.
Well, I’m here to help you quit that, to provide you motivation and shove you (ok, gently) toward the Jetway, to help you grind those gears into motion and, not to oversell it, but give you the greatest gift in the world! Travel!!
So why should you try and fulfill your travel dream? Without getting too new-agey, I’ve assembled 17 of the best reasons to enrich your woebegone life:
Nothing inspires travel more than sitting down and watching a feature length movie set in an exotic location. With dozens of crew members paid to make the place look as beautiful, or as atrocious, as possible, movies never fail to evoke emotions.
In part 3 of our series of travel related media, after last month’s books and music posts, I’ve listed my 20 picks for favorite travel-related movies of all time. Hope you like them!
I usually don’t start conversations telling people I’m “well-traveled”. Especially when I see websites like this around. I have however compiled a fairly good list of stamps in the passport, and because I interact with other world travelers both professionally and personally, I’ve got a pretty good idea of more amazing places I want to go.
This Friday, I thought I’d share a list of some of my favorite destinations in this wondrous world along with a few I still really want to get to. The list of course is abbreviated since I’d have to talk your ear off (perhaps over dinner?) to tell you all of them.
If you’re not doing anything on September 27th get out there and celebrate World Tourism Day!
Since 1980 the United Nations World Tourism Organization has honored this important aspect of world economics. And because many countries, especially developing ones, no less than rely on tourist dollars to make their economy pop, it’s these places that boost the incomprehensible satisfaction we get when we visit. Something about the gratified way locals have of showing off their home country makes it obvious.
Cathay Pacific route map circa 1990
If there’s anything working in this industry has taught me is that there’s a lot of ways to get from one place to another. And that everyone who travels from point A to point B has an idea about the best way to do it.
When our travel consultants assemble trips they bear in mind a couple of things: the total cost and overall efficiency of the route. Both things are valued as highly important components but unfortunately are rarely mutually inclusive. The airlines that have nonstop flights between two points are often the most expensive option (there are exceptions to this) because they’re the most coveted. Conversely, another carrier may charge less for a pair of flights going the same way but connecting through their hub city.
Recently I found about a great project going on in the western Indian city of Ahmadabad by an AirTreks client leaving for his trip: a truly one-of-a-kind restaurant that gives form to the elusive concept of Service. From its inception, Seva Café has been on a social mission: to help the local community by promoting good karma in the form of fine dining. Their restaurant is like none other I’ve heard of, operating inside values that are true to their community while delivering a social service model that other entrepeneurs can adopt. Theirs is to give back rather than to take profit, to help others rather than to simply serve themselves. A novel idea indeed!
It’s easy to equate traveling the world with following a series of city-points on a map, like a connect-the-dots picture in a kid’s activity book, slowly outlining a map of the world as you make your way around it. This assumption is obvious since it’s the cities that, after all, have the airports. The problem is that by flying from city to city you miss out on one of the most fascinating parts of the travel experience, the world that exists between them. Granted, the farther from the city center you get, the less access you’ll have to those things that often make you feel most at home (eg, comfy hotels, internet cafés, Starbucks’ double-tall nonfat lattes) but after traveling awhile you understand that not having these things is what you’re actually traveling for.
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