Guess Who Has The Most Intimidating Border Control Officials?

Do you ever feel nervous going through border control in a new country? How about when you return home? A study by IXP visas polled 1,000 travelers who had been to at least ten foreign countries; over 60% said they felt intimidated by border officials at some time, with the most intimidating vote going to American border control. The reasons sited for the nerves included “obvious weaponry on display,” a “lack of humor,” and a general “intimidating demeanor.”

The countries with the most intimidating border officials:

  1. USA: 22% (of respondents called border control officers intimidating)
  2. UAE: 12%
  3. Mexico: 9%
  4. Canada: 8%
  5. South Korea: 6%
  6. UK: 5%
  7. Israel: 5%
  8. Pakistan: 4%
  9. Venezuela: 4%
  10. Cuba: 3%

Have you felt intimidated entering (or re-entering) the U.S.? Which country has you most nervous at immigration?

Air Nannies To Make Flights Bearable For Kids, Parents And The Travelers Around Them

Parents — and easily annoyed travelers — know just how difficult flying with kids can be. One airline offers a free nanny service to help keep the little ones entertained and quiet, while a second is planning to roll out their program by the end of the year.

There’s only one caveat: you’ve got to be flying to or from the Middle East to take advantage of the program.

United Arab Emirates’ Etihad Airways plans to roll out the nanny program by the end of December, according to NBC’s Today show. More than 300 crew members have gone through training at Norland College, a prestigious U.K. nanny training school, with 200 more slated to undergo training by the end of December.

Bahrain’s Gulf Air offers a similar program, according to its website.Ethiad’s nannies will “offer an extra pair of hands to help settle kids, age-appropriate games and activities, or advice and support for frazzled parents,” according to Today. Each plane will have an assortment of toys and craft projects that will hopefully keep the children distracted from the fact they’re trapped in a pressurized metal tube while flying 40,000 feet in the air in defiance of God’s will.

If you’re looking to snag some in-flight childcare, but don’t want to drop several thousand dollars for a ticket to the Middle East, Nanny in the Clouds allows you to find your own personal Marry Poppins who happens to be traveling to your destination. The usual fee is $20 an hour for a cross-country flight, but if your kids are particularly rambunctious, you can be sure that your fellow travelers will take up a collection to help you pay the costs.

Photo Of The Day: Saturday With The Giraffes In Abu Dhabi

Today’s safari-themed Photo of the Day was taken with Instagram and submitted by The Purple Passport, a travel start-up that publishes web-based guidebooks on the world’s most exciting cities. The Purple Passport already has guides to New York, Los Angeles, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Beijing and Taipei. Might Abu Dhabi be next?If you have any great travel photos, you now have two options to enter your snapshots into the running for Gadling’s Photo of the Day. Upload your shots to the Gadling Flickr Pool, or mention @GadlingTravel and use hashtag #gadling in the caption or comments for your post on Instagram. Don’t forget to give us a follow too!

[Photo Credit: Flickr user thepurplepassport]

Video Of The Day: Fireworks Lighting Up The World’s Tallest Building In Dubai

Leave it to Dubai to ring in 2013 right. The city’s magnificent New Year’s Eve fireworks display illuminated the world’s tallest building, the iconic Burj Khalifa skyscraper, stretching more than 2,716 feet into the city sky. Sparks flew from the base all the way to the spire of the building as the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra performed in perfect synchronicity. It’s a spectacle fit for ushering in a new year.

Video Of The Day: Sea Turtle Release In Dubai

Today’s video was filmed at the beach outside the world-famous Burj Al Arab and Madinet Jumeriah hotels, where an annual summer sea turtle release happened late last week. As part of the Dubai Turtle Rehabilitation Project, Jumeirah – the hotel group who owns the Burj Al Arab along with several other luxury hotels in Dubai – has an aquarium team that works with the Wildlife Protection Office and local veterinarians to save and release turtles. Since 2004, more than 554 sea turtles have been rehabilitated and released thanks to the project, which is the only one of its kind in Dubai.

This year, the sea turtle celebration was open to the public for the first time. For the send off, 100 critically endangered turtles were each assigned to a child – mostly competition winners, pupils from local schools and even some hotel guests. The children helped release the turtles while the rest of the onlookers watched the turtles make their way into the Arabian Gulf. Six turtles (including two hawksbill sea turtles, two green sea turtles, and two loggerhead sea turtles) were tagged with satellite devices that monitor their whereabouts. Anyone can log on to the project’s Facebook page to see periodic posts about how far the turtles have traveled.

The video above is from last year’s release, but two additional photos from 2012 are included after the jump.


[Video and photos courtesy Jumeirah]