GADLING TAKE FIVE: Week of December 22-28

by Jamie Rhein on

Because Catherine is stuck at the Dallas Airport right now trying to get back to Alaska, I’m bringing you this week’s GADLING TAKE FIVE. Stay-tuned for Catherine’s tales of her holiday travels. In the meantime, here’s what happened this week in the midst of holiday mayhem.

Seriously, it’s very hard to choose from what’s written each week so I’m turning to the numbers game. For starters, here are the three posts that have been forwarded the most.

Aaron’s post “Are you smarter than a two-year-old” is one that can wow you or make you feel terrible that your geography skills are worse than a toddler’s. This toddler is also getting her 15 minutes of fame and more as she makes the TV circuit showing off her skills.

Grant’s “Christmas in Saigon” is one indication of how cultural traditions travel and that sometimes when a culture takes on another culture’s trait (Santa hats) it goes even further with it. I’ve seen the Santas on the motorcycles that Grant refers to. The man knows what he’s taking about.

Abha’s “Don’t miss the sky this christmas” gives reasons why it’s good to look up this time of year. The winter sky is perfect for star gazing. Christmas Eve may have been a perfect night, but there are still plenty of others.

Also this week, Neil’s must -read series on traveling in North Korea ended with his post, “Infiltrating North Korea Part 19: A Final Word.” If you haven’t read the series, click here to read it from the beginning.

As a series of sorts to follow, Jerry is embarking on a look at Nauru, a country you may not have heard of. Obviously, it’s one of the world’s smallest. His post appropriately named “A country you’ve never heard of” is the only posting so far, but I assure you there are others in the line-up.

In-flight WiFi raises etiquette questions

by Aaron Hotfelder on

With more and more airlines offering their passengers wireless internet access, some interesting issues arise about proper in-flight internet etiquette. In addition, airlines must decide if they want to give their patrons full access to the internet, with all the risks and concerns that brings about.

A recent AP article paints a nightmarish scenario that may arise unless airlines are willing to restrict their passengers’ internet access: “Seat 17D is yapping endlessly on an Internet phone call. Seat 16F is flaming Seat 16D with expletive-laden chats. Seat 16E is too busy surfing porn sites to care. Seat 17C just wants to sleep.”

It seems reasonable to me that no phone calls should be allowed (annoying) and pornography should be filtered (disgusting). But while airlines like American, Alaskan, and Virgin have banned internet phone services like Skype, they “have no plans to filter sites based on their content. At most, [they] may manage traffic and delay large downloads.”

Said one exec of a company in charge of installing WiFi on airplanes: “We think decency and good sense and normal behavior” will prevail. Sure it will.

Next week: batteries banned from checked luggage

by Justin Glow on

Attention gadget-packing travelers: starting January 1, 2008, you will no longer be able to pack “loose lithium batteries” in your checked luggage, says the Department of Transportation. By loose, they mean either A) not attached to an electronic device in your checked luggage, or B) not in a zipped plastic baggy in your carry-on.

“Common consumer electronics such as travel cameras, cell phones, and most laptop computers are still allowed in carry-on and checked luggage,” reads the report. “However, the rule limits individuals to bringing only two extended-life spare rechargeable lithium batteries, such as laptop and professional audio/video/camera equipment lithium batteries in carry-on baggage.” Spare is the key word there.

For once, as Chris Elliott notes, this new regulation isn’t due to a terrorism threat. Instead, the ban is a safety precaution, as “lithium batteries are considered hazardous materials because they can overheat and ignite in certain conditions.”

In case the light-on-details report is unclear, this means that you can still bring your digital cameras and laptops on-board in your carry-on, but loose batteries — such as an extra one for your laptop or camera — must be limited to two, and placed in a plastic baggy if carried on. What isn’t clear is how the TSA will determine whether or not your audio, video, or camera equipment is “professional.” And if it’s not professional, is there still a limit on how many batteries you can bring on board?

Bon appetit on the Eiffel Tower

by Abha Malpani on

Taking further our kicks of eating things either made by someone famous or with someone famous, now eating on something famous takes a new turn. Friends, friends and friends, you can now dine in new style at 410-feet on the Eiffel Tower.

Called Jules Verne (after the famous French author?), the revamped restaurant on this monument is the brain child of celebrity chef Alain Ducasse that will serve authentically French food (duh!), and will seat up to 120 people. For safety reasons, there will be no gas-cooking and the food will be prepared in a kitchen underneath the Champ de Mar garden which is located at the base of the tower.

With the 6.7 million tourists that visit this monument every year, dine at the restaurant and you will be taken up in a private lift. Meals are priced at $108 for lunch and $216 for dinner, making them totally “accessible to everyone”.

Anyone enticed to go?

Known for his eccentric ideas of taking cuisine to new heights, Ducasse was heard saying “I don’t work, I dream…I illustrate my dreams” — the next one being a restaurant on Mars. Now that’s somewhere I would love to go for a meal.

Climbing Ecuador’s Mt. Cotopaxi– the world’s tallest active volcano

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Several months ago, a friend named Justin and I decided that, after months of playing in Ecuador, we wanted a real physical challenge. We visited a tour company in Quito to find out what they could offer, and we were intrigued by their ad for a grueling hike up Mt. Cotopaxi, the world’s tallest active volcano at 19,347 ft. After ironing out some details, and confident in our physical fitness levels, Justin and I were assigned a guide, and we were on our way.

The bus and jeep rides to the base of the mountain were breathtakingly beautiful, and once we arrived, we hiked up to the “base camp” refuge by about 3:00 pm. Our guide, Carlos, prepared enormous plates of food for us, and insisted that we eat as much as possible. Justin and I did as much carbo-loading as we could, and we had already slumped back in our chairs when we saw Carlos bringing in two more giant plates of food. He laid the plates in front of us as if to say, “And now, for the main course.” After some protest, we nibbled dutifully.

At midnight, after getting no sleep due to an altitude-induced headache, I got up, along with 20 or so other climbers, to begin the cold, dark ascent. As this short article about the hike up Cotopaxi puts it, “After you add illness, inexperience and altitude, we had the makings of a great adventure.”

We practiced using crampons and ice axes for the first time, roped ourselves to our trusty guide, and began our slow, plodding ascent. After about five hours of trudging up the mountain, Justin’s asthma had him in a bad way. I didn’t feel so great either. Justin made the tough decision to turn around, and because we were all roped together, that meant I had to come down too. Frigid and exhausted, I feigned great disappointment.

Though we didn’t quite make the summit, and even though the climb was bone-chillingly cold, I’d still do it again. It can be easy to lounge on the beaches, or go out drinking every night, or just generally turn into a waste of space when on a long trip. My advice, though I don’t always follow it, is to challenge yourself not to fall into those easy traps. Pick an activity you think you probably can’t do– and give it a shot. If you succeed, great. If you fail, well, sometimes it’s not the worst thing for us to be knocked right on our asses.

More on Cotopaxi here and some scenic photos of it here.