Hip hop artist launches travel site

by Abha Malpani on

At first I thought: what on earth was Kanye West thinking trying to be a travel agent!? But a bit of thought and it makes complete sense — it’s a great way to encourage his fans to book with him, especially making it easy to for them follow him around when he’s on tour!

The Grammy-winning hip hop star has actually done a decent job making the site “Kanye Travel Ventures” seem quite resourceful as it offers hotel and flight bookings, car rental options, and last minute deals. It also has a list of suggestions on things to do in various cities and the site is working on developing city guides.

Primarily a marketing initiative for Kanye West, you’d think they’d flash in your face special Kanye West tour packages that include concert tickets, accommodation and flights, with cheaper deal options should you want to follow him around while he’s on tour, but that hasn’t happened yet.

Anyway, I don’t know of any other celebrity that is trying to be a travel resource, just on that count you might want to check it out. Maybe he should open a site for shades too, he often has funky ones.

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Think these crazy ladies booked through Kanye?

UK offers virtual funerals

by Abha Malpani on

One of the only times travel sucks is when you have to for a dear one’s funeral. In our chaotic lives these days, unless it’s very close family or friends, it’s tough to be able to travel cross-continent just to pay respect to someone dear who has died.

The UK has a solution for this: overseas mourners of deceased family or friends in Britain will no longer need to feel bad that they cannot fly in for the funeral as they can now watch it on a live web cast.

The initiative is the brain child of bereavement music company Wesley Music and can be availed of for a one time fee of £75. The funeral web cast will be live from a camera at the chapel, and to view the funeral you will be given a special access password.

Although criticized by many, I personally think it’s a great service — especially if you live in a different country — as you can be part of a funeral not only mentally and spiritually, but ‘visually’ as well, almost as good as being there, no?

What strange things have been found on planes?


Click the image to read the bizarre story…

Cosmetic castration for ladyboys banned in Thailand

by Catherine Bodry on

In Thailand, it can be difficult to tell a ladyboy from a lady. The story of the backpacker who thought he was spending the night with a beautiful woman — only to find out later that it was a beautiful man — is practically a cliché in traveler’s circles in Southeast Asia.

Some ladyboys would like to drop the “boy” from their identities, and an easier alternative to a full-on sex change is castration. That’s right. Castration. If that word is sending shivers up spine, don’t fret — Thailand’s Ministry of Health banned cosmetic castration this Wednesday, and doctors performing the operation could face up to six months in jail. Formal sex-change therapy “requires rigorous physical and mental evaluation of the patient,” while castration can be done in 15-20 minutes and can cost as little as $125. The short time frame and cheap cost is why the procedure has become so popular.

The country has become a leader in sex-change therapy, due to its large number of ladyboys (a term which covers anyone from a transvestite to a man who has had a sex change). That’s a whole new form of medical tourism that I hadn’t thought about.

United to cancel 777 flights today

by Grant Martin on

Has the FAA been bringing the pain super fast lately? Last week we saw hundreds of cancellations on American Airlines and Delta Airlines flights because of potential issues with wiring harnesses underneath the aircraft. The issue was solely on their MD-80 aircraft, each carrier grounded a few flights, checked out the problem and everything got rolling again. What caused the inspections, however, was a flag raised by the FAA questioning the methodology of the inspections, not dissimilar to warnings raised earlier on Southwest 737s.

Now, United Airlines has discovered that one of the tests to check the fire suppression systems in their Boeing 777 cargo holds hasn’t been run properly, so they’re cycling all of those aircraft in to make inspections. Thirty one of the eighty four scheduled flights in total were canceled.

Why the sudden spate of aircraft groundings for maintenance checks? It might have to do with increased attention to aircraft maintenance issues as a result of the Southwest incident a few weeks back. Airlines are now probably scrambling to double and triple check their records to make sure that everything is up to snuff as the FAA and congress clamp down on quality.

A congressional hearing on the matter is scheduled for Thursday, at which point we’ll probably hear much more on United and maintenance checks in general, and what our fair politicians plan to do to keep things running smoothly. We’ll let you know how that goes.

Australians beat underwater ironing record

by Anna Brones on

If you’ve ever had a desire to learn underwater basket weaving, you might first want to start with underwater ironing. As much as this sounds like an April Fools post, 72 Australian scuba divers did in fact break the world record for what they call “extreme ironing” when they dove into the water just south of Melbourne accompanied by their linens and ironing boards.

What exactly is extreme ironing? It’s the “latest danger sport that combines the thrill of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt,” according to the sport’s official website, the Extreme Ironing Bureau. Extreme ironers don’t only press their shirts underwater; the sport can take place anywhere, from a mountainside to in a canoe, all around the world.

Still confused? Check out the Extreme Ironing Bureau’s FAQ section and I am sure that all of your questions will be answered and by that point you too will be ready to add the extreme sport to your list.