SilkAir Winning Asia’s Low-Cost Carrier Wars

by Josh Lew on

Despite the rise of regional airlines aimed at budget-minded travelers, SilkAir, one of Southeast Asia’s original low-cost carriers, remains at the top of the game. Even with competition coming from the likes of Bangkok Airways and AirAsia and with high fuel prices, SilkAir managed to post a profit for the last quarter.

Perhaps SilkAir’s lineage has something to do with its success. It is wholly owned by Singapore Airlines, which is consistently rated as one of the world’s best carriers. Aside from the in-flight services and amenities that come from being associated with a high quality brand, SilkAir often carriers Singapore Airlines customers on shorter, regional flights.

The main competition comes from AirAsia. It flies many of the same routes (Singapore to Phuket, for example). However, unlike SilkAir, it has no sugar daddy to feed it passengers and give it a reputation for quality. SilkAir also code-shares with Malaysia Airlines and Garuda and flies to cities in insular Southeast Asia as well as vacation hot-spots.But, the best reason to fly SilkAir: the in-flight meal of Hainanese chicken rice is nearly as good as you’d get in a Singapore hawker center.

Why is the Frugal Traveler so sexually frustrated?

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Matt Gross, the New York Times’ “Frugal Traveler,” seems to have everything– a dream job, plenty of money, a talent for travel writing, and dozens of interested women. So why, in his revealing new essay in Nerve, does he claim to be so sexually frustrated? Because, oh yeah, he’s married.

We often stereotype travel writers as being rootless, wandering singles who bounce blithely from one location to the next. But this isn’t the case for Matt Gross, who writes that being a married travel writer is often an “exercise in sexual frustration.”

One of the great things about travel is the sense of adventure it brings, the willingness to try anything– consequences be damned. But that only extends so far for the Frugal Traveler. He writes:

“Travel is about embracing new experiences: foods you’ve never eaten, languages you’ve never spoken, religious rituals you’ve never even heard of. To decline any offer at all – a spontaneous wedding invitation in Pondicherry, a swig of rice wine from an unmarked flask in a Saigonese goat restaurant – is to deny the very spirit of voyaging, and so I decline nothing. Except for it. The fact that I can’t take part in it, that most hallowed ritual of travel – sex with strangers – frustrates me on a philosophical level as well as a primal one.”

Read the whole entertaining essay here.

[HT: Our good friends at World Hum]

Back to school: A photo essay ode to schools around the world

by Jamie Rhein on

Today is the first day of school for my children. My daughter waltzed out the door at 7 a.m. this morning after showing me the piece of cheese she was eating–(she plays soccer and I’m adamant that she eat some sort of protein), to catch her ride. She’s a 10th grader.

For my son, who is now a first grader, the anticipation build-up of last year is much less. We know our routine. Kindergarten left a lump in my throat. First grade is old hat, but he still wants me to drive him and walk him in for the first day. After today, he heads out on the bus.

This first day of school got me thinking about schools around the world and what a gift having a school to go to is. When I was in the Peace Corps, I worked with my village primary school on certain days to do health education. In The Gambia, at the time, most kids did not go to school. The primary school in my village was the only one for miles around.

Amazingly, this shot by tigz pix was taken in N’Jowara where I served. This is inside one of the three classroom buildings. I’m not sure where my pictures are, so I’m happy to use this one. It looks exactly the same.

On this first day of school, here’s an ode to all those parents, grandparents or other caregivers, who make sure their children head to a classroom if they can find one and they have the means, and all those people who have chosen to teach, and all those children who sit in rows or gather in groups, day after day, working to learn–and if not working to learn, have a kernal of hope that life will turn out well once the last bell rings on their last day of school ever–when they head out into the world to see what happens next.

Click on the photographer’s name to go to the Flickr page. I picked these because these are the photos I found with Creative Commons use.

Mexican 2000, who snapped this shot, points out that school kids in Japan were different colored hats in order to show which class they belong to. These little guys are on a field trip to Himeji Castle.

On September 11, 2007, was Read with a Hero Day. Stories of heroism, tolerance and justice were read, according to the photo’s description. This shot by Staff Sgt. Russell Kilkar was taken at East Side Elementary School in Edinburgh, Indiana.

Head to a rural village and pull out a camera to take pictures of children and see how many show up. This photo by OpenDemocracy reminds me of my own experiences. It’s a swarm. For an excellent film that shows what a rural school is like in China, check out Not One Less. It’s about a 13-year-old girl who reluctantly becomes the teacher of a one-room school when the teacher has to leave for some reason.

School girls, in what I assume is Chile. Photographer Angela7dreams didn’t label the specific country in South America where this was taken, but this one is in a group of other shots of Chile.

School kids either heading to school or home in Taxco, Mexico. The shot is by michale.

School girls with their book bags in Bandung, Indonesia. Wouldn’t it be great if all school kids looked as happy as sektordua found these three?

This photo taken at the Khmer Literacy School in Cambodia, and posted by cambodia4kids.org, shows the efforts of a farm project to encourage farmers to send their children to school. You can read about the project, by clicking on the link.

These school kids in France are on a field trip that I would love. This was taken by ConspiracyofHappiness at the Musee Rodin.

A group of school kids in India taken by Tom Maisey.

Man and his son at the opening of Salah Hadi Obid Elementary School in Afak Village, Iraq. Photo by James Gordon, Flickr.

* The first photo is of my son walking into school this morning. He is in good hands.

Austrian airport’s security screeners mistake bacon for a bomb

by Jeffrey White on

We often like to mock the sleuthing abilities of the Transportation Security Administration, or lack thereof, since its security screeners can get confused over a misshapen tube of toothpaste or a computer with no drives.

But as far as I know, the TSA has never become addled over bacon.

I cannot say as much about the crack security screeners at the airport in Linz, Austria.

Recently, a man on summer vacation hurrying through screening there was stopped when a security worker noticed something suspicious in his carryon.

The man fessed up. “Da ist Speck drinnen.” There is bacon inside.

This is recounted in a pretty funny article on the Austrian news site Nachrichten.

Seems that security authorities were not satisfied with the man’s direct, not to say a little flip, explanation. They made him go into a bomb proof room and prove it was really bacon. An interesting little detail in the article says that police waited outside the room for fear that something might detonate.

Now, Austrians and Germans alike eat their fair share of bacon and other pig products. They couldn’t somehow recognize this without virtually calling in the bomb squad?

One screener tells Nachrichten, “During security screening, we look at the density of atoms, and bacon has the same molecular density as Dynamite.”

I’ve eaten a few meals in Germany that would corroborate that statement.

Luckily, the man was let go, with his bacon.

This article goes on to praise other successes the Linz security folks have had foiling threats recently. They stopped another man for having an electronic shoe buffer in his carryon, similar to the one you find at hotels or clubhouses at posh golf courses. The man knew nothing about it — his wife had packed his suitcase — and he wasn’t likely to ask her, since the two had just had a major fight.

And a bag was recently found unattended at the Linz airport. X-raying it, screeners saw an unidentifiable object inside. Its owner could not be located, so authorities blew the bag up, only to find the charred remains of a doll inside.

Daily deal – Flip Ultra series 30 minute digital camcorder – $50 from Dell.com

by Scott Carmichael on

(Update, looks like the deal is dead already, sorry about that!)

My daily deal for today is for the Flip Ultra series digital camcorder. This digital camcorder features a built in flash memory card for up to 30 minutes of video. Once you are done recording, the small flip-out USB connector allows you to instantly transfer the recordings to your computer.

The Flip Ultra has a 1.5″ color screen, a 2x digital zoom and an output for displaying your movies on TV, a video cable is included in the package. The Flip camera is perfect for short video clips on your trip, as it runs off regular AA batteries and is very durable.

If you enjoy underwater activities, then you’ll love the Flip underwater case which can be found on Amazon for under $30 (check the “other” vendors listed on the right side of the Amazon page). The combination of the Flip camera and the underwater case make this the cheapest underwater video camera available on the market.

This camera normally retails for $149, but if you order it from Dell.com, you’ll get an instant $50 off, plus an additional $50 instant rebate, bringing the price down to just $50. To make the deal even better, you’ll even get free ground shipping!

To get the additional $50 off, you will need to enter coupon code KGJQ72S6F0H828 on the checkout page. The coupon code should be valid till September 3rd, but Dell often ends promotions early so don’t wait around too long.

(Source: Fatwallet)