Strange New Year’s traditions around the world

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Unlike many holidays, where celebrants are bound by tradition or religion, New Year’s is a holiday that allows each individual to choose his own method of celebration. Some revelers will soak themselves in alcohol, boozing it up with copious bottles of champagne. Others choose to make the evening a quieter affair, settling in for a movie and an early night in bed.

However you personally choose to celebrate New Year’s 2009, people around the world certainly have some wacky ways that they choose to bring in their new year. MSNBC is reporting on some of the more interesting customs. Here’s a look at a few of the more curious:

  • South America – in countries like Brazil and Bolivia, it’s what’s inside that counts. Residents in cities such as Sao Paulo and La Paz ring in the New Year by donning brightly colored underpants. Those who choose red are hoping for an amorous year ahead, those with yellow wish for money. I guess this begs the question of how you tell who is wearing what color underwear. Perhaps that is best left unanswered…
  • Denmark – as if the effects of plentiful New Year’s alcohol were not disorienting enough, many Danish revelers leap off chairs at the stroke of midnight, hoping to banish bad spirits in the year ahead.
  • Philippines – New Year’s celebrations in places like Manila tend to be circular; Filipinos focus on all things round, consuming “round” fruits such as grapes and wearing clothing with round shapes like polka dots. The spherical theme is meant to remind celebrants of the “round” shape of coins and prosperity.
  • Spain – at the stroke of 12, Spaniards begin to consume 12 grapes, attempting to eat the whole bunch by the time the clock stops chiming.
  • Belarus – the new year in Belarus is all about getting hitched. Unmarried women compete at games of skill and chance to determine who will tie the knot in the coming months. One game involves setting piles of corn and a rooster before the potential brides-to-be – whichever pile the bird chooses apparently picks the lucky lady.

You can check out the full list of weird New Year’s traditions here.

10 more ideas for traveling cheaper in 2009

by Jamie Rhein on

Even though the economic forecast seems to drone on and on as being gloomy, here are more tips for how to travel cheaply. With the beginning of a new year, start using some of these tips and you might find out that travel in 2009 can be less expensive than you thought it might be.

One of my mantras is “Don’t assume.” That means, don’t assume something is expensive until you check out all possible angles. I’ve been surprised over and over in my life how travel is doable and affordable.

1. Plan ahead AND wait until the last minute– I do both. Planning ahead, helps me save for a trip and have enough time to do research. Waiting until the last minute has landed me deals I didn’t expect like cheap tickets to a traveling company Broadway play and to see David Sedaris. I sat in great seats for a fraction of what the people around me had paid. Some theaters offer discounts on the day of a performance. That’s how I bought $25 dollar tickets to Avenue Q. Sometimes, certain days at certain times will be cheaper. Call a theater box office and ask.

2. Buy an Entertainment Book– If you’re going to be traveling to a particular city in the United States, consider buying that city’s Entertainment Book. An Entertainment Book, typically sold by clubs as fundraisers, can be purchased directly from the Entertainment Book website. If you buy one for the city nearest to where you live, there will be a deep discount for the second city purchase–or for both. The book contains coupons for restaurants, movie tickets, museum admissions, art events and other local attractions. After one purchase, the book often pays for itself. It’s also a great way to find out places to visit that you may not have thought of before browsing its pages.

3. Pack snacks – When you travel, pack snacks. Think about buying them ahead on sale and storing them so when you’re heading out the door, you have snacks on hand. That will help you stay fed while seeing sites without spending more money than you planned on. Plus, this will save you time since you won’t have to figure out what or where to eat. When my daughter and I were in Denmark the first part of December, my Danish friend had snacks on hand everywhere we went.

4. Ask for water– Whenever we travel, if we’re stopping at a fast food place, I always ask for a cup of water. Water is free. If you’re traveling on Amtrak, ask for ice. The ice is free and when it melts, you’ll have water. I received that tip from a woman who was traveling with her family from California to New York. She said buying water on the train is expensive, but the snack bar hands out ice for free.

5. When ordering at a restaurant, share– If you are traveling with another person, or as a family, figure out which items you can order to share that will give everyone something he or she wants to eat but will cost you less money. Yesterday, my son and I were eating at the Barn Restaurant at Sauder Village in Archbold, Ohio. I noticed that the sandwich plate was $4.99. For $3.99, you could add on one trip through the soup and salad bar. Instead of ordering him the soup, I ordered everything for myself, gave him the soup that came with meal and we shared items from the salad bar and the sandwich. The restaurant was amenable to this arrangement.

6. Ask for the best hotel deal at the front desk before you check in–In November, we stayed at the Millennium Hotel in downtown Cincinnati. When we were checking in, I was lamenting that we had an Expedia reservation since I found out that there were better deals if we had gone through the hotel directly. My dad, who was with us, asked the hotel clerk what he might throw in to sweeten our stay. We were given four continental breakfast vouchers. The breakfast was great. If we had paid, it would have cost us $10 a piece.

7. Don’t assume how expensive travel might be without checking first–This summer I was pleasantly surprised how inexpensive it was to take the train the New York City on Amtrak. I thought the train would have been more expensive than it was. Two weeks ago my mother snagged an airline ticket to LaGuardia for $166. This summer, the same ticket would have cost her almost $400.

8. Don’t assume you won’t be able to use frequent flyer miles for a flight–My daughter and I went to Denmark from Columbus for 50,000 miles each using Northwest frequent flyer miles. I thought we wouldn’t be able to get those tickets until I checked.

9. If you have a discount card, don’t forget to use it– AAA is one of those cards I keep forgetting to use for other things besides our car and hotel deals. Two days ago, I was at the Libbey Glass Factory Outlet Store in Toledo, Ohio and saw that they give 10% off for AAA card holders. I saved $1. Hey, it’s something.

10. Go to places on days when there is a discount or a free day– Just today, when we were in Findlay, Ohio at Wilson’s, a family-owned hamburger joint that has been around since 1936, I found out that if you go in on a Saturday with your Wilson’s mug between 7–11 a.m., you can get a free cup of coffee. If we had gone to the Barn Restaurant on Monday night, my son would have eaten for free.

Speaking of coffee. When you travel, bring your travel coffee mug with you. Truck stop type places often will charge you less money if you bring in your own cup.

Top 10 stupidest laws you could encounter abroad


In Iraq, soldiers get a holiday break

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Whether you stayed at home or suffered airport crowds to visit your family this holiday season, you were lucky. For more than 100,000 members of the U.S. armed forces and many civilian contractors, Christmas was limited to deserts, rifles and a brief phone call home. I remember from my service in Korea (10 years ago), that the military does make the effort to ease the pain a bit with a fantastic meal, and reports from the ground in Iraq show that the tradition continues.

On Camp Anaconda, the largest U.S. military installation in Iraq, soldiers and contractors were treated to a substantial feast, with senior officers serving those with lower ranks in a show of appreciation both for their daily efforts and the fact that they could not enjoy the holiday under more pleasant circumstances.

A meal without ambiance, of course, lacks a crucial element. So, to deliver a complete holiday experience, the dining facilities (as “chow halls” are now called) were decorated to remind the guests of where they’d rather be. Christmas trees stood along the walls, and in one location, Santa himself lounged in a hammock. Hominy grits were dyed and used to spell out a greeting to those who entered the makeshift “oasis” in the Iraqi desert.

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For the rest of the day, activities varied. Camp Anaconda is a fairly large site, with plenty of distractions available, though the basics of life, such as doing laundry, topped the agendas of those serving thousands of miles from home.

It’s hard not to dwell on what you’re missing, but the residents of Camp Anaconda certainly made the best of their collective situation, enjoying what amenities were available and sitting down for a full meal during which they gave the orders to the officers who usually call the shots.

Want to make a soldier’s life easier? Visit Cigars for Soldiers to make a donation. Even if you aren’t a cigar smoker, for less than $10, you can give the gift of an hour’s relaxation to someone who desperately needs it.

Photo of the Day (12.30.08)

by Grant Martin on

With my voyage to New York early tomorrow morning comes a wealth of baggage — more than I’m packing in the overhead compartment. A new year. A new beginning. Loss, fear, a look into my heart, passions and life.

In my many travel experiences, I have never been let down by the City, somehow always warm, moving and willing to swallow my worries, loves and hates among its streets, alleys and subways, lost among a sea of merging souls. From the Gadling flickr pool, morrissey‘s photo of the Manhattan skyline reminds me of why I’m so often there.

Welcome home, young son. Your new future awaits.

Japanese man living in Mexico City airport mysteriously disappears

by Grant Martin on

You might recall last month’s interesting story about a Japanese gentleman who moved into Mexico City‘s Benito Juarez airport.

For those of you that didn’t read the story last month, a little background: Hiroshi Nohara showed up in Mexico City last month on a tourist visa and decided that he wanted to stay. He had no plans, no reason for staying and the full right to call the airport his home — his tourist visa is supposed to last until March and the airport technically never closes. Eventually he became an oddity of sorts, with people coming to get their picture taken with him, local restaurants offering sponsorships and even feeding him.

And so he remained until this month. When the plot thickens.

This past Sunday, Nohara was spotted getting into a taxi with an unnamed woman, a woman who had come to visit twice and who the authorities could not name. And then he disappeared.

Where was he going? Did this woman offer him a nice place to stay or a movie deal? Is it his estranged daughter that abandonded him at the airport? Something tells me we’ll find out when the movie comes out.