Bali company offers ‘best dive job in the world’

by Kraig Becker on

Continuing the recent spate of “best job” offerings that began with Australia's tourism efforts, the Indonesian-based company Blue Season Bali is offering the Best Dive Job in the World which will give one lucky winner the chance to live in Bali for seven months while undergoing training to become a PADI dive instructor. That training alone is worth more than $15,000.

The contest, which began this past Saturday and runs through February 28, 2011, is a simple one to enter. Interested “applicants” can either submit a one minute video or a 500 word essay answering the question “Why I want to change my life and become a PADI Instructor.” Once the contest closes, Blue Season Bali will review all the submissions and select one winner to join them in paradise.

The contest is open to anyone who will be 18 years of age, or older, when the contest closes on February 28th. You don't even need to have any dive experience to win, just a love for water, an adventurous spirit, and a willingness to work and play hard, while learning new skills that could lead to a new job and a major change in your lifestyle.

The actual prize consists of the PADI instuction of course, but also seven months single accommodations in Bali, a full compliment of scuba gear, certification and exams that are fully paid, unlimited diving for seven months, and much much more. To review the entire package, click here and to learn more about the contest, watch the video below.

[Photo credit: Scott Sanchez via WikiMedia]


Photo of the Day (10.31.10)

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Happy Halloween! Er, should I make that Happy Day of the Dead? Believe it or not, America isn’t the only country that likes to celebrate spooky holidays. In Mexico and some parts of Latin America, November 2nd is the chosen day to remember and celebrate the lives of deceased ancestors. Though one might think a holiday about death would be a somber affair, it’s usually not. Much like Halloween, family and friends get together to laugh, eat some good food and pay tribute to those who have passed. The jolly skeletons captured here by Flickr user borderfilms (Doug) in Chiapas, Mexico are a common Day of the Dead decorating theme.

Taken any great photos during your travels? Why not add them to the Gadling group on Flickr? We might just pick one of yours as our Photo of the Day.

Scandal as hundreds of historic treasures go missing

by Sean McLachlan on


An audit of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission has revealed that more than 1,800 historic artifacts can’t be found. Officials aren’t sure what happened to them but assume many have been stolen and others misfiled.

Missing treasures include a Kentucky rifle like those pictured above, an Ottoman ring that’s almost 800 years old, one-of-a-kind paintings and photographs, and other irreplaceable objects.

Officials hope most are simply lost in the system, which has been added to for almost a century with various filing systems being in vogue at different times, making for much confusion and sometimes leaving an artifact with more than one accession number, or the same number being used for more than one object. Anyone who has worked with historic archives will be familiar with this annoying phenomenon. Archives and museums rarely have enough funding to do a complete overhaul of the system and therefore problems get compounded over the years. The Pennsylvania commission has been especially hard hit by budget cuts, seeing its funding reduced from $58 million to $26 million in the past four years.

Another problem is theft. Artifacts such as Civil War memorabilia or an image of Daniel Boone (another MIA) can attract big money in the illegal antiquities trade. This encourages thefts from Paris to Baghdad. I conduct research at Madrid’s Biblioteca Nacional and security there was upped a couple of years ago after they caught a guy cutting out 17th century maps from old atlases and selling them on the black market. This sort of selfishness is great for private collectors who don’t mind breaking the law, but bad for the general public who have their nation’s legacy taken from them.

[Photo courtesy Antique Military Rifles]

Tarantula cocktail at the Langham London – yes, an actual tarantula

by Annie Scott on

It’s a Scorpion & Oven Baked Tarantula Tea Punch, to be exact. Happy Halloween, right?

Actually, it has nothing to do with Halloween. This unprecedentedly creepy cocktail is the result of the Courvoisier Spirit of Punch Masters competition this year, and was created by the Langham Hotel‘s very own Francesco Orefici and Alex Kratena. They decided to infuse the cognac with a real tarantula and scorpion. They won.

From their creepy recipe:

“Tarantula is baked in primitive fire heated oven. It is traditional and delicious snack, which if infused in spirits gives nice smoky, woody and tobacco notes. Scorpion, according to old legends, is known for healing properties as well as stimulating ones libido.”

This is starting to sound pretty good. They combine 50mL of the VSOP cognac infused with tarantula and scorpion with …

  • 25ml Poire William eaux de vie
  • 25ml Velvet Falernum
  • 25ml Freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 dash Angostura Bitters
  • 1 dash Regans Orange bitters no.6
  • 50ml Sencha tea
  • 3 pcs allspice
  • 3 tbspoon Mandarin peel infused sugar

… and serve it to you like it’s totally normal. Who knew tarantulas and scorpions created tobacco notes? What are these creepy-crawlies up to on their breaks?

[Photo by mikebaird via Flickr.]

Breaking: bomb explodes in Istanbul’s Taksim Square

by Grant Martin on

Taksim Square, one of the main tourist hubs of Istanbul, Turkey, was the setting of a suicide bombing this Sunday. The square and large thoroughfares surrounding the region are a highly trafficked area in the European side of Istanbul, no doubt part of the reason that it was targeted.

Details are still sketchy, but it appears that Turkish police were the target of the plot; according to MSNBC, 10 officers have been injured while an additional dozen civilians have also been involved. Depending on the source, there also may be two to three fatalities.

Tourists in the Turkish metropolis are advised to stay clear of Taksim Square, the pedestrian street leading up to the Republic Monument and any other highly trafficed part of town while authorities sort out the source of the bombings and pin down a motive.