Photo of the day – Philadelphia skyline

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Today’s Photo of the Day is of a piece of the Philadelphia skyline, anchored by the 1930 PNB Building. It was taken by Christian Carollo Photography.

A few years ago, Philadelphia suddenly started cropping up in the travel media as a bypassed destination, as a place that was finally getting the attention it had deserved all along. This development accompanied a spate of stories about the evolution of Philadelphia as the “new” or “next” Brooklyn.

Philadelphia is just one of many North American cities that has fallen by the wayside in the public imagination. Cleveland, Detroit, Cincinnati, Winnipeg, and Indianapolis are right up there with Philadelphia, each for different, contextually specific reasons.

Got an image of a secondary North American city that doesn’t get the press it deserves? Upload it to the Gadling group pool on Flickr. If we like it, we might very well choose it as a future Photo of the Day.

Motorola Roadster Bluetooth hands free car kit review

by Scott Carmichael on

The Motorola Roadster Bluetooth hands free car kit is one of the smallest on the market, with one of the best feature sets.

Times are changing – and it is no longer socially (or legally) acceptable to be driving around with your phone in one hand and your steering wheel in the other. Sure, not all cities or states have introduced legal measures to ban the use of your phone without a hands free unit or headset, but there is no denying that it is much safer to use some basic technology.

The basics are all there in the Roadster – it’ll do hands free calls, incoming caller announcement and features a smart power management system and multi-point connections (which let you connect to more than one phone at a time). The Roadster comes with a MicroUSB charger cord, and since most phones also feature this connector, you can consider that a decent bonus.

As soon as you turn the Roadster on, it plays a pleasant little tune, and a female voice walks you through the paring process. Once paired, the voice will announce the name of the paired phone each time you activate it.

Controls are simple – a sliding power switch on the side means you don’t need to fiddle around with buttons to turn it on. Volume and music is controlled with buttons on the rear, and a call control/mute button lineup is on the front.

Calls sound fantastic – thanks to active echo cancellation and dual microphones with noise cancellation. If you pair the Roadster to a phone with the Motospeak software, you’ll even have access to text message dictation (as found on some of their other Bluetooth products). Volume is more than sufficient, even if you drive around in a noisy car or with the window open.

Now for the fun part – the Roadster can transmit its speaker to an FM frequency. This means you can use your car stereo speakers to listen to phone calls. The FM is extremely powerful, and even when set to a frequency close to an active station, there was almost no interference.

The unit clips to your visor and stays in place quite nicely. Because of the curved front, the control buttons are always in reach.

Best of all, the Roadster also lets you stream stereo Bluetooth music to the unit or the FM transmitter. With this, you can get in a (rental) car, stream your tunes to the Roadster and broadcast them to the car stereo speakers.

Battery life is an impressive 20 hours of talk time or 3 weeks of standby. You do not need to turn the unit off each time you leave your car either – as soon as it detects a lack of Bluetooth phones in range, it’ll go into standby mode. Enter your car, and it turns on again.

The Roadster is available directly from Motorola ($99.99 + 10% discount) or from Amazon.com ($64.88).

Winter in Alaska: Paws for Adventure dog mushing tour through Fairbanks (video)

by Darren Murph on

In the spirit of journeying during periods less traveled, I’ve embarked to Alaska this winter. Follow the adventures here, and prepare to have your preconceived notions destroyed along the way.



Video footage from my one hour Paws for Adventure dog sled tour in Fairbanks, AK

The more time I spent in Alaska during the winter, the more I asked myself why this wasn’t considered a tourist season. A week or so ago, Fairbanks was gifted with an atypical dumping of fresh powder, making the conditions more than perfect for a day of dog mushing. Following the races down at Fur Rondy, I headed up north to Fairbanks for a slightly different kind of dog race: one that began and ended at a homestead. Paws For Adventure is an Alaskan outfit that uses their stable of dogs strictly for casual runs — nothing competitive whatsoever. These pups were downright adorable, and I was able to sit down (with owner Leslie Goodwin) in a sled behind ten beautiful dogs. They hauled us along like champs, and they were thrilled to be doing it. I couldn’t help but make a few rounds praising them all afterwards, and even now, it’s one of the highlights of my trip to The Last Frontier. If you’re looking for a truly Alaskan adventure to partake in whilst in Fairbanks, look no further. Have a peek at the video above to get a gist of what to expect.

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[Images provided by Dana Jo Photography]

My trip was sponsored by Alaska Travel Industry Association, but I was free to report as I saw fit. The opinions expressed in this article are 100% my own.

Video: Airbus A380 contrails as seen from the cockpit of a 747 at 35,000 feet!

by Scott Carmichael on

Apologies for the slightly confusing title – this is a video you need to see to really understand how cool it is. If you don’t have the time (or patience), scroll ahead to the forty second mark and watch the beauty of the Airbus A380 as it passes under this KLM Boeing 747 – just 1000 feet away.

This really was a rare opportunity for the crew of the KLM to record this event, and we’d like to thank them for taking the time to shoot it.

48 Hours in Kathmandu

by Matthew Firestone on

Few city names roll off the tongue quite like Kathmandu. Maybe it’s the unusual spelling, the exotic string of vowels or the simple fact that it’s located on the far side of the planet at the base of the Himalayas. Whatever it is, the mere mention of Nepal’s legendary capital is enough to make you want to pack your bags and jump on the next flight.

Kathmandu is one of the famed stops on the 1960s overland ‘Hippie Trail,’ which stretched from London to Sydney via North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. This journey gave rise to Lonely Planet – and indeed the modern backpacking phenomenon – though it ended abruptly in the 1970s in response to increasing regional instability.

Since then, Kathmandu has weathered its fair share of uprising and civil strife, but things are starting to look much calmer. And so, in honor of one of the greatest cities in Central Asia, Gadling is proud to present 48 hours in Kathmandu.Whether you’re stopping by Kathmandu en route to China or India, or using the city as a jumping off-point for Himalayan trekking circuits, Kathmandu demands at least a day or two of your time. Not sure what to do? Try this list for starters.

1) Shop and eat out on the cheap in Thamel. The original backpacker ghetto of tea shops and tour operators is now a proper destination in its own right. Bargain hunters can stock up on bulk tea, Buddhist prayer flags, carved wooden boxes, mountaineering equipment, dodgy antiques and all manners of Nepali kitsch.

And then there’s the food.

Nepal is home to a large Tibetan refugee population, which means that momo are on all the menus. If you’ve never indulged in this truly Himalayan delicacy, then you’re missing out on fried or steamed flour dumplings stuffed full of chicken, water buffalo, onions, shallots, coriander and/or cilantro. Add a spicy dipping sauce and you’re good to go.

2) Visit Nepal’s version of the burning ghats. Somewhat akin to Varanasi in India, Pashupatinath on the banks of the Bagmati River is the one of the world’s largest temples dedicated to Lord Shiva. In accordance with Hindu faith, it is also the site of public cremations on funerary pyres.

To be very clear, a visit to Pashupatinath is not for the faint of heart as the sights, sounds and smells of burning human flesh is an intensely visceral experience. But it’s also a deeply sacred experience, and a potent reminder of the beauty and frailty of human life.

3) Survey the city from the heights of the Monkey Temple. Swayambhunath is a Buddhist stupa perched at the top of a hill in the western end of Kathmandu valley. It’s also inhabited by mischievous roaming troops of monkeys.

Although they’re considered to be holy denizens, they also tend to be holy pains in the rear. Watch your bags if you’re carrying any food. Even if you’re not, don’t be surprised if they snatch at your purse or satchel out of habit. Clever little beasts.

4) Visit Kathmandu’s holiest Buddhist sight. Although it’s completely sheltered from the main road by a row of buildings, Boudhanath is one of the largest stupas in the world. While walking counterclockwise around the base, run your fingers across the prayer wheels while silently mediating. Contemplative bliss never came easier.

Once you’ve completed the circuit, you can ascend the staircase to the apex of the stupa, which is completely strung up with prayer flags and blanketed by a cloud of incense. Add chanting monks and ringing bells to the mix, and you’ll see why Boudhanath is revered as Kathmandu’s top tourist sight.

5) Day-trip to the ancient city of Bhaktapur. If you’ve got a second day to spare, a visit to this once great medieval kingdom is akin to stepping back to the glory days of the Silk Road. Lying at the crossroads of India and China, Bhaktapur grew wealthy on the caravan trade, which resulted in the construction of an elaborate pagoda-filled skyline.

One insider tip: don’t miss the chance to sample Ju-Ju Dhau, commonly referred to as the king of yoghurts. This delectable treat is served in handmade clay bowls, and is unlike any of the pasteurized blends you’ll find at your local grocery store. On the contrary, it’s made fresh and best finished in one helping.

Kathmandu might not have the urban chic of Beijing and New Delhi. But what it lacks in flashiness, it more than makes up for in personality. Where else can you bask in the shadows of the Himalayas while retracing centuries-old trade routes and paying homage to some of the most sacred sites in both Hinduism and Buddhism.

Namaste. Kathmandu awaits.

** All images are original photographs produced by this blogger **