Baggage Handler: ‘Airline Passenger Packed The Kitchen Sink’

by Reena Ganga on

When it comes to packing for a vacation, there are those travelers who are minimalists, and then there are those out there who pack for every contingency. Imogen Needitall, a traveler from Atlanta, falls into the latter category. The 39-year-old caught the attention of airline staff after her oversized baggage got stuck in a conveyer belt passageway. A search of the passenger’s luggage revealed an 18-guage stainless steel kitchen sink.

Needitall’s excess baggage was first flagged when she went to check in for her flight between Atlanta and Nairobi. “Not only did her suitcase exceed the allowed dimensions, it was also 50 pounds over the weight limit,” says check-in agent Alissa Jones. To avoid paying hefty excess baggage fees, the airline urged Needitall to remove some of the items from her checked luggage. “Like a lot of travelers, I figured she had just packed too many shoes,” said Jones, “but to my surprise, the passenger started pulling out pots and pans – you know, the kind you cook with. She also began to remove some cutlery from her suitcase, but I had to stop her because we don’t allow sharp objects to be carried onto the flight.”Once it reached a reasonable weight level, airline staff allowed Needitall’s suitcase to be checked in. However, for Atlanta International Airport baggage handlers, the problems had only just begun. Routine x-rays of checked luggage revealed a suspicious rectangular metal object in Needitall’s suitcase, sparking off security fears. But before baggage handlers could reach the extra-large bag, it had managed to jam itself into section of the conveyor belt passageway.

“We actually had to cut the bag open in order to pull it out,” says baggage handler Neil Perkins. “That was when we saw what was inside. At first I thought it was some sort of newfangled explosive device … but I had a strong feeling I’d seen the object before. That’s when I realized it was a sink. Looking back, it seems so obvious, but taken out of the context of a kitchen, these things are easy to confuse. We’re trained to look out for bombs and other security threats, so the kitchen sink caught us off guard.”

When questioned about the unusual luggage, Needitall simply remarked, “Well I’m heading to Africa and I heard they don’t always have running water there. I just wanted to be prepared.”

[Photo credit: Flickr user scalespeeder]

Mountaineer To Attempt Slowest Everest Climb Ever

by Kraig Becker on

Climbing to the 29,029-foot summit of Mt. Everest is never an easy feat. It requires supreme dedication, uncompromising focus and peak physical conditioning, not to mention near perfect weather conditions and a healthy dose of luck. But one mountaineer attempting to summit the world’s tallest peak this spring is taking a novel approach to his Everest expedition. He plans to maximize his chances for success by going as slow as possible, even hoping to set a “slowest ever” speed record in the process.

Climber Bob “Gnarly” Goldstein says that most people who attempt Everest spend several weeks on the mountain acclimatizing for altitude before eventually making a four-day summit push. Along the way, they stay at a series of high camps that allow them to rest at various altitudes before proceeding higher. Eventually this puts them in position to go all the way to the top. Bob’s approach will be similar, although rather than staying at predetermined campsites along the way, he’ll simply make camp where ever he feels like it.

“I figure I’ll set out each day with no particular distance goal in mind,” Goldstein says. “I’ll walk until I get tired, then set up camp for another night. That may mean I walk for eight hours or eight steps, but I won’t be in any real hurry.”

Over the past decade or so, there has been a movement in the mountaineering community to go faster and lighter on some of the world’s most iconic peaks, including Everest. The speed record on the Himalayan peak is an astounding eight hours and 10 minutes and was set by Pemba Dorje Sherpa back in 2004. But no one has made a concerted effort to actually go slower – at least not until now.”Time will definitely not be of the essence,” Goldstein says. “It may take me days or even weeks to walk to the summit.”

This isn’t the first time Goldstein has attempted to shift paradigms in the world of extreme sports. In 2011 he announced his intention to ride a mountain bike to the summit of Everest, an endeavor that ended with a flat tire in Base Camp. “I didn’t think to bring a spare,” he says sheepishly. He followed that up last year with his attempt to kayak over the biggest waterfall on each continent, something he called the “Seven Plummets.” That adventure also met with failure when Bob nearly drowned attempting to complete an Eskimo roll in his neighbor’s swimming pool. “Turns out I don’t really like water all that much,” he notes.

This year he seems confident that his approach to climbing Everest will meet with success. He says he plans to spend a week or two in Base Camp before he starts up the slopes, but after that he has no timetable for when he’ll complete the expedition. “It may take me three or four days just to cross the Khumbu Icefall,” he says, referencing one of the more dangerous portions of the climb. Nearly everyone else will try to pass that section as quickly as possible but not Goldstein. “I hear it’s really scary there and I don’t do well when I get scared.”

Bob says he’s been training for this attempt for sometime. Knowing that he may have to set up his tent just about anywhere on the mountain, he has been practicing doing everything while on a slope, including sleeping and cooking his meals. “I’ve been living on the staircase in my home for the past month,” he says. “It’s been hard on the back, but in the long run it’ll prove beneficial for spending days on end on the Lhotse Face.”

He also says he’s been practicing doing everything very, very slowly. “I’m taking this record very seriously,” he tells me. “I intend to set the bar so low that no one will ever think about challenging it. I might be up there for two or three months, just enjoying the view.”

Dare to Dream, Bob. Dare to dream.

New Travel Startup Unadventure Caters To The Whelmed

by Mike Sowden on
When she was 16, Londoner Jennifer Olive went on holiday with her parents to the British seaside resort of Blackpool. The weather was lousy, their hotel was bland and she can’t remember where they went or what they did. A disappointment? Not so.

“A year later I went backpacking round India, walking one of the spice trails near Kerala. When you got up in the morning you had no idea what would happen that day, or what was ’round the next corner. Plans fell apart; we had to take detours and at one point we got lost and ended up staying with some total strangers. There was this constant sense that anything was possible. I hated it. The following year I went back to Blackpool and I’ve been every year since.”

Like many Britons, Olive believes that good travel is about exploring your comfort zone. A 2012 survey by Rough Guides found that more than three-quarters of Brits have been to the same destination more than once, and one in ten have returned to the same destination more than 10 times. The chief reason? The satisfaction of familiarity. Olive believes this kind of travel meets a basic human need to put down roots wherever you go, making a travel destination feel like a second home.

“It’s obviously important to see the world – but life is just too short to have a string of experiences that fail to meet your expectations. In the 32 years I’ve been spending my summers at Blackpool, I’ve got to know the place in a really deep and lasting way. I know every rundown cafe; I see the same people getting older – it feels familiar in a way India never did. I’ve rented out the same cottage for the last two decades, and at the end of every stay I carve a notch in the wainscoting. There’s a little line of notches there now. It helps me keep track of where the years went.”

Now she’s putting that guiding ethos to work with a startup she hopes will revolutionize 21st century travel. Set to launch in early 2014, Unadventure.com is a luxury tour operator that seeks to present its clients with the ultimate tailored travel experience – down to the very last detail. New customers fill out a 60-page application form and attend a series of interviews in order to build a detailed personality profile, and it’s this profile that determines the kind of holiday they’ll be given. Fond of the British cooked breakfast? That’s how you’ll start your days on your Unadventure holiday. No second language? Unadventure will find the perfect English expat enclave for you, or even ensure you don’t have to leave the country at all. From your favorite reading material to a sightseeing itinerary that guarantees no surprises, the aim is a bespoken holiday that will make you feel you’ve barely left home.

“They say that adventures happen when plans fall apart, and that’s exactly what we’ll seek to avoid at Unadventure.com. Tourism statistics show that most people don’t want to be overwhelmed by their travel experiences – and obviously they don’t want to be underwhelmed. What they want is to be whelmed. We’re going to whelm our customers. As part of the concept trial I anonymously put myself through the profiling process, and at the end, my team built the perfect holiday for me … in Blackpool. I feel that says a lot about the service we’re offering.”

Unadventure.com launches in early 2014.

[Photo Credit: Flickr user Яick Harris]

Photo Of The Day: All Signs Lead To …

by Anna Brones on

If you calculated how much time you look at certain things when you travel, signs would be at the top of the list. Whether it’s indicating a road or a restaurant, without signs we would quite literally be lost.

In some places, there are more signs than others, and in this photo, Flickr user Luke Robinson captures a jumble of signs in Hong Kong. In fact, it’s not even clear what each sign leads to. It almost begs the question whether too many signs actually just might make you feel more lost.

Want your photo featured on Photo of the Day? Submit it to the Gadling Flickr pool or mention @Gadling on Instagram and tag your photo with #gadling.

The Flying Drummer [VIDEO]

by Chris Owen on

At Gadling we know a thing or two about flying.

We’ve seen flying spiders in the sky over Brazil, flying people in New York City, flying rhinos in South Africa, even a flying fire-breathing dragon over Disney World. We’ve talked about flying to Mars, being afraid of flying, flying drunk and flying when you’re a person of size.

We know how to travel around the world without flying, where to find a flying casino and what it takes for humans to fly. But a flying drummer was a first for us and surely worth a look.

The world of air guitar has nothing on Freddy the Flying Drummer who we see in this video from EpicTV featuring a mad French man playing his drums in the air hanging off a rope.