Gadling on AOL Travel

by Erik Olsen on

Some of you may have noticed, perhaps because you came
here from there, but we here at Gadling.com have done a couple of helpful travel pieces this week for the good folks at
AOL.com. We worked our brains over how best to satisfy the AOL audience as Spring
approacheth and people are making plans. And we settled on seven ideas for seven days.

We hoped to cover wide enough variety of trips to satisfy just about everybody, and so did
write ups on the best secret places to go in Mexico and Hawaii, as well as both East and West Coast Trips (Even through I’m from the West Coast, Neil
lives there now in So Cal, so he handled the West. And since I live in New
York, I took on the East Coast). Then there was a piece on Family Spring Breaks, and one on Spring Ski Slopes. And finally, last but by no means least, a
piece by Adrienne on Caribbean Trips. Anyway, if you came
to Gadling.com from these pieces, then welcome! Bookmark us and come back often. If you are a Gadling.com regular or
occasional visitor, go check out these pieces, maybe they’ll give you some inspiration to do some traveling.

Spring Break 2006

Red Corner: Pipelines and Earthquakes = Bad News for Lake Baikal

by Neil Woodburn on

Bad news for my favorite lake.

The Russian government has approved a measure to build an oil pipeline within 800 meters of Lake Baikal in Siberia. 800 meters may seem a fair distance, but not when you consider two things: Lake Baikal is one of the cleanest lakes in the world and it is located in earthquake country. Hmm… is it just me, or do you also see a recipe for disaster here? Even the company in charge of the project admits that a damaged pipeline could dump 40,000 tons of oil into the world’s largest freshwater lake. This would be an environmental catastrophe that would spell doom for the thousands of endemic species that inhabit the lake.

Various environmental groups are challenging the measure but will probably have little impact on the government decision makers responsible for the pipeline. This is Russia, after all-though it’s starting to look a lot like the current Bush administration if you ask me.

Urban Explorers: Embracing the Buried and Abandoned

by Neil Woodburn on

In response
to Erik’s post about Urban
Exploration, I offer up one of my favorite sites on the subject: www.infiltration.org.  Although Urban Exploration can simply mean the
exploration of a city, its true meaning is far more subversive.  Urban explorers actually explore areas of a city
that are closed to the public or otherwise condemned.  This includes abandoned buildings, sewer and utility
tunnels, storm drains, old factories, and pretty much anywhere else that has an easily climbable fence or a broken
window to worm through. 

We all did this as kids (storm drains being my specialty) but now this curiosity has manifested itself into
well-organized (but nonetheless illegal) clubs and organizations.  Infiltration.org is a wonderful resource for
finding a club or chapter near you.  Aficionados can hook up with fellow troglodytes and trespassers in Poland, Belgium, Detroit, Moscow, San Francisco, New
York and countless other locations thanks to the site’s interactive map. 

There is also a link to those infamous college
tunnels across America.  Since students are routinely informed they would be expelled from school if ever
caught within these tunnels, you can imagine the allure.  I sadly chickened out and never did the ones at my
university, but thanks to this site, I can at least
explore them virtually today with degree firmly in hand. 

 

Hippie Chimpanzees: Get Drunk and Eat

by Neil Woodburn on

It’s a very sad world indeed when one is confronted with a sense of urgency when
merely wanting to view wild animals in their native habitat.  But, if you don’t move quickly, you may just lose
that opportunity with the bonobo chimpanzee. 

Only about 5,000 bonobo remain in the rainforests of Congo.  This is due to a rather unfortunate fact:
they’re good eatin’.  The meat from a bonobo can fetch up to $200 from local restaurateurs, a rather
hefty amount in this poor nation.  As a result, hunters have taken to the forests with guns and bottles of
alcohol.  It seems the apes have an affinity for beer and once drunk, are easily caught as the alcohol dulls their
brachiating abilities.

While getting apes drunk and eating them is a tragedy in anyone’s book, it seems far worse in the case of the
bonobo because of their reputation as the “hippie chimpanzee.”  They’ve earned this moniker
through their embrasure of free love.  When rival groups meet each other in the forests, they do so with
“genital handshakes” and massages.  If an argument results—which is hard to believe after such a
greeting—it usually ends with a French kiss and a quickie in the forest.  Afterwards they share a
joint.  Okay, just kidding about the last part, but you can understand how the tragedy of killing such creatures
is made even worse by the caring and peaceful lifestyle they embrace.

Efforts to save the gentle beasts have resulted in the Bonobo Paradise Sanctuary in the Congolese capital
of Kinshasa where workers rescue the animals from the menus of underground restaurants around the city.  This is
your best bet to spot the endangered chimpanzees, unless, of course, you head out to the forest with a couple bottles
of Heineken. 

 

GADLING'S TAKE FIVE: Week of February 26

by Neil Woodburn on

It’s Friday, the end of the week, so that means it’s time for a quick wrap up of
some of the posts you may have missed.

5.  Postcards from Trinidad:
Seven
Thanks to the marvel of technology, Adrienne is posting this week from Trinidad where, in her sober
hours, she is keeping the Gadling spirit alive.  Over the past week, she has been gracing us with a handful of
wonderful photos from one of the biggest parties in the world: Carnival.  If you don’t have a chance to
check out the others she has posted, do yourself a favor and at least click on this hauntingly beautiful one. 

4.  Red
Corner: The Wonders of Lake Baikal in Wintertime
Lake Baikal in the heart of Siberia continues to fascinate
me.  This week’s post discusses the various tourist opportunities still operating in the middle of
winter.  It may seem crazy, but a frozen lake simply provides one more surface to drive upon, and one more surface
to scuba dive beneath.  Locals don’t stop what they are doing in the winter, and neither should
tourists.  

3.  Going to the World Cup
Everyone knows that the World Cup is kicking off in Germany next summer, but no one knows just how to score tickets
to the big matches.  Well, Erik unearthed a novel way to do so.  Simply fly from Dubai to select German
cities on Emirates Airlines and grab yourself some “free” tickets as part of the airline’s
promotional giveaway.

2.  Strange Name Places: Psycho
Path
We’ve all come across strangely named streets while traveling and now someone has put their very
favorite together in a collection aptly summarized by Erik.  The favorites?  Divorce Court and Psycho
Path.

1.  Hitler Hotel
Ah yes, the Hitler
Hotel.  Another strange post this week, this one managing to combine the Third Reich with a fancy place to
stay.  If you’re interested in bedding down where the Fuehrer once slept, get yourself to Berchtesgaden and
catch some Zzzzz’s. And no, the new hotel is not located at 666 Psycho Path.