Top five weekend travel media stories

by Grant Martin on

Among the travel stories in this weekend’s newspaper travel sections, the following articles were especially inspirational.

1. Peter Frick-Wright writes a lip-smacking ode to the Cowboy Dinner Tree steakhouse in Silver Lake, Oregon in Portland’s Oregonian.

2. In an article in Melbourne’s The Age, Jewel Topsfield cruises down the Mekong, through Cambodia and Vietnam. She eats a tarantula, too.

3. In the Times of London, Tom Chesshyre lists the world’s 20 best art hotels. There are some remarkably inexpensive hotels among the lot, including Amsterdam’s Hotel Winston, with double rooms starting at €70 per night.

4. In the New Zealand Herald, Jim Eagles goes birdwatching in Miranda, in New Zealand’s Waikato Region. Miranda is an hour from Auckland by car.

5. In the Independent, David Leffman provides a great traveler’s Iceland primer. Full of good consumer information, it also provides a handy historical snapshot.

(Image: Flickr/Fredrik Thommesen)

Photo of the Day (6.27.10)

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Vietnam’s Halong Bay is natural oddity unlike anything on earth. Huge limestone rock formations surge from the Vietnam’s coast like looming sea monsters, lending the landscape an unforgettable visual appeal. Flickr user andreakw has put Halong Bay’s unique rock formations to good use in today’s photo. The darkened outlines of limestone float mysteriously upon the horizon like some vanishing dream; a fleeting memory soon to vanish in our subconscious.

Have any great travel photos you’d like to share with the world? Why not add them to our Gadling group on Flickr? We might just pick one of yours as our Photo of the Day.

The Gobi March begins today

by Kraig Becker on

More than 150 of the world’s top ultra-runners have assembled in the remote city of Turban, located in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in western China, to take part in one of the most challenging foot races on Earth. The event is known as The Gobi March, and over the course of the next week, the competitors will endure six grueling stages through one of the harshest environments on the planet.

Each day this week the runners will head out on a course designed to test their strength and stamina. They’ll be required to carry all of the gear they’ll need for the day, including food and water, while navigating between desert checkpoints. When they reach the finish line for each stage, they’ll camp for the night, regaining their strength for the next day, when they’ll do it all again.

The first stage of the race takes part today over a 32km (20 mile) course that runs from the village of Gaoyachun through a remote valley in the Tian Shan Mountains, whose peaks will serve as a dramatic backdrop to the day. Temperatures are expected to climb above 100ºF, and the dry trail conditions will be an indicator of what is to come in the days ahead.

The top runners will finish the race with a combined time for all six stages in the 25 hour range, but the majority of the competitors will be much further back than that. The race is a test of endurance however, and just reaching the finish line is a major accomplishment for all involved.

[Photo credit: RacingThePlanet.com]

Is Thailand Safe Now?

by Andrew Evans on

Yeah, pretty much.

A full month has passed since Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and the slightly Orwellian-sounding CRES (Center for the Resolution of Emergency Situation) gave themselves an all-clear. The official sigh of relief follows a few weeks of fairly intense civil unrest–the chaos of ongoing street protests between yellow-shirted PAD and the red-shirted UDD claimed 88 lives and caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage and lost business. The violence only ended following an agreement to hold general elections this coming November. Since then, the Thai government has been implementing a number of important changes in order to return the country back to normal. (But honestly, was Thailand ever normal? I mean, does anyone fly 16 hours to a country because it’s normal?)

Although the emergency decree remains in place, the curfew has been lifted in Bangkok and the country. (That’s a very good thing because Bangkok with a curfew is like going on a date with your parents in the backseat.) A far more encouraging sign is that the US State Department has ended their travel advisory for Thailand, even disappearing it from their website.

If it was anywhere else in the world, this on-again/off-again safety status might seem alarming, but those who know Thailand understand how quickly people settle back into a peaceful, “life-is-good” sort-of existence. It’s also important to remember that the most recent protests were concentrated in very specific areas of Bangkok. Few signs remain that anything was ever amok.

Hesitant tourists are the unfortunate result of any political instability, no matter how short-lived. The resulting drop in foreign visitors to Thailand has instigated a price war among hotels and resorts across the country–if you thought Thailand used to be cheap, it just got a whole lot cheaper. A number of awesome deals are up for the taking, like Thai Airwarys’ Discover Thailand pass (fly to any 3 cities within Thailand for $278).It will take a long time for tourism to recover, for sure. To encourage reluctant travelers, the Thai Tourist Authority is now waiving visa requirements and all fees for any American traveler wishing to stay beyond the normally-allotted 30 days. Already eager to please as a culture, Thai businesses are also bending over backwards to accomodate visitors. All flights are running normally at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, which, for the record, is a far more efficient airport than JFK and LAX put together.

Regardless, travelers to any foreign country should always follow a “Stay Informed” mantra. Before you go anywhere (be it Ireland, Italy, or South Dakota), it’s best to make yourself aware of the political situation. People versus parliament is a universal struggle (see Tea Party) but in Thailand, there is a long back story to the back and forth between people, government and military. There is also a very long history of peace. The beaches aren’t bad either.

(Photo Credits: Ratchaprasong and The Media Slut on Flickr)

An unforgettable ride on Japan’s bullet train

by Jeremy Kressmann on

I don’t know who’s behind the recent glut of Japan-centric videos that’s been floating around web. Then again, it doesn’t matter, does it? All that matters is the creators behind these short movies are some seriously creative individuals. The video above comes to us courtesy of daihei shibata, a Tokyo resident who decided to film his recent train ride on Japan’s Shinkansen (bullet train) between Shinosaka and Tokyo.

Not only did Daihei film his entire warp-speed ride on the fast-moving trains using his digital camera, he’s also applied a unique editing treatment to the end product. You’ll notice there doesn’t seem to be a bottom half to the video – it’s simply a reflection of the image at the top. The end product is half home movie, half kaleidoscope – a trippy visual treat that both delights and amazes the viewer. Combined with the energetic song “So High” by rockers Van She and you’ve got the makings of some seriously great eye candy. Whether you’ve been to Japan or not, here’s your chance to take a wild journey through the unique eyes of one Japanese local. Enjoy.