Lonely Planet’s ultimate travel resource books

by Neil Woodburn on

At what point did Lonely Planet become National Geographic?

I just got my hands on two recent publications from what was once a small guidebook company specializing in Southeast Asia. The Africa Book and The Asia Book are the latest endeavors into big league publishing from Lonely Planet; and both are loaded with images as spectacular as anything one might find in the pages of National Geographic.

But what makes these books even better than anything National Geographic has ever produced, is that they continue to maintain that same Lonely Planet travel philosophy which has routinely produced some of the very best guidebooks in the world.

The Asia Book and the Africa Book are both patterned in the same manner. For starters, they both have the same subtitle: A journey through every country in the continent. And, they’re not lying.
Each glossy-paged, coffee table book dedicates 2 to 4 pages per country, briefly describing the landscape, history, people, marketplace, natural beauty, cuisine, the urban scene, and a handful of other topics that vary on a regional basis. The best section, however, details the top five to ten “essential experiences” for each country. This would be the best travel highlights, each of which makes me salivate every time I read them.

And then, of course, there are the photos. Just in case the text hasn’t won you over, a series of jaw-dropping photographs are there to complete the job. This, folks, is the one-two-punch to really get that travel bug itching.

Something else I quite enjoyed about this series is the thematic travel routes at the beginning of the books which tie many of these countries together for those interested in much longer travels. The Great Journeys section of the Asia Book, for example, features such grand expeditions as the Overland Trail, Island Hopping around Asia, the Silk Road, the Annapurna Circuit, the Empires of the East, and In the Footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia.

Very cool! If you’ve ever said, “I want to go to Asia/Africa,” but don’t know too much beyond that, you should really consider picking up one of these books. Keep it out on your coffee table like I do and leaf through it occasionally when you have some free time. Before you know it, your Places to Go list will be unmanageably long. And you’ll have Lonely Planet to hate for that.

Big in Japan: How do you say ‘power nap’ in Japanese?

by Matthew Firestone on

In 1980s, corporate culture the world over embraced a simple and effective technique for combating fatigue – the power nap.

According to Wikipedia, a power-nap is a short sleep that terminates before the occurrence of deep sleep or Slow-Wave-Sleep (SWS), and is intended to quickly revitalize the subject from drowsiness.

The term was coined by the famous Cornell University social psychologist, Dr. James Maas.

Although they may not taste as good as a Starbucks double mocha latte, there is no denying that power naps are an extremely effective way to combat fatigue and increase performance.

Sadly, few workers in corporate America would feel comfortable resting their head on the keyboard at work, though things are all together different in Japan.

Not only is power napping completely acceptable in Japan, it’s actually encouraged by employers.

In fact, there is even a specific term to describe this practice, namely inemuri ( ????????) or literally “sleeping while present”.

And here’s the best part…

Since you spend so much time in the office that you can’t ever get a normal night’s rest, inemuri shows employers how committed you are to the job!

Surprised? So was I, though hopefully this post will help clear things up a bit!

For starters, why exactly are power naps so effective?

According to American sleep expert Dr. Sara Mednick, regular power napping is a “lifesaving habit that can help improve your health and sex life, slim the waist and boost work performance.”

In fact, a 20-minute nap can give you an amazing energy boost, even if you just close your eyes and allow your mind to take a rest.

So, if power naps are such an effective tool for increasing efficiency, than why is the practice vilified in the West and revered in the East?

Although at first it may sound completely counter-intuitive, in Japan a person’s commitment to work is judged by the frequency in which they engage in inemuri.

Since the need to indulge in inemuri is the result of working hard and sacrificing sleep at night, Japanese employers feel that it is one of the best indicators of job performance.

(Believe it or not, some Japanese people fake inemuri to score extra brownie points with their boss!)

According to Dr. Neil Stanley, a sleep expert at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in the UK, “The Japanese are right in their assessment that you work better after a nap than before it.”

He continues: “There’s a degree of machismo about it, you’re saying look how hard I’ve worked. But that’s better than the macho rituals we have over here, like how late you can send a work email to prove how long you’ve been working.”

Of course, there are strict rules to inemuri.

For instance, only those high up or low down in a company are allowed to nap at work. And, you must remain upright at all times, which shows that you are still socially engaged.

So, the next time you’re caught getting some shut eye at work, just tell your irate boss that you weren’t napping, but rather practicing the sacred Japanese art of inemuri.

Dubai Shopping Nightmare 2008

by Abha Malpani on

By now, you all must be familiar with the Dubai Shopping Festival. In its 12th year running (this year January 24-February 24), for the world it is a shopping wet-dream; the height of splurge — justified because it’s “the best bargain on the planet”; a gold-lover’s paradise; unlimited opportunities to win multiple cars, money and kilos of gold. But, for people who live in Dubai, it is hell.

I lived in Dubai from 1998-2006, and I hated the festival. Everything that stands on the road is lit up: lamp-posts, trees, buildings, bridges, bushes, gas stations, restaurants, shops — all have lights twirled around them; stand still for more than 5 minutes and odds are that you will be wrapped in lights too. It’s so illuminated, you need sunglasses at night.

Dubai probably has the worst traffic in the world: it would take me 45 minutes to drive to work on a normal morning; my office was only 7km from my house. It worsens during the festival as people from neighboring cities and countries drive in. Going anywhere is self-inflicted pain. To add to the chaos, the metro is under construction and half of Dubai’s roads are dug up, already causing havoc on the roads. I don’t even want to think about the what the festival traffic mess will be like this year.
The population of Dubai is about 1.25 million; in 2005, 3.3 million people visited Dubai during the festival month. And where do all these people go? To the malls to shop. DUH!

Shopping during the festival is punishment that begins the minute you head in direction of a mall: the traffic, the lines to park (most malls have at least 10-levels of parking but it’s impossible to find a spot quickly), and once you get in, don’t be surprised if you are part of a stampede waiting to happen. As for the shops, the prices are hiked pre-event, so come festival and the offers seem like a super-bargain. Not true. Also, shops often use the festival to get rid of old stock.

There are fun fairs on some of the main streets which means Disneyland type music blaring and a gazillion people walking around. The Global Village takes the fair concept to a different level as it promises a flavor of every country in the world. Although excellently marketed, it is a total anti-climax once you get there. Very little is authentic; most of the stuff is commercial and expensive. It is a rip-off and very crowded, so in general it magnifies the annoyance value of fun fairs.

And lastly: every night, for the whole month, at 8pm there is a 20 minute, non-stop, eardrum bursting firework display. It’s just about tolerable the first week, but after that you really want to hunt down and kill the person who invented firecrackers.

I suffered a serious and extended bout of migraine when one year it was canceled and the following year they decided to make up for it by having it for two months rather than one.

In conclusion: keep in mind that only a city like Dubai can pull something off like this with such audaciously ludicrous opulence (this year you can win 2 Lexus’s and up to US$205,000 EVERYDAY). Like the city, it’s worth visiting for amusement value.

GADLING TAKE FIVE week of 1-4-2008

by Catherine Bodry on

Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe that another holiday season has blurred by, drenched in spiked eggnog, reindeer sweaters, and of course, the ever-sobering debacle that is holiday travel.

Justin gave us the top ten stories of 2007–check those out here. As for this week, when 2007 rolled over into 2008, here’s what stands out:

  • Kelly gave us a preview of ten travel books for 2008, as part of her ongoing feature One for the Road.
  • Jamie offered two travel resolutions every savvy traveler should make this year.
  • Matthew got his very own apartment in Tokyo, and gave Gadling readers the rundown on just how much cash you need to rent an apartment there (hint: it’s a lot more than first, last, and a security deposit).
  • Abha had a heart to heart with Chuck Thompson, author of Smile While You’re Lying. Find out what he had to say about “sun-dappled barf” and how he ended up starving and begging for help on a Thai island. Also, enter to win a copy of his book.
  • Finally, if you suffer from post-holiday letdown (or, more likely, post-holiday hangover), Aaron’s got an idea to help turn that frown upside down.

That’s all! May your 2008 be filled with on-time flights, first-class upgrades, and alternative fuel.

Big in Japan: 37,000 year-old baby mammoth arrives in Japan

by Matthew Firestone on

This past Saturday, the frozen corpse of a baby mammoth arrived at Tokyo International Airport, just in time for the New Year’s festivities.

Discovered last May by a reindeer herder near the Yuribei River in northern Siberia’s remote Yamal-Nenets region, the six-month-old female mammoth calf had been encased in a layer of permafrost for 37,000 years.

According to Russian officials, the baby mammoth’s state of preservation is nothing less than remarkable.

The frozen mammoth’s trunk and eyes are entirely intact, and much of the body is still covered in fur. However, the tails and ears are missing, though there is evidence that they were apparently bitten off.

Alexei Tikhonov, the Russian Academy of Science’s Zoological Institute’s deputy director, has already stated on several occasions that the prospect of cloning the animal was unlikely.

Under freezing conditions, the whole cells required for cloning burst from invading ice crystals, though the DNA is kept nearly intact.

According to Mitsuyoshi Uno, an official with the joint Russo-Japanese mammoth-study project, this DNA will undoubtedly give us a better insight into phylogeny and physiology of these extinct wonders of nature.

After touching down in Japan, the mammoth was transferred to Tokyo’s Jikei Medical University, where it will undergo a computed tomography (CT) scan.

A CT scan is a groundbreaking diagnostic tool that allows scientists to get 3-D pictures of the body that is nearly as detailed as conducting an actual autopsy.

As a result, the goal of the research is to acquire detailed information about the animal’s organs and internal structure while simultaneously preserving the intact body.

So what exactly is a mammoth?

The word “mammoth” refers to any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus, which were proboscideans (elephants or their extinct relatives) equipped with long curved tusks and covered in long hair.

Mammoths lived from the Pliocene epoch from 4.8 million years ago to around 4,500 years, which coincided with the end of the last Ice Age.

To date, a definitive explanation for their mass extinction is yet to be agreed upon, though there are three predominant competing theories.

One hypothesis is that the entire population was wiped out due to climate change, which is a scary proposition (to say the least) considering the precarious nature of our present situation (eg global warming, greenhouse gases, polar ice melting, etc.).

A second theory suggests that the entire population was wiped out due to infectious disease, which is also a scary proposition (to say the least) considering the precarious nature of our present situation (eg SARS, avian flu, HIV/AIDS, MRSA, etc).

Another theory was that mammoth populations were hunted to the brink of extinction by early human, who may have depended on them for food and clothing. Archaeologists have found butcher marks on several mammoth bones, and their remains are often found in association with early human camp sites.

Anyway, in case you’ve never seen a mammoth before (few of us have!), the frozen carcass and scan images will go on public display starting on January 4 at an office building in central Tokyo.