Pee Before You Board Your Plane

by Adrienne Wilson on

Tonight I’ll follow in Iva’s foot steps by providing you with news on bowel movements in the world of travel. In case you were still wiping the coal from your eyes when you read that a woman and her flatulence grounded an American Airlines flight headed into Dallas I suggest you go back and re-read the post here. It’s true. It wasn’t that she had uncontrollable gas; it was her trying to cover the malicious odor up by lighting matches. Now what ever gave her the brilliant idea to light matches on planes?

Okay, so now that I’ve got your mind on odors, flatulence and other bodily functions lets talk about peeing on planes. You must be wondering by now what troubles peeing on planes can cause airlines? According to Jaunted, China Southern Airlines is encouraging passengers to take a leak before boarding their flights. Why? Apparently somebody out there had enough time to calculate how much energy is used when you flush and that equals as much as a car driving about six miles. And of course all that flushing is causing tons of energy and money to be wasted when you could have gone before your flight. My question is who thinks of this stuff? Every time I head into a lavatory now I’m going to picture a car driving down a six-mile stretch of some desert like road with yellowish and orange hues of color. Great!

Jordan and Egypt

by Erik Olsen on

I feel like I’ve been doing a lot of US and European travel posts lately, so I figured I’d drop one in here about one of the places in the world that really intrigues me: the Middle East. Now ,I did my honeymoon in Israel and Dahab, Egypt, both of which are now dear to me. But I have to say two places I missed that I really want to return to are Cairo and Jordan. I mean, how can you be a fan of the Indian Jones series and NOT want to see Petra? And the pyramids ?So what if they are now a tourist nightmare. I want to see them.

And so here is a piece over at MSNBC.com that takes on both of these places. The writer discuses all the famous tourist spots…it’s a basic travel piece…but somehow I came away with an even more passionate desire to check these places out. What makes the peice a bit more interesting is she visits during the holy days of Ramadan when, she says, people eat like eating is going out of style. But she hits some of the sites that have been part of my lifelist for many years, places like Luxor and, yes, the Pyramids. Then she spirits over to Jordan to see Petrra and once again I was filled with a desire to go. It’s a nicely done bit of work, and if you’re like me, you’ll get inspired all over again to see these ancient wonders.

Word for the Travel Wise (12/03/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Today has been an extremely long day of driving. I have no desire to see another car, steering wheel, vehicle, or anything to do with the road. I’m pooped. Only the call of duty keeps me up and that is bringing you today’s word and more! See how much I care?

Today’s word is a Mongolian word used in Mongolia:

gudamj – street

Mongolian is an Altaic language and spoken by over two million people throughout Mongolia (where it has official language status) and by up to three million people in northern China. Wikipedia doesn’t offer much for increasing your Mongolian vocabulary, but it has great background information. Learning Mongolian online will be tough without an understanding of their alphabet or script used. Omniglot is the perfect place to begin to start learning the alphabet. For quick reference use LP’s Mongolian Phrasebook on your trip.

Past Mongolian words: mori

Word for the Travel Wise (12/02/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

At the time you read this post I’ll probably be out and about around NYC with a friend enjoying my Saturday night as one should on the weekend. I haven’t much else to add so without delay here is your word for the day.

Today’s word is a Korean word used in Korea:

shigan – time

For more vocab words found on the menu check out Korea infogate. Several more words in the Korean alphabet with excellent pronunciation guides can be found at Mr. Oh’s Learn Korean website. It’s a fun place to start to learn the basics. KBS World Radio has a three part, 30 chapter online learning guide all for free. I can’t get the Hangul text to show up, but they’ve got sound clips of all the sample conversations available. Learn Korean dot net has most of the aforementioned along with a forum to meet other speakers both fluent natives and beginners. For a list of Korean language programs in the country click here.

Past Korean words: shik-sah, sollongtang, yuh heng, mollah yo, hullyunghan, chuhwangsaege

Count Calories While You Fly

by Adrienne Wilson on

Thanks to our healthy friends and sister site, That’s Fit, I just stumbled upon this awesome article out of the Seattle Times focusing on the nutritional value of those in-flight snack packs. You would think with cheese, crackers, peanuts and an occasional cookie one wouldn’t shoot their entire diet to hell, but beware!!! (Cue horror music.) If you thought the danger was in flying you were wrong – it’s in the honey roasted nuts! The story in the Seattle Times notes both Delta and U.S. Airways have the lowest health score, for more reasons than high in calories. The system is based on factors like how helpful the airline was in providing information, the cost of the snack pack (if any) and the exercise equivalent to burning off the calories found in each pack. Let’s take the Delta snack pack for example since it ranks the absolute worst. According to their info you’d have to walk 197 minutes to burn off the 766 calories found in Delta’s bag of treats. That’s a lot of walking for so little food.

On the upside, those flying with United need not worry so much as a frequent Delta or U.S. Airways flyer. United Airlines ranks tops. The snack packs offered on board are vegetarian friendly and trans-fat-free. Although the cost is $5, they have the largest selection of snack choices. Surprisingly, you’ll need to do a good amount of walking to burn off the calories found in an United pack (up to 231 minutes for munching on a Smartpack), but at least you’ll know that your balancing it all out.

I highly recommend reading this one if you’re trying to keep track of your diet every step and flight on the way to your holiday destination and beyond.