GADLING’S TAKE FIVE: Week of October 22

by Adrienne Wilson on

Can everyone say TGIF? Boy, am I glad the first hint of the weekend has arrived. It’s been a long one and if your week happened to have been as hectic as mine then you may have missed some of these Gadling pieces, but never fear – they are here.

5. Paris Too Hardcore for the Japanese?:
Culture reads are always fun in my book and seeing how different tourists react in certain countries is also good info to know, but something about this piece on Paris being too tough on Japanese strikes me as odd. I’ve never heard of a city that caused one to seek psychological counseling after your return. Is there anyone out there who can back this up?

4. World’s Most Expensive Restaurants:
Follow poor Erik as he accidentally gets in on a dinner bill at one of NY’s most priciest restaurants and regrets ever showing up. After sharing his own personal story he points those that like having restaurant tabs starting at about $370 a person to this Forbes List of most expensive restaurants. Chow down for me, because you won’t find me there.

3. New York Times Looks at Los Angeles:
Erik lives in New York. Neil lives in Los Angeles. I live in Limbo. What better set of travel bloggers could one possibly find? While I stay out in the land of Limbo I can thank Neil for holding his ground in LA to help provide honest criticism on the City of Angels when folks like the NY Times try to sum it all in one go. If you’re considering travel to LA, read Neil’s blurb and this pretty good read from the NY Times as well. Then let us know what you think.

2. Dirty, Filthy, Nasty, & Unclean Airplanes:
Some find horror in film, but I find horror in real life. I call it soiled seats, filthy carpet and greasy windows 35,000 feet in air. I’m sure you’ve been on a dirty airplane a time or two. Well, reading this piece will probably have you reaching for that barf bag next time you fly.

1. Smoke-Free Hotel Rooms:
With this news I’m sure some non-smokers lungs are singing praise and screaming hallelujah! Yes, it looks as though Westin Hotel & Resorts along with the Marriott are banning smoking altogether in their chain of hotels. Good news for us, but I’m sure those not ready to kick the habit are either pouting or puffing it up in some shady smoked-filled motel room.

Photo of the Day (10/25/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on


Question – As travel photographers are we just suckers for children or are they really that cute? Seriously! I know I’ve taken a good handful of pictures of the foreign youngsters in the past. With most of my shots I always found extremely big bright eyes looking into the lens accompanied by goofy childish grins and giggles frozen in time. Here it feels like quite the opposite. We’ve got two very adorable young girls both sampling what looks like some overly delicious vanilla ice cream on cones. Neither seems interested in the camera and the one on the left looks more interested in her friend’s ice cream than her own. Very nice shot from vyxle taken in Japan and I love the fog in the background.

Want to see your photo on Gadling? Be sure to submit your favorite travel shots to our Gadling Flickr pool.

Study Before Studying Abroad

by Adrienne Wilson on

During my college days I never took the opportunity to do a semester abroad and I always wished I had. Not so much to learn about how the world operates outside of my own backyard, I was a military brat so I’d been a good handful of places, but I know studying abroad probably could have helped me pick up a foreign language ten times faster than being here in the States. Boo-hoo for me though. Those days have come and past and opportunities to do it the way it should have, could have and would have been done are gone.

Anyhow, enough with my boring sob stories. CNN has a piece from Budget Travel Online about some things to consider before taking off for your first semester abroad. It’s very basic, but I imagine it could come in super handy for the college student who has never been outside of say, Walla Walla, Washington. Questions on whether credits will be transferred, what the living conditions will be like and if you’ll need a visa or not are included along with others. Like always you’ll probably have to seek counsel from someone at your university for the specifics, but this is should get you off and running at least half-way. Just be sure you do your research!

As always, good luck!

Word for the Travel Wise (10/24/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Raise your hand if you’ve ever thought of teaching English in some place like, um, Japan. Don’t lie – I have. Maybe you didn’t want to even teach English. Maybe you thought about securing a good job or a semi-decent one and living the good life in the land of sumo, sushi and other Japanese things. Sigh. I’d surely like to live outside of the U.S. for a year or two and Japan definitely seems do-able. Here’s some expat blogs I stumbled upon and actually read through quite a few. All the voices and varied experiences make for some very fascinating reads.

Today’s word is a Japanese word used in Japan:

shigoto – job

Spoken Japanese comes smoothly for those who either practice or submit themselves to hours of Japanese pop music, but either way one can learn this language in through several avenues. Japanese Online is a VERY good FREE site to start learning. They have audio and a great conversation lessons. The lessons get more in-depth as you become a registered user which is still free of charge. Takese.com has a list of over 2000 words worth checking out. Those on the road already may want to pick up the LP Japanese phrasebook or check into a school for a few weeks of learning. Study Abroad has a list of school located all over the country. If you’re seeking help with written Japanese best of luck to you!

Past Japanese words: hajimemashite, dewa mata, tomodachi, omocha, uchiwa, nori

The Panda’s Thumb

by Erik Olsen on

Wasn’t there a book called The Panda’s Thumb? By Stephen J. Gould if I recall. Something about evolution. Well, the Panda’s Thumb took on new, rather tragic meaning this weekend when a panda (oh, he’s soooo cute!) bit off the thumb of an American visitor who was feeding the animal at a reserve in southwest China. The woman, mysteriously named “Lisa” to protect her from the media and the writers of the Darwin Awards series, is 50-years and had registered in the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Sichuan province as a volunteer…so said the official Xinhua News Agency, which is not usually so forthcoming about tragic events, unless they involve Americans, of course. To give the woman some credit, she was apparently wearing gloves .But that was not enough to prevent the animal from deciding that her fingers looked a lot more tasty than the panda prison slop they normally get at mealtime.