Word for the Travel Wise (10/21/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

If I had more time I swear I’d sit in a huge kitchen and learn how to cook all my favorite exotic Thai, Peruvian, Japanese, and Indian dishes. The problem is I just don’t have the time. I’m on the go A LOT and while some of my hotel rooms are conveniently equipped with a microwave and fridge, trying to make tikka masala or anything curry is not likely to go over well. Anyhow, my daydreams of being a master of the cooking arts lead us to this word which some of you may wish to request less of depending on the dish.

Today’s word is a Hindi word from India:

pyaaz – onion

There are several awesome resources online to learn Hindi for free and a fee. Wikitravel Phrasebook provides many useful phrases to remember for your journey. Let’s Learn Hindi is a colorful place to pick up the basics and some additional tools. Those interested in reading Sanskrit can click here and Pimsleur has great audio books. To purchase a Lonely Planet phrasebook for the road, click here to head to Amazon.

Past Hindi words: pankhaa, Ravivar, lajawab, paisa, limbu pani

Photo of the Day (10/21/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on


Seeing amazing pictures from Thailand often gets me a little heated and tells me it is time to start planning again for a great Thai adventure of my own. (The tsunamis stopped me from going three days before my flight out. I know I’ve mentioned it a million times.) Sorry. Anyhow, this awesome sunset with water skier shot comes from weegolo who spent time in the Koh Samui area back in 98′. Great shot and thanks for the added inspiration! Hope to see more from this set.

The November 3rd Photo Project

by Adrienne Wilson on

Some folks might call Deia Schlosberg over at RoadJunky the nosey type – always poking and prodding where you shouldn’t, always placing the lens in the public’s face and you know where I’m going. Deia could be considered nosey to the extreme, but I wouldn’t say that. I’d say she’s a curious soul and now with your help and photos you can become part of a pretty awesome curious soul’s project. On November 3rd (a day that means nothing to mostly everybody and was chosen for no good reason) she asking that people from all over the world take at least 10 photos of what your day was like, what you see and experience. There must be one self-portrait and the photos don’t have to be great, which goes to say your self-portrait doesn’t have to be great or even close to good. The photos must all be a true representation of what your day was like and must all be taken on November 3, 2006. Captions should note the time and thoughts.

I don’t know where your pictures may possibly land, but I smell coffee brewing with some delicious pastry set out on the coffee table. Don’t you?

I’m game. Head over to RoadJunky for full details.

World’s 10 Most Polluted Places 2006

by Adrienne Wilson on

Make sure you include a respirator or some type of breathing mechanism on your packing list if heading to any of the destinations found on the Blacksmith Institute’s World’s Worst Polluted Places list. Keep in mind there will be no smelling of roses as you stroll the contaminated paths in Haina, Dominican Republic; Kabwe, Zambia; La Oroya, Peru; or Linfen, China. Instead, imagine whiffing the scents of sulfur dioxide, lead, Strontium-90, cobalt and Caesium-137.

On a very serious note the list is very disheartening and if you take an opportunity to read site descriptions in full it gets even worse. Numbers of the potentially affected population are included as well as types of pollutants (some longer than most), site description and cleanup activity. If you’re unable to connect with the dangers of what unusually high levels of any of the toxins noted can do — the pictures make it quite real. I mean, we’re talking some 3,500,000 people in Ranipet, India who could potentially be affected by disgusting, life-threatening toxins found in Tannery waste. This certainly won’t be the kind of information you find in tourism brochures or places your might ever consider for a holiday unless you’re into nuclear power plants, like Ukraine’s ever-so-popular Chernobyl. Chernobyl travel has most certainly been done before, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Then again, I’m just another sucker for fresh water and clean air.

via Gridskipper

Gadling Podcast: Travelistic

by Erik Olsen on

The online video space right now is hotter than Georgia asphalt…hotter in fact than a griddle sitting on a bonfire burning on the surface of the sun. YouTube cashed in to the tune of $1.5 billion when Google scooped them up recently, making several lucky individuals quite rich, and leaving the rest of us wondering whether GoogleTV will come to dominate the online video space. I, for one, hope not. And given the nature of the Web, I doubt it. New players are constantly emerging, finding satisfying niches to fill and offering legions of camera-toting Spielbergs the opportunity to become stars…even if just to a few friends and family members.

One genre that seems ripe for new players and opportunities is travel. You and I both know that if you were heading to, say, Cambodia, in a month or two, you’d love to peruse the various travel vids that others have done. Especially if they were informative (as opposed to people lighting their farts on fire in front of Angkor Wat) you’d get to find out what the best hotels are, and which ones you should avoid. You’d meet all sorts of new people, right from the cozy confines of your cubicle. Video is the new word, as it were, because we all know that a picture can be worth a thousand words.

And it is with real enthusiasm that I announce another Gadling podcast with the leader of a new company called Travelistic who is squaring off to compete in this new travel video space. We blogged about them earlier, and drew their attention, and so their CEO Nicholas Butterworth asked us to come down and have a quick chat. Which we did. The new site officially launches on Monday, but we got a sneak peak and learned a bit more than we knew about online travel video. There’s a lot to learn, including how YOU can possibly become the next “Rocketboom” host of a travel show.

We offer you a chance to hear that conversation, here and now.

(Time – 10:30)