Brad and Angelina Get Mobbed

by Erik Olsen on

Poor Brad and Angelina. They can’t even take a quiet rickshaw ride together without being mobbed by, well, a mob.

As jaunted pints out in this post, the two are currently in Pune, India, filming a new movie called A Mighty Heart (about Daniel and Mariane Pearl), and as they took a leisurely ride together, people swarmed them. Never mind that this is what happens to all Westerners who ride in Rickshaws in India. Brad’s ego was apparently hurt when he discovered that “baksheesh” does not mean autograph in Hindi.

Photo of the Day (10/8/2006)

by Erik Olsen on

Yes, the gentleman in this picture looks an awful lot like an arch enemy of Superman in one of the latter sequels. Perhaps an oil magnate determined to send a toxic cloud of neptunium over the world if his demands are not met. But the photo, from teokaye, is actually of a Yazgulomi, a Tajik group that speaks an “off-shoot of Sogdhi, from the Sogdian dynasty” In fact, “many believe they’re mixed descendants of Iskander Zulkarni” …or so much of the description reads for this wonderful photo with (evidently) a lot of history behind it. An excerpt from Dune? Nope, although I swear this guy could be cast as Baron Harkonen. Alas, I just like the way the guy’s eyebrows look like they’re ready to burst forth and become caterpillars.

GADLING’S TAKE FIVE: Week of October 1

by Adrienne Wilson on

Buckle down everyone and grab some hot cocoa. It’s time for another weekly dose of Gadling’s Take Five.

5. Shrink is Located in Terminal A:
Fear of flying? Get help and get over it! Iva brings a great piece from USA Today which talks of Buenos Aires response to those who are afraid to fly. You can now find a shrink in the terminal. Can someone say “hooray?”

4. America’s Best Restaurants:
Eating is one of our favorite past times and can be especially delightful while on the road. That is unless you are eating junk 24/7. Skip the ick food and swing into America’s 50 Best Restaurants as found in Gourmet Magazine.

3. Hidden Gems: Pamir Botanical Gardens:
Tour the world’s second highest botanical gardens found in Tajikistan or specifically in the Pamirs. Take a look at photos and my first hand experience traveling through parts of Central Asia where little is known.

2. Playboy Club Reopens:
I’m sure heels are clicking somewhere over this news provided by Neil. The new Playboy Club have reopened in Las Vegas’ Palms Hotel starting today. Fella’s beware of any women dressed as bunnies and remember always to behave.

1. Space Tourist Anousheh Ansari Blogs:
Envious – indeed we are! How I’d love to travel to space and I’m sure there are many folks who feel just the way I do. Until we can afford it, I mean, until we get our chance there are other outlets. In the meantime we can read the blogs of the most recent tourist to soar out of this world, Anousheh Ansari.

Word for the Travel Wise (10/05/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Looks like we’re a day late and a dollar short of visiting the Sinanggiyaw Festival held in Dumanju, Cebu (Philippines), but with careful planning you should be able to catch this annual event and celebration of planting, harvesting and thanksgiving next year. Sounds like a real colorful and exciting time for the both the natives and a wandering tourist.

Today’s word is a Cebuano word used in the Philippines:

sayaw – dance

Seeing how I normally point to Tagalog words when heading to the Philippines for the language feature I’m going to keep the information on Tagalog below. As for Cebuano, it is spoken by approximately 20,000,000 people, most of which are inhabitants of Cebu, Bohol, and Negros Oriental as noted in Wikipedia.

Tagalog is one of the major languages in Central Philippines and part of the Austronesian language family. For some reason I was surprised by the number of free GOOD resources available to prospective Tagalog student. Wikipedia has great background info on the lingo as well as related languages, Bikol, Hiligaynon, Waray-Waray, and Cebuano. Mongabay pretty much covers all the really good, up and running links to sites that help teach Tagalog, after checking out a few I’ll do the favor of pointing the best out. The first is an interactive language and Filipino culture resource site tools are provided for both teachers and students. A pretty intense breakdown on local slang and how it is derived can be found here. Travel Lang has word and phrase generator that spits out all the basic words you’d use while visiting.

Past Filipino/Tagalog words: taon, kalye, alak, masarap

Last Best Places

by Erik Olsen on

We post a lot here about various things to see on the net that we know will be of interest to those with a passion for travel. And occasionally those posts contain some activist aspect since, let’s face it, travelers tend to be curious, passionate people who share an interest in preserving the wondrous places around the world that always inspire us. Well, I’d like to direct you to one of the better sites I’ve seen in a while that mixes travel with environmentalism. This wonderful interactive and educational series over at the Minneapolis Star Tribune should be viewed by travelers with a green sensibility.

Called The Last Great Places the site offers vivid photography, audio slide shows, and thoughtful commentary on three places that best represent a specific type of ecosystem. They are: Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Grand Canyon. You can spend a solid spot of time here, and I suggest you give it a spin, as you will undoubtedly learn a few things you didn’t know about each of these places, including insights into science, travel and policy. It’s been a while since I’ve come across something so well put together, not to mention inspiring from a travel point of view.