How To Tell If You’re Smart Enough To Become An Aussie

by Brett Atkinson on

Recently I posted a story about a traveller from Australia that was accused of swearing on a SkyWest flight to Pittsburgh. Her supposed crime was to utter the true blue Aussie phrase “Fair Dinkum” in response to being told the serious news that the plane’s supply of pretzels had expired. Of course it’s not swearing, but just a bit of Downunder idiom meaning “Seriously?” or “For real?”

In an effort to make sure new immigrants to the land of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo and Fosters lager can hit the ground running linguistically and culturally, the Australian government has announced plans for a new citizenship test that will probe potential immigrants’ knowledge of Australian culture and history. Maybe the Aussies could organise an exchange programme with the culturally-challenged inflight team fromSkyWest.

There’s no word yet if the Bush administration is going to ask newcomers to the Land of the Free if they can locate “The Iraq” on a map.

News via the BBC.

At Least She Didn’t Say “Fair Suck of the Saveloy…”

by Brett Atkinson on

Isn’t it great how we all speak English? Who needs Esperanto when the global interweb is surging forward with a solid grounding of the Queen of England’s Mother Tongue? Well, despite the worldwide spread of English, it seems a few of us still struggle to be understood in a supposedly language-friendly country.

On a recent SkyWest Airlines flight, Australian Sophie Reynolds dared to utter the Downunder phrase “Fair Dinkum” in response to the sad news that the plane was all out of pretzels. As fans of Crocodile Dundee may know, it’s a colloquial expression meaning “Seriously?” or “For real?”, but unfortunately Reynolds was reprimanded by the crew for swearing. Her passport was requested, and upon landing in Pittsburgh three uniformed police officers were waiting for her. The authorities finally got the right end of the stick, and Reynolds was eventually allowed to go. There’s still no word if she finally got some pretzels.

Thanks to avriette on Flickr for the picture of a tastier kind of pretzel.

Crossing the “Ditch”

by Erik Olsen on

Ask any seasoned explorer and he/she will tell you that there are few “big firsts” left to do. Sure, the bottom of the ocean still holds a lot of promise since, as scientists say, some 70 percent of the deep ocean has never been explored. But up on the surface, there are few places man has not trod, and few big accomplishments he has not already made. Well apparently one of these firsts is crossing a stretch of nasty water known as The Ditch. The Ditch stretches between Australia and New Zealand, and according to this site, it has never been crossed in a two-man, human-propelled boat (aka kayak).

In late 2007, James Castrission and Justin Jones will kayak over 1000 miles across the Tasman Sea, from Australia to New Zealand. If they pull it off, it will be the first ever crossing and the longest two man kayak expedition ever undertaken. The pair have loaded up a finely-tuned, state-of-the-art two man kayak that looks more like a pace ship than a boat. They’ve got GPS and communication devices and have trained intensely for the effort. All the details of their prep can be seen here. Sounds like an amazing, perilous journey. We wish them well.

Photo of the Day (8/3/07)

by Neil Woodburn on

Wow, just check out those colors in this very strange, very alien landscape. This would be great candidate for our Where on Earth feature here on Gadling.

So, any guesses where it might be?

According Sara and Michael who snapped this shot, this place actually exists on our home planet. It’s called the Pinnacles and adventurers can seek it out at Nambung National Park in Australia.

If you’d like to contribute a Photo of the Day shot for consideration, please visit our Gadling Flickr pool and upload your favorites. And then, perhaps you can bask in the same glory enjoyed today by Sara and Michael!

Stories from the Overnight Bus

by Martha Edwards on

Overnight buses are a budget traveler’s friend. They’re a cheaper alternative to planes, trains and automobiles, and they allow you the freedom to get off and on where ever you please. Plus you save on a night’s accommodation because you spend it on the bus. However, the mere mention of taking an overnight bus sends shivers up my spine. Perhaps it’s because I find it impossible to sleep in an upright position and the next day, like a creature of the night, I stumble down the steps of the bus into the bright early morning sunlight with bright-red eyes, wildly disheveled hair, an aching back and numb limbs. Then I have to sleep a good portion of the day to catch up on the sleep I missed by not sleeping on the bus. Convenience my ass.

But perhaps my disdain is because of the following experiences:

  • The first overnight bus I ever took was from Bangkok to Surat Thani in Thailand. We were wooed by the amazing price of this bus ride, but a couple of days later, we realized how they make their money — we were very stealthily robbed during the night. How they got to the wallet that I hugged to my chest all night is beyond me. A night of firsts, this was also the first time I’ve been robbed — actually make that the only time (fingers crossed.) We splurged on the train on the way back and enjoyed a crime-free rest.
  • About a month later, we found ourselves in on a long overnight in Vietnam. For the record, buses in Thailand are like Buckingham Palace compared to buses in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Anyway, the un-air-conditioned bus was so full that they actually sat people on folding chairs in the aisles. Lo and behold, we broke down in the middle of the jungle at 3am and the drivers couldn’t get the bus going again until about 5am (I think they need AAA in Vietnam.)
  • From Brisbane to Airlie Beach (a mere 17-hour trip), my travel friend Lauren ended up with a broken chair that didn’t recline. Right next to the bathroom, allowing us to enjoy some pleasant odors all night long.
  • Also in Australia, I spent one night busing it behind a troll-like man who snored unimaginably loud almost the entire trip (10+ hours) and then engaged in questionable behavior while he was awake (it was dark on the bus and we were looking at him at a funny angle so we couldn’t tell exactly what he was doing but it looked bad)

I suppose these are all down to bad luck, and I realize that overnight buses have saved me lots of money in the long run, but in some ways they’ve taken years off my life too (ok, maybe that’s a bit dramatic.) My point? Beware.