LP Travel Planner

by Erik Olsen on

If you’re planning a trip this summer, you could do far worse than consult the folks at Lonely Planet. Why LP has been helping people determine the best destinations and figure out what to do with themselves once abroad for many years now. The LP Web presence, in my opinion, has always been a bit lacking. Sure, they’ve got some nice features like the Thorntree, but mostly I find the site cluttered and confusing.

But they are doing some interesting features of late, and this one here on how to plan for your travels is quite useful. From advice on how to deal with passport issues (wish I’d had this before heading off to Canada recently) to purchasing tickets and getting your inoculations, it’s chock full of useful tidbits to make sure you don’t screw up your whole vacation by making a bad decision.

National Geographic on Istanbul

by Adrienne Wilson on

My travel agent is doing his best to convince to me to stay and play in Istanbul on my way into Dushanbe, but I’m on a mission. I have to get in and out of Tajikistan in a reasonable amount of time. Yet, this Nat Geo guide to spending 48 hrs in the city is making it much more tempting than I thought. My layover will permit me to feast on Turkish fare onto of a roof or soak in a Turkish bath, but the Grand Bazaar I will have to miss. Fooey! Next time around I suppose.

Those of you with a lot more hours to kill than myself should look into Nat Geo’s selection of Istanbul blogs, podcasts, newspapers, magazines, maps, movies, and books that will all help you in creating the most whirling fun-filled Turkish time. Afterwards we can compare notes – your 48 hrs to my 10 or so.

National Parks Endangered

by Erik Olsen on

Let’s talk tragedy a moment. Let’s take a look at how hot things are getting, and how uncomfortable this makes us each day during the summer, and how much it costs to use the AC on full blast and all those things…sucks, huh? Now forget the ice caps melting and Manhattan going underwater and the Maldives disappearing. that likely won’t happen in our lifetime. Our kids will have to deal with that. But there is a very real tragedy due to global warming that, says Outside Magazine, might be happening right now. As they put it: “Imagine Glacier National Park with no glaciers, Joshua Tree barren of Joshua trees, Yellowstone absent of grizzlies, and Yosemite even more crowded than it already is.” Yosemite more crowded than it is!? We’ll have to call it Disney Yosemite.

But seriously, as a rabid fan of the National Parks, I shudder at the thought that they might have more problems than just poor administration. The Outside piece takes this bit of doomsday news from a new report issued Tuesday by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The report is called “Losing Ground,” and it discusses a wide array of problems that could occur if these warming trends continue. The interactive here is actually quite well done.

Anyway, each park has its own problems from Glacier Park no longer having glaciers (will they rename it?) to an infestation of mountain bark beetles at Yellowstone which would devastate the forests.

We should take this stuff seriously. The parks are the crown jewels of our national natural heritage. It would suck to see them permanently harmed.

Suspicious Things Done on an Airplane

by Adrienne Wilson on

See what happens when hanging out on Sepia Mutiny too long? Here’s a rather dated blog piece from July 2004, where an Indian (often mistaken for an Arab) gentleman describes a number of things he’s done while flying the super friendly blue skies that have been filed under ‘suspicious’ by unknowing and un-cultured folks. His insightful explanations sure gave me a chuckle or two. Let’s see what that list looks like:

  • Speaking a foreign language in hushed tones with other similar individuals.
  • Getting up frequently to use the bathroom.
  • Taking pictures of the plane.
  • Made strange signals and gestures to other people in his group.
  • Not been friendly to other passengers.

Well now, unless Pig-Latin counts as a real foreign lang I can’t say I’ve gone about item number one the right way and I usually make as few trips to the restroom as possible. Number three would surely get me in a lot of trouble considering I normally carry 3-4 cameras on me (most being Lomo gadgets) and item five is one I’ll admit I’m too often accused of doing. Don’t get mad at me if you can’t fall asleep on planes!

It’s certainly a fun culture read to start the week off with and to compare with your own in-flight notes.

Flying Las Vegas & Surveillance Detection Reports

by Adrienne Wilson on

Now this is scary. After checking in on one of my all-time fav and probably my only Indian culture / Desi blog in the whole wide world – Sepia Mutiny, I discovered some semi-disturbing news. Apparently some federal air marshals out of Las Vegas are reporting your actions to meet a quota, but of course top officials are denying accusations. The news made its way to Sepia Mutiny via 7News out of Denver where air marshals, whose identities were concealed said they are required to submit at least one SDR a month. Consequences of not making quota is no raise, no bonus, no awards and no special assignments. Hmm…

SDR’s (Surveillance Detection Reports) are government documents that report all things out of the ordinary occurring in the airport and are said to be in place at Las Vegas McCarran Intl’ airport. Behavior that could place an individual on such documents could be almost anything for an air marshal hard up to make quota and get his big bonus. Here’s what ennis at Sepia Mutiny ponders:

“… imagine you’re a Marshal, under serious pressure to say you observed something fishy. Who do you think you’d write up? A white grandmother? A congressional staffer? Or a swarthy young male with a beard, even if he’s really handsome?”

I have to agree with the thinking here and pray there isn’t a ridiculous quota system out there placing innocent people like myself on some homeland security list. I can just see an air marshal glancing down at my feet (in sandals) to discover my tattoo in Farsi only to toss me on some list later on when they haven’t made their numbers.

Think twice about taking photos in the airport or airplane. That too counts as suspicious behavior. And who says our government’s databases aren’t filled with bad information?