Hanukkah in Honduras

by Iva Skoch on

Celebrating Christmas away from home, often in exotic destinations, has become quite usual for many families. Getting away for Hanukkah, which started on December 15 this year, is a bit more challenging. The holidays lasts 8 days and therefore requires more planning – being in a hotel room at specific times to light candles (or bringing them along to dinner) and schlepping more “stuff” along: at least a menorah, a set of candles and multiple sets of presents.

But, like a recent CNN/AP story reports, some adventurous families prefer to spend The Festival of Lights abroad, in this case in Honduras. According to the story, overcoming obstacles having to do with the celebration of Hanukkah in Latin America sounds like fun – setting off smoke detectors in hotel rooms, locals not understanding the candle ceremony, not being able to light a menorah because of the heavy tropical wind or not being able to rely on local electricity to work at specific times…

I am all for it! An 8-day holiday is a good excuse to take a vacation longer than an extended weekend. Americans don’t take enough time off.

World Sound: More Desi Boy Bands

by Adrienne Wilson on

If you were to give me a pop quiz right now on Desi pop culture I’d flunk horribly. I’d like to think my crooning Asha Bhosle’s version of Ina, Mina, Dika would score me some points in the Desi community, but the song is centuries old and the world is need of a fresh new sound from young Desi boy heart-throbs. According to my favorite and really the only Desi culture blog I read, Sepia Mutiny, the planet could use a few more boy bands. Desi boy bands. My initial thoughts were quite opposite and not so much the Desi part, but the boy band part. However, I decided to read further and listen.

JoSH is a Montreal based Desi duo. The one they say resembles Lenny Kravitz (Q) is kind of cute to me and the other (Rup) rocks the turban while delivering the vocals that make the hearts of women melt. Okay, not so much melt, but you know the ladies are feeling it and shaking their tail-feathers, swinging their hair all wild and what have you and so it seems that the world needs more of this Desi boy band business, right? If you’re not familiar with JoSH (long O like Joe, not Joshua) you’ll want to see the videos they’ve included in the blog. The first one sold me, but the second one almost lost me. I’m a sucker for world music though so I’d probably pick it up or download a few tracks.

Seriously, if you’re into tuning your global ear to new things give JoSH a try. They’ll be opening for Nelly Furtado in Bombay on New Year’s Eve if you happen to be around India end of year.

Ilya and Evgeny’s Great Adventure

by Erik Olsen on

Here’s one from the pre-Borat era. It’s a book, a travelogue if you will, from two satirical writers from the Soviet Union who were writing for the Russian newspaper Pravda. Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov came to the U.S as “special correspondents” and drove across the country and back on a ten-week trip, keeping a detailed record of their journey. The book is said to be a work of humor, if such a thing is possible from two writers from the Soviet Union, and is said to be a “wonderful lost work”.

To be honest, I would LOVE to get my hands on this, to see how people viewed America not only from the viewpoint of 60 years ago, but from a Communist country. The book is titled Odnoetazhnaia Amerika or Single-Storied America. In a rather sad twist, both writers died soon after the publication of Odnoetazhnaia Amerika, Ilf from tuberculosis contracted during his travels in the States and Petrov in a plane crash while working as a war correspondent.

USA Today on San Diego

by Adrienne Wilson on

San Diego – I’ve only been there twice. Once when I was 8 years-old on a family vacation to see Shamu at Sea World and the only memorable moment of the entire trip was my crying at the bottom of a speed boat when my father let me 6 year-old brother take control of the steering. I thought I was going to die that day in San Diego. The second time was several years later and I had taken a quick day trip down from LA to visit a friend at Pendleton who’d just returned from Iraq. We noshed on Thai food and talked about war and he stopped me from jay walking (apparently they shell out tickets for illegal pedestrian crossing), but again nothing too stellar. Is it safe to say I have to go back for a real look at the city? Absolutely.

USA Today recently featured San Diego in one of their destination guides and I decided to give it a read. From the sound of things the Gaslamp Quarter is getting a facelift. They’re changing the chilled out surfer scene to velvet ropes and a more upscale sort of destination for those that desire cocktail culture. With new boutique hotels and clubs that require the approval of a bouncer to get in, I suppose they are trying to bring the sophistication while remaining more relaxed than cities like LA and NYC. I’m really not going to go on about this particular read. Quite honestly hearing velvet rope so many times didn’t turn me on to want to book a ticket that way anytime soon. On the flipside those who do wish to see this new San Diego sooner than later should take a look at this story.

If there are any San Diego natives reading I’d love to hear your comments or just tell us some of your favorite places to go if you don’t mind a tourist or two showing up.

GADLING’S TAKE FIVE: Week of December 10

by Adrienne Wilson on

Ready for another week in review at Gadling? If you missed some of this week’s goodies I won’t keep you waiting a minute longer. Just sit back, chill out and catch up.

5. Driving a Piece of East German History:
In this fine piece, David Luna points us to a tour company called Trabi Safari. The tours are pretty much “do-it-yourself” style, but what’s cool about driving the Trabant around Berlin to Dresden is that the car is a work of art meaning it rides more like a riding lawn mower. What’s cooler than any of that is David Luna being the newest member of the Gadling team. Go over, take a read and send David some love.

4. Traveling with Co-Workers: An Obsession with Steak Tartare:
For those who don’t already know I’m on the road traveling for work and an enormous portion of my time is spent with my one and only co-worker. To keep it short and sweet things ain’t so sweet… They are rather tart or is that tartare, as in steak tartare. I don’t want to hear anymore about steak tartare. Please.

3. No Surf in Cleveland? Sure, There is!:
Here is a plug from Iva that caught me completely off-guard, but then again I don’t surf. Cleveland (yes, Cleveland, Ohio) appears to be a rather gnarly place to hang ten. Don’t listen to me though read what Iva has to say along with the NY Times where the article was originally found.

2. Getting Out of Quicksand:
While it is not too common that you’ll run across quicksand in your travels should you stumble, trip, fall and start sinking away to your untimely death you may wish to know a little something-something on how to escape. Again, it isn’t very likely, but check out some of Erik’s own quicksand musings and then read the tips.

1. Hot Icelandic Blondes?:
Stop the stereotyping people! Not every Icelandic woman is blonde and not all of them are hot and according to Neil who found this awesome culture read in the Iceland Review the author of the piece is both, but still she is annoyed with the stereotype. Hey I OVERstand. Whether it is good or bad, stereotyping isn’t the right thing to do. We’re all different! Now, off my soap box I go and on you go to read the piece.