GADLING’S TAKE FIVE: Week of September 17

by Adrienne Wilson on

Hear ye, Hear ye it is time again for another weekly glance at some spectacular plugs you may have missed. Just make sure you don’t miss them this time. Or else!

5. Cool Subways:
Long ago I mentioned the cool underground transportation scene seen in Tehran, Iran, but in this piece Erik points us to some so-called “Cool” subways in destinations like Moscow, Munich and Stockholm. If you’re not in rush to get to your final stop; check them out. That goes for the real thing and his blurb here on the web.

4. Puerto Rico Island Hopping:
Ah, Puerto Rico! With a light hurricane season and considering hurricane season is almost officially out of here who wouldn’t want to go island hopping in Puerto Rico? Thanks to Iva we’re one step closer in making the dream come alive or deciding which method or hopper plane works best for you.

3. Red Corner: The Horrors of Flying in Russia:
I’ve never been to Russia or flown on one its friendly planes, but I’m hearing more and more stories like the one Neil points us to in this scary piece. If you’re making St. Petersburg or Moscow a must-see destination sometime soon check this article out to shake yourself up a little.

2. Medieval Trials in Modern Day India:
Culture pieces are my favorite and this one is pretty interesting. Learn how to find a thief in India by reading this hot topic. After knowing how trials in modern day India work you’d think no one would steal, but it sadly looks as if that’s not the case.

1. Gadling Podcast: Joshua Berman:
Podcast time and with this one Erik delves into the world of guidebook writing with Joshua Berman who writes for Moon Guides, but recently published Living Abroad in Nicaragua released by Avalon Publishing. If you’re curious to know what it takes or Joshua’s take on the world of mattress flipping, sniffing and reporting (a.k.a. travel writing), tune in, plug in, and give it a listen.

Motoring the Deep South

by Iva Skoch on

Sticking with my recent motorcycling theme, I wanted to plug another ride-of-a-lifetime. You’re not limited to exotic, foreign locales for motorcycling adventures. Fantastic times can be had right in the ole U.S.of A., by renting a bike from Eaglerider.

Obviously, I don’t recommend this for those with no motorcycling experience (especially not a 88+ cubic inch H-D), but Eaglerider is a franchise of Harley-Davidson rental shops around the U.S. (and two locations in Europe and one in Mexico too) with one central reservation facility online. You can rent for as little as one day, for approximately $130/day.

One of my all-time favorite trips was a 4-day excursion, starting out in New Orleans. Covering most of southern Louisiana, and tooling all the way up to beautiful, antebellum Natchez, MS, (stay at the Dunleith!) was awesome on a beautiful, black, H-D Heritage Softail Classic that was a mere month old. (Unfortunately, Al Gomez’s Eaglerider shop in N.O. was wiped out by the hurricane, but we’re hoping he reopens soon!)

Interestingly, Al told us that people came from all around the world to rent motorcycles and tour the South. Even folks from Germany booked months in advance. Their bike of choice? Not a Beemer, but the dream bike for the big, straight, flat American road: the Harley-Davidson.

From Prague, For the Absinthe-Minded

by Iva Skoch on

Dude, I got so wasted on absinthe last night…

If you’ve spent some time in Prague, you have heard this line one too many times. Walk into any bar on the beaten path and you will almost for sure see a group of American college students doing shots of the bright green liquor, which they think (or hope) will make them hallucinate.

The funny thing is that most of the stuff they sell here in the Czech Republic is not even absinthe. Not only is it not derived from wormwood, but it does not contain thujone (which is exactly the substance that many countries regulate heavily for its alleged hallucinogenic effects.) Generally, the brighter the color, the more fake it probably is. Don’t get me wrong – you can still get a mean hangover if you drink this stuff, but that’s mostly because the “green liquids” contain 60 percent alcohol and some food coloring. If you really want to go over the top, try that stuff with Red Bull. Make sure to sign up for life insurance well in advance though.

If you want to taste the real thing, you can still do it, but don’t expect to pay $3 per shot. It will be more like $10. For example, the Czech company L’OR makes The King of Spirits (see picture), which is the real thing containing 10mg of thujone. A bottle of this will set you back around $60. If you want the King of Spirits Gold, which contains 100mg of thujone and is illegal even to sell even in the Czech Republic, is available to ship for $200+

Travel to Africa?

by Erik Olsen on

We try to cover Africa here as best we can. Adrienne has done many a “Word” feature on the continent, and we have some favorite places there where we’ve been (Morocco) and some where we’d LIKE to go (Namibia). But the unfortunate fact is that Africa is in the news a lot these days for a lot of nasty things. Starvation, war, genocide. Yo might say Africa is in a world of hurt. But is that really so?

I saw an interview recently with Paul Theroux (and I can’t seem to find it on the Web) where he talks about the bad press Africa gets. That it’s not nearly as nasty as folks would have us believe. The reality is, he says, Africa can still be a decent place to travel. We tend to look at the continent holistically, as if the devastation and misery we see on TV and in the paper affects every country. That’s not true.

And so with that in mind, here is a travel primer for Africa that helps you decide where to go (first choose the part of the continent you want to visit), helps you figure out what you’ll need in terms of both packing supplies and inoculations, and provides tips on clearing customs and so on. If you are heading to do a safari, there’s help on the site to do that as well. It is a very handy guide, expertly written and comprehensive, and has sections worth perhaps printing out to help you figure out your Africa trip.

Building or Chinese Menu Item?

by Iva Skoch on

Seeing pictures of the proposed new biomedical research center in Chengdu, China (Szechuan province) reminded me of some menu items I tried in that city last year. One reporter called the proposed building “the blob.”

The Szechuan province, of course, is home to that terrific spicy food that is ubiquitous in Chinese restaurants everywhere, usually on the menu right next to an asterisk or a nearby ‘chili pepper’ icon, signifying “this food is hot as hell.”

The traditional and most popular way of eating food in Chengdu is the hotpot. Basically, you’re given a large bowl of boiling, flavored oil that sits atop your table, while you cook skewers of various foods in the oil–kind of like fondue without the cheese. Most of the time, you have some rough idea of what it is you’re cooking, since you picked it off the shelf yourself. The best oil, we were told, was as old as possible: as oil burned off and was eaten, the bowl was topped up; if you cleaned the bowl and used fresh oil, you killed the taste. The older the oil, the better. The table has a hole in it and sits above an industrial-sized propane tank and burner, one to each table. With the cooking-oil-slick floors and open flames everywhere, it’s an American trial-lawyer’s dream.

Back to the building: the building, it seems, was meant to look like a cell, peppered with meeting room pods which were meant to look like embedded proteins around the outside. And the shape? You can see for yourself. Care for a dip in the interior’s “mitochondrial” pools?

Yep, looks and sounds like something I’d be dunking in a bath of ancient, bubbling oil, filled with chili oil and fish heads.