World Ice Art Championships

by Erik Olsen on

What
is it about these ice sculpting championships? Seems like they’re cropping up everywhere. Well, everywhere it’s
cold…although my guess is they might have one in Dubai or something.

If ice sculpting is your thing,
hey, we’ve got the travel event for you. The next big contest is coming to Fairbanks, Alaska, where artists from over
30 countries will go on February 28 to carve, sculpt and perhaps lick sculptures of everything from gargoyles to busts
of Marilyn Monroe…if previous contests are any indicator of such things. The 2006 World Ice Art Championshis take place in
The ice for the
contest (for those who love trivial detail) is harvested from O’Grady Pond and is "recognized internationally for
its exceptional clarity and thick consistency that allows for superior ice sculpting."

So, yes, if ice
sculpting is your thing (and once again, I am reminded of a scene from the film Goundhog Day…man, that’s twice in two
days) this could be your big event.

Pux Phil Says More Winter

by Erik Olsen on

Global warming threatens to swap our coastal cities and
change the very way we live. Life on the planet is getting increasingly and dangerously warmer. But don’t tell this to
Punxsutawney Phil, the prognosticating groundhog. Pux-Phil apparently saw his shadow today
and promises us six more weeks of winter. Frankly, I’ve never understood the Pux-Phil-Phenom (P3), but I will say I
enjoyed immensely the Bill Murray film and can’t hear Sonny and Cher on the radio anymore without thinking about it.

Anyway, travel-wise, the Washington Post runs a
piece on P3’s appeal and how it has turned into a boom for litle ol’ Punxsutawney, PA.

NYC Scavenger Hunts

by Erik Olsen on

New York is so chock full of interesting stuff to do,
that you really don’t need a great deal of help to find something cool here. I mean, most of the time, I just walk the
streets and explore, and almost always I stumble upon something fascinating happening. But there are those who like a
bit more structure to their city travel experiences. And there are ample organizations and companies here who provide
sight-seeing and other cultural experiences. Among all of these, I’d like to recommend one company whose city
"Scavenger Hunts " provide a very unique way of seeing Manhattan.

Watson Adventure’s hunts take you to numerous places around the city, from Central park to the various
museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The idea is that you sign up and compete against teams to solve
puzzles and riddles, using features within the city to gain points. One example…they give you a sheet with a question
such as: "Whose rude gesture will make you exclaim, “I never sausage behavior!”?" To solve this,
you have to find the character Hans Wurst, a character in Frans Hals’ Merrymakers
at Shrovetide who has a sausage pinned to his hat.

I’ve done two of these hunts with groups of
friends in the city and calk tell you first hand that they are really fun. And educational. I particularly enjoyed the
hunt at the Met, which took us through many of the galleries looking for clues and which really made learning more
about art and the museum itself immensely enjoyable. They are not only a fine way to spend time with friends, but also
a highly entertaining means to meet new people.

A Look at Travel Guides

by Erik Olsen on

A very interesting piece in Publisher’s Weekly about the history and current business of travel guides. Read this one. The piece takes a look at how travel guides have evolved due to changes in the marketplace and a morphing of people’s travel habits. It discusses how the (now quite valuable) Baedeker guides of the late 19th and early 20th centuries set the stage for travel with basic guides about mostly large, well-known popular places. This was back when travel was more of a luxury available to the rich, and long before anyone had even heard of adventure travel, let alone before there was a guide for places like Azerbaijan or Papua New Guinea. Now, with airline travel so much easier and more affordable, and a much more itinerant middle, nee leisure class, guides have evolved to cater to very specific wants, and have become guides that both discuss the best places to go as well as educate.

The list of guides mentioned here is vast. From Fodors to Lonely Planet to Let’s go and on and on, the piece offers a really interesting look at how this industry we all know, love and depend on has changed.

Red Corner: Harsh, but Intriguing Turkmenistan

by Neil Woodburn on

All this talk of Central Asia has gotten me all excited about revisiting this strange corner of the planet. I spent a few months in the area but only a couple of hours passing through the least visited country of this rarely visited region: Turkmenistan. The main highway through Central Asia initially disregarded frontiers since all of the Central Asian republics were within the Soviet Union. So, my only glance of Turkmenistan was through the dusty windows of a bus as we detoured briefly (and illegally for me, without having a visa) into the country before heading back into Uzbekistan.

With the hope of going back to experience more of this country, I found a recent and fascinating article in the Independent (London) that paints a bleak, but realistic account of the challenges and rewards facing travelers who venture into this part of the world. Journalist Lucy Ash experienced the horror of visiting a local dentist, marveled at the surreal capital of Ashgabat (which she describes as “a cross between Stalinism and Las Vegas”), and relished in the joy of wandering through Merv, a 2,500 year old town that was once a major stopping point on the ancient Silk Road.

For me, the most attractive draw of Turkmenistan would be the opportunity to visit one of the few remaining countries where a Cult of Personality is still actively practiced. President Saparmurat Niyazov, the self-appointed “Turkmenbashi” has littered the country with countless portraits and statues of himself (see photo above). He has renamed towns after his mother and requires those taking driving tests to recite his poetry. Check out this hilarious BBC account of just how crazy this guy is.