GadlingTV’s Travel Talk 012: Trains, planes, & mergers! Behind the scenes at Southwest Airlines, Gowalla & Gadling in Austin + a brand new GIVEAWAY!!

by Stephen Greenwood on

GadlingTV’s Travel Talk, episode 12 – Click above to watch video after the jump
Well, we’ve been bouncing around the country this week and have got a great show to prove it! From Dallas, Texas to Austin, Texas and finally Portland, Oregon – we’ll take you behind the scenes at Love Field Airport and the operational headquarters of Southwest Airlines!

In the news this week: United & Continental’s big merger, a new train makes tracks in a forbidden country, we look into the biggest World Expo in history, and find out why your toothpaste may once again be safe while traveling through Europe.

We get the inside scoop on Austin-based tech startup Gowalla, and catch up with Gadling crew for a day out on the town. Last but not least, we’re GIVING AWAY TWO FREE TICKETS on Virgin America!! Watch to the end to find out how to enter!!

Tune in next week for our full Portland, Oregon special!

If you have any questions or comments about Travel Talk, you can email us at talk AT gadling DOT com.

Subscribe via iTunes:
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Links
Get the official scoop on the United/Continental merger.
U.S State Department’s guidelines for visiting North Korea.
Must Watch!! The Vice Guide to North Korea. An in-depth look at DPRK guided tours.
Going to the World Expo 2010? Download and print this form and read these instructions.
More Shanghai World Expo 2010 photos!

Contest:
We’re giving away two free tickets on Virgin America!

To enter, join our Facebook group and send us an email, telling us 1) where you would go 2) what you would do there 3) who you would take.

At the end of May, one lucky winner will be randomly selected from our inbox. So, get your friends to submit to increase your chances!!


Hosts: Stephen Greenwood, Aaron Murphy-Crews, Drew Mylrea
Special Guest: Jonathan Carroll, Jeremy Kressman.


Produced, Edited, and Directed by: Stephen Greenwood, Aaron Murphy-Crews, Drew Mylrea

Update **The current video has been revised from it’s original version at the request of Southwest airlines. We were given a sneak peak at the TSA’s baggage screening room and filmed bags being opened, which presented privacy concerns. That footage, as well as a mention of Southwest’s mechanical practices – has been removed.



Music by:
“Hraka”
Finn Riggins
myspace.com/finnriggins



All other music used in partnership with nonstopmusic.com

Aijalon Mahli Gomes phones home

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Every now and then, an overzealous traveler crosses the border into North Korea without doing the requisite prep work and having various forms rubber stamped. When this happens, bad things follow. For Aijalon Mahli Gomez, a U.S. citizen, the crossing turned into an eight-year sentence in the company’s prison system on April 6, 2010. Yet, he was able to call home.

According to the Korea Central News Agency, North Korea’s official , um, news service:

U.S. citizen Aijalon Mahli Gomes now in prison after being tried on April 6 asked for a phone contact with his family for his health and other reasons. The relevant organ of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, taking his request into consideration, permitted him to do so on Friday.

Before he was allowed to make the phone call, Gomes’ contact with the outside world was limited to the Swedish embassy, which handles all diplomatic issues for westerners in North Korea.

Gomes, who is 30 years old and from Boston, has to pay a fine of approximately $700,000 on top of his hard labor sentence. He was in North Korea doing missionary work and was the fourth U.S. citizen in less than a year to get pinched for illegal entry.

North Korea Threatens “Historical Punishment” for Vacation Blocking

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Korea Central News Agency, the official mouthpiece of North Korea, is mad – damned mad – that South Koreans aren’t heading across the border any more.

Mt. Kumgang tours were made possible at one point, but the South Korean government has suspended them, according to the North, because the Ministry of Unification and other governmental bodies have expressed doubts about the personal safety of visitors. This has been interpreted as “nothing but an intention to completely suspend tourism.”

The absence of vacationers has had profound consequences, it seems: “Mt. Kumgang has been driven into a catastrophic crisis owing to the desperate obstruction of the present regime.” Ouch! The KCNA also reports that the South is “depreciating the achievements made in the past economic cooperation work under the unreasonable pretexts.”

Though Kumgang may be exposed to a “catastrophic crisis,” the Seoul regime will not emerge unscathed. According to the KCNA, the authorities down south “will be bound to face punishment by history if they persist in the hostile policy toward the DPRK and hinder the south-north cooperation, the organizations urged them to immediately opt for resumption of the tour of Mt. Kumgang.

Kim Jong-Il Celebration: Party Like It’s Juche 99

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It was the biggest party of the year – and will probably retain that distinction until the end. Everybody was there, including foreign officials far too cool to be named. Dancers, singers and synchronized swimmers performed … all in honor of the Dear Leader’s sixty-eighth birthday. According to Pyongyang’s state-run media, Kim was “praised by mankind as the most outstanding political elder and the peerlessly brilliant commander of the present era.”

Across the border, however, the partying was supplanted with speculation, particularly given rumors of Kim’s 2008 stroke. According to the LA Times, his psychological state is said to be in question. A South Korean journal article puts the end of his life no more than five years into the future. In fact, the report says, “Kim Jong Il is known to have shed some tears when bodyguards were with him, unlike in the past.”

This didn’t stop the dear leader from getting down, though, at a party held on a day to considered to be one of North Korea’s top holidays. The synchronized swimmers “depicted beautiful frost flowers carrying boundless reverence” for Kim, inspired by such music as “Let’s Meet Each Other on the Front” and “Let the Soldiers Be Heroes.”

This year, there were some changes: gifts for the kids were in short supply. You could blame the country’s dismal financial situation, or take it right from the horse’s mouth: “abnormal climatic conditions” and “blocked sea routes” prevented the tradition from being continued. A handful made out, though “Presents were transported by helicopter for a small number of children,” the release reported, “a measure taken by Kim Jong Il.”

North Korean film festival has begun!

by Tom Johansmeyer on

If you just happen to be in Pyongyang for the next week, check out the city’s film festival. It opened yesterday at the People’s Palace of Culture, with the opening ceremony followed by a screening of “The Great Devotion (2009, the year of dramatic changes).” The festival’s fare is predictable in subject matter, but it will give you a leg up on the film junkies who brag about
Sundance and Cannes.

The festival, which begins on February 16, 2010, is set to last 10 days. According to a report by the Korea Central News Agency, North Korea’s official news outlet, those attending the film festival “will watch documentaries showing the undying feats of General Secretary Kim Jong Il making an endless forced march for field guidance, regarding President Kim Il Sung’s idea of believing in people as in Heaven as a maxim at cinemas and halls of culture in Pyongyang and various local areas.”

Some of the films being screened are “A White Gem,” “The Country I Saw” and “White Birch of Paektu,” as well as “other feature films dealing with mental power of the servicepersons and people of the DPRK creating a history of new great surge under the uplifted banner of devotedly defending the leader.”

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