Oceania

Travel through Oceania by country:

Australia, Indonesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu

Travel through Oceania by popular city:

Auckland, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Wellington

Travel through Oceania by popular things to do:

Cook Islands, Sydney Opera House

Travel through Oceania with our writers:

In the Corner of the World, Work and Play in Queensland

Caves–Not Just for Rent Anymore

by Iva Skoch on

We’ve seen, and blogged about, cave hotels. But if you’re so smitten by staying in a cave, why not buy one of your own? The Financial Times listed a few for purchase.

According to the article, a two-bedroom cave in Galera, Granada, Spain, is going for under 90,000 euros ($117,000 USD). If you don’t have that much to spend, you can try for the nice “restored” 13-room cave house with three bedrooms, in Urgup, Cappadocia, Turkey, for a modest 140,000 lira (about $95,000 USD).

While I wasn’t able to follow the links the article suggested, one link worked: escapeartist.com. And there, you can read about the eco-benefits of cave-dwelling. (W., eat your heart out!) I also clicked through to a link about a new “development” in Spain, offering different 2 and 3-bedroom model set-ups, starting at around $130,000 USD.

Land Diving in Vanuatu

by Erik Olsen on

It’s pretty interesting how pretty much all cultures have their right of passage ceremonies and traditions for boys who become men. We have the bar mitzvah and, well, Jim Beam and hookers. But in Vanuatu, for boys to become men, they must leap off of tall towers with nothing but a vine tied around their ankles. They are called the Land Divers of Vanuatu, and they are probably humankind’s first bungee jumpers. Here is a cool ittle video on YouTube that explains the tradition and offers several rather amazing facts. For example, did you know the land diver’s objective..or at least one of the requirements of the land dive…is that he must hit his head on the ground. Another part of the tradition is that a man can pretty much say whatever he wants to anyone he wants before he jumps. I suppose afterward he can then claim he forgot he said anything. Pretty smart. That’s using your…oh, never mind.

STA’s Black & Blue Friday Sale

by Adrienne Wilson on


For those of you planning to stay inside tomorrow to avoid the shopping mall craziness, be advised that there are still some very good deals to be found without ever having to abandon your comfy jammies or leave your home. In my mind it makes good sense that there would be some amazing sales on airfare when everyone is out and away from their computers. Those sneaky airlines!!! Anyway, as I was getting to, STA Travel is having a Black & Blue Friday Sale and they’ll be discounting tickets to Latin America, the South Pacific and more. At least that’s what they claim in their ad seen above, but I’d seriously take the time tomorrow to take a look and see what’s really going on. Perhaps you’ll nab a great without all the headache of being on the streets.

Worldmapper

by Erik Olsen on

Here is a very interesting new way to look at the world. A site called Worldmapper allows you to view the various countries of the world in relative size according to factors other than actual geography. Consider, for example, the map I chose here which shows population. Now, everyone knows that India and China are the most populated nations in the world. But in this image you can see how much larger their populations are than other countries like the US by the size they represent on the map.

Wee countries like Panama and Chile and Norway and, well, Guinea-Bissau, just kind of disappear. But population is kind of the obvious one. You can also view countries by private health spending (where the US looks as bloated as a mid-western teen with a fast food addiction) and HIV prevalence. Pretty neat new view of the world, eh?

Word for the Travel Wise (11/20/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Ladies shouldn’t experience too much confusion when hearing this word in Papua New Guinea. I’d have to find out if it applies to all women or strictly European women, but I’m willing to guess most women might hear this one at some point or another during their stay.

Today’s word is a Pidgin (Tok Pisin) word used in Papua New Guinea:

misis – European woman

As noted in Wikipedia the word ‘tok’ means word or speech and the word ‘pisin’ means pidgin and is a Creole language spoken by about 4 million people as a second language and over a hundred thousand as a first. It is spoken in the northern mainland of Papua New Guinea. If you scroll down further you’ll find a nice list of words and some pronunciation examples. As an added bonus you can learn even more words by venturing into the online Tok Pisin phrasebook, also provided by Wiki. They’ve actually got a great handful of links which I suggest going through them all if you’re really into learning this lang. One last site I’ll note here though is Robert Eklund’s Tok Pisin page. It had pictures of signs, people and some audio clips. Looks a winner to learning the very basics.

Past Pidgin (Tok Pisin) words: natnat, kaikai