Flight attendant pleads guilty to bomb hoax

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It was a bad week for Australians, it seems. A naval officer was physically restrained on a flight to London. Not too long after, Matt Carney, a flight attendant from Melbourne, was sentenced to 18 months in jail in England. It was his own fault: he left not one but two(!) notes on a plane to London, “warning” of a bomb. Of course, he was working the flight.

The 23-year-old soon-to-be-former flight attendant is from Melbourne, but he’ll have a new home for a while. As soon as his Emirates Boeing 777 landed at Gatwick Airport, Carney was arrested. No explosives were discovered. One note was found in the lav, the other in the flight attendant’s luggage.

The note was “discovered” when Carney found wires in the lav. Though they weren’t connected to anything, the crew monitored this smallest of spaces. A passenger later found the note, which included: “We have the Taliban to thank for this.”

In pleading guilty to making a hoax threat (he denied endangering the safety of an aircraft), Carney said through his lawyer that he was stressed and tired. If Dubai to London wore him out, let’s see how he handles 18 months in the slammer.

Gadling TAKE FIVE: Week of May 16–May 22

by Jamie Rhein on

It’s been a week already since a bulk of Gadling writers descended upon Chicago. Now that Memorial Day weekend is upon us as a kick off to the summer, we’ve been gearing up to give you some tools for the road and ideas of where to head.

  • Sean, our newest Gadling blogger has graced us with a post on Oxford, England’s Pitt Rivers Museum. After it year of remodeling, the museum has reopened. Check out the gallery he’s included and details about the shrunken heads. The post is part of a new series Museum Junkie.
  • For anyone who has traveled with a pet, particularly a canine, finding a hotel that is happy to have Fido can be problematic. Annie’s post on the top five pet friendly budget hotel chains is a handy guide. I can vouch for La Quinta Inns, one of the suggestions. Staying there with our dog this past December was a breeze and it didn’t cost us one dime more.
  • Kraig, an adventurer to the max has been writing posts about his travels to the Amazon. The one on Iquitos, Peru covers what makes this region of the world so spectacular and is a starting off point for finding out what he discovered.
  • If you’re a “where did the film this scene?” kind of person, there’s a map designed just for you. Scott’s post on Where It’s At, a web site focused on pop culture landmarks is interactive. People can add the landmarks they know to help it grow.
  • As part of our budget summer travel series, Brenda suggests a trip to Molokai from Honolulu. It sounds simply fabulous.

Museum Junkie: England’s most unique museum reopens

by Sean McLachlan on

Oxford’s famous Pitt Rivers Museum has reopened this month after more than a year of remodeling.

The famous Victorian displays, a massive collection of diverse anthropological objects in a large gallery and two upper floors, have remained untouched, preserving an almost unique set of displays dating back more than a century.

One of the most popular cases is the one involving death rituals, which has a spooky group of skulls and shrunken heads. A display about smoking contains a Chinese opium pipe with some suspicious-looking resin and a diagram of how to make a pipe by poking a hole through the ground. The museum as an especially good collection of Native American art, such as this woodcut print entitled “Hungry Bear” by Coast Salish artist Jody Wilson, depicting a grizzly bear in the act of catching a salmon.

The collection started with a donation in 1884 of 20,000 objects from Lt.-Gen. Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers. He was interested in the evolution of objects and organized his collection typologically, placing all items of the same use into a single case in order to show the evolution of form within and across cultures. The collection now boasts half a million artifacts from hundreds of cultures. The cases are cluttered with objects, and below them are drawers that can be opened to reveal more artifacts. The staff hand out free flashlights (called torches in England) so visitors and peer into the deeper recesses of the cases where even more treasures are hidden.

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This style of organization, so different from most modern museums, makes for a fascinating visit. For example, the case labeled Animal Forms in Art has dozens of animal representations from various cultures, some stylized, some realistic, some for worship, some for play. There’s an ancient Egyptian ram’s head made of wood, a nineteenth-century Danish piggybank, and a wooden owl carved by the Ainu about 1900 A.D., packed in with dozens of other objects.

An example of how objects can change their meaning over time is shown in drawer 29.3, labeled Amulets, Religious Artifacts, and Offerings. Inside are nine ushabti, little glazed figurines that the ancient Egyptians put in their tombs to act as servants in the afterlife. But these particular ones date from only a hundred years ago and were carried by Egyptian peasant men who went from village to village. Women would place them on the ground and jump over them in order to become fertile. One wonders if the wandering ushabti carriers had anything to do with it.

The whole effect of all the world’s objects crammed together in the same room is somewhat dizzying; even the walls and ceilings are decorated with totem poles, kayaks, and outrigger canoes.

The upper floor containing an immense array of weapons from all periods and cultures won’t be open until spring of 2010, but the two floors that are already open to the public will give any museum junkie several days’ worth of exploration.

Ardeonaig: South Africa in Scotland

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Tucked away in Loch Tay is Scotland‘s best-kept secret. Ardeonaig brings a touch of South Africa to the simultaneously rough and enchanting countryside, fusing two cultures that one would not expect to see interwoven. The resort offers only a couple dozen rooms, most of which are freestanding thatch-roofed cottages scattered across the property. Each is quite large, accommodating two with plenty of space, and the small accompanying patios give you a chance to soak in the crisp local air.

Every inch of Ardeonaig offers a glimpse into the life of owner and executive chef Pete Gottgens. The rooms are named for friends and family members, a nice alternative to the room numbers that we’ve come to expect. In the main building, large photographs from Gottgens’ childhood line the walls, along with original paintings by his sister. Several living room-style lounges are offered, where you can relax with an espresso or glass of wine. It’s about as far as you can get from traditional hotel chains.

To understand the essence of Ardeonaig, you have to look past the guestrooms and lounges and sit for a meal. Seating is available in two rooms, which are served by the same kitchen. Don’t look for a static menu: the contents change daily. Gottgens serves what is fresh, so he is constrained by availability – though when you see what he creates, it’s hard to imagine limits. Carefully planned meals reflect an expertise honed over decades. The lessons began when Gottgens was a teenager, leaving South Africa to wash dishes in Switzerland. He later left for London, where he refined his culinary skills and ultimately opened a series of restaurants – catching the attention of Nelson Mandela along the way. In fact, “chef,” as he is called, became the civil rights leader’s preferred chef in London and engaged him to prepare meals for various official events.

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Gottgens, while in London, would disappear to Perthshire, when possible, to fish in the quiet surroundings afforded by the Scottish countryside. One day, he flipped through real estate listings – with no particular plans to act – and saw an ad for a vacant hotel. On a whim, he decided to take a look … and fell in love. Another bidder beat him for the property, but it only took three months for the buyer to become seller. Chef scrounged the down payment, hoping to satisfy the difference through operations (which, fortunately, he was able to do).

While every aspect of the guest experience is a priority, the kitchen is understandably Gottgens’ domain. He appears in alleys in the dark hours of the morning to meet fishermen and their latest catches. What they bring to tk is what comprises the menu. A local hunter who carries hares to the back door defines the evening meal.

The one constant at Ardeonaig is the wine. Lifelong relationships give Gottgens access to small batch wines that are hard to come by. Because of this, pairing is difficult. Unlike most chefs, he’s happy to alter his style to match the wine, “respecting the effort” that has already been bottled. The wine is already there, he says, so it only makes sense for him to consider it when he sets to work.

For at least one meal, dine at the chef’s table, situated in the immaculate kitchen. Gottgens is more than happy to showcase his team’s work as it occurs and hides nothing. The secret ingredients are the vast knowledge and profound energy that he brings to his craft. Neither can be replicated.

The kitchen closes when the last guest arrives, a rule that tk has imposed and by which he abides. From a hospitality perspective, Gottgens doesn’t want guests to arrive and go to bed hungry. He concedes, however, that there’s an economic reason, as well. “If you’re going to eat somewhere else or eat here, we’d rather have you eat here.”

When you’ve finished your evening meal – whatever the hour – you can walk to your cottage or be driven by a golf cart. Sensors turn the exterior lights on as you approach. Climb into your large, warm, soft, bed, and start to dream about what Gottgens will serve for breakfast.

[Photos thanks to Ardeonaig]

Travel Bookshelf: Cheeky Guides

by Sean McLachlan on

Let’s face it–most guidebooks are boring. Sure, they’re informative, but they either read like a postgraduate thesis (Blue Guides) or are filled with snotty, uninformed opinions (take your pick)

The Cheeky Guides come as a breath of fresh air, or rather a gust of lager-laden belches from some local lush leaning against the bar at a seedy pub. These guides to Oxford and Brighton, two of England’s most popular destinations, manage to cover all the basics such as hotels, restaurants, and major tourist sights before veering off into the strange, silly, and even sinister.

Take Brighton, for example. You can learn where to go to speak to the dead (page 62), buy nipple clamps (page 260), or bathe in the nude (page 247). The authors are even kind enough to give you cryptic but probably sound advice. In the case of Brighton’s nude gay beach, “look out for the Windmill Man.” I’ll remember that.

If you’re wondering what the authors look like, they have a remarkable resemblance to the finger puppet “author photos” in the Brighton guide. There’s a real photo of them holding hands on the first page of “The Gay Scene” of the Oxford guide. Apparently they couldn’t find any real gays to pose for this picture.

The books are illustrated with clear, hand-drawn maps and the rare photo of something historic, but mostly feature random images of drunken students and midget strippers with hats on their willies. After all, who needs photos of some old building you’re going to take a photo of anyway? I’ve traveled all over the world and never once had the opportunity to take a photo of a stripping midget. Perhaps I’m not going to the right places.

The company also has Cheeky Guides to Student Life and Love, in case university and long-term relationships aren’t cheeky enough for you already.

While the books contain a hefty dose of silliness, and the occasional tall tale you’d have to be an American tourist to swallow, they do offer a wealth local color and unusual destinations you won’t find in regular guides and make a good addition to any traveler’s bookshelf.

So for a breezy, fun read, spread open a Cheeky Guide.