In Dubai, money can buy you a room on a refrigerated beach

by Abha Malpani on


Sometimes the creativity that blistering hot weather breeds is truly mind-boggling: Pallazo Versace Hotel has decided to create a temperature controlled beach extending out and around its new hotel in Dubai, so that the “top people” (ugh) don’t burn their feet.

“We will suck the heat out of the sand to keep it cool enough to lie on,” says Soheil Abedian, president of Palazzo Versace. Of course, it’s “pure luxury” that the super rich want. REALLY!?

Climate change, eco-tourism, environment, throw them all out the window and you get Dubai, money, and ludicrous.

They’re going to put heat-absorbing pipes under the sand, refrigerate the hotel swimming pool, and have giant air coolers to keep the guests cool in Dubai’s scorching 104F-122F summer heat. The thermostats used in the system will be computer controlled. The hotel is planned to be ready by 2010.

Call it competition, call it thrill, call it whack-job, call it destructive tourism for the filthy rich; do these “top people” for whom this barbarity is being created, care? What is the point? Oh tourism $$$ of course!

Well, environmentalists are more than shrugging: “Dubai is like a bubble world where the things that are worrying the rest of the world, like climate change, are simply ignored so that people can continue their destructive lifestyles,” says Rachael Noble of Tourism Concern. I share the disgust in that statement.

Whether it will actually happen or not is another question, but they way things are here, there leaves little room for doubt.

I am not a saint, nor am I an environmentalist, nor do I do any important activity other than recycle. But when I read stuff like this, as numb as I think I am to crazy Dubai deeds, it always gets the better of me and I fail to understand why I live here. I’m waiting for this bubble to explode. Will it ever?

Think that’s weird? Check out these other unusual hotels:


U.K. Travel Insurer: Cuba as Dangerous as Afghanistan

by Josh Lew on

U.K travel insurance company Direct Travel Insurance Services has a blacklist. If a traveler is headed to Sudan or Afghanistan, they will need to seek their insurance elsewhere. But Cuba?

That’s right, Cuba. The insurer will not cover British travelers headed to Cuba. Perhaps someone in the company thinks that it is still the 1950s. Or perhaps someone in the company was robbed during a recent vacation in Havana. But that’s unlikely. Cuba is, arguably, one of the safest destinations in the entire Caribbean. Crime is virtually not-existent. It is much more dangerous to vacation on more popular islands like Jamaica.

But there is a more probable reason that English travelers are not able to get coverage for Cuba: AIG. The American firm took over Direct Travel Insurance Services and has extended its practices of not insuring Americans in Cuba to its new British customers.

Because of an archaic trade embargo, US citizens are not allowed to visit Cuba. thus AIG does not cover them. But there is no such law in England. Luckily for UK residents, there are many other travel insurers willing to cover tourists on their trip to Cuba.

[Via Havana Journal]

An artificial beach 300 meters from the real thing

by Jerry Guo on

There’s an absolutely amazing beach in Japan, filled with white sand, blue water, and a lapping wave. But this beach did not exist before 1993. It’s known as the Ocean Dome, the most popular artificial beach in an arena that’s quickly becoming fashionable. There’s now artificial beaches in Monaco, Paris, Rotterdam, Toronto, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

The heated beach can accommodate 10,000 tourists, even though it’s competing with plenty of other attractions on Kyushu Island – 1,500 kilometers south of Tokyo. The kicker is that there’s an actual beach, which looks decent, 300 meters away. Talk about stiff competition.

Of course, if I was in Kyushu, I would definitely want to check out this place. First of all, the weather’s always fantastic, since it’s situated indoors. Then, there’s the volcano. That’s right, there’s an artificial volcano that spews smoke every fifteen minutes and flames on the hour. If that’s not enough entertainment, professional surfers can be found riding the waves.

You gotta love the Japanese. Check out the link below for some great shots. Absolutely spectacular.

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Missing: Jamaican beach

by Meg Massie on

A beach has gone missing in Jamaica, and no one is blaming erosion, global warming, or stormy weather. Police suspect that someone(s) stole five hundred truckloads of white sand from a planned resort at Coral Spring Beach. The theft was in July, but no arrests have yet been made, which begs the question: How does the removal of five hundred truckloads of sand — or anything — go unnoticed?

Many suspect that there’s been some sort of cover-up, and even the police spokesperson has said that some officers were probably involved in the theft. Yet they insist there has been no cover-up. They simply say that the lack of charges in the case is due to its complexity and the number of people involved. But do they even know who was involved? That much is unclear.

Illegal sand mining is common in Jamaica because the sand is a valuable construction material. However, the volume and type of sand stolen suggests that the thieves are probably from the tourism industry, like other hotels. The beach that was stolen from Coral Springs was to be part of a $108 million resort complex, but its theft has held up the development plans.

Galley Gossip: The second best thing about being a flight attendant – Waikiki, Hawaii

by Heather Poole on

It was Monday morning and we (my mother, my husband, my son, and I) were in the rental car, a bright red Malibu, on our way from a relaxing long weekend in Ko Olina to the Honolulu airport, when I heard a long sigh from the back seat.

“I don’t want to leave,” said my mother, also a flight attendant, as she stared out the window at a city she once called home forty years ago. Believe it or not, this was her first trip back.

“Me, neither,” I said, as the exit sign to Pearl Harbor, where my father had once worked, passed over our heads.

The husband, who was actually ready to leave, just shook his head. “Yeah, well, some of us have to go back to work.”

Thank goodness I’m not one of us, I remember thinking, as the airport came into view. Way off in the distance, Diamond Head. That’s when I heard my mother say, “You know I dropped my next trip, that Phoenix trip.”

“Me, too! I dropped my horrid twenty-hour, three-day.”

That’s just one of the amazing things about my job, flexibility. We can pretty much work whenever we want, as long as there’s a trip available to pick up, or someone willing to take our trip, which is usually not a problem when based in New York, the most junior base in the system.

I turned all the way around in my seat and looked at the woman who had a twinkle in her eye. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

My mother smiled real big and shrugged. “Maybe.”

The husband just shook his head again. “You ladies better make up your mind! We’re almost there.”

As my mother flipped open her cell phone and started dialing the airline to check the passenger loads home on Wednesday, I dialed the Marriott hotel in Waikiki to see if they offered a crew discount.

Yet another amazing thing about the job. We actually get cheap rates at many hotels, as well as discounts on car rentals.

“The flight home is open,” my mother said, snapping her phone shut.

I spun around in my seat. “And they’ve got a room available….and it’s an ocean view! If we split it-“

“Book it! Just book it! What with the economy the way it is, who knows if we’ll ever get back!”

Nervously I glanced at the husband. “You don’t mind, do you?”

Pointing the car in the direction of the airport exit, he said, “Have fun.”

And like that we booked the room, a room with a fantastic ocean view, a comfy room in a nice hotel in Hawaii located directly across the street from the famous Waikiki beach. We (my mother, my son, and I) had a fantastic time doing…not much, other than walking around, sitting on the beach, and eating a lot of sushi. Which brings me to the point of this post. There is one, I promise.

The second best thing about being a flight attendant, besides travel, is…well…I can’t decide! Seriously, there are way too many wonderful things to choose from – days off, flexibility, hotel discounts, the ability to change travel plans at the last minute, etc. And so I ask you, fellow flight attendants, besides travel, what do you love most about being a flight attendant?

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