Crazy budget airline names

by Abha Malpani on


What’s in a name? Nothing really, it’s just a name but I wanted to share some cheap thrill budget airline names with you guys:

– Wizz Air: Hungarian Airline (in Britain you want to pee when you go for a wizz :)
– Flybaboo: Has the tagline “A breath of Swiss air” hehe.
– One-Two-Go: The domestic wing of Orient-Thai Airlines.
– Spice Jet: Low cost domestic Indian airline. Well, India and spice can be synonyms, so it’s actually quite a valid name.
– Allegiant Air: Ironically it’s a Las Vegas based carrier, that also allows cats and dogs on board. (I didn’t think any airline allowed that. Are there more?)
– Tiger Airways: Asia-Pacific budget airline based out of Australia that seems to be a roaring success.
– Fly-For-Beans: Not in air yet, but the name is great! It’s planned to be an airline for Europe, and with that name I’m sure it’s based out of Britain.
– Spirit Air: Flies to the Caribbean, the Bahamas and Latin America.
– BWIA West Indies Airways: That stands for “British West Indian Airways West Indies Airways”, haha. (I don’t think that’s meant to be funny. It’s probably one of those errors that is so deep-seated, there’s no point fixing it anymore).
–Garuda Airlines: It’s an Indonesian airline, and ‘garuda’ is a Hindu/Buddhist mythological bird. Interesting as majority of Indonesia is muslim.

I remember when Virgin Airlines launched ages ago (now Virgin Atlantic) — I found its name cool and innovative; guess it’s way behind on that front now!

[Via News.com]

Odd Statues from Around the World

by Brett Atkinson on

Weird statues are usually the end result of a city councillor with too much time and other people’s money on their hands. Some of the planet’s oddest statues include a giant Optimus Prime from Transformers and the kids jumping into the Singapore River outside the Fullerton Hotel.

Check out those and other odd and offbeat constructions here, and let me know any that have been overlooked, especially from your neck of the woods.

Some of most poignant and imposing statues I’ve seen are at Statue Park in Budapest. While other former Communist countries destroyed their statues of Lenin, members of the Proletariat, and brave Socialist soldiers, Hungary moved them to a park on the egde of Budapest.

Click here for an article I wrote about Statue Park, or read more travel information about Budapest.

News via Oddee and pic of Statue Park thanks to nicol_b on Flickr.

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Is This The World’s Most Southern Igloo?

by Brett Atkinson on

Normally igloos are meant to be surrounded by polar bears and Inuit fishermen drilling holes in pack ice, but that hasn’t stopped a few wacky Kiwis from building one half way up an active volcano. Mt Ruapehu in New Zealand’s North Island last erupted in 1996 and earlier this year sent a lahar of mud, rocks and water careening down its slopes. Despite the occasional natural interruption, Ruapahu features two popular skifields, and visitors for the upcoming season now have the opportunity to sleep in an authentic igloo.

Visitors will need to be quick because the icy structure will only last until spring kicks in from October. There are already two dining rooms for up to 20 mountain-side diners, and new sleeping quarters are now being added that will house up to nine people.

There’s no reviews on Trip Advisor yet, but it’s probably just a matter of time.

Story and pic via the New Zealand Herald.

Honey, Are You Sure We Packed The Lizard?

by Brett Atkinson on

I travel pretty light so packing up after staying in a new hotel room is usually a straightforward matter, although my wife Carol still struggles with my uncanny knack of locking our pack keys IN the pack. Maybe if I did travel with more luggage, I’d be as absent minded as some other travellers uncovered by the travel search engine www.kayak.com.

A recent survey unearthed some surprising items that travellers have been lucky (ahem…) enough to find in their hotel room when they checked in. Dr Dolittle would have been impressed with a range of critters from tarantula spiders to foot-long lizards and racoons – even a hotel security guard having a light afternoon sleep.

Strange discoveries have included a male wig, a bathtub full of beer (hooray!), and a prosthetic leg. Unfortunately a dead body was also included in the tally, but at least there were no horses’ heads – even in New Jersey.

Thanks to Captain Solo on Flickr for the picture of a racoon enjoying takeout.

Big in Japan: The Beginning

by Matthew Firestone on

I guess the question at hand is simply this: where to begin?

Should I kick off my first real column talking about the 151 rules of sushi etiquette? Or should I instead pontificate on the virtues of a perfectly brewed cup of green tea? Better yet, perhaps I should offer some sort of experiential wisdom for zen seekers the world over? Well, I shall touch on all of these issues at some point in my writings, but alas not today.

On the contrary, I’d like to offer some random musings on one simple question: why Japan?

Whether you’ve lived in Japan for years and are starting to forget your English, or you’re fresh off the plane and are fighting your jet-lag with vending machine coffee, ex-pats inevitably struggle with this simple question. To complicate the matter at hand, Japanese people are fascinated with foreigners in their country, and seem to revel in asking us why we abandoned our Western trappings for a life of bento boxes and Hello Kitty chopsticks.

Truth be told, most of us over here really don’t know why we’re here, and simply rebuff these inquiries with a simple ‘nantonaku‘ or ‘why not?’ Although most Westerners would view this answer as a cop out, the Japanese are far too polite to push the issue. Japan is a land of manners and grace, and people here are extremely adept at reading between the lines and avoiding unnecessary confrontation.

Of course, I guess after several years of on and off living in Japan, I should be able to answer this question. Indeed, if I had a yen for every time my friends and family asked me why I keep coming back here, I’d be able to eat my weight in toro (fatty tuna). Sadly, I’ve yet to come up with a simple and easy answer, though I’ll do my best to try.

One of the joys of traveling is pushing your comfort zone, dealing with culture shock and learning that the world is vastly more complicated that you could have ever managed. From witnessing grinding poverty for the first time to finding yourself on the open road, all of us have a place in our mind that touches us to the core. With that said, no matter how much time I spend over here, Japan never ceases to blow my mind.

Every time I walk down the streets of Tokyo, I feel like a hyperactive ‘kid in a candy shop’ who forgot to take his Ritalin. Japan is bursting at the seams with stimuli, and every time I think I’ve figured it out or seen it all, something inevitably floors me.

Indeed, what other country in the world could bring you consumer goods such as the ‘nipple scarf,’ which keeps you warm while compensating for certain inadequacies? Or, why spend another night alone in bed when you can snuggle up to the ‘hubby pillow,’ which never snores, never complains and always stays on its side of the bed.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Japan is a weird, wacky and wonderful place. Keep tuning in to ‘Big in Japan‘ – there is plenty more to come.