Gadling TAKE FIVE: April 25– May 1

by Jamie Rhein on

During a week of swine flu travel news, and May Day, there have been other tidbits of interest. Here at Gadling, Catherine Bodry is back to blog some more. In her first post after her year hiatus she shares her #1 item she won’t leave home without when she travels.

Along with Catherine’s return, there are a number of posts to entice the thinking, sensitive traveler.

  • It’s not too late to win the copy of Step Back from the Baggage Claim. Book author Jason Barger traveled to seven airports across the U.S. to test his idea that if we could change airport behavior, we could change the world.
  • Roadmonkey, a company that mixes do-good projects with adventure travel offers experiences in Vietnam and Dar Es Salaam among other places. Kudos to Kraig for finding this gem.
  • Expats might be a more creative than most people according to a research study. The results are in this month’s Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Tom also includes an experiment question for you to test your creativity mettle.
  • Regardless of your guidebook preference, Brenda’s comparison of various guidebooks based on her recent Cuba travel is one way find a fit when you guidebook shop.
  • Even Mike, who’s our Sky Mall Monday funny guy, got serious and sensitive when wondering about the life of the modern day Maori’s in New Zealand. It’s a thought provoking read.

Creativity abounds if you live outside your homeland

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Science says expats are more creative, so it must be true. According to research published by the American Psychological Association (five studies in all), living abroad opens minds and leads to new experiences – all of which points to creativity. The research will be published in May in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Of course, the conclusion is a tad obvious, as the people most likely to choose this lifestyle are probably open-minded and eager to accumulate new experiences. The research team made room for this fact by saying that the project’s results do not prove causation.

As quoted in Reuters, lead author William Maddux, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at European business school INSEAD, says, “This research may have something to say about the increasing impact of globalization on the world, a fact that has been hammered home by the recent financial crisis.”

In perhaps the most interesting component of this project, Kellogg Business School MBA students were presented with the “Duncker candle problem,” which tests creativity. The subject is given a candle, a pack of matches and a box of tacks, and the task is to attach the candle to a wall so that it will burn properly and not drip wax on the table or floor. Students having spent more time living abroad were more likely to come up with the solution.

Think you have the right answer? Test your results after the jump.

Solution to the Duncker candle problem:

  • Use the empty box of tacks as a candle holder
  • Tack the empty box to the wall
  • Light the candle

Yep, it seems so easy this way, but it can be a bear when you’re faced with the problem and have to come up with the answers on your own … especially when you’re being watched!

The friendliest expat countries

by Brenda Yun on

I’m not a big fan of lists, so please don’t be surprised at my dismay with Forbes.com’s newest attempt to show how Western countries are full of the friendliest people on earth. In its latest “Top Ten” list, David Sutton identifies what he believes to be the world’s friendliest expat countries. The top three on his list: Canada, Germany, and Australia.

Please don’t get me wrong. I think these countries are wonderful, and they clearly offer great working opportunities for people who hope to live abroad. However, I noticed a few unfortunate gaps in the list — the biggest of which are Indonesia and Costa Rica. I believe these countries are full of happy and friendly expats. The article’s obvious third world country oversights are dismissed by claiming that “cultural differences from the West [makes] integration difficult.”
I would argue that the real issue here is that businessmen living abroad don’t bother to integrate and adapt to their environments. It should certainly not be the host country’s fault that it is a third world country and therefore unable to accommodate for a rich expat. As always, lists like these could create unnecessary fear in travelers and continue to widen the gap between privileged and unprivileged nations rather than bring people together and teach us how much can be learned about cultures unlike our own.

Former costly cities like London and Seoul are now cheaper

by Josh Lew on

Is there a good side to the world’s economic woes? Not if you are a stock trader or banker. But if you are an expat, living in one of the world’s major cities, there is an upside to the sad state of the global market. Example: London and Seoul, formerly two of the world’s costliest places for expats to reside, have become quite reasonably priced.

A year ago, Seoul was on par with Tokyo in terms of expense. If you needed imported goods (“gotta have my Corn Flakes”), Seoul was actually a more expensive place to live. A mere year later, expats in Korea have seen a 40% drop in prices. This is according to ECA International, a UK-based consulting firm that specializes in helping companies with the planning and logistics of sending employees to overseas offices.

London, once in ECA’s top ten most expensive cities list, has dropped to #72 because of Britain’s poor economic performance.

Who’s on top of the most expensive list? Japanese cities still dominate. Surprisingly, some African cities are expensive for expats because of the high price of imported goods. In fact, Luanda, Angola is the world’s most expensive place for expats, according to ECA.

[more about the ECA survey]

What happens in Dubai stays in Dubai (Dubai’s jails, that is)

by Jerry Guo on

Just read an interesting dispatch from Britain’s The Observer on the recent jailings of expats in Dubai. We’ve covered Poppy-gate and other unfortunate brushes with the law in Dubai, but this article really gives you a clear picture of the two worlds in this emirate: the intolerant Islamic society backed by Sharia law and the Wild West of Britain (and plenty of other nations looking to capitalize on the Middle East).

Surprisingly, what many of us do not hear about are the quintessential subdivisions and shopping malls that seem to be lifted straight out of Middle America. Granted, there are plenty of weird and awesome hotels down the block. I’ve been thinking about moving to Dubai for a year or two–seems like a good jumping off point to the Middle East–but given the unfortunate legal tangles recently, maybe I should reconsider?