Gadling giveaway: Me No Speak guides

by Alison Brick on

You know those handy Me No Speak guides that I mentioned a few days ago? The ones that are stripped down to the basics of an illustration and translation, so you can just point to get by in a pinch when you don’t have a common language.

We have a few on hand that we’re giving away.

Enter our giveaway to win a Me No Speak guide for your next trip. The three grand prize winners will be able to select one guide of their choice–China, Japan, or Thailand.

To enter the contest for the chance to win a Me No Speak guide:

  • Simply leave a comment below telling us which guide you’d want if you won: China, Japan, or Thailand.
  • The comment must be left before Monday, March 30 at 5:00 PM Eastern Time.
  • You may enter only once.
  • Three winners will be selected in a random drawing.
  • These three random winners will each receive a Me No Speak guide of their choice (valued at $9.95).
  • Click here for complete Official Rules.
  • Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, including the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.

Riga, Latvia: Thriving rip-off scene is the other side of tourism

by Jeffrey White on

Tom certainly had some useful recommendations when he recently made the case for visiting Riga. But any pitch to check out the Latvian capital and all it has to offer — a charming old town, beautiful architecture, one of Eastern Europe’s better restaurant scenes, some nice museums — would be remiss if it didn’t acknowledge the growing problem of tourist-targeted scams that are prevalent in the very areas of the city in which you’re likely to spend most of your time.

Having recently returned from Riga, I remain shocked at the extent to which the city has adopted some of the nastier byproducts of a thriving tourist industry, namely the most inconspicuous, yet persistent (and dangerous) street hustles I’ve encountered in nearly five years of traveling in the former Eastern bloc.

I’m not talking about shout-out men stuffing strip club leaflets into your hands. I’m not talking about pick-pockets or complicated currency rackets.

Out on walks most nights, I watched as packs of well-dressed and beautiful women descended on groups of tourists — of course, mostly men — and lured them into bars and clubs not with the promise of sex of anything untoward, but simply for a drink. There these hapless souls will buy the ladies and themselves a few drinks (or, more likely, the drinks will simply start showing up) and when it comes time to settle up, they’ll find out that that bottle of wine they ordered for the table cost hundreds of euros. Upon balking at the expense, they’ll be greeted by one or two big, threatening bouncers and — in some reported cases, at least — roughed up if they don’t pay.

That’s a relatively easy scam to avoid: Don’t go anywhere with a woman who would not give you the time of day in your hometown.

A harder one to avoid, because it’s carried out even at a few reputable-looking restaurants and pubs, is the fake credit card machine. You’ll go to settle up, proffer your credit card and be told it was declined. You might hand over another card, which will also be declined. Eventually you’ll pay cash, and the next day you’ll find that said establishment has charged you thousands.

Think I’m just hating on Riga?

Search most travel forums online for Riga and scams and you’ll see travelers talking about this.

The problem is such that the government late last year announced that it would begin cracking down on establishments known to be rip-off centers (there are 180 criminal proceedings against fraudsters currently active). Also, at the behest of foreign embassies, who are pissed about fielding complaints from their citizens about this, police in Riga are gradually becoming more responsive to tourists in trouble. The government has outfitted patrol officers in Riga with 24-hour translation help, and tourists can now lodge official complaints in Latvian, English and German.

Speaking of embassies, the US Embassy in Riga has this extraordinary warning for tourists on its Web site, where it names the places to avoid in the city center. (The embassy has also officially banned its employees from setting foot in these places.) I’ve listed the places to avoid here.

All this started to be a problem back in 2005, about a year into Latvia’s EU membership. More recently, authorities say it’s gotten the way it has thanks, in part, to the onset of budget airlines that have made Riga accessible to most Europeans, lured here by low prices. British stag parties have made Riga a favorite party spot, which has probably contributed to the problem.

Such a reality doesn’t play well for guidebooks, I know, but it’s something to keep in mind.

Product review – Air-O-Swiss ultrasonic travel humidfier

by Scott Carmichael on

No amount of luxury at a hotel can help prevent me from waking up with a dry throat in the middle of the night – for some reason, the climate control at most hotels seems to keep the room a very unpleasant 30% humidity, and for some reason, I am very sensitive to dry air.

Last year I mentioned the Air-O-Swiss “AOS 7146” ultrasonic travel humidifier. I finally ordered one and am happy to report that it really does work as advertised. The humidifier itself is small at just 4.5″x2.5″x3″ and at tad over 0.7lbs it will barely take up any room in your bag.

Included in the box is the humidifier itself, a bottle adapter, a carrying pouch and a power supply with a set of international prongs.

To use the humidifier, you simply grab a water bottle (no larger than half a liter), insert the adapter in the bottle, and place the bottle in the humidifier. On the back of the unit is a knob to adjust the humidity level. On the bottom of the unit are 2 folding stands, which should prevent a heavy bottle from tipping the humidifier over.

The unit produces a very fine mist of cool water, which is easily absorbed into the air. The unit does lack a hygrometer, so you’ll either need to keep it on “high” all day, or adjust it when you feel things are getting too humid.

For my test, I brought along a pocket digital hygrometer. When I entered the hotel room, the meter read 34%, which is usually too dry for me. After about an hour with the travel humidifier the humidity level had reached a comfortable 46%.

The Air-O-Swiss AOS 7146 ultrasonic travel humidifier retails for $59.99, but can be found for at your local Bed Bath and Beyond store, which means you can pick one up with one of their easily obtainable 20% off coupons. I ended up paying a little over $48 for mine, which is quite a good bargain.

Plane Answers: Sleeping gas to thwart terrorists, longer winter takeoffs and which aircraft is the smoothest in rough air

by Kent Wien on

Welcome to Gadling’s feature, Plane Answers, where our resident airline pilot, Kent Wien, answers your questions about everything from takeoff to touchdown and beyond. Have a question of your own? Ask away!

Jack asks:

I was wondering why the airlines don’t put sleeping gas on a plane for highjackers. This way when the plane is highjacked the pilot puts on an air mask and gases the rest of the plane, calls for help and lands the plane, arrest & shoot the highjackers, well at least arrest them. Nobody gets hurt and we won’t need all the security people.

Jack, if you only knew how many times the O2 masks have been dropped by a pilot inadvertently flipping the wrong switch during a preflight, you might think twice about this ‘feature.’ Not to mention the chance for leaks or having the system used against us in an attack.

Nope, I would prefer to have passengers available to assist in the case of any terrorist action.

TC asks:

I live in South Florida and drive by FLL (Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International) every morning and evening in transit to work. We recently had a few days of real cold temperatures and I noticed the planes taking off are lower over the interstate and seem to be on the runway longer. How does the effect of temperature and humidity relate to take-offs and landings?

Actually, it’s the opposite, TC. During the colder days, both piston and jet aircraft perform better in the colder weather. On hot weather days the engines produce slightly less power and the density altitude is higher resulting in a little less performance.

In an indirect way, the winter season may have been the cause of the longer takeoff distances. I suspect those flights were completely full of people and bags after escaping from the dreadfully long winter we’ve had here in the northeast!

Andrew asks:

On what type of medium to large jets do you feel the least turbulence, e.g., Airbus 320, Boing 737-400, Boing 737-500, etc.?

Certainly the larger aircraft are smoother in turbulence, usually. The 777 has a ‘gust suppression’ technology that helps with side to side turbulence, and the new 787 will have a system that’s designed to mitigate the effects of both horizontal and vertical turbulence.

More important than the type of aircraft is where on that aircraft you sit. The front-to-middle section is always a smoother ride. We’ve had flight attendants injured in the aft galley while the flight attendants were still able to serve meals in the front of the airplane. So try for row 17 and forward if you can on your next domestic flight. You might notice a difference.

Do you have a question about something related to the pointy end of an airplane? Ask Kent and maybe he’ll use it for next Monday’s Plane Answers. Check out his other blog, Cockpit Chronicles and travel along with him at work.

Galley Gossip: Hottest trend on the airplane since the mile high club

by Heather Poole on

Checking your watch for the umpteenth time, you sigh, because you’re on the airplane waiting in line to use the bathroom and you’ve been waiting in line for a very long time. What’s strange is you’re next to go and have been for some time now. What the heck is going on in there?

You probably don’t want to know. What you do know is the passenger who went in there ten minutes ago can’t be doing that, at least not with another person, because they went in there alone. Then again some people join the mile high club while others prefer the solo aviators division.

“Excuse me, Miss,” you say, and when you say this you’re looking at me, and because I see you standing in front of a lavatory door that is occupied, I already know what you’re going to say before you even say it and I’m really, really, wishing you didn’t have to involve me.

“Whoever’s in there has been in there a very long time,” you tell me.

I nod, trying my best to look concerned, and while I’m nodding I’m praying the person who has been in the lavatory for a very long time will finally walk out. Please walk out! When they don’t walk out, I say, “Sometimes it takes some people a little longer than others.” Because it does. I mean it took me two years to even use the thing. For real.

“Can you at least knock on the door to make sure they’re alright?”

I take a deep breath, wondering why you can’t knock on the door yourself, because we both know you don’t really care whether or not they’re alright in there and I’m not the one who needs to use the loo, but I go ahead and do it anyway – knock knock, knocking my knuckles against the hard, cold door, and that’s when I hear a powerful flush.

I smile and state the obvious, “They should be out in a second.”

Suddenly the door swings opens and the passenger walks out. As the passenger passes you by, you think to yourself, surely they weren’t doing that, because they just don’t look like the type to do that – at least not on an airplane. So you play it safe, holding your breath as you walk inside, locking the door behind you. Hoping for the best, you finally exhale, and strangely there is no odor. You can’t believe it. Grabbing a paper towel, you wonder just what that passenger was doing in the bathroom for all that time.

Well I think I know. I’ve even got the photos to prove it. While working on my last Galley Gossip post about trusting fear (on and off the airplane), I needed to find a photograph of the lavatory to go along with it, so I logged onto Flickr.com and typed the words LAVATORY AIRPLANE and BATHROOM AIRPLANE into the search bar. I could not believe what popped up. In fact, I’ve already told everyone I know all about what I found. I had to tell someone!

So let me be the first to tell you that something very strange and disturbing, yet quite intriguing, is going on behind that locked lavatory door. Passengers, and I’m talking all kinds of passengers, are photographing themselves in the bathroom. What I want to know is how long has this been going on? And why didn’t anyone ever tell me? You’d think I would have seen all those cameras going into the bathroom! Oh you better believe I’ll be taking my own self portrait in the lav on my next flight to New York on Wednesday. Until then, check out these interesting shots..

%Gallery-48328%

%Poll-28392%

Photo courtesy of Dpstyles