When not to listen to your GPS unit

by Scott Carmichael on

If I had to make up a fake statistic, I’d say that one in three cars currently has a GPS navigation system. In the past decade, these systems have gone from the ultimate in luxury to just another $100 gadget.

One thing that has not changed however, is the inability of some people to make up their own mind and drive around without using the GPS commands as something other than a mere suggestion.

Here are 5 incidents when a driver let the soothing voice of their GPS unit tell them exactly where to go; without thinking about their next move.

Turn right at the railroad crossing with the approaching train…

A grade crossing in Bedford Hills, NY was the scene of an accident where a driver took a GPS suggested turn, right onto the tracks of the Metro-North railroad.

When the car got stuck, the driver and passengers got out and called 911. Unfortunately, the dispatcher was not able to reach the oncoming train on time, and it struck the car. Nobody was injured but passengers in the train were delayed several hours. An exact same incident occurred earlier this year, also involving a GPS unit.

Via: LoHud.com news and Engadget.com

Road safety truck stuck…

This stuck truck would be just as hilarious as any other situation where a driver failed to check the height of his truck before driving under a bridge. But the truck in question was on its way to a seminar to teach school children some important lessons on road safety. It took a salvage company several hours to pull the truck from under the viaduct.

100ft cliffs on the road to Crackpot

I’m not sure what is funnier; that GPS units have been directing people on a route along the edge of a cliff, or that these people are on their way to a village called Crackpot. When drivers get stuck on the perilous route, they attempt to reverse their car along the edge of the cliff. Thankfully nobody has gone over the edge yet. Villagers are trying to get the route removed from GPS maps.

Source: BBC News

Turn left (if you are a bus)

The Dutch have a fantastic public transport system. Their roads are so bus friendly, that they actually make entire routes and shortcuts just for the bus drivers. So, let that be a lesson to anyone who is NOT driving a bus. This bus route has a hydraulic gate which opens and closes for the local bus, and is clearly strong enough to lift your poor Volvo in into the air.

Corner VS. truck – corner wins!

Residents of the Welsh village of Tycroes have tried everything to warn drivers about the dangers of Cwmferrws Road, but it took this stuck Polish truck driver to finally force the council to design a road sign telling truck drivers not to rely on their GPS units for navigating the village. The truck in question was stuck for hours, and kept hitting a garden wall in his attempts at getting his truck unstuck.

Xinjiang Journal: Sixteen hours in China’s Wild West

by Jerry Guo on

3:05 pm. The plane from Beijing has barely landed, and I’m already on my phone. The screen flashes 5:05 pm, and for a moment, I fear I’ve missed the ballgame, that I’ve flown 2,400 miles to the heart of China’s wild west-roughly the distance between New York and San Francisco-for empty bleachers and discarded foam fingers.

Then, I remember that there are two worlds here in Xinjiang, each with its own definition of time. The Han Chinese run this hardscrabble autonomous province on official Beijing time while the Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic minority, prefer unofficial Xinjiang time. Getting by on two different time zones is easier than you would think, for the Hans and Uighurs live in different neighborhoods, speak different languages, practice different religions, and attend different classes.

When these two worlds clash, violence often erupts. In August, 33 policemen and Uighur rebels were killed around Xinjiang, and with the end of the Olympics, many human rights activists fear an even greater crackdown on the Uighurs.

But there is one place where these two worlds still coexist peacefully: on the baseball field.
3:50 pm. I’ve made it to the skirmish (score one for Xinjiang time), but two problems arise. The first is that it’s raining. The second is more alarming. I’m standing on a soccer field, and the baseball players-college students from Xinjiang University-are not batting or catching or throwing: they’re kicking around a soccer ball.

Christopher Rufo, a 24-year-old Sacramento filmmaker who has been following this team for the past eight months, sees my confusion, and explains that the nearest baseball field lies 1,400 miles east of Urumqi, in Xian. “Baseball is an outlier here,” he says. “Few people play the game, and that’s why it’s considered so cool.”

Even though they must make do with a soccer field (with one corner as home plate), and their gear-worn gloves, stitch-frayed balls, rough bats-would not be fit for the Little League, these players have beaten the odds. On the field, they’ve transformed, in four years, from a skinny group of mostly freshmen (none of whom had ever seen a baseball game on television) into a cohesive team that has held their own against bigger, better equipped opponents from the coast. Off the field, their tale of overcoming bitter racial divides-there weren’t enough players to have separate Han and Uighur teams-begs to be baseball’s answer to Remember the Titans.

6:35 pm. It’s the fourth (and last) inning, and while I’d like to say it was a close game, no one was keeping score. Nonetheless, Akbar, a Uighur freshman and material physics major, dashes from second base in a full sprint, off a hard grounder into left field.

He rounds third and continues his mad dash to home, arriving in a tangle of legs and arms. I hear yells of “out-ta” (out). There’s no umpire, so the catcher, Zheng Siming, a Han junior and computer science major, makes the call. He had inadvertently dropped the catch, and rightfully declares, “Say-foo” (safe).

Their coach, Jai Kuk Rue, a stocky Korean who never fulfilled his dream of making the pros, watches approvingly from the sideline. “Baseball to us is not about points or winning,” he says. “Most important is our teamwork. The Uighur and Han players are always in close contact, so their relations have improved.”

He’s in the middle of retracing the team’s ascent in fortunes-the discovery of a cachet of gloves left by Japanese exchange students in the 1990s; his chance vacation to Xinjiang five years ago with his family, and the subsequent decision to stay and coach the team; the recent organization of a middle school and four elementary school training camps by team alums-when Akbar bounds over, all grins and still breathing hard.
Second part tomorrow.

Talking Travel with Tim Patterson

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Tim Patterson comes from the Rolf Potts School of travel writing– thoughtful, funny, and talented. But above all else, he’s a traveler.

It seems Tim is constantly on the move, whether it’s to Cambodia, Bhutan, or Uruguay. He shares his love for travel on a number of sites, including Brave New Traveler, Matador, and his personal site, Rucksack Wanderer. Tim’s a great guy and (lucky for you) a great interview.

He recently took the time to answer a couple travel-related questions via email…

1. Brave New Traveler takes a different approach to travel than a lot of other sites. What are you trying to accomplish with BNT, and were you surprised to find such a wide audience for your message?

Most travel sites are focused on destinations. This isn’t a bad thing – travel is about going someplace new after all – but the destination focus does contribute to the idea of travel as just another marketable commodity.

The BNT team finds the thought of buying a travel experience ridiculous and sad. We see travel as a spiritual journey, an almost sacred way to find our place in the modern world.

We published a really popular collection of 50 Inspiring Travel Quotes recently. Here’s one of my favorites, by Miriam Beard:

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”

That quote sums up our attitude at BNT pretty well.

Am I surprised to find such a wide audience for this content? Absolutely not. People are hungry for essays and articles that go deeper than commercial fluff.

2. I want to become a guidebook writer but don’t know where to start. Any tips?

Read “Smile When Your Lying” by Chuck Thompson. Maybe read “Do Travel Writers Go To Hell?” by Thomas Kohnstamm. Definitely read “A Job With Travel But No Vacation” in the New York Times.

Guidebook writing is hard work, especially if you need to live on a guidebook writer’s salary. Plus, online destination guides like TravelFish and interactive travel magazines like Matador are cutting into the traditional guidebook market.

Start out small. Build an audience. Don’t take rejection personally. In the immortal words of Judge Elihu Smails, “the world needs ditch-diggers, too”.

If you’re a solid writer, check out open assignments on the Matador Bounty Board. At the moment there are over 20 open assignments that each pay $25 a pop.

3. What kind of research do you conduct before heading to a new destination?

It depends on why I’m traveling and for how long. I usually read up on travel literature before going someplace new. For Patagonia, I read Bruce Chatwin. For Los Angeles, I read T. C. Boyle.

I rarely buy guidebooks, but I’ll camp out in a bookstore for a couple hours and flip through Lonely Planet, Fodor’s and Rough Guide to get a sense of the place.

If I’m going to stay for a while, I look for sublets and short term rentals on Craigslist. If I’m passing through, I check out Couchsurfing.

It’s rare, though, that I’ll make firm itineraries. You can never be too prepared for a journey, but leaving room for serendipity is important, too.

4. Many first-time travelers are reluctant to embrace solo travel, and they worry that they’ll spend their entire trips in depressing isolation. What can you tell them to allay their fears?

Yeah, you’ll be lonely and miserable sometimes. But you’ll also learn more about yourself than you ever thought possible. You’ll be totally free, just you in the world, with no outside pressure or expectations. This is scary. But it’s also exhilarating.

Also, you won’t ever be far from company. Travelers are social creatures, and locals are eager to show solo visitors hospitality. All it takes to make friends is a smile and some trust.

5. Finally, where are you now and what’s keeping you busy these days?

I’m sitting in my underwear at my desk in humid Saigon at 6 pm on a Sunday afternoon. I’ve been here for about a month, but will soon move on to Thailand, Laos and northern Myanmar.

I’ve never felt at home in big cities, or even large towns, but I like Saigon. There are delicious family-owned restaurants and coffee shops on every corner. I do yoga at a studio down the street and then float through the swirl of the city in the monsoon rain to a bowl of hot beef noodle soup with herbs and lime.

Before Saigon I led a rugged travel program in Cambodia with the visionary organization Where There Be Dragons.

Dragons wants me to scout, design and lead a new Mekong River semester program for 17-22 year olds that would follow the river from Tibetan headwaters to the Delta in Vietnam.

This is a dream job, but I’m also really fired up on my work for BNT and the Matador Network. The Matador community is really thriving and I couldn’t ask for more inspiring colleagues.

Finally, I’m in the process of closing on 2.4 of the prettiest acres you’ve ever seen, right in my hometown of Craftsbury, Vermont.

Someday I’m going to build a cabin with a big front porch and a woodstove, put my rucksack on a hook by the door, plant lots of sunflowers, sow potatoes, load up a bookshelf with all the best books and really ground myself in the one place and one community that, for me, is truly home.

Galley Gossip: The best thing about being a flight attendant – Travel! (Monterey & Carmel, CA)

by Heather Poole on

The best thing, by far, about being a flight attendant, besides all the cool people you get to work with and all the interesting passengers you meet, is being able to travel anywhere in the world (as long as there’s an airport) at a moments notice on your day off – for free! Well…that is as long as there’s an open seat on the airplane. So when the husband had to go to Carmel, California for work two weeks ago, I jumped on the computer, logged onto the airline website, and pulled up the passenger loads.

Oh. My. Goodness. I couldn’t believe my eyes! The flight to Carmel was open. As in wide open! Which was kind of weird, because the flights these days are never open. Immediately my fingers began clicking the keyboard as fast as they could type, checking the passenger loads on the return flight back to Los Angeles. Unbelievable. The flight home was also open. Not wide open, no, but there were seats available, and more than two of them. Two seats, that’s all I needed.

I yelled out, “We’re going with you!” We, being, the kid and I.

That’s when I realized I hadn’t been back to Carmel since my son was born, a little over two years ago! What a shame, considering Carmel is one of my favorite places to go for a quick weekend getaway. What’s so great about Carmel? Everything!

The town of Carmel is charming, located just steps away from the ocean. There you will find peace and relaxation as well as galleries and restaurants. For me, nothing compares to an early morning jog on the winding path overlooking the breathtaking beach while the fog rolls in, followed by a scrumptious breakfast at Katy’s. Don’t even get me started on the flowers, particularly the lavender, which makes the place smell so good, especially this time of year!

Not to mention, I was born in Monterrey, a short drive from Carmel, where there are so many wonderful things to do with a kid, like visiting the sea otters at the Monterey bay aquarium. Of course we’d have to make a stop at the Highlands Inn for lunch, one of Carmel’s most romantic hotels, where we got married five years ago. I mean what’s not to love about sitting on a wooden deck, the smell of pine trees enveloping you, as you take in sweeping views of the ocean. If you’re lucky, you may even spot a whale or two through the binoculars left outside on the patio table. If that’s not enough, Point Lobos State Reserve is a fantastic place to go for a hike, while Pebble Beach provides the golfer a world renowned course. And who doesn’t love that drive to Big Sur? Needless to say, Carmel, as well as Monterrey, are quite special to me.

I could hear the husband climbing the stairs. “What did you say?”

“We’re coming with you.” I spun around in the leather chair just as the husband walked into the office. “The flights are open! I can’t believe it,” I mumbled, pointing at the screen.

“Me, neither, ” said the husband, who can’t even remember the last time he’s taken advantage of my flight privileges. He can’t take the stress of possibly being bumped from flight to flight all day long. Leaning over my shoulder, he said, “Let’s make it a long weekend. I’ll book a hotel in Carmel.”

“I’ll start packing!” I exclaimed, jumping off the computer and dragging my suitcase out of the closet. It was 4pm and the flight to Carmel departed at 8am sharp the following morning. I couldn’t wait to get on that flight!

Get on the flight we did, no problem. Man, there are times when I really love my job!

While you’re reading this post about Carmel, I’m on my way home from Honolulu. That’s right, I’m taking my mother and son, as well as the husband, to Oahu for the weekend, which I’m sure I’ll be writing about soon. Until then, enjoy my little photo gallery of Monterey. (Little photo gallery because the camera broke mid trip)

(The above photo was taken at the Point Lobos State Reserve )

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It’s burčák season in Prague! Try it, with caution

by Jeffrey White on

This weekend I was in Prague, happy to be reminded, thanks to signs hung in pretty much every bar and cafe window, that it’s once again bur?ák season!

Huh? you say.

From now into November, most drinking holes outside of seedy herna, or gambling, bars will be offering bur?ák, which is barely fermented wine.

If Beaujolais is the French answer to early wine, bur?ák — pronounced, more or less, bore-chuck — is the Czechs’, though you really can’t compare the two. Some describe bur?ák as having a taste much like orange juice. The white version is cloudy in the glass (to me it looks like pear juice), and while I don’t get a lot of orange taste, it definitely reminds one of fruit. It’s sweet, somewhat refreshing, and very drinkable.

That’s why you’ve got to be careful: It’s very easy to overdue it on a drink that taste good and doesn’t appear to be that alcoholic (hey, it’s only partially fermented, right?)

Don’t let bur?ák’s sweet taste and benign appearance fool you. Glasses are still around 5-8 percent alcohol (though fully fermented wine usually hovers around 11-12 percent). And bur?ák is one of those odd drinks (actually, I can’t think of another one like it) that actually gets more alcoholic as it sits on the table. It is fermenting right in front of your eyes. So the pitcher that you gamely order up is going to be more alcoholic by the time you reach the bottom.

But that’s only one reason to be careful. Really, it is not a good idea to have so much of this stuff, uh, fermenting in your stomach. Now, people will tell you that it is a myth that bur?ák continues fermenting in the blood stream. Maybe it is scientifically impossible. But I know what my stomach feels like a few hours after 4-5 good-size glasses of the stuff. It’s unsettled, to put it mildly.

I don’t want to imply that bur?ák is some kind of unique drink; many European countries mark the early grape harvest with their own versions. In Germany, where I live, feder weisen, which is quite similar to bur?ák, is currently in most establishments. But bur?ák does have a unique taste, and if nothing else it’s a reminder of how, in Europe at least, we mark the change in seasons less by meteorological and arboreal observation as by the food and drink that begins showing up in the places where we like to eat and drink.

The stuff is here one day, and gone before you know it.