This photo, like a still life painting, offers questions of the person who may have just stepped away. The chopsticks resting on the dish, the bean pods left behind and the silver wrapping are lit as if in a Rembrandt painting. This masterpiece was captured in Japan by mick62.
If you have any shots with interesting angles that have caught your fancy, send them our way at Gadling’s Flickr Photo Pool. One might end up picked for a Photo of the Day.
BootsnAll brings us another excellent list, with the intention of adding yet more destinations to our ever expanding “life lists”. This time it’s their selection of ten magnificent monuments, amazing structures from around the globe, that inspire us to travel thousands of miles just so we can take them in ourselves.
Some of the selections on the list are centuries old, such as the Nubian monuments found in southern Egypt or Stonehenge in England. Others are relatively recent in their construction, like the Washington Monument in D.C. or the Brandenburg Gate in Germany. These monuments were built for a variety of reasons, some religious in nature, like the Reclining Buddha in Thailand, others to commemorate a particular person or event, like the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico. Each of the places on the list include a photo and a nice description of why it deserves your consideration as a travel destination.
One thing that I like about this collection is that not everything on it is well known. For instance, the obvious choice for Egypt is the Great Pyramids or the Sphynx, but BootsnAll went with the temples located in Abu Simbal, far to the south, and far less visited by tourists.
For the traveler who has been everywhere and seen everything, perhaps this list will give you a few new ideas for future adventures. For those just setting out on their travels, this is a great list to start with.
Chances are, you’ve been there–that awkward moment in another country when you don’t speak the local language, and the person across from you doesn’t speak English. Try as you might with a smile and game of charades, you’re at an impasse. Game over.
Or else, maybe you tried one last attempt: drawing it. That’s the premise behind Me No Speak.
The mini-guide takes the words most likely to come out of a traveler’s mouth, and puts them in illustration and writing–both English and the local language (Chinese, Japanese, or Thai). That way, the only thing you have to do is point.
Without pronunciation keys, and the urge to wade through rounds of trial and error in speaking the language, you cut to the chase. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t try learning or practicing a language, but this guide is more for emergencies–the first thing that comes to mind is ordering at a restaurant or finding the nearest toilet. But it’s been said to be useful for everything from reporting a stolen camera to police to getting a leaky shower fixed in a hotel bathroom.
The passport-sized guides are divided into color-coded sections: general help, food, transportation, accommodation, shopping, and health & safety. They’re largely sold on the Me No Speak website ($9.95), but also at a few retailers such as Flight 001.
Word is, they’re working on iPhone applications as well, starting with their China guide. Other guides that are coming down the pike are for Korea and Turkey.
Cherry blossom season is almost upon us, and that can only mean one thing for airfares: it’s time for the annual sale on tickets to Tokyo.
Most years there is a bit of a run on tickets to the Far East around this time of the year, but in this year’s prices, you can sense a bit of desperation. The economy is down, loads are light and the airlines are doing whatever they can to interest the American consumer in traveling again. Including slashing fares to Japan.
This round brings fares to anywhere between $550 and $600 from departure points all across the country. Plugging “flexible dates” into Travelocity, I’m finding $584 spring fares from LGA-NRT (that’s New York LaGuardia to Tokyo Narita,) while Los Angeles and Chicago are returning similar results.
All fares are on American Airlines (with some on United,) and travel appears to be good all of the way through May.
Need some help finding good tourist spots? Check out Big in Japan’s Cherry Blossom guide for a great start.
You never know what you’ll find out at Gadling. That’s what I thought this week when I perused the offerings. In the midst of Cockpit Chronicles, Galley Gossip, SkyMall Monday, Tuesday Trivia, Through the Gadling Lens, and Undiscovered New York were posts with information I didn’t know about until I read them.