Book a custom-made mystery trip with American Express’s ‘Nextpedition’

by Melanie Renzulli on

Are you itching to take a trip but not exactly sure where you want to go? Have you ever wished you could take part in an adventure, such as the Amazing Race, in which details of your journey are revealed one segment at a time? You may be an ideal candidate for American Express’s Nextpedition.

Here’s how it works:

First, you’ll need to fill out your Traveler Profile, 15 questions to reveal whether you’re a Histocrat, Poshaholic, Gastronaut, Trengineer, Blisstorian, or one of 20 trendily-named travel personality composites. Once you get your Traveler Profile, Nextpedition will ask you to enter a a few personal details so that an AMEX travel consultant can contact you about your Nextpedition. After setting your budget and travel time and booking your trip, you need only wait for your dossier and vouchers to arrive at your doorstep – approximately one week prior to the start of your trip.One of the coolest components of the Nextpedition package is the Travel Console, a smartphone device that reveals your destinations and mystery activities over the course of the journey. The wi-fi equipped Travel Console also gives travelers the chance to create a Travel Log, which is shareable with your friends and family on Facebook.

As long as you’re willing to give up micromanagement of your itinerary, the idea behind AMEX’s Nextpedition is very appealing. Indeed, the experience hearkens back to the good old days, when you let travel agents worry about open jaw tickets and trip activities while all you had to do was pack. What’s more, the dose of mystery that AMEX infuses into the whole Nextpedition process lends it a hip, reality-show-type feel. What happens if you find out you’re traveling to a place you don’t really like? That’s not addressed in the Nextpedition FAQs. But given that Nextpeditions are limited to destinations in the U.S., Canada, and Europe and trips range from $1,000 to $3,500 per person for a 7-day getaway, you can be the intrepid traveler you always wanted to be without losing any creature comforts.

Does this sound like the kind of trip you’d like to take? Would you be interested in seeing other travel companies offer this type of package? Leave your comments below.

Fish farmer snaps photo of Nessie

by Sean McLachlan on

Loch Ness has been getting into the news a lot lately. There’s been a rise in sightings this year, Nessie was photographed in July, and a UFO was spotted over Loch Ness last month.

Now a new photo of Nessie has emerged. You’ll have to go to the link to see it because we don’t get a photo budget here at Gadling and Nessie photos don’t come cheap. Instead you get to marvel at this fine Lego Nessie photographed by David R. Tribble. At least it’s exactly what it looks like.

The “real” monster was snapped by commercial fish farmer Jon Rowe when he got out his camera to take a picture of a rainbow over Loch Ness. Rowe says he, “noticed this really large dark shape in the loch with two humps that were barely out of the water. . .Almost as soon as I took the shot the shape disappeared under the water and out of sight.”

Personally I’m skeptical, and so are the experts. The leading cryptozoology website Cryptomundo opines that the image shows a pair of water birds diving for prey. Adrian Shine of the Loch Ness Project says the same thing.

Rowe insists that they weren’t birds, however, so the mystery continues.

At least all this activity is putting to rest the idea that Nessie is extinct.

Unidentified Falling Object seen over Loch Ness

by Sean McLachlan on

Scottish police are scratching their heads over a mysterious occurrence at Loch Ness this weekend, The Scotsman newspaper reports.

On Saturday night several eyewitnesses saw an object falling into or near the loch. Some describe it as a white light, others as a blue light. People said it was a balloon, or an ultralight, or a parachute. Some people said it didn’t fall at all, merely passed over the tree line.

In other words, nobody has the faintest idea what they saw.

So many people called emergency services, however, that it’s certain something strange was going on in the skies, and the police, the coastguard, a lifeboat crew, and the Royal Air Force went in search of it. Several hours of looking in the water and along the shore turned up nothing.

So what was it? Possibly a meteor. Meteors often cause UFO flaps. Large ones called “fireballs” or “bolides” can light up the sky and even change color as their various minerals get ionized from the heat of entering our atmosphere. Since they streak across the night sky so quickly, it’s hard to judge distance or location. This photo, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, shows a bolide. It’s not a photo of whatever was over Loch Ness.

Sadly, there were no reported sightings of Nessie this weekend. Some people say the poor Loch Ness Monster may be extinct.

Queen Hatshepsut and the case of the poison skin cream

by Sean McLachlan on

German archaeologists studying a skin cream once owned by Queen Hatshepsut have found evidence that the female pharaoh may have accidentally poisoned herself.

The tiny bottle, which has an inscription saying it was owned by Hatshepsut, was still partially filled with a substance that the archaeologists subjected to chemical analysis. It included nutmeg and palm oils, commonly used to soothe skin irritations. It also included benzopyrene, which smells nice but is highly carcinogenic. It’s found in burnt substances such as pitch, coal tar, cigarette smoke, and burnt foods such as barbeque and coffee. Keep that in mind this Labor Day Weekend.

In contrast to the idealized statue of Hatshepsut shown here, her mummy revealed that she was obese, had liver cancer, and probably suffered from diabetes.

Hatshepsut’s rule saw two decades of peace and ambitious trade expeditions as far as Puntland, which was probably in the modern unrecognized state of the same name. Her modern-looking temple at Deir el Bahri is one of Egypt´s most stunning attractions. You can reach it by bus, or if you’re feeling adventurous you can take a mountain path from the Valley of the Kings, which leads you to a cliff overlooking the temple before sloping down past the tombs of its builders and to the temple itself. I did this one August, which is not the best time. That was probably as bad for my skin as Hatshepsut’s skin cream.

[Photo courtesy Rob Koopman]

BBC presenter spots UFO near Stansted airport

by Sean McLachlan on


A BBC sports presenter claims to have seen a UFO near Stansted Airport early this morning, the BBC reports.

Radio 5 presenter Mike Sewell says he was driving early this morning about 15 miles from Stansted Airport in Hertfordshire, England, when a bright light descended towards the road before banking to the left and then circling over a field. It was disc shaped with several lights flashing around the edge. During the interview, UFO expert Timothy Good said he “knew for a fact” that experimental spacecraft have been developed with the help of aliens, and that this might be one of them.

Sewell doesn’t mention taking any photographs with his mobile phone, and of course Good doesn’t give any hard evidence to back up his claim. So could this be a hoax? I doubt Sewell would stick his professional neck out by lying to reporters from his own news agency. Perhaps he hallucinated? Perhaps it was some strange electrical phenomenon?

The proximity to Stansted raises the possibility that it was indeed some sort of experimental aircraft, but we don’t have to go so far as Good does and spin tales about aliens. I met a reporter who once saw what he was convinced was a UFO flying over the New Mexico desert. He described it as a black triangle unlike any aircraft he had ever seen. He became a UFO believer until the first photos of the Stealth bomber were released, and then he knew what he had seen.

Have you ever had a strange encounter near an airport? Tell us what you saw in the comments section!

[Photo of “unusual atmospheric occurrence observed over Sri Lanka” courtesy UK Ministry of Defence. This is not the object Sewell claims to have seen.]