Gadlinks for Monday 8.17.09

by Brenda Yun on


Another week of summer has come and gone, and we’re just hanging on to those last few certain days of warmth before fall kicks in! Last week we had some great travel reads, and this week will likely be no different. But you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to catch our normal Gadlinks, for today’s links are in keeping with the “scenic” theme we have going here on Gadling today. Check these out for some scenic inspiration:

‘Til tomorrow, have a great evening!

More Gadlinks HERE.

Dumb Dutch duo flies 4000 miles in the wrong direction, to the wrong Sydney

by Scott Carmichael on

Every year, at least one idiot makes the news by proving their total lack of basic geography knowledge.

Such is the story of Dutchman Johannes Rutten and his grandson.

Mr. Rutten had booked tickets for his dream trip from Amsterdam to Sydney, Australia.

After an 8 hour flight on Air Canada, he made his stopover in Halifax, for the final leg to Sydney.

By now, 99.99% of readers will most likely know something is wrong – not Mr. Rutten. He got on the final segment, and landed about an hour later. When he got off the plane, the cabin crew alerted the local Air Canada rep that they had 2 passengers arriving at the wrong Sydney.

To make matters worse, the duo arrived with no money (except for some Australian Dollars). Thankfully, Air Canada has a warm place in their heart for stupid people – so they put them up in a hotel (for free) and are working on arranging an earlier return for them as soon as possible.

The worst part? The duo booked their flights through a travel agency – which obviously invalidates the whole argument that it pays to use an expert to book your flights. It boggles the mind how someone can board a Canadian airline, transit at a small Canadian airport to an even smaller airport, and not sense something is really, really wrong.

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Backpacker rescued after 12 days in the Australian wild

by Kraig Becker on

19 year-old backpacker Jamie Neale, who has been missing in the mountains of eastern Australia for the past 12 days, has been found alive and is said to be in good condition, although he is recovering from exhaustion and dehydration in a local hospital. He was discovered on a trail near Katoomba, the same town that he set out from nearly two weeks ago.

The young Brit was on holiday in Australia when he decided to go backpacking in the Blue Mountains, found approximately 60 miles to the west of Sydney. He was last seen on July 3rd, but set off without his cell phone and didn’t bother to tell anyone where he was going. He also failed to sign the log book at the trail head as well, which complicated search and rescue operations later. To add to his level of unpreparedness, he was clad in dark colored clothes that made him difficult to spot from the air, and his survival blanket was left behind when he left Perth.

The Blue Mountains are a popular destination for hikers and backpackers alike. With more than 150 miles of trail available, and thousands of more miles of untouched wilderness stretching in all directions, outdoor enthusiasts flock to the region which is listed as a World Heritage Site for its natural beauty. The landscape is marked with sandstone plateaus, deep gorges, and eucalpyt forests that are not found anywhere else on the planet.

For Neale though, the beauty of the place that he was lost in turned into an ongoing nightmare. He tells reporters that he ate seeds and various plants to stay alive, and spent his nights huddled up in his jacket trying to stay warm in the cold evening air. He even reportedly spent one night sleeping under a log.

The backpacker’s family had all but given up on finding him, and his father, who had flown in from the U.K. to help search for his son, was preparing to fly home on the vary day that he was found. Now, they’ll wait for him to fully recover before returning home, where he’s likely to not be allowed to wander out of the yard with out his cell phone ever again.

4320 minutes in LA: V Australia challenges Aussies to weekend in Los Angeles

by Grant Martin on

Now that the Sydney – Los Angeles route is well populated with flights and good prices, Aussies and Americans alike can mull the concept of long weekends overseas. Much like New Yorkers jaunt to Paris or London for a weekend of shopping and hedonism, jetsetters can now cross the pacific for an action packed weekend between surf towns.

As part of the launch initiative, V Australia is kicking off a contest called 4320:LA , where one lucky trio will be given round the world tickets and three whole days (4320 minutes) to party like crazy, rock Los Angeles, and prove that a long weekend in the States can be done.

The catch? All entries have to be in the form of a tweet, that is, less than 140 characters, and you have to tweet the entire time that you’re there. That means that you’d better make the trip interesting — no tweets like “Watching TCM in my hotel room.” You also have to be Australian to enter.

Check out 4320:LA for more details on the promo and to enter.

Virgin Blue calls musician terrorist

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It wasn’t until Steve Lucas actually got on the plane that he had a problem. His bullet-studded guitar strap – empty shells, of course – made it through the various points in the Sydney airport’s security gauntlet. Consequently, all his luggage was removed from the Virgin Blue flight.

Three times, the musician of 30 years was called to the front of the plane to sign a statement confirming that he had brought prohibited goods aboard. Lucas claims not to have had any problems with the shells on previous flights while on tour.

Separated from his instruments, Lucas was unable to rehearse in a timely manner, prompting him to call the airline’s complaints line … where he was told he was a potential terrorist.

Mom may have said that rock music will rot your brain, but this is extreme.


Unlike Lucas, these girls were actually *causing* problems in the sky. Click the pictures to find out what they did.