VIDEO: Flash mob at Beirut Airport duty free

by Meg Nesterov on


Flash mobs are nothing new, Lisbon even staged a dance at the airport in 2009, but this flash mob at Beirut Airport is the first I’ve seen with Arab Dabke dance. Dabke is a form of line dance which is traditionally performed at weddings and social occasions, and the group here combined it with some hip hop steps. Passengers and airport staff joined in the fun for this video made for Beirut‘s Duty Free (which, incidentally, has amazingly low prices and Lebanese wine is delicious).

Seen any flash mobs on your travels? Would you stop and watch a “spontaneous” dance at an airport?

Miniature Thailand – tilt-shift video

by Justin Delaney on


Bustling Bangkok never looked so tiny and cute. Tilt-shift video makes everything look like a miniature play set, and this video of various Thailand locales employs the technique perfectly. The Chao Phraya river that runs through Bangkok looks like a tiny stream in some sort of elaborate diorama, and people taking to the sea in the Phi Phi Islands near Phuket look like small articulated action figures. The effect is both interesting and surreal. Be sure to check out Gadling’s guide on the similar tilt-shift photography technique. “Toy Thailand” was shot in Bangkok, Phuket, Ton Sai, and Railay in Krabi.

Toy Thailand from joerg daiber on Vimeo.

Video of the Day – San Francisco fog timelapse

by Stephen Greenwood on

San Francisco and the outlying Bay Area is widely known for its natural beauty. Today’s Video of the Day is a collection of timelapses that captures a slice of the remarkable scenery in and around the best that “NorCal” has to offer.

Photographer Simon Christen collected the various scenes over the course of a year by taking 4-5 second exposures on a Canon 40D. He named the video the “Unseen Sea” after the famous rolling fog that blankets San Francisco on a regular basis.

Do you have any videos or pictures from the Golden State? Share them with us! Add it to our Flickr Pool or leave a link in the comments below and it could be our next Video/Photo of the Day.

Video: pilot fakes fainting – passenger freaks out

by Scott Carmichael on

Consider this “pilot fakes fainting” video a “do not watch” if you are afraid of flying. For all others, you be the judge of whether the clip is fake of not.

Either way, sitting in the back of a small prop plane and watching your pilot pass out, hearing the engine throttle down and starting to descend is a sure way to scare the crap out of anyone. And yes – we know the clip is slighly old, but this is just too funny not to share.

What do you think? Fake, real or who cares?

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Video of the Day: Saturday Night Live mocks cruises

by Mike Barish on

Cruises have long been the butt of jokes in the travel world. From the midnight buffets to the touristy nature of the industry, many travel snobs enjoying mocking cruises. But does that mean that these floating resorts – and the people who enjoy them – deserve to be disrespected? Apparently, the writers at Saturday Night Live believe so. This past weekend, Miley Cyrus hosted the long-running sketch show and played a jaded singer who resented that her failed career had led her to be the entertainment on a cruise ship. She openly ridiculed the passengers and the intent was obviously to put down the people who enjoy cruises.

Was it a cheap joke or an accurate representation of the cruise world? At the very least, it was a poorly written sketch that lacked a strong punchline. It’s no wonder that it was buried in the last ten minutes of the show. What do you think? Was the sketch funny, out of bounds, accurate? I’m sure that our resident cruise expert, Chris Owen, has an opinion and you can let us know what you think in the comments.