Family Drives From The UK To Australia

In front of Ayers Rock in Australia. (Image courtesy of Graham Naismith)

Graham and Eirene Naismith decided to beat the plummeting real estate prices in their local Croydon and decided to move to Australia. But rather than taking a more conventional route to their destination, the couple decided to make it an adventure, along with their three young children, by packing up a Toyota Landcruiser and driving more than 30,000 miles to the land Down Under.

Along the way, they’ve seen sights in such exotic and breathtaking places such as The Swiss Alps in Switzerland, The Olympics in China, and the beaches of Thailand among others.

“We’ve all become closer as a family and I’ve enjoyed being in my wife’s company,” says Graham. “The children may have missed school, but they’ve learned so much on the trip and had an amazing experience which has really broadened their minds. The reason I did this was to spend time with the children, and that was the most important part of the trip.” (via Daily Mail)

‘DRIVE TO OZ’ NAISMITH SITE INCLUDING LOTS OF PHOTOS AND A TRAVELING FORUM

A Complaint To Richard Branson

This has got to be the best complaint letter ever. It’s addressed to billionaire owner of Virgin, Sir Richard Branson, from an aggrevated passenger en route from Mumbai to London on a Virgin Atlantic flight in response to being served a less-than-appealing meal.

“Anyway, this is all irrelevant at the moment. I was raised strictly but neatly by my parents and if they knew I had started desert before the main course, a sponge shaft would be the least of my worries. So lets peel back the tin-foil on the main dish and see what’s on offer.

I’ll try and explain how this felt. Imagine being a twelve year old boy Richard. Now imagine it’s Christmas morning and you’re sat their with your final present to open. It’s a big one, and you know what it is. It’s that Goodmans stereo you picked out the catalogue and wrote to Santa about.

Only you open the present and it’s not in there. It’s your hamster Richard. It’s your hamster in the box and it’s not breathing. That’s how I felt when I peeled back the foil…”

CLICK HERE for the full letter

Via The New York Times

Scientists Create Futuristic Hotel Room

The Jetson’s never had it this good while traveling!

Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering and Organisation in Stuttgart Germany have developed what they believe is the “hotel room of the future.” Instead of straight lines and bleak, generic furnishings they have created a “curvy” room with innovative gadgets that not only look impressive, but according to their research, are suppose to make a person more comfortable on a subconcious level. For example everything in the room from the walls to desks are curved with no corners in sight as studies have shown straight lines and points make one depressed. Another cool feature is a bed that will rock you to sleep as if you were back in your mothers womb! Link! (via The BBC)

New Maps Show We Live In Fantasy Land

Who hasn’t had the desire to travel to New Wild Boar City, the Great Land of the Tattooed, or The City of Boatmen?  Do these not ring a bell? Well, maybe you’re more familiar by their more common monikers of New York City, Great Britain, and Paris (respectively)?

In a new map, created by husband and wife Stephan Hormes and Silke  Peust, the “Atlas of True Names” seeks to find what explorers saw eons ago when originally naming certain places. To do this, they traced the etymological roots of names to catch a glimpse into how the place may have been centuries ago. In turn, we get names that make it seem as if we’re living on a planet where elves and faeries may inhabit.

“The result looks exactly like what one has come to expect from a map — except that it’s not always easy to know what one is looking at. That dot on the East Coast of the US looks like it should be New York, but it’s labelled “New Wild Boar Village.” (York, in England, derives from the Old English eofor for wild boar and the Latin vicus, for village.)” Link! (via Der Spiegel)

Indigenous Transvestites Celebrated in Mexico

In the small town of Juchitan men who dress as women, called “muxes” pronounced “moo-shes”, don their finest dresses and hair accessories to celebrate the harvest in southern Mexico. The fiesta has been held annually for the last 33 years, but gender-bending has its roots in this culture for centuries.

“‘Native people in the Americas with ambiguous gender were often regarded as wise and talented, said Rosemary Joyce, a professor of anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley.

‘They were seen as have having a kind of spiritual power that comes from being more like the ancestors who are mothers and fathers at once, and more like the divinities who may be dual gendered,’ Joyce said.” Link! (via Reuters)

Andrew Zimmern Tastes Hawaii

I caught the episode of Bizarre Foods last night where Andrew Zimmern visited Hawai’i. I really didn’t know what to expect since I’d previously viewed fellow chef Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations show where he visited the islands as well. I was left a little disappointed with Bourdain’s tour.

On Bourdain’s show, which I like as well, he didn’t eat any Native Hawaiian foods nor did he have a Native Hawaiian on his show. He did have locals, however, but as most should know that oftentimes doesn’t mean the same thing. The locals, comprising of Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos, mostly showed Bourdain local favorites (including spam masubi, chicken long rice, and some newer Pan-Asian dishes) that were introduced to Hawai’I after the mass influx of foreigners and World War II happened. It was an enjoyable show overall, but I felt it didn’t give a real perspective on Hawaiian culture that Bourdain often showcases in other episodes from his travels around the world.

However, I was pleasantly surprised when I tuned in to Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods. Not only did he sample the post World War II recipes of Hawai’I (which he didn’t care for), he also had *gasp* actual Hawaiian/Polynesians on the show! Zimmern was invited to a luau, hosted by a Hawaiian/Maori/Caucasian/Asian family where he tried traditional favorites such as kalua pig, he’e, and poi. (His faced turned into a disgusted grimace when he ate the poi though. I was laughingly perplexed as this guy will voraciously eat lamb testicles with a side of jizz yet can’t stand stuff made from a taro root. :-)). He also went on a wild boar hunt where they skinned the animal and ate the internal organs before they spoiled. Unsurprisingly, he gobbled those right up! Then he went to the island of Moloka’I where he munched on fresh ‘opihi with some laid back locals.

As you can probably guess, I prefered Zimmern’s Hawai’I show to Bourdain’s as I think it gave the viewer a more well-rounded perspective of the foods and cultures there. As Native Hawaiians are a minority in their own lands, I’m glad Zimmern (or his producers) decided to not forget us and showcase some of the more exotic fare that might not show up at a typical touristy luau.

Below is a clip of Zimmern about to bust-one eating all that ono-licious food.

‘Perverted’ Europeans Ruin An African Tradition

With a ritual centuries old, where virgin teenage girls dance nude to display their innocence to the king and pick his wives, the Zulu king himself has ordered the dancers to cover up their bottoms with sarongs. Not because of shame on their part as this tradition, and girls, are respected, but because of the many European tourists who zoom in on bare parts of the teenagers.

The event is a popular destination for toursts attracting about 25,000 people a year, but King Goodwill Zwelithini and many locals are fed up with travel goers gawking at the girls’ nakedness finding it disrespectful to their culture. The King stated the event was “not for looking at maidens’ bottoms.” Link! (via Daily Mail)

Beauty Is Pain

I wish I were rich. That way I can take vacations and patronize decadent spas to destinations with exotic names like writer Anna Pasternak has done. She writes about her week long experience as she spends them at the posh Palace Hotel; the hottest place to detox as some magazines claim. The spa follows the doctrine of Henri Chenot; a “French expert in Chinese medicine” who’s developed a health system called biontology.

She endures acupuncture via electrical pulses to the face body, massage via the “cupping” method, and a rigorous diet to purge oneself of the unhealthy toxins. By day three, her mental and physical well being start to deteriorate. “I am so dizzy I think I’m going to faint, so they help me shower off while I gulp honey from a minute packet. Then the doctor comes and I sit crying, obsessed by how hungry and lonely I’m feeling.” In the end she said it was worth it. Good read. Link! (via Daily Mail)

Golden Gate Bridge Will Receive Net

After watching clips from the movie “The Bridge”, I didn’t know whether I should add it to my Netflix queue or not. I was disturbed yet fascinated on its premise; a camera is set rolling on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge as it captures over the course of an entire year people jumping to their deaths and interviews of family members and friends.

The Golden Gate Bridge is a well known iconic piece of structure that, for many years, has been the final destination of many. But, recently, a panel has voted to finally make a suicide barrier that could prevent the deaths of many who flock there. Building it could take several years and cost around $40 million to $50 million, but I’m so glad they finally decided on this as it is a much needed addition to this historic landmark. The money is nothing compared to how many lives it will save in the future. Link!

300 Days Alone In Tonga

Swiss explorer Xavier Rosset set out on a quest – to live 300 days alone on Tofua Island in the Kingdom of Tonga. You can read his experiences on HIS BLOG where he recounts wanting to give up by the second week due to his feelings of lonliness and diet of raw fish. Via Boing Boing