With a metro area of more than 8 million people, Toronto is one of North America's largest cities. It is the economic and cultural center of Canada and is by far the country's most international city. Even when compared to New York and LA, it is a culturally diverse place. Nearly half of Toronto's residents were born outside of Canada. Because all these different cultures have been absorbed into one place, Toronto is unlike anywhere else.

It is also a destination for budget travelers who want an urban vacation but do not want to deal with New York or LA prices.

Getting in

It is easy to get to Toronto by car. Highways 404, 401, 400 and 427 converge on the city. Driving is also advantageous if you plan to explore the outlying areas of this spread out metropolis.

Pearson Int'l Airport hosts a majority of the flights from the US. You might be able to hook into a cheap Air Canada flight, although it is often a better investment to fly into Buffalo and then take a bus to Toronto. Megabus runs regular service between NYC and Toronto via Buffalo. Greyhound also runs the route, as well as connecting Toronto with Chicago and Detroit.

Minneapolis. What comes to mind? Prince's purple jumpsuit, Francis McDormand's accent in the movie Fargo, the Mall of America and six months of winter.

Perhaps the larger of the Twin Cities (Saint Paul being the smaller) is not on the tourist map, but it often gets props for being a nice place to live. (Forbes called it most affordable city to live well. The Minneapolis suburb of Plymouth was rated the best place to live by CNNMoney).

So it's a fine place to live. But why visit?

First, there is the food...then the live music, the art, the coffee shops, and, of course, the fact that Minneapolis is second only the New York in number of theater seats per capita.

Bring your coat (and if your ears are delicate, a hat as well) during the winter, but don't expect ice fishing weather from April to October. That is when the city's lakes, trails, and outdoor events make it a budget traveler's dream destination.

A computer crash at Taiwan's Taoyuan International Airport caused a major headache on Monday. The computer system used by the National Immigration Agency (NIA) failed, forcing immigration agents to get back to basics, taking down people's information by hand. Needless to say, lines became quite long, and frustrated expressions of passengers were commonplace. Add to that the fact that yesterday was an exceptionally busy travel day as people headed home after their holiday vacations.

Approximately 20,000 people left the country during the computer blackout. NIA had to wait until the system came back online to see if anyone had entered or exited the country illegally. The agency recently terminated its contract with the company that performed computer maintenance tasks. A new company began working on the system only last week.

According to airport officials, no one missed an outgoing flight as a result of the system's crash. However, the incident comes of the heels of a baggage mishaps a day earlier. People on a dozen flights were forced to leave without their checked baggage after a conveyor belt broke down for almost two hours.

[Related]

Yesterday, a Delta Airlines flight from Moscow to Atlanta had to make an unexpected stop in Newfoundland after the pilot decided that an unruly passenger had to be removed from the plane. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were waiting at the gate in the town of Gander. They immediately took the man into custody.

Few details about his behavior were given, but he was said to be drunk, aggressive, and unruly. However, the man did not injure any other passengers. The flight arrived in Atlanta about 4 hours late. There were more than 200 people on board.

Canadian authorities are expected to file charges against the man, who is still being held by the Mounties. His identity has not yet been released. A passenger told an Atlanta newspaper that he noticed an empty bottle of Chivas (the 1.5 liter variety) next to the man's seat. Other passengers said that the man had also taken prescription medication along with the alcohol.

It might be called Sin City, but that doesn't mean that it is a complete place of moral decay (sorry). There are churches of the Catholic denomination located right on the Las Vegas Strip. The most noticeable one is Guardian Angel Cathedral, which located next to the newest of the Wynn casinos. It is actually not preaching fire and brimstone to the tourists who descend upon the city throughout the year. Its main goal is to serve the legions of casino employees, nearly 40% of whom claim to be Roman Catholic. Of course, that probably doesn't discourage a few down-on-their-luck craps players from lighting a votive candle for good luck.

Las Vegas development guru Steve Wynn offered to construct a new church in return for turning the land where the old one sat into a parking garage for his new project. Church leaders decided not to take Wynn up on his offer, saying that the current church had already been blessed and therefore couldn't be destroyed. So even in Sin City, you can still get holy, if you want.

[via LA Times]

Bras with flashing lights, transparent g-strings, underwear that is made from little more than fake butterflies and plastic flower petals. No, it is not the dressing room of a Las Vegas gentleman's club, it's a shop in a Damascus souk. BBC correspondent Martin Asser recently uncovered some unexpected retail spaces in the Syrian capital. It turns out that, despite the penchant for non-form-flattering outdoor apparel, there is a market in this Levantine country for so called "indoor apparel."

According to one of the country's most successful undergarment tailors, religion and sex are not at all at odds, as long as marriage is also involved:

"Our work is all about igniting the desires of a husband for his wife, so he doesn't go looking elsewhere. It's a good thing and there's nothing wrong it."

Asser also mentions that sexual dissatisfaction is a legit reason for divorce in the Islamic faith.

See the related video here. There is even a book featuring some of the more outlandish designs found in Syrian souks (pictured above).

[via BBC]

According to the operations manager of Hong Kong's Disneyland, the leading cause of ride stoppages is weather. Nearly seventy percent of all prematurely stopped rides are due to high winds, lightning, or rainfall. But that does not mean that there are not other reasons for cutting the fun short. One of the largest reasons, besides weather, is bad behavior.

According to the park: "The human causes include standing up during rides to take photographs, striking backdrops with umbrellas, or noticeably terrified children being forced onto rides by parents." So, think twice before dragging Junior on to the super-coaster.

The safety-first rules occasionally cause confrontations between park staff and unruly guests. Staff have recently received training in dealing with guests who don't know or care about the rules.

The park's most time consuming task is not enforcing its safety code or watching the skies. It is the nightly inspection of rides, bolt by bolt, that eats away most of the Mouse's security budget.

Cambodia's dictator for life prime minister, Hun Sen, recently appealed to the country's Buddhist clergy, telling them to clean up their act. The PM told a convention of top religious leaders that the actions and poor judgment of individual monks has given the whole religion a black eye.

He cited several situations including monks accepting roles as dancers in a music video and an abbot using offerings of money to buy himself a new car. Also, disputes between monks and laypeople are on the rise, according to an independent social analyst.

Hun Sen concluded his address to the holy people by saying "These are individual monks making problems. Citizens should not consider it an issue of the whole religion, but equally, we must not be careless about this issue."

Buddhist monks have long been revered in Cambodia. Many have become involved in various forms of social work. However, it seems that the recent economic development has affected the religious world as much as the general public.

[via Phnom Penh Post]

Safe sex is going high-tech in Beijing. The old, bright yellow coin-operated condom dispensers were finally ditched by the city's authorities. They will be replaced by state of the art vending machines that look more like touch screen ATMs than the final stop for those who are about to get their naughty on. The government has installed 411 of the machines already. thousand's more will be popping up over the coming months. They will be located near bars, nightclubs, in hotels, and adjacent to construction sites.

The Beijing AIDS Prevention Committee has made a deal with the city's public transportation arm. All you have to do is swipe your OneCard (used for bus and subway fares) and out comes your prophylactic (which costs 5 yuan). And it talks too. (No, not the rubber, the machine). The brightly lit LCD screens will broadcast safe sex and anti-AIDS messages throughout the day.

[via Danwei]

The King of Thailand, who somehow manages to stay above the country's constant political woes, has official accepted former opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva as the new prime minister. He is the 3rd man to hold the post in the past 12 weeks.

Abhisit was formerly the opposition leader in parliament. He brings youth (he's only 44) and a reputation for honesty to the country's top job. Like the Illinois governor's office, corruption is almost expected from Thailand's leadership. Abhisit's perceived incorruptibility might be just what the country needs to start trusting its governing body again.

What does this new political era mean for Thailand's massive tourism industry? Nothing yet. Until the rift between rival political parties and their supporters is mended, more events like the occupation of Suvarnabhumi Airport are entirely possible. The infrastructure is still in place, but until the unpredictable political climate calms down, it would be hard to expect tourists to flock back to Thailand's beaches and shopping venues.

[via BBC]