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Recent Comments:
South by Southeast: Who goes to Myanmar? {Gadling}
Nov 23rd 2009 2:20PM Hey Jeremy,
I went to Burma again last winter - a longer trip to explore some of the off-the-beaten-path places (which sounds funny considering the whole country is still viewed as being off-the-beaten-path). I have yet to meet a single person that was disappointed by their visit to Burma (unlike, say, Germany). Looking forward to reading more about your visit.
Gadlinks for Thursday 9.3.09 {Gadling}
Sep 4th 2009 3:28PM Thanks for the link juice Aaron!
Five Destinations for the "Super-Adventurous" {Gadling}
May 7th 2009 9:53AM Quick clarification: Transylvania isn't a country. It's a region within Romania.
Travel guidebooks: Choosing the one that's just right {Gadling}
May 1st 2009 3:01PM Brenda, please do yourself and your readers a favor and read more than one source when you research an article. That you're slamming TK's research - which was, by all accounts, sound - with such strong yet feebly researched opinions is thick with obnoxious irony.
Lonely Planet writer admits he never visited country he wrote about {Gadling}
Apr 13th 2008 11:40AM As another Lonely Planet author, I'd like to add that no one was holding a gun to his head. If he felt he was not being paid enough money for the Columbia job and he was incapable of logically producing evidence for an upward adjustment in fee (each LP author negotiates a fee for each job – we're freelancers working on a contract-by-contract basis, so nothing is fixed) he could have simply said 'no'. Why on Earth accept a job that you don't feel is paying enough? It makes no sense. Though it sounds as if ethics and sense are not this guy's strong suits.
Lonely Planet's Burma guide called unethical {Gadling}
Feb 23rd 2008 10:17AM David,
Oh the managed tours are most certainly going on in Myanmar. Telltale signs are the new vans with tinted windows (with functioning seatbelts!), with a cooler of drinks inside and guests that are not allowed to speak directly to anyone but their guide. This is why I make a point of using the words 'independent travelers' above.
There's no way to avoid giving at least a little of your money to Burma's regime when you visit, but you can drastically control how much goes to the regime, and that's part of what LP is trying to accomplish with the Burma guidebook. Is every hostel/restaurant/bus company listed without a doubt independent and not associated with the junta? Probably not. But most are.
And any time you see a business of any kind calling itself 'Lonely Planet Something', please report it at lonelyplanet.com. There are no officially sanctioned LP affiliate businesses anywhere in the world and LP actively goes after anyone using their name in any capacity.
Lonely Planet's Burma guide called unethical {Gadling}
Feb 22nd 2008 5:44PM Fact: Independent travelers in Burma bring with them desperately needed funds for untold thousands of people who make their livings in tourism and whose lives would be devastated by a travel boycott.
Fact: Independent travelers that go to Burma can expose themselves to the people and life in Burma, and upon their return report on what they saw, more effectively exposing the human rights violations of the military junta.
Fact: Though Aung San Suu Kyi is the undisputed leader of the National League for Democracy and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, she is human and therefore fallible. Her long term confinement and her arguably extreme views on boycotting travel in Burma could be construed as out-dated and needlessly detrimental to the lives of everyday Burmese people fighting to survive. Also, it should be noted that Aung San Suu Kyi's plea for a travel boycott was not unanimously accepted by her fellow opposition party members. Many active members that still live in Burma, opposing the regime at their personal daily peril fervently disagree with a travel boycott.
Fact: Independent travelers that have visited Burma since the most recent protests and crackdowns report that not a single Burmese citizen they met, *not one*, supported a travel boycott. Indeed the Burmese they interviewed pled for people to do the opposite. Visit, observe, report.
Fact: 99% of the people behind this petition have never stepped foot in Burma and don't know what the fuck they're talking about.
Marginally-informed busy-bodies are the bane of this planet.
My Bloody (Drunk) Romania: Beyond the moonshine {Gadling}
Feb 8th 2008 4:01PM Rick,
That's a brilliant idea, however I'm not sure how legal it is to send tuica through the mail and I really don't know where to start as far as a discussion board. This is a longshot, but maybe you could strike a deal with Monika at High Class Hostel (www.classhostel.ro). I know she's often looking to send receive stuff with people abroad, but again, not sure if she can help you. Good luck!
My year of (good? bad? you decide) luck {Gadling}
Jan 25th 2008 9:49AM Ditto. I still don't have health insurance. Don't take me down with you.
That was a cool cabin.
Holiday Travel Hell Part 1: American Airlines really doesn't care {Gadling}
Jan 7th 2008 11:05AM Oh, I almost forgot, in regards to your useless, off-topic form reply email… If you want to get the attention of a) someone who may actually read your complaint, b) someone who hasn't gone off their anti-dementia meds and c) someone who might, just might do something about it, you can always go to AA's corporate web site, collect a list of high ranking people in customer service, sleuth the airline's email address naming convention and then spam everyone with your original email, the useless reply and a follow up note about how incompetence at AA seemed to be running the entire spectrum that week.
This is bad news. I've always had good luck with AA. If they get added to Leif's Never Fly Unless it's a Dire Emergency List, along with Northwest and Delta, I'll have to start flying Sun Country everywhere. Have you ever tried to book a flight to New Zealand on Sun Country? Not easy.
