Aug 4th, 2011 at 8:30AM:
Today the Foreign Office released British Behaviour Abroad 2011, with detailed figures on British nationals in trouble overseas (read: Brits behaving badly abroad). The period surveyed: April 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011.
There are lots of interesting tidbits in the survey. British nationals request consular assistance in greatest numbers in Spain and the United States, though since both ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
British posts
Brits behaving badly abroad
Aug 4th, 2011 at 8:30AM:
Today the Foreign Office released British Behaviour Abroad 2011, with detailed figures on British nationals in trouble overseas (read: Brits behaving badly abroad). The period surveyed: April 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011.
There are lots of interesting tidbits in the survey. British nationals request consular assistance in greatest numbers in Spain and the United States, though since both ...Photo of the day: behold the power of Cadbury chocolate
Jul 28th, 2011 at 5:00PM:
Depending on which side of the pond you hail from, you probably have a strong opinion on which Cadbury chocolate is superior. Americans live for the season when the Cadbury Creme Egg (now actually made by Hershey) is available to provide way more sugar in one sitting than is advisable, while Brits find the Yankee versions of their confectionary too sweet and consider the simple Dairy Milk bar to ...Weekending: Bodrum/Greece
Aug 11th, 2010 at 10:30AM:
As an expat in Istanbul, I am very fortunate to have awesome opportunities for short trips around Europe and the Middle East. My previous weekend jaunt was to Beirut, Lebanon. Though the current 90+ degree weather is ruling out a lot of domestic travel for now, for my next getaway, I made like the locals and headed south to the beach.
The place: Bodrum, Turkey
The Bodrum peninsula fancies ...Carnival to remove automatic tips from Australian cruises
Dec 7th, 2009 at 12:30PM: In many countries around the world, tipping isn't practiced to the extent it is in the US. Here, anything less than 15% for a restaurant server is considered an insult. We tip hotel housekeepers, valets, even the people who make our coffee. We're used to the system of tipping to supplement a worker's wages, but in other countries, the average tip is much lower.
American cruise lines are having ...Brits love Thailand, not really France
Nov 28th, 2009 at 3:30PM: More than a thousand Britons can't be wrong, right? An online survey of 1,402 of them, by Zoover.co.uk, found France to be the least hospitable vacation destination. But, to be fair, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia weren't included among the choices. So, it really wasn't that bad for the folks across the channel. The Brits found that Thailand was the top spot, picking up 25 percent of the vote, with ...British Airways flight greeted by hazmat team after 6 passengers faint
Nov 1st, 2009 at 10:00AM: Here is a sight you don't want to be greeted by when you land at your destination - upon landing at London Heathrow, an ambulance hazmat team boarded the aircraft to check on the condition of six passengers who had fainted during the flight. It probably isn't too uncommon for one passenger to faint after the stress of a long haul flight, but six of them on a single plane usually warrants some kind ...British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates
Oct 30th, 2009 at 2:00PM: A British couple sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania was kidnapped by Somali pirates and is now being held for ransom.
Paul and Rachel Chandler, both in their late 50's, had been sailing since March on their 38-foot sailboat and keeping a blog about their journey. Last week family and friends alerted authorities that they had not heard from the couple in several days, and shortly after, ...British Airways innovates in the "new fees" department with a seat selection fee
Sep 25th, 2009 at 5:00PM: Dear readers - it is official; British Airways has lost its frikkin mind. Starting October 7th, the UK airline will be charging pretty hefty fees for anyone who wants to make a seat selection at the time of booking (something offered for free by most civilized airlines in the world). The fees start at $15 for a domestic UK seat selection, and go to $30 for World Traveler and World Traveler Plus, ...Drunk on vacation? Don't harass people, or someone will set fire to your penis!
Aug 7th, 2009 at 10:30AM: digg_url = 'http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Drunk_Tourist_Got_His_Penis_Set_on_Fire_By_Greek_Woman'; Here is a story that is bound to make you think twice about harassing the locals when you are drunk.
When 20 year old Stuart Feltham tried to assault a 26 year old local girl on the Greek island of Crete, she first politely asked him to stop.
Like most people, she was not impressed by a drunk ...Dim Sum Dialogues : Top 10 Facts About Hong Kong
Jun 27th, 2009 at 1:00PM: Before I start to dig deeper and bring you the best of what Hong Kong has to offer, I think it's appropriate to share some of the most essential pieces of information that I've discovered about the territory in my past few months here. 1. The name Hong Kong is a phonetic rendering of a Cantonese name meaning "fragrant harbour". 2. With a population of 7 million people but land area of only ...Cross-dressing nuns get off in Crete
May 26th, 2009 at 6:00PM: Insult is added to industry when you appear in court wearing the clothes that got you arrested. The 17 Britsh men, ranging in age from 18 to 65, who were pinched for their drunken nun-attired escapades made their appearance this morning – and were judged innocent! Nobody, it seems, was willing to talk ... or, they just didn't think it was worth it to testify.
According to local police, the ...Drunk Brits get Crete arrest for nun prank
May 26th, 2009 at 8:00AM: How many people actually dress up as nuns when they get drunk?
In Crete, the answer was "17" recently. That's how many drunk British tourists were arrested for insulting the Catholic Church. After a bit of extra imbibing, they donned "nun attire and naughty lingerie," which didn't sit too well with the local cops.
The tourists were busted in Malia, which is a popular destination for the young, ...Flight crew tasty, but off-limits
May 3rd, 2009 at 4:00PM: Man bites dog? Well, woman bites fight attendant (or tries to, at least).
A Russian-born British woman will be spending the weekend in a Maine jail this weekend. She's accused of having popped some prescription drugs and washed them down with a few bottles of wine and – you can't make this stuff up – liquid soap from the plane's lavatory.
Amazingly, she had the energy to rumble ...Fill your bottles before going to UK ... because you can
Mar 15th, 2009 at 1:00PM: The British government is planning to ease its ban on the amount of liquid you can take into and out of the country. Currently, passengers are only allowed to carry 100 ml bottles. Improved airport X-ray machines are expected to render that limit unnecessary. If all goes well – based on secret technology being tested by German scientists – the ban could be lifted by the end of the ...Love in the air - Germans most likely to flirt, Swedes most likely to have sex
Feb 12th, 2009 at 10:30AM: It's the most romantic time of the year - which means companies are releasing all kinds of love related news and surveys. The latest comes from British Airways, who did a quick interview of European travelers, and how often they flirt with their fellow passengers. According to the survey, Germans are the most likely to try and hit on you in the sky, followed by the Swiss. The "passionate" ...Baghdad airport welcomes first European passenger flight in 18 years
Jan 3rd, 2009 at 11:00AM: 18 years after the United Nations imposed a ban on all commercial air traffic destined for Iraq, a Swedish charter plane has landed at Baghdad International Airport. The charter was operated by Nordic Leisure and their 150 passengers were mostly Iraqis. This is just the beginning of what should become a fairly popular route, as many Iraqis are in Europe waiting to return to their homeland. ...Expansions in the business-class-only service
Aug 19th, 2008 at 1:20PM: The all-business-class model for airline carriers has been a touchy subject over the last few months. With all but two of the airlines now out of business (OpenSkies and Singapore Airlines' select flights), many wonder if the original approach was a good idea. Yet OpenSkies (EC, owned by British Airways) and Singapore Airlines (SQ) continue to press on -- and even expand. Earlier this month, ...Official report encourages drunken British traveler stereotype
Aug 12th, 2008 at 6:00PM: While staying with a friend's family in Barcelona last year I was shocked when they told me about the stereotypical British traveler often talked about in Spanish media. "They [British travelers] come down on cheap flights and they don't even make hotel reservations," said my friend's father. "You mean they sleep on the street?" "No, they just stay out drinking all night and once morning comes ...Expedia survey rates the world's worst tourists
Jun 25th, 2008 at 8:30AM: The French, Indians, and the Chinese have been voted as the world's worst tourists by a group of 4000 hoteliers, in a survey conducted by online travel search engine Expedia. On the other hand, the best tourists are 1) Japanese 2) British and Germans. Yup, looks like the annoying and continuous photo taking of everything in sight by the Japanese, and the drunken stag parties of the British and the ...Talking British
Jan 6th, 2008 at 2:03PM: I had to stifle a laugh a few years ago when a new bar popped up on the hippest street in my homecity. The source of my amusement? The name: Ming. To many, it might sound like a trendy Asian name for a trendy Asian hangout, but to me and anyone else who tends to throw British slang into everyday conversation, Ming means something else: Stinky and/or unattractive. For instance, if you pick up a ...
