Jan 7th, 2012 at 12:00PM: Last month, I went to a designer-clothing pop-up sale in the back of a restaurant, scored an invite to an exclusive party with Champagne and gourmet truffles, and got the manager's private phone number of a hot new nightlife spot. I'm not famous or especially well-connected, I'm just a subscriber to DailySecret.com. Daily Secret is website and email newsletter that delivers insider intel for ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
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Daily Secret offers insider intel for Istanbul, Athens, Shanghai and more
Jan 7th, 2012 at 12:00PM: Last month, I went to a designer-clothing pop-up sale in the back of a restaurant, scored an invite to an exclusive party with Champagne and gourmet truffles, and got the manager's private phone number of a hot new nightlife spot. I'm not famous or especially well-connected, I'm just a subscriber to DailySecret.com. Daily Secret is website and email newsletter that delivers insider intel for ...10 reasons to travel to Ljubljana
Dec 13th, 2011 at 9:00AM:
When I found cheap airfare from Istanbul to Ljubljana, I didn't find many other travelers who'd been there or even say for sure which country it's in. The tiny of country of Slovenia is slightly smaller than New Jersey and its capital city isn't known for much other than being difficult to spell and pronounce (say "lyoob-lyAH-nah"). After spending a few days there last month, I quickly fell ...Ode to the expat newspaper
May 3rd, 2011 at 3:00PM: One of my favorite things about traveling, in addition to foreign supermarkets, oddball museums, and miniature toiletries, is the local English-language expat newspaper. When I'm home in New York, I tend to get all my news online, either directly from news websites through specific searches or curated from friends' links on social media (one of the best sources for news from US newspapers is ...The perfect English country walk: five ingredients
Mar 25th, 2011 at 1:30PM:
The country walk near or around London is a venerable tradition. Every weekend, in good weather and bad, scores of Londoners descend upon different areas of the Home Counties--the counties surrounding London--to tramp along country roads, walk adjacent to (and sometimes through) cultivated fields, and wander into rural churches.
My first walk transpired this past Saturday. I was lucky ...Knocked up abroad: getting pregnant in a foreign country
Feb 16th, 2011 at 2:30PM: My first clue that something was different came when I woke up one night on vacation in Kiev at 3am, proceeded to eat 3 slices of toast with caviar spread, went back to bed and woke up a few hours later wondering if they made blueberry muffins in Ukraine (tragicially, they do not). That "time of the month" hadn't happened but flying tends to always mess with your body, so I didn't give it much of ...A travel guide to the 2011 Oscar movies
Feb 2nd, 2011 at 4:00PM: The 83rd annual Academy Awards are coming up in a few weeks and the Oscars race is on. This year's nominations contained few surprises, with many nods for Brit period piece The King's Speech, Facebook biopic The Social Network, and headtrip Inception. While 2010's ultimate travel blockbuster Eat, Pray, Love failed to made the cut, there's still plenty to inspire wanderlust among the Best Picture ...Photo of the Day - English Class in Vietnam
Jan 24th, 2011 at 6:30PM:
As we travel the world taking in the sights and sounds, it's often easy to forget that the people whom we romanticize are just people living their own lives and trying to fulfill their own dreams. Those workers tending rice paddies, artisans weaving tapestries and farmers herding livestock may make for some fanastic stories when we return home, but they all remain where we saw them, taking on ...5 reasons to be a tourist
Aug 3rd, 2010 at 12:30PM:
After three months living in Istanbul, I've gained a stable of a few dozen Turkish words to string into awkward sentences; learned some local intel on what soccer teams to root for, where to get the best mantı, and the best Turkish insults (maganda is the local equivalent of guido); and have come to avoid Sultanahmet with the same disdain I used to reserve for Times Square when I lived in New ...Canada gets its very own dictionary
Jun 3rd, 2010 at 9:30AM: Canadians have long been quick to declare the differences with their American neighbors to the south. Whether displayed through a particularly fervent love for hockey or by virtue of the country's publicly-funded healthcare system, there's numerous if sometimes subtle differences. We can now add one more reason to the list - Canada has its own version of English.
OK, yes...I can hear you saying ...Five types of words and phrases to learn in a foreign language
Dec 18th, 2009 at 8:01AM:
When traveling to many foreign countries, especially if you'll be sticking to major cities, there's no need to be completely fluent in the local language. But knowing a few key words and phrases can make your experience not only easier, but richer as well. While many people in the tourist industry speak English, they'll still greatly appreciate your efforts in speaking their native tongue. ...Gadling + BootsnAll - Picks of the Week (5.15.09)
May 15th, 2009 at 11:00AM: Welcome back to Gadling's weekly "Picks of the Week" feature, brought to you by our friends at travel website BootsnAll. How does it work? We input thousands of travel variables into the Gadling mainframe computer, and out comes five of the best and most interesting travel stories from BootsnAll this past week, ready for your reading pleasure. Got your 5.25" floppy disk ready? Alright, here's what ...Chicago? Or Stink Onion?
Dec 18th, 2008 at 9:00AM: Unfamiliar words from foreign tongues have a way of finding their way into English, a language which itself is a melting pot when it comes to origins. Frequently the foreign expression has a way of better summing up what the user is trying to say than what is available in the native tongue. What sounds better? A "smorgasbord?" Or "an extensive array or variety?" How about "faux pas" versus "a ...Sex and the City: Beijing edition
Nov 19th, 2008 at 2:30PM: Hehe, that might be a bit of false advertising on my part. So technically Sex and the City isn't coming to Beijing, though the movie version came out this May will undoubtedly show up in the Beijing pirated-DVD stalls. No, what I'm talking about now are the "Sexy Beijing" videos that have been absolute hits with the expats. I myself lived off them this summer while working in Beijing. The series ...
Taiwan's road signs will make more sense next year
Sep 21st, 2008 at 10:30AM: When I lived in Taiwan, I normally didn't have a clue where I was going. The signage was not particularly helpful. I didn't read Chinese, and, outside of Taipei, that's mostly what you saw. Even when there were signs in English, there was an inconsistency with how street names were spelled.
Ask people to spell a word phonetically, and you'll see variation. In Taiwan, up until recently, there were ...Belize it or not: Top Surprizing Things About Belize
Jul 16th, 2008 at 10:30AM: Greetings from Belize.
Those of you who have been to Belize before might not find these surprising, but this is my first time here and they surprised me. Here is a brief laundry list:
The U.S. Dollar is widely accepted. With the Belize Dollar pegged at 2:1 to the U.S. Dollar, it's not surprising. Guess where you should be traveling when the U.S. Dollar is practically worthless? Where they ...Do Good Travel: Bridges For Education is a way to head to China--or elsewhere
May 13th, 2008 at 3:00PM: If you're looking for a cheap way to travel, and a cultural experience that will bring you past wandering in a country, hoping something significant in your life happens, here's an organization that looks like a promising possibility.
I read about it in a travel blurb and then headed to the Web site to check it out. Bridges for Education is a short term program where participants teach ...The many languages of Suriname
Mar 23rd, 2008 at 6:30PM: If you've been following any of the recent language controversy in Philadelphia, you begin to see that a country's language is a constantly evolving mix of the cultures, customs and the people who use it. Here at home, this interplay is at often work between our country's de facto official language, English, and an increasingly populous minority of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Now imagine this ...The English Project 2012
Feb 24th, 2008 at 12:30PM: As part of the London Olympics cultural program, the plan is to build a museum tracing the roots of the English language. In conjunction with BBC and the British Library, the museum will allow visitors to experience physically and virtually (holograms!) the global evolution of the language from when it was a mixed tongue of the Jute, Angle and Saxon tribes, to how it stands today as spoken by 2 ...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 ...A difference between Yanks and Brits
Dec 19th, 2007 at 2:00PM: You know the difference between Americans and Britons? The word of the year for 2007 stateside is "w00t" while across the pond, it's -- get this, -- "locavore." OK, it's not quite as pretentious as it sounds, though still too much for my taste. Anyone want to venture a guess? It means someone who eats food that's locally grown, and who especially takes notice of seasonal available foodstuff and ...
