Jul 13th, 2009 at 6:00PM: Well, it's Monday, and it's back to the grind for most of us. I, however, am down with the flu and am writing this from bed. I hope the rest of you are having a more healthy day. Here are the latest travel stories from the world wide web.
If you've traveled in southeast Asia, then you know the craze that is Beer Lao. It's only the region's uncontested best beer! Frommers reports the popular ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
French posts
Gadlinks for Monday 7.13.09
Jul 13th, 2009 at 6:00PM: Well, it's Monday, and it's back to the grind for most of us. I, however, am down with the flu and am writing this from bed. I hope the rest of you are having a more healthy day. Here are the latest travel stories from the world wide web.
If you've traveled in southeast Asia, then you know the craze that is Beer Lao. It's only the region's uncontested best beer! Frommers reports the popular ...French tourists voted worst in the world
Jul 10th, 2009 at 12:00PM: OUCH - If you are French, I recommend that you stop reading now, as this is bound to hurt. The French have been voted worst tourists in the world, in a survey of 40,000 tourists. The results paint a pretty bleak picture of the French, calling them "penny-pinching, rude, pushy and terrible at foreign languages". I'll leave my own opinion of the French out of this, as the survey seems to reach the ...Brits continue to self-congratulate on cleanliness
Apr 19th, 2009 at 10:00AM: Brits are the best-behaved hotel guests, according to a survey by TripAdvisor. More than 3,000 participated in the study, and the results are certain to reinforce stereotypes. Forty-three percent of hotel guests from the UK make their own beds every morning ... which is nothing compared to the 79 percent who put their clothes neatly in the closets.
But, tidiness comes with a price. Travelers from ...Group vacations - French villas are hot!
Nov 7th, 2008 at 1:30PM: Want to make all your friends swoon? Rent out a villa in the south of France for an affordable, peaceful vacation. Want to make all your friends love you? Take them along! French villas have become one of the top destinations in the great tradition of group vacations. I love group vacations; it's like an extended party. Get everyone you like together and watch them interact for a week. It's ...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 ...Pirates release cruise ship hostages
Apr 11th, 2008 at 1:10PM: Call me naive and uninformed, but I honestly didn't think that pirates still operate in the world the way they do in the movies. That is obviously not the case.
According to this IHT article, the International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy, says that global pirate attacks rose 10 percent in 2007, marking the first increase in three years. Pirates seized more than two dozen ships off the ...Fte de la Francophonie: Celebrating the francophone world
Mar 19th, 2008 at 11:30AM: French is the native tongue of over 80 million people. But many more people interact with it on a daily basis, be it through culture, as a second language or even as a subject being learned in school. The francophone world stretches from Hanoi to Abidjan, bringing together all kinds of foods and customs that aren't always immediately associated with all things French; this isn't about baguettes ..."Le" or "la"? Even the French can't decide
Feb 29th, 2008 at 4:00PM: If you've ever dabbled in the French language, you know the difficulty of memorizing which gender goes with which noun. Why is a beard -- la barbe -- feminine? Why is a bicycle -- le vélo -- masculine? Well you shouldn't have to feel bad about your French language difficulties; turns out even the French can't agree on which gender goes with which word. A recent study conducted by Dalila ...Not exactly your regular LAX 'stripper plane'
Feb 2nd, 2008 at 11:00AM: Neil has written about the infamous Los Angeles to Las Vegas "stripper plane" run by Southwest. From what he said, it seems to be a completely legitimate operation. This stripper plane, however, was not. Recently on a French airline, a couple of flight attendants were caught--on film--giving a saucy striptease to the pilots in the cockpit. The video was subsequently leaked (though it did take a ...Bon appetit on the Eiffel Tower
Dec 28th, 2007 at 1:30PM: Taking further our kicks of eating things either made by someone famous or with someone famous, now eating on something famous takes a new turn. Friends, friends and friends, you can now dine in new style at 410-feet on the Eiffel Tower. Called Jules Verne (after the famous French author?), the revamped restaurant on this monument is the brain child of celebrity chef Alain Ducasse that will serve ...One for the Road: Women Travelers - A Century of Trailblazing Adventures, 1850-1950
Nov 1st, 2007 at 4:34PM: Earlier this week I mentioned a book by U.K. imprint Virago that celebrates women travelers of the past. And today I've learned of another book, (this time from French publisher Flammarion) that pays tribute to female explorers who ventured out in years gone by: Women Travelers: A Century of Trailblazing Adventures, 1850 - 1950 celebrates the courageous journeys of thirty-one fascinating women ...Discover Your Inner Frenchman
Jul 19th, 2007 at 8:42AM: Let's go though this exercise again: An average worker in France gets 36 days of vacation. An average American gets 14 and uses only 11, Expedia.com 2007 Vacation Deprivation Survey shows. Why?
A topic for another Michael Moore movie?
A non-profit organization called Take Back Your Time, run by Cornell researchers, has been proposing a bill to Congress that would require companies to give ...Word for the Travel Wise (02/04/07)
Feb 4th, 2007 at 8:00PM: I'm busy watching the Superbowl now, but decided to pop in just for all of you. Today's word is a French word used in France: jeu - game French is the third largest Romance language in the world in terms of native speakers according to the Wikipedia and is the official language of 29 countries. There are a number of places to learn French abroad which include Canada and Switzerland in addition ...Stereotypes of Tourists, from a British Perspective
Jan 22nd, 2007 at 5:02PM: Travel stereotypes always make good writing topics. On one hand, we hate stereotyping because we are told that "cultured people don't use stereotypes". On the other hand, there is no question that observations become stereotypes because they are based on accurate reality. And isn't travel supposed to be about observing reality?
I came across a funny piece, entitled "The Worst Tourists in the ...Word for the Travel Wise (12/31/06)
Dec 31st, 2006 at 8:00PM: As promised I'm taking this one full year of language from across the globe and from the teeny tiny villages found in the Congo out with an explosive big bang! Okay, so you saw right through my attempt to hype it up, but really this is an exciting time. 2007 is only hours away for us and this completes a full year first year for the "Word for the Travel Wise" feature. I hope that the lessons have ...Word for the Travel Wise (11/28/06)
Nov 28th, 2006 at 8:00PM: No real rhyme or reason for picking today's word other than I stumbled upon it over at the BBC in their cool French section. It was part of a longer phrase, but I think this one word is enough for now. Today's word is a French word used in France: cafard - cockroach French is the third largest Romance language in the world in terms of native speakers according to the Wikipedia and is the ...Word for the Travel Wise (10/13/06)
Oct 13th, 2006 at 8:00PM: Boo! Yup, it is Friday the 13th folks and I'm sure you've all been shaking in your boots and paying extra attention to the cracks in the sidewalk on this semi-special day. Seen any black cats? Perhaps you're on your way to the theater to soak in all the ghoulish, chop-chop, and gory cinema black magic you can take... However you decide to spend the day; locked up behind closed doors or night ...Word for the Travel Wise (10/10/06)
Oct 10th, 2006 at 8:00PM: Just as fall begins it seems as though winter weather comes bulldozing its way in complete with snow flurries and flakes. Now in my mind it couldn't be a more beautiful or romantic time to plan a holiday in France and this Pyrenees winter walking excursion looks perfect if you share my same thoughts. Responsible Travel has several departure dates in December as well as early 2007, but if you're ...Word for the Travel Wise (09/23/06)
Sep 23rd, 2006 at 8:00PM: Everyone has a favorite musician they'd take a loan out at the bank to go see in concert if it were the last concert ever being held in some rare exotic place like Easter Island. I have a couple I would go out on a limb and do such for; the first being Björk, second Sade and the third I'll give to Les Nubians. After seeing the two Cameroonian sisters perform live in Los Angeles I was sold. ...Word for the Travel Wise (08/18/06)
Aug 18th, 2006 at 8:00PM: For all the Tour de France or bicycling fans who dream of cycling across the country one day, this word is for you. And if you have yet to start making this big dream of yours come true isn't it time you started planning? Check out Discover France and their bicycling tours. Today's word is a French word used in France: vélo - bicycle French is the third largest Romance language in the ...
