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, ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Somalia posts
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, ...Five great reasons to travel now
May 20th, 2009 at 3:00PM: You've been bombarded with pessimistic accounts of the travel industry's decline. And, yes, I am fully aware that I'm part of it. Frankly, these reports are true. There is a problem – i.e., people aren't traveling – and it's driven by a combination of macroeconomic challenges and company mismanagement. But, these conditions also mean there's no time like the present to get out on the ...Dispatches from the pirate riddled Gulf of Aden
May 4th, 2009 at 1:30PM: Regular contributor and adventurer extraordinaire Jon Bowermaster just started an interesting series on passage through the Gulf of Aden over at his personal blog. The body of water connecting the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean has seen a disturbing increase in pirate traffic this year, the most notable of which involved an American crew that retook their ship and killed three Somalians in the ...AlterNet condoning pirates in Somalia?
Apr 15th, 2009 at 7:30PM: AlterNet.org, a human rights advocacy site, has a new article posted: "Why We Don't Condemn Our Pirates in Somalia." First of all, I want to know who gave them the pirates in Somalia. Well, turns out the article is from a Somali perspective, and that "Karma" is the reason they feel they are "biting a perpetrator in the butt." Everyone knows that piracy in Somalia is serious business. And like most ...Destination on the edge: Mogadishu
Jan 20th, 2009 at 9:00AM:
Mogadishu is the adventure traveler's version of sex in public. The risk of getting caught defines the thrill. Unfortunately, the consequences cannot be compared. While a romp on your neighbor's front lawn might get you a fine or some community service, a misstep in Somalia can cause nightmares for the rest of your life.
So, quiet simply, don't go. If you don't believe the United States, then ...Somalia most corrupt nation -- Denmark the least
Sep 24th, 2008 at 10:00AM: Transparency international released their annual numbers on corruption around the world, and would you believe it, Denmark edged Zimbabwe out by 165 places to clinch the number one spot. Each year the organization dedicated to fighting corruption compiles data from a variety of sources to publish this list as a means to raise public awareness and point to the rampant corruption around the globe. ...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 ...Big in Japan: Real pirates are nothing like Johnny Depp
Dec 18th, 2007 at 10:30AM: Have you ever seen Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean?
Of course you have!
The wild and drunken antics of Johnny Depp are nothing short of hilarious, which is why Disney's Pirates trilogy has swept the globe from Hollywood to Tokyo.
But, today's posting isn't about the Black Pearl, but rather the distressing fact that real pirates aren't anything like Johnny Depp.
Since October, Somali pirates ...Africa Travel: Somalia
Mar 22nd, 2006 at 10:01PM: Let's let out a sigh before we touch quickly on Somalia. There is no tourism site developed for
this East African country bordering the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean because of the constant violence and famine.
Polo's Bastards, notorious for going places they shouldn't be even lists Somalia as one of the world's most dangerous countries to visit
and suggest journalists and backpack toting ...
