The Lowe Road

It's 2001 and I'm sitting in a rickety wooden chair in an apartment at the end of an alley in Vedado, a working class neighborhood in Havana. A Santeria priestess dressed in white is kneeling before me in the stale heat, watching as I toss well–worn seashells on the floor, making mental notes of the patterns they make. She smokes a thick cigar and mutters Yoruba words under her breath; glass eyes from sinister china dolls in frilly dresses gaze at us from all corners of the room. Neighbors are peering through the lace curtains whispering words to me in another language I do not understand.

Glancing up at me through the thick smoke, the priestess stands to her feet and pulls aside Carlos, the owner of the casa particular I had stayed in for a week. She then fires off a barrage of machine gun Spanish into his ear. When she's finished, the priestess walks over and grabs my arm in a vice–like grip, matched with a stare that is pleading, almost fearful, from eyes that never seem to blink. Sweat drips off my brow and trickles down my neck.

I turn to Carlos. "Well?"

His face has gone white. "There is only one thing she wants to tell you," Carlos says slowly, searching my face carefully. "She wants to warn you. The god of the sea wants your soul. It belongs to him. Whatever you do, stay away from the ocean. She has seen this in the ritual."

Despite the tension, I almost burst out laughing. I had been an avid swimmer all my life, had a Jacques Cousteau–obsessed childhood, and been a keen scuba diver for fifteen years. Turn my back to the sea? Was she mad?

I bowed slightly to the priestess and thanked her in my creaky Spanish. She is still gripping my arm like a life preserver, her nails digging deep into my skin, those unblinking eyes inches from my face. I can smell cigars on her breath. Before I can say another word, the power cuts, the apartment is plunged into a deep sea darkness, the neighbors scatter, the priestess lets go of my arm and Carlos and I stagger into the sweltering alley and back into the fierce sunlight, gratefully sucking in great big bucketfuls of fresh air.

As we head for Carlos' house, I prattle on nervously about how ridiculous the priestess' verdict had been. Ludicrous, laughable. A sham.

But Carlos isn't listening: he angrily waves me off with a sharp flick of his wrist. As an avid follower of Santeria, the indigenous religion of Cuba, (rumored even to count Fidel Castro as a believer) it was Carlos who had suggested this reading hours before my departure by train across his country, as a send off for his guest. Clearly a harsh verdict such as this was not what Carlos wanted travelers to hear in his country, who came for the sun, sand and samba. They didn't come to be told their soul belonged to a sea demon.

I shut my mouth. In silence, we pass kids playing baseball and a Russian LADA stripped of its tires that had seen better days. As we cross the street, I look down at my arm. My skin is still pale.

The fingerprints from the priestess are still there.

read the rest here: www.perceptivetravel.com

AFTER a two-year wait Qantas has finally seen the finished product, with the first of its Airbus A380 jets now dressed in airline livery.

The 380-seat super jumbo emerged from the paint shop at Hamburg this week ready to return to France where it will undergo test flights with Qantas pilots.

Cabin installation is now being completed in Hamburg before the aircraft returns to Airbus production headquarters in Toulouse, France, for formal delivery to the airline.

The first three of the 20 big jets on order are expected to arrive in Australia by December.

The first, pictured, is due to land in August in Australia and will be operating between Melbourne and Los Angeles by October.

From: www.news.com.au

From  June 26 to Oct. 13 four waterfalls of between 90 and 120 feet around NYC will be turned on in the city's largest public arts event since 'The Gates' project in 2005:

The locations are:

 
Pier 35 north of the Manhattan Bridge

At the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge

Between Piers 4 and 5 near the Brooklyn Heights Promenade

North shore of Governors Island

read it here: www.iht.com

Grounding 100 planes (a mixture of 733's and 744's) UA is reeling from fuel costs that have surged over 75% in a year. And with merger talks failed between CO, NW and US, the cost cutting measures continue: 1,500 staff are due to lose their jobs in the coming weeks.

Pico Iyer (Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk) has written about his experiences while traveling in Ladakh, a Buddhist kingdom perched high in the Himalayas, for the New York Times’ 2008 TMagazine.

His observations on the people, landscape, and quirkiness of the place are classic Iyer, and in particular the comparisons to Bhutan and Tibet are very interesting.

TLR visited Ladakh in 2004 and more than four chapters in “Sandwiches Should NEVER Taste Like Cow Crap" are dedicated to Ladakh – even the cover image was taken by Brandon Roy while traveling there (headlamp-less on motorbikes, returning from Alchi….) and the place still remains today as one of the highlights of Asia – barren, dry, dusty, and breathless: the world’s highest roads are there, and standing at nearly 16,000 feet on some of the higher passes, gasping for air is something not easily forgotten…
you can read the article here: www.nytimes.com

we've all got 'em: those funny signs we see in Buenos Aires and Moscow and Havana and Pyongyang (or even just in Kansas) that make us chuckle at the dummy who spelled something wrong or just didnt see the irony of the words posted in 2 signs side by side....Doug Lansky has compiled an impressive collection at www.signspotting.com of these signs from around the world:

anyone who's not 6'4" may not understand the hell of flying just about anywhere (I still have the imprint on both kneecaps from a recent flight on Air Asia of their logo, and even the paint pressed there after three hours in a cramped Airbus 320.....) or having to sleep diagonally to prevent your feet from hanging off the bed, or, have to work on the same bed because the work desk is so low you feel transported back to kindergarten......

anyway: this NY Times article talks about the horrors of travel for those of a lankier stature (interviewees are 6'8" to be exact.... tall enough to have to fly business class or face certain nerve damage from some blue haired granny who insists on putting her seat back even though her feet dont even touch the ground)

The article also poses the question: have you done the shower limbo? read it here: www.nytimes.com

a passenger is accusing jet blue of forcing him to sit in the toilet - even during turbulence - when a seat he had been given was taken away and handed to an off duty flight attendant.....

MAY DAY is here!

Buy the book about which Tahir Shah said,'Dave Lowe's writing is fast, funny, and so full of life that you can only imagine how from now on everyone will do anything they can to imitate his style.'

Find it at: amazon.com

NEW YORK (AP) — Drivers have long known that slowing down on the highway means getting more miles to the gallon. Now airlines are trying it, too — adding a few minutes to flights to save millions on fuel.

(By John Wilen, AP)

Southwest Airlines started flying slower about two months ago, and projects it will save $42 million in fuel this year by extending each flight by one to three minutes.

On one Northwest Airlines flight from Paris to Minneapolis earlier this week alone, flying slower saved 162 gallons of fuel, saving the airline $535. It added eight minutes to the flight, extending it to eight hours, 58 minutes.

That meant flying at an average speed of 532 mph, down from the usual 542 mph.

"It's not a dramatic change," said Dave Fuller, director of flight operations at JetBlue, which began flying slower two years ago.

But the savings add up. JetBlue adds an average of just under two minutes to each flight, and saves about $13.6 million a year in jet fuel. Adding just four minutes to its flights to and from Hawaii saves Northwest Airlines $600,000 a year on those flights alone.

United Airlines has invested in flight planning software that helps pilots choose the best routes and speeds. In some cases, that means planes fly at lower speeds. United estimates the software will save it $20 million a year.

"What we're doing is flying at a more consistent speed to save fuel," said Megan McCarthy, a United spokeswoman.

read the rest here.

We at The Lowe Road come across quite a range of bizarre news related to travel. Scorpions on planes. Naked flights. That sort of thing.

The latest news however, of a drug peddling, copycat guidebook writer (whose name, and upcoming book shall not be mentioned here, for the media wh--- that he is shall not profit in any way whatsoever from this rant/blog post) who is bragging to the world about how he didnt visit a country he was paid to write about, and is oh so self loathingly happy to talk about it - takes the cake.

People, whatever you do, don't buy his book.

Repeat, do not buy his book.

It's bad enough someone misled people who bought the guide to a certain latin country, but it is even more questionable that a publisher would agree to kill trees and print and sell such drivel, bile, TRASH.

Anyway.

If theres any lesson to be learned from a self confessed plagiarizer, is that any book, article, chapter, sentence, even word - cannot be trusted. Absolutely cannot be trusted.

So people, please do not buy his book.

It's the only way to shut him up.

And make this train wreck disappear.

As if there weren't enough flightmares these days (just ask anyone who's flown through Heathrow's Terminal 5 recently)... the EU has moved closer to allowing cell phone use on planes.....

Im sorry. But can anyone hear the legions of air passengers already pushed to the brink of sanity, literally screaming their heads off here?

It's one thing that nipple rings are removed with pliers (like what happened to a female airline passenger in the US earlier this month) but do we really want to hear Type A Business Guy's every word about his latest merger? Or that Teenage College Student A's drivel to Teenage College Student B about her spring break plans?

I didnt think so.

People, this is a recipe for disaster. (at least a very tasty flightmare or two)

Hong Kong's Oasis Airlines shut down today, grounding a fleet of 4 747-400's, stranding thousands. Routes served included London and Vancouver. With the airline losing 120,000 USD per flight, the 1.5 years the airline has been in business was not long enough to sustain the start up, that aimed to take business from Cathay Pacific.

...and another one just bit the dust:

 

Low-cost carrier Skybus Airlines is shutting down Saturday and plans to file for bankruptcy protection next week, becoming the latest of the nation's airlines to fall because of rising fuel costs and a slowing economy.

The announcement Friday came less than a year after Skybus started up at Port Columbus International Airport, offering several $10 flights. The airline's situation worsened in recent weeks, said Skybus spokesman Bob Tenenbaum.

Fuel prices and the worsening economy combined to be insurmountable for a new carrier, said chief executive Michael Hodge.

"We deeply regret this decision, and the impact this will have on our employees and their families, our customers, our vendors and other partners, and the communities in which we have been operating," Hodge said in a statement.

The airline makes 74 daily flights to 15 U.S. cities, Tenenbaum said. It has about 350 employees in Columbus and 100 at a second hub at Piedmont-Triad International airport in Greensboro, N.C. Employees learned of the shutdown Friday night.

 

for the rest: www.sfgate.com

 

...and another one bites the dust: American Trans Air (TZ) a major carrier until April 2nd, collapsed after it fell into bankrupcy. With mainland services to Hawaii now cancelled from TZ and AQ, United and others must be licking their chops, hoping to cash in on the passenger demand as bad news continues to threaten their business (recession fears, and high fuel prices....)

 ...and another one bites the dust....

As of March 31st 2008 Aloha Airlines (AQ) the 61 year old airline based in Honolulu, Hawaii (HNL) will cease operations due to bankrupcy, leaving 3,400 employees out of work.

 Blaming competition from low cost carriers like Go! Aloha failed to find a buyer in time to stave off the shutdown, the largest in Hawaii's history.

Capacity for interisland flights will be severely affected, with Hawaiian And Go! both agreeing to add capacity to fill the void left by AQ's demise.

President Raúl Castro's government on Monday lifted a ban preventing Cubans from using resort hotels reserved for foreigners in a step to ease restrictions in the Communist state.

Since Raúl Castro succeeded his ailing brother, Fidel Castro, last month, the country has ended restrictions on Cubans buying computers, DVD players and cellphones.

"Cubans can now stay at our hotels," said the Cuban manager of a small state-run hotel in Old Havana. "Our doors are open to local tourism."

Managers at five-star hotels run by foreign hotel chains like Sol Meliá and Accor, Europe's largest hotel chain, confirmed that Cubans would be able to stay at their hotels if they could afford them.

Cubans can also rent cars and use facilities that used to be only for foreigners, including the best beaches in Varadero, Cuba's top resort.

The hotel ban was a major source of frustration for Cubans since the country opened up to tourism in the early 1990s and gave rise to criticism of Cuba for having an "economic apartheid" system.

Raúl Castro, 76, took over from his brother as Cuba's first new leader in almost half of a century on Feb. 24, promising to do away with "excessive restrictions" in society and in its state-run economy.

On Friday, the government announced an end to a ban on Cubans buying and using cellphones.

As of Tuesday, Cuban shops will be allowed to sell computers, DVD players and other appliances in a move to improve the standard of living in Cuba by opening access to consumer products.

 

read the rest here: www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/31/america/cuba.php

The founder of JetBlue Airways announced the start of a new Brazilian airline on Thursday that will take to the skies next year with three jets and eventually grow to a fleet of 76 planes flying nationwide.

JetBlue chairman David Neeleman said the opportunity is clear: Latin America's largest nation has a growing passenger travel market dominated by two airlines that face little domestic competition and charge high prices.

"The prices that people pay here in Brazil are 50 percent higher than the prices people pay in the United States," he said. "Brazil is a country that needs more competition and a different kind of competition."

BA's Terminal 5 proving to be one big hub of chaos (www.iht.com)