The Lowe Road

Now that the Buenos Aires city government has declared a public health emergency due the increase in H1N1 flu virus cases and deaths (the country has been the 3rd hardest hit, after the USA and Mexico) school vacations are being extended to keep students from potentially spreading the virus (leaving them free, it seems, to infect the public instead).

The traditional Argentine kiss on the cheek - popular with both genders - may be used much less in the coming weeks if the situation persists, as health officials feel it quickens the spread of the H1N1 virus. 

Will kiss-obsessed Portenos listen to such advice and forgo this most Argentine of greetings?

WHO knows - but people wearing facemasks have already been spotted in this Latin American city and taxi drivers are among those queuing up at pharmacias to buy them too. 

Well, not completely naked: Air New Zealand's latest safety video features real crew painted with their uniforms on - and little else - that have accompanied their latest 'Our fares have nothing to hide' campaign. 

Watch the video here. 

Michael Jackson's music ruled the school where I grew up, and for the lucky few in the early 1980's who bought his records - they secured their cool factor for life.

Even today when you travel, images of Michael Jackson can be seen everywhere from Tokyo to Cairo, (even more than Madonna) and even in the smallest villages in Africa.

While crossing the Ethiopian border, a wall in the mud hut held up a faded and tattered copy of Michael Jackson lounging in a white suit almost in defiance of the fierce African heat.

In Japan, I was once asked if I knew him personally; even into the 2000's teenagers held moon walking competitions in local parks.

And in Germany in the mid 1980's, teenage girls would scream every time his music came up on the radio. In Korea, well into the late 1990's many guys styled their hair with gel to shape it like Michael's.

In Cairo, Michael Jackson's photo was hung on the wall next to one commemorating the Hajj pilgrimage, a clash of cultures indeed.

In Buenos Aires, where tango rules the night, Michael Jackson songs are commonly heard when taking a taxi after dark, as cab drivers love to tune into 80's radio stations.

In Bangkok the beat to 'Billie Jean' spills out of a clothing shop.

And in Ladakh, a Buddhist kingdom high in the Himalayas, kids hummed the tune to 'Bad' as they walked to school.

Even years after his rise to stardom, images of the star prove the globalization of culture and music, leaving room for debate as to whether teenagers around the globe appreciating the same music is a good thing, or Bad.

Brooklyn Bridge - Susan Gearan

Merlion in Singapore - Sebastien Schmidt

Sweden’s Ice Hotel has redefined the ‘cool’ hotel into not only a work of art (each room is decorated with different ice sculptures) but the ‘it’ place to be (the Absolut Ice Bar is packed with celebrities and hangers on after Europe’s fashion week). Located north of the Arctic circle in Kiruna, the hotel has consistently been featured in travel magazines for its innovative approach to guest services and ever changing feel through the different ice decorations in the hotels public areas.

Land of the Midnight Sun

Wile the Ice Hotel only lasts between October and March each year, you can in fact visit year round. Many don’t know that there is a permanent ‘ice hotel’ that is adjacent to the property, perfect for those guests who want to experience the hotel without sleeping in rooms with temperatures dipping to -5 C.

Open all year long, rooms in this Ice Hotel are decorated in Scandinavian style with blonde woods and crisp white bed linens.

Visit Lap villages to see reindeer, fly fish in the Torne river, the source of the ice used to build the Ice Hotel. And all under the 24 hour sun: while the winter nights afford views of the spectacular northern lights, summer is a time of months long sun with plenty of time to relax and enjoy the long, warm evenings.

Guided visits are provided to view the blocks harvested from the Torne river for next year’s Ice Hotel. Housed in the ‘Ice Hotel Productions’ building kept at a steady -5 C, half a million ice glasses are created here for the various Ice Bars around the world, along with 3,000 ice blocks used to create the hotel itself for the coming year.

So if you’ve missed the peak winter season, it’s never too late to visit the Ice Hotel. 

Australia On Sale

It’s now winter in the southern Hemisphere and airfares to Australia have never been cheaper –first due to the global credit crisis and second due to the fare wars erupting on the Sydney – Los Angeles route in particular.

With the introduction of V Australia, Virgin’s latest long haul airline between the USA and Australia, Qantas and United Airlines’ virtual monopoly on the route has ended: fares have been slashed by as much as 50% and gone are the days of $2,000 USD return tickets in economy class.

Recent searches found deals on V Australia for $750 USD including taxes, and with V’s tie up with USA based Virgin America and Australia’s Virgin Blue, through fares from the American East Coast to the West Coast of Australia re now cheaper than they have ever been. Qantas’ has been offering airfare passes combined with hotel offers to attract travelers as well.

Combine the cheap airfare with a weaker Aussie Dollar (which until recently was almost at parity with the USD) and low season rates, Australia is on sale. Much of northern Australia is basking in the warm tropical sun, and destinations like Brisbane, Cairns, and Port Douglas are perfect this time of year to avoid the summer’s heavy humidity.

If you’ve ever wanted to visit Australia, now is the time, these prices will not last. 

V Australia: www.vaustralia.com

Visit Australia: www.australia.com

The Indian monsoon has a serious image problem. Mention the ‘M’ word to adventure travelers and their eyes widen in fear, as though the entire country is submerged in a deluge of water for several months of the year, reducing the roads to rivers and skies to a deep leaden gray.

While the monsoon is a weather phenomenon to be reckoned with, providing millions with drinking water and abundant harvests, writing off travel to a country as large as Argentina because of images seen on CNN is not recommended – the monsoon season can in fact be a wonderful time to visit the country.

It is less expensive

The high season of December to February is packed with travelers from Europe and prices skyrocket, hotels are full, and flights are overbooked. During the summer, flight costs fall, hotels are empty and the Taj Mahal won’t be over run with thousands of package travelers from Delhi.

Ladakh (Photo courtesy of Brandon Roy)

It is green

The entire country is green and verdant during the monsoon season. There are numerous festivals at this time, and locals are very welcoming to visitors eager to learn more about the life giving rains that are an integral part of Indian culture and tradition.

There is always somewhere dry

Ladakh, a Buddhist kingdom high in the Himalayas is dry with clear polished blue skies during the summer monsoons, and offer trekking and hiking opportunities along with a unique culture similar to Tibet’s. The southeast of India is often shielded from the rains by the western Deccan mountains, and have sunny, clear days for weeks on end.

Next time you plan to visit India, don’t mark out the summer months. I traveled there in the monsoon, and while it was hot I had a wonderful time and was able to see the country at its best.

End of The Line (from the website www.endoftheline.com)

A documentary that examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing western demand for sushi; the impact on marine life resulting in huge overpopulation of jellyfish; and the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation.

Filmed over two years, The End of the Line follows the investigative reporter Charles Clover as he confronts politicians and celebrity restaurateurs, who exhibit little regard for the damage they are doing to the oceans.

One of his allies is the former tuna farmer turned whistleblower Roberto Mielgo – on the trail of those destroying the world's magnificent bluefin tuna population.

Filmed across the world – from the Straits of Gibraltar to the coasts of Senegal and Alaska to the Tokyo fish market – featuring top scientists, indigenous fishermen and fisheries enforcement officials, The End of the Line is a wake-up call to the world.

The end of seafood by 2048

Scientists predict that if we continue fishing as we are now, we will see the end of most seafood by 2048.

The End of the Line chronicles how demand for cod off the coast of Newfoundland in the early 1990s led to the decimation of the most abundant cod population in the world, how hi-tech fishing vessels leave no escape routes for fish populations and how farmed fish as a solution is a myth.

The film lays the responsibility squarely on consumers who innocently buy endangered fish, politicians who ignore the advice and pleas of scientists, fishermen who break quotas and fish illegally, and the global fishing industry that is slow to react to an impending disaster.

The End of the Line points to solutions that are simple and doable, but political will and activism are crucial to solve this international problem.

We need to control fishing by reducing the number of fishing boats across the world, protect large areas of the ocean through a network of marine reserves off limits to fishing, and educate consumers that they have a choice by purchasing fish from independently certified sustainable fisheries.

 Global campaign

The End of the Line premiere at Sundance will also kick-off a global campaign for citizens to demand better marine policies. Leading international environmental organizations are lending their full support to the film.

The End of the Line will be released worldwide in 2009 using multiple formats and venues including theaters, broadcast and cable television networks, film festivals, online video campaigns, aquariums, museums and special screenings for environmental and educational organizations.

"There is no better place than Sundance for The End of the Line to have its world premiere," said the film's director, Rupert Murray.

"Sundance has a long history of making cutting edge, issue-based documentaries matter." Murray's first film, "Unknown White Male" premiered at the festival in 2005.

Charles Clover, the book's author, said: "We must stop thinking of our oceans as a food factory and realize that they thrive as a huge and complex marine environment.

"We must act now to protect the sea from rampant overfishing so that there will be fish in the sea for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren."

"Overfishing is the great environmental disaster that people haven't heard about," said producer George Duffield.

"A recent global conference about bluefin tuna stocks saw almost no media coverage in the U.S. We hope this film really sounds the alarm. We can fix this problem starting right now."

"Reading the book The End of the Line changed my life and what I eat. I hope the film will do the same for others," said producer Claire Lewis.

Visit www.endoftheline.com for more information and to sign for the campaign. 

Medical Tourism may be a growing trend (hello, Bumungrad) but Adoption Tourism may now get a rather unfortunate boost now that the 51 year old Material Mom has had her appeal approved to adopt three year old Mercy James, adding to her growing Mia Farrow Angelina Joliesque family. 

Numerous agencies involved in child welfare in Africa decried the decision, saying a 'Hollywood lifestyle' for Mercy was not the solution, and finding a way to keep families together was a much better option. 

Does anyone else feel sorry for this baby? 

BTW, when does Madonna's adoption of Jesus Luz  become official? 

Carrie Prejean, the Miss California who 'lost' her crown due to her off the wall answer to gay marriage, has also lost her other crown, having been fired by Donald Trump for not completing all of her duties required (whatever that means).

Were there other reasons for her firing? Her recent comments in favor of 'opposite' travel writing might have been a factor. 

Repeated calls placed to Miss Prejean's home went unanswered before press time. 

Rumor has it www.theloweroad.com has been banned by China, blocked by the Great Firewall that has been set up to 'protect' the citizens of this world's largest communist country that ranks in the bottom 5 of the world's most repressive regimes for journalists (according to Reporters Sans Frontieres, www.rsf.org) joining Vietnam, Cuba, North Korea, Eritrea and Laos at the bottom of the pile. 

Ah well, what's 1.1 billion fewer viewers?

Passengers on a Chinese Shandong airlines flight were asked to get out and push after their plane broke down shortly after landing.

The CRJ7 airplane with 69 passengers and 7 aircrew members flying from Guilin to Zhengzhou broke down before it could taxi to the passenger terminal.

Airport staff were called out to help push, but they needed to get the passengers to help because the plane would not budge.

It took the group nearly two hours to push the airplane half a mile to a side lane.

"Thank God it was only a 20 ton medium-sized airplane. If it were a big plane, it would have knocked us out," said one of the airport workers.



The airplane is still parked in the side lane, waiting for technicians arriving on the next flight to fix the problem.

KUALA LUMPUR - THE International Air Transport Association called for more liberalisation to bolster the global airline industry, which is expected to lose more than US$4.7 billion (S$6.8 billion) this year because of falling cargo and passenger traffic.

IATA Director-General Giovanni Bisignani said airlines are facing an 'emergency situation' and should be given greater commercial freedom to serve global markets and consolidate. He said 50 major airlines reported $3.3 billion in net losses in the first quarter of 2009 alone.

IATA, which represents 230 airline companies worldwide, expects full-year losses to be 'substantially worse' than the $4.7 billion it forecast in March, he said. It will unveil its new forecast at its annual meeting here on Monday.

'We face a demand shock... you will see more dark red. We have probably touched the bottom but we have not yet seen an improvement,' he told reporters.

Mr Bisignani said the United States and Europe should revise their open skies treaty to make it more liberal, removing restrictions such as foreign ownership caps on domestic carriers.

 'It's time for the governments to wake up. We do not ask for bailouts but all we ask is give us the same opportunity that other businesses have,' he said.

Mr Bisiginani said he supported a bid by American Airlines and British Airways to cooperate on trans-Atlantic flights - currently under review for fear of breaking antitrust laws.

American Airlines is seeking immunity from US anti-trust laws so it can cooperate with BA, Iberia Airlines, Finnair and Royal Jordanian on trans-Atlantic flights. American and BA say this will let them compete fairly against two other groups of airlines that are already allowed working together on prices, schedules and other details.

But critics, led by Virgin Atlantic Airways head Richard Branson, say American and BA are already too dominant and immunity will lead to higher fares on US-UK routes. American's own pilots' union also feared it will shift flying assignments to lower-cost foreign carriers with more open-skies agreements.

Mr Bisignani said Asian carriers, which account for 44 per cent of the world cargo market, will be the worst hit in the economic crisis. -- AP

MEXICO CITY - MEXICO has temporarily grounded Aviacsa airline after officials reported irregularities in the maintenance of 25 planes.

The Transportation and Communications Department said the low-cost airline has 60 days to fix the problems.

The action on Tuesday effectively shut operations at the airline, which says it has a fleet of 26 planes serving 17 Mexican cities and Las Vegas.

The department said the problems put passengers at risk, but Aviacsa issued a statement denying any safety problems.

Haydee Cordova, Aviacsa's assistant director for legal affairs, said on Wednesday the problems were cosmetic - opaque logos, dull lights and scratches on the wings - and that they had already been corrected on five of the planes.

Mr Cordova said Aviacsa officials have asked the Mexican government for another inspection.

In the meantime, the airline will validate passengers' tickets for future flights, she said. -- AP

Readers from around the world are submitting photos of 'Sandwiches Should NEVER Taste Like Cow Crap taken in front of iconic places in their cities, like Berkeley and Seattle above. Got a shot of 'Sandwiches' in the Amazon?

Submit your photo to mantapress@gmail.com in JPG format. 

Manta Press

Link the word exotic with travel and numerous images appear – ‘turquoise’ waters, ‘white sand’ beaches, ‘swaying’ palm trees, and ‘idyllic’ villages to name a few. Tourist brochures and travel magazines are full of them, models lying languidly on empty beaches, that sort of thing.

There are plenty of exotic places that westerners would love to visit – leaving locals they meet there confused as to why they would travel thousands of miles to see just this one island, or city, or castle, or mountain.

To anyone growing up on a Pacific island, or an Indian Ocean atoll, those 'swaying' palm trees will be as mundane as maple trees growing down Main Street, those 'white sand' beaches that visitors pay thousands of dollars to lie on no more than parking lots to secure their fishing boats, or a place to start a casual game of football.

On a visit to Vietnam in 1993, Velcro was so strange that people on the street wanted to pull it apart again and again just to hear the ‘exotic’ ripping sound that we take for granted.

On a trip to Ladakh in 2004, I sat with eager locals, who wanted to know what it felt like to swim in the ocean – they had never seen it, and longed to taste water that was salty (all their lakes were freshwater).

Several weeks later, I was in the Maldives, explaining to fishermen what a mountain, a cow, or a skyscraper looked like, and whether you got dizzy going up in an elevator in an office building – the entire country had no livestock, or even dogs, and no building on the islands could be constructed higher than the palm trees they used for building materials, fuel, and food.

I stopped at one small island near one five star Maldivian resort that had just one palm tree growing on it – and was so coveted by the hotel management for it’s symbol of exoticness, a fee of several hundred dollars a month was paid to the nonplussed locals who were more than happy to rent it. – so the hotel could stage romantic seafood dinners on it for well heeled guests.

Exotic just depends on your point of view. 

In addition to ripping out first class seats on selected routes (i.e. ones where the passengers are too skin flint to spring for a 10,000 ride) Qantas (QF) is now going to start charging for those exit row seats - up to 160 AUD on long haul routes. 

Discrimination against the tall, who don't particularly find it fun to sit smushed in a seat for 13 hours, either pinned in by an overweight passenger, or crushed by some granny who refuses to have her seat in the upright position? 

TLR doesn't really care - as we dont take QF. If we can avoid it. They may bang on about their 'flawless' safety record...but as Pam Ann says... tick tock.....

(photo from kaleboo/flickr)

Travel for me has always been a part of my life – with parents from different countries (England and Austria) and growing up in a third (first New York, then California) frequent visits to relatives in Europe and trips around the American West are strong childhood memories.

The problem was, I never wanted to go home. Wherever we went, whether it was London or Montana or Big Sur, I always wanted to know what was around the next corner and down the road – and it was torture when we reached the farthest part of each journey, and began heading home.

It wasn’t until I was 19 that I set out on my own – a three-month trip to Asia that was meant to be an exploration of a new continent, a way to see what was really down the road.

It did not go as planned.

Starting off with a strip search at Japanese customs, and continuing with one disaster after another that included cultural blunders and expired travel documents, it ended with an attempted religious conversion during turbulence at 30,000 feet. When I told friends about my misadventures, everyone said I must be glad to be home, and urged me to never set out on another journey like it again.

But I was hooked.

Next up was Southeast Asia. In the early 1990’s, Vietnam was just opening itself up to travelers and Cambodia was emerging from years of isolation after the Pol Pot regime. If I thought the disasters that plagued me on my first trip were ancient history, I was wrong. I had a machete thrown at me in Saigon by an angry sandwich vendor, a wheel snapped off a speeding taxi in Hue, and I ended up being felled by a nasty virus in Hanoi for four days.

The stories I brought back caused friends to swear off their own travels, but more than one or two asked when my book was coming out. I never dreamed of being a published author, but it wasn’t until 2004 when I was caught up in the Indian Ocean tsunami that the critical mass of stories forced me to pick up a pen and write them down.

The result was Sandwiches Should NEVER Taste Like Cow Crap, published by Manta Press in 2008, a collection adventures told to a best friend in the form of letters and emails. Travel has always been my passion, and no matter what happened to me, I kept on going. That is the premise of the book – accidental adventures that taught me volumes about life and my limits and much, much more than any classroom could have taught me.

I’m grateful to travel for these lessons, many of them hard earned, but all of them delivered via a cast of characters I could have only run into on the road.

In my next installment: Why one should never lie to a travel agent – because you may end up running into them in the middle of nowhere….in my case, it was Africa’s Masai Mara.

Dave Lowe’s website is www.theloweroad.com. His book, Sandwiches Should NEVER Taste Like Cow Crap is available at www.amazon.com.

PART 2

Africa had always loomed large in my travel dreams, and in early 2002, I set out on a seven country trip to the Middle East and Africa – including the United Arab Emirates (Dubai), Oman, Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania. My budget was tight, and I cut out a lot of creature comforts in order to afford what I had wanted to do ever since, as a child, I saw my first Mutual of Omaha documentary: go on a safari.

Near the end of my trip I booked one to the Masai Mara for a week in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, leaving the next day in a van that was packed with ten people from eight different countries.

Bumping along the rutted roads that crisscrossed the wide Rift Valley, I watched blood red dust devils come down from the sky that looked otherworldly. I had roamed far from home before, but this landscape made me feel farther from home than ever.

Then I heard a piercing voice from the front seat. My ears pricked up: where had I heard that voice before? I wondered. For almost an hour it rang in my ears, as it carried on a conversation with a woman sitting next to her.

And then I heard my name. Not my first name, but my full name.

“Dave Lowe was the reason I came to Africa,’ said the other woman.

‘He was too expensive,’ whined the annoyingly familiar voice.

And then it hit me. It was Melanie. The client from hell. The client who had driven me up the wall for months demanding I give her the lowest price because she was a student and her husband was unemployed. The client that had hung on the phone while other clients needs were more pressing, clients who were buying, not complaining. Eventually I told her to call an agency in Canada, the exchange rate between the US and Canada at the time was 2:1, and no ticket purchased in the US was going to be cheaper than in Edmonton, where she lived. Finally, I had gotten rid of her.

As the van bumped along, I smirked, half out of humor, half out of rage. How many opportunities do we get to come face to face with a client we hated and let them have it?

I didn’t need to wait long. The van pulled over and we took a lunch break, standing in a circle as we introduced ourselves. I deliberately went last, and when I announced my name, and the company I worked for, Melanie’s face went absolutely pale. Having just told the group that she was a specialized nurse, and that her husband was a pilot for Air Canada, she bragged how they lived on one salary and managed to sock away the other for travel.

But out there, in the middle of the hot, dusty, middle of nowhere place we had stopped, her lies came crashing down on her head. When we piled into the cab to keep on moving to reach the camp before darkness, I tapped Melanie on her shoulder and with a calm, open expression on my face, asked her: ‘Where did you buy your tickets in the end? I’m surprised to see you here, I remember you saying you were a student and your husband had no job.’

Melanie’s face stiffened. Clearly she didn’t want her new travel mates to hear how she had lied half a world away, especially after she had explained how the police in Canada weren’t corrupt, even showing them a Maple Leaf pendant she wore around her neck to show her fervent devotion to all things Canadian. (She also had the flag stitched onto her bags.)

Through the rest of the safari, Melanie and her husband avoided all contact, speaking in low voices and retiring early after dinner. No one could understand it until I explained what had happened around the campfire one night. Everyone roared with laughter.

On the final morning of their safari, I heard footsteps approaching my tent. Throughout the night I had heard lions roaring in the distance. But lions don’t call out your name in the early morning chill, as Melanie did. I unzipped my tent and found the couple crouched down in the damp grass, where they dumped a hurried bunch of ‘I’m sorry’s’ before slinking off like jackals to their waiting bus.

The incident is detailed in more depth in my book, Sandwiches Should NEVER Taste Like Cow Crap. After each episode in the book, there is a lesson. The incident with Melanie was no exception:

If you lie to someone in the travel industry, be prepared to run into them in the middle of nowhere.

So if you have a problem client, remind them that one day you might run into them in the middle of nowhere!

Dave Lowe’s website is www.theloweroad.com. His book, Sandwiches Should NEVER Taste Like Cow Crap is available at www.amazon.com.

Discovery Channel, May 19, 2009 -- The world's largest lizard, the Komodo dragon, has a snake-like venom in its bite which sends victims into shock and stops their blood from clotting, according to Australian research.

It had been widely believed that deadly bacteria in the carnivorous lizard's mouth helped kill its prey.

But magnetic resonance imagery has for the first time uncovered venom glands containing a shock-inducing poison which increases blood flow and decreases blood pressure, scientists say.

Lead researcher Bryan Fry said three-dimensional computer imaging comparing the Komodo's bite with that of Australia's saltwater crocodile showed it used a "grip and rip" pulling maneuver to tear deep wounds, similar to ashark or sabre cat.

Karen Schaler's recently released book, Travel Therapy, helps travelers decide where to go based on their mood, and how they want to feel.....

Here is the book's introduction:

Are you stressed out? Tired of your job? Bored with your relationship? Healing from an illness? Feeling uninspired or dealing with a loss? Pack your bags because Travel Therapy can help you find your way. Instead of sinking into depression after a heart-wrenching breakup or a botched business deal, or snapping at friends and family because you’re stressed to the limit, now there’s help. You can change your attitude by changing your environment. You’ve heard the phrase “you can’t run away from your problems”—but you can embrace what’s bothering you and use travel to help deal with whatever life throws your way.

Travel Therapy helps you pick the right vacation depending on what you’re going through in life. If you’re looking for an adventure, a romantic escape, a way to reconnect with your kids, a girlfriend getaway, a volunteer vacation, or just a blissed-out spa trip, Travel Therapy has you covered.

Where you go depends on how you want to feel. Inspired? Try heading to the mountains or a secluded beach. Empowered? Learn to drive a racecar, dive with sharks, or make chocolate. Energized? How about a spa, bike trip, or hike? The options are endless and the payback is priceless. So what are you waiting for? Pick the trip that fits you best and let Travel Therapy take you on one journey you can’t afford to miss.

“Take two vacations, then call me in the morning.”

—Karen Schaler

traveltherapytrips.com

From the book Travel Therapy: Where Do You Need To Go? by Karen Schaler. Excerpted by arrangement with Seal Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group.  Copyright (c) 2009.