May 2007

Ok, so we would have liked to actually see this plane being flown by now, but in the meanwhile have a look at this video of a rehearsed evacuation.

Came across this via The BOOT.

As an anonymous poster there pointed out though:

lucky for them they had

1. No luggage
2. No Kids
3. No old people
4. No people on fire
5. No sinking plane in water
7. No hysterical people
and most importantly, Everybody understood what to do.

Still, it's a fairly impressive routine to watch.

About a month ago, I posted about airport etiquette (do you obey the Maland Line?). While my wife () and I were in Sydney, I learned a little something about taxi etiquette.

Photo from Retro Pedal Cars.

Emerging from our hotel in Sydney one morning, bags packed and on our way to the Blue Mountains, we were greeted by a line of hopeful taxis. Given that our bags were a hefty weight, we headed for the nearest taxi and asked if he could take us to the train station.

"No problem."

Just as we were unloading our bags into his boot (Aussie for "trunk"), the taxi driver from the taxi in front came over to our taxi driver and complained that we were breaking the rules. What rules? Our driver explained to us that according to the rules of taxi etiquette, we should have gone to the first taxi driver in the line, since he had (I assume) been waiting there longer.

Given that our taxi driver admitted this was etiquette, we shifted our stuff over to the other taxi, perplexed and somewhat annoyed at the hassle of having to drag our bags those extra couple of metres. But hey, when in Rome...

To be honest, we felt a bit duped, so later that day when we caught a taxi in Katoomba, I made a point to ask the driver if he thought that was true taxi etiquette. He didn't.

Argh.

Have you ever heard of this rule of taxi etiquette, or were we the victims of a conniving, passenger-desperate taxi driver?

Mark Ellingham, the guy who started Rough Guides has come out with some very strong criticisms of what he dubs "binge-flying". Strong words from a guy that gets his bread&butter from the travel industry.

Balancing all the positives and negatives, I'm not convinced there is such a thing as a 'responsible' or 'ethical' holiday.

His objection is to "binge-flying", where people make as many as 10 short trips in a year, with obviously negative effects on the environment. Personally, he's limited himself to 1 long-haul and 2-3 shorter trips each year, arguing the benefits of tourism.

The social and economic impact of travelling can be very positive, with many countries relying on economies that would completely fall apart without tourism... In addition, there are lots of countries who nurture their environment purely because of the tourists who come to experience it.

Good point, but then we ought to pick destinations where we know our tourist dollars will be spent in a way that has positive social and environmental effects. Perhaps I'm a pessimist, but that seems like a pretty tough challenge for the average consumer to work out.

How has awareness of climate change and global warming challenged you to change the way you travel?

It can be pretty hard to find good country maps out there, but I thought I'd struck gold when I searched for "Algeria map" and found a link to Lonely Planet's map of Algeria with this text:

You'll soon be zipping around like a local, thanks to this map of Algeria provided by Lonely Planet.

Check out the map here.

What astounding detail! Surely I will now be "zipping" around Algeria "like a local", with my trusty Lonely Planet map in hand!

Hello all!

I've actually been back since last Sunday, but the Travellerspoint Overlords have been keeping me busy with all sorts of back-breaking work. But alas, I have arrived at work extra early this morning, so thought I'd pop a quick entry out into the Blogosphere to announce my triumphant return.

The wedding was great - thank you all for the congratulations and comments!

The Three Sisters at dawn.

The honeymoon was also great. We went to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains (in Australia), which is about a 2 hour train trip from Sydney. The first week was mostly spent inside playing Connect4 and doing a 750-piece puzzle (which we never finished), as outside it rained and blew and generally made going outside look a heck of a lot less appealing that staying inside. But rest assured, we did see some of the fine local scenery (namely, the Three Sisters), enjoy some of the fine local food (some great little cafés in Katoomba and Leura) and get attacked by the dangerous local wildlife (well that was just me, when an evil parrot the size of a mule decided to attack me (though I confess my better half insists it wasn't trying to attack me, it was just trying to land on me because apparently I look like a tree)).

But alas, said better half and I will probably take Bchu's suggestion and blog the honeymoon at some point - so I won't spoil all the surprises.

Eric