The tried-and-tested dos and don’ts for English teachers in Taiwan’s dating scene
With thousands of Westerners teaching English abroad, chances are you know someone living in the island of Taiwan. And as many foreign men there well know, the modern, westernized Asian nation’s dating scene has gained a reputation on par with that of Thailand or the Philippines.
Aww, the thrill of going to another country and experiencing another's culture may be exhilrating enough for some travelers. But when you find yourself in Cambodia and have exhausted the sex tourism side of the country what better thing to do to enliven your spirits than to be in control of a death-making-machine. Shooting in Cambodia seems to be the new Angkor Wat for the more visceral traveler. As you can see from the video this adventurer is letting off some steam. A new travel excursion? Likely so.
The International Bathtub regatta is made up of a mess of buoyant, ahem, well, bathtubs. The bathtubs are made from scratch, decorated and designed by bathtub engineers (anyone can participate and build their own). These fascinating vessels make for an interesting contest to about 20,000 spectators. Sort of like a bathroom excursion. See how it all went down last week on August 15th. Video at break.
For our next stop in Alcohol around the World, we visit another Islamic country, Algeria. Unlike Afghanistan, there was and is slightly more elbow room when abiding to Islam’s dietary laws; alcohol is not totally banned.
Algerian wine accounted for nearly two thirds of the wine that was internationally traded, though this was during the 1950’s. Algerian wine has a deeper red color compared to French wine and is higher in alcohol as well.
Nowadays, like Afghanistan, there is a shortage of alcohol consumption. Many of the vineyards in the Hauts Plateaux region which produced the bountiful grape were turned to produce agricultural crops (e.g., cereal or table grapes), this was greatly encouraged by government officials seeing their Islamic country being economically dependent on an alcoholic product. There are about 70 wineries in operation today.
Continue through Read Button and watch guys open wine the “Algerian Way.” Plus a tidbit of info on contraband alcohol.
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When you are in your travels one thing that you should do is to register for a local competition. It can be anything from Strong Man to Hot Dog eating contest. This Russian thespian decided to sign-up to a screaming contest in Pattaya, Thailand. Inhale, exhale, act out your favorite mishap or accident and scream... Plus you might win! Humiliation doesn't last that long and it makes great stories.
Imagine you're just casually walking down a pretty remote beach in Germany and you stumble on a pile of clothes. You'll probably begin to wonder where the owner of this mound is. Well it seems that a few tourists walking on that very remote beach in Furstenfeldbruck, Germany called emergency after discovering the abandoned clothing.
The search went on all for three hours, which included helicopter and 25 rescue workers.
Apparently the owner of the clothing was hiding from the search; she was naked. Though to Karen Drechsler's defense she didn't know the search was for her. She was only hiding from shame. She had been at another part of the beach before the search.
"She saw all the police, the coastguard and the helicopter and she thought someone must be in trouble. She didn't imagine they were looking for her," a rescue worker told The Sun.
"She wanted to wait until they'd all gone before she retrieved her clothes. But the longer she waited, the more police arrived."
Why not perfect your craft in an early age? This 11-year old gave it a shot when he attempted a scooterjack with a toy gun in an Ohio park on two young boys. The soon-to-be criminal pointed the gun at the brothers, age 8 and 10, demanding one of the silver push scooters, and then chased the boys as they raced away.
Cincinnati police took the boy to the Hamilton County juvenile center. He faces a hearing on August 7th.
During these bad financial times, it's always best to teach your kids a quicker way to get rich. Don't hate the player hate the game...
Do not mess with Indian kids that studied Karate. Them sum hardcore bitches!!!
Evidently it’s ok to run over your karate kids with a motorcycle in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu, India. This school event was organized recently in connection for a celebratory birth anniversary of former Chief Minister K Kamaraj. The event began with students displaying their karate nun-chunk skills followed by the finale (without the fireworks) of running over the munchkins’ hands. The children were from classes one to five.
Later, the rider, not satisfied, ran the motorbike over a wooden plank placed on a school girl’s stomach.
School authorities say the parents were all for the running over their kids, they consented to the motorbike demo. The event was stopped by the Higher Education Minister’s party-pooper wife.
For our next stop in Alcohol Around the World we visit a largely arid land, the Islamic Republic: Afghanistan. We are sure you haven’t heard of many alcoholic drinks hailing from this landlocked nation, well, that’s because it’s a dry country. Alcohol is banned. Mostly because of the country’s Islamic beliefs: alcohol impairs the judgment, leaving one to fail on his obligations, negatively affecting one’s relationship with God.
The reason why Muslims abstain from liquor stems all the way back even before Islam came to fruition. Many Arabs would drink to forget about their problems, alleviate stress, much the same as today. Alcohol was even sold around the clock, 24 hours a day, (at non-stop delis with endless amounts of forties). Unfortunately, good things come to an end; the people didn’t know how to hold their liquor. Alcohol led to tribal warfare, rampant prostitution, broken homes and many absentees from the local mosque. This candy store had to close. This in turn led the Koran to forbid alcohol.
I know, I know, its very disconcerting, but don’t fret there little alcoholic traveler. There a few black sheep that partake in wine sipping and Scotch swigging, just behind very, very, very much closed doors. To be caught drinking would mean jail time and branded with the whole scarlet letter thing, shunned by your community. In fact, just past month Afghanistan’s parliament passed a bill concerning alcohol consumption, which for those who buy, sell, or consume will be fined, imprisoned, or given 60 lashes with a whip (ouch), all in accordance with Sharia law.
To all those in Afghanistan we toast to you. Godspeed.
See video break of probably the only people that are drinking in Afghanistan out and about. Go U.S.!
Part I of a series of documenting travel joy: indigenous liquor.
Our first stop is Albania. A region known as Arberia during the Ottoman days, which helped boost Christian morale as they resisted the Turks onslaught (as they took over country after country). Sadly because of their persistence in not falling back they suffered continuous warfare. But this is why we toast them and their local home brew liquid delicacies.
Albania
Albanian Moonshine (Raki) an alcoholic beverage sipped artfully by macho men, it is a non-sweet, anise-flavored spirit made from fermented grapes or plums. Same alcohol content to Vodka. And we weren’t kidding about sipping it artfully; it takes a crafted hand to produce Raki—the slightest mistake can turn a potentially perfect batch into a “soft Raki” which is not even worth a rinse and spit—this laborious task deserves respect and an artful approach when sipping this drink.
Not really sure if these boys in the video care much about artful sipping but lesson number 1 in cultural etiquette, always accept a drink from the natives even if it is early in the wee mornings.
In Tokyo, Japan begins a new era of training human automatons (like this practiced hasn’t put into action before!). The Keihin Express Railway Co. has installed a new computer that detects the smiles of the railway’s employees. Before heading out to face customers, employees smile into the camera to check their smiles. The smile-rating software scores the countenance with a scoring of 0-70. The wider the grin the higher the points.
The thinking behind this is that with the 250,000 train riders that pass through a station, things might be rushed and pretty much chaotic, and a smile can brighten someone’s day just a little to make it through the congested mess.” Smiles,” says Mitsue Endo, employee of the railway, “help the interaction with the passengers, making the atmosphere more relaxing.”
The smile test detector is optional for employees. But this gives employees an opportunity to see how well they are perceived by software and human. Brighter smiles makes life, work and machines run smoothly. Now why isn’t this machine being installed in NYC subway stations?
For those who are living in Japan, it seems that you’ll be GPS-ly (<<<OAJ coins words as well) gifted by Sony. Today Sony Japan unveiled the NV-U3DV GPS Navigation device. It may seem like any other GPS device, though there are slight changes: the new NV-U3DV navigation device boats a 6.1 inch screen and packs a 480x272 resolution on a big screen with bigger buttons and more map space. Plus it introduces a unique feature, the Position+ G, which uses an accelerometer, gyrosensor, and pressure sensors to actually detect the direction of the vehicle even in touchy environments like a tunnel, high inclines and under passes. Makes sense for those who will be traversing the Asian islands by car. The device also offers a TV antanea to view broadcasts, you can play music and watch your pics with MPEG-4, MP3. Unfortunately folks in United States or Europe won’t be able to get their hands on this gadget, its exclusively in Japan. Tagged at ¥65,000, around $700 USD.
A body of a shark was left in middle of downtown Miami street after two men tried selling it to several fish markets. The men apparently carried the six-foot shark around in the city’s Metromover downtown train, looking to sell the shark off to local fish markets in the area. The two men tried selling the shark for around $10. Police say the shark was a nurse shark and the case could result in misdemeanor charges of improper killing and disposal of the animal and selling the shark without a license.
You can argue all day about loving or hating the Miami natives and their get-quick-rich schemes, but you can't deny the fact that they entertain you with their ridiculous antics! "Look how cute the natives act, daddy."
Once more the world of fine marketing has bestowed us with another gem. This time hailing out of Germany. This racy commercial of a Sprite girl simulating a, what looks to be a pretty darn good BJ, gets banned for TV consumption but not online. Sprite loves its money shots it seems. Enjoy banned video at travel break.
What better way to market a product than crashing a mobile advertisement into someone's home. And what a better marketing stunt than to ram a huge hot dog into a Wisconsin household; the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile goes forward instead of backward. The driver of the Wienermobile says she thought she was reversing as she tried turning around the hot dog in the driveway. But she went forward and hit the home. This goes to show you that companies know no bounds when they want you to buy buy buy...but I think this is better way to market a product when compared to a jingle: O-S-C-A-R. Song at Travel break
Don't you love novelties for tourists such as this taxi in the shape of a coconut. The Cubans are profiting by having turned transporting tourists to an attractive, catchy money maker; moving away from the 1950s machines that remained on the island after Batista. Wouldn't you rather ride a taxi shaped as a coco than those large antiquated rusting steel machines? A ten minute ride can cost you about $5 (USD). The Coco Taxis is basically a 75cc two stroke petrol engine. An engine that you might find in a small motorbike. By all means it's not a powerful vehicle. You can see its virility on the videos at the break as it passes horse-and-carriage buggies, bicyclists and pedestrians but it doesn't match up to cars or tractors. They do have good suspension, though – the ride isn't smooth, but it's enjoyable.
If you live in a city of any population you may see at least one or two billboards while driving down the street—if that’s the case you are one lucky SOB! Most of those billboards use vinyl for the printing, and almost all of them get chucked to the trash: that’s a staggering 3 million a year in the US. That’s 10,000 tons of waste, a lump of marketing. Rubbish that will eventually make its way to a landfill and sit there for..uhhhmm,…I don’t know…a very long ass time; vinyl is non biodegradable.
With this in mind some savvy companies got together to benefit from this billboard marketing waste. Terracycle and Yakpak will be turning these oversized Ads to messenger bags, backpacks and more.
It’s a great way to help the earth and recycle material that is fated for a one time use with a lifetime of waste.
Now think about the adrenaline that's gushing around your body while you run from a ton pound beast with knives on it head. Ridiculously satisfying! but when one plays the game one pays the price. Unfortunately in the last chapter of San Fermin's Pamplona’s festival, 4 runners get the horn from the soon-to-be-slaughtered animal in Spain. Though the scars may be better than any local travel trinket you may bring home, but at what price?
A man was gored to death in the fourth encierro at Pamplona’s running of the bulls. Daniel Jimeno Romero, 27, from Alcala de Henares, was gored in the neck and lung as he was trying to get to a protective barrier during the run. Romero was on vacation with his parents and his girlfriend, according to the Associated Press.
Do not mess with Indian 
