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.
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."
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?
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.
Know those machines at the airport’s security checkpoint that puff puff your clothes down? Well those Puffer machines, cleverly named, huh?, are being deemed unworthy. The US government is scrapping the post 9-11 screening program because it seems to be way more costly and less effective than anticipated.
The Puffer machine can analyze particles as small as one-billonth of a gram, but its cryptonite is: dirt and humidity. Appartently the machines breakdown when exposed to it.
Read more of US government's buying frenzy at the Travel...
The Federal Government has decided to give Americans, and its visitors, of course, a gift this coming July 4th.
After just over 8 years of being off limits, we will finally be allowed back into Lady Liberty's head, err, crown. Since 9-11, the National Park Service had decided that having people up there was too much of a risk; how do you get all the people out quickly in a time of another emergency, God forbid?
Their temporary solutions are as follows. One, they will be allowing people up in guided groups of no more than ten by a National Park Service ranger. Also, they plan to raise the handrails of the spiraling staircase to facilitate visitors on their journey up and down the 168-step double-helix.
Now this reopening may be a bit short-lived, as they do plan to close in two years for some more high-tech and permanent improvements for the safety and security of its visitors.
In most cultures, with your wedding vows come the traditions. In Christian traditions, you must take a "marriage class" from a priest (that's never experienced marriage, of course) and then "donate" money to the church of your liking. In Chinese traditions, the bride and groom-to-be must host a tea party for their in-laws-to-be. Well, in Indonesia's Java Island, the humble people have taken a more green approach. Now, this is no new tradition brought on by the worries of global warming currently brewing; they've been involved in this tradition for many centuries.
Read at the Travel how they get married and divorced.
When people see a pig in a cage they get worried. They think they may contact Swine Flu, says Kabul Zoo’s director Aziz Gul Saqib about the only known pig in Afghanistan. Yes. In Afghanistan there is only one known pig, and it’s lovingly named Pig. Why? Because they aren’t creative with names…oh, right! Because pork and pig products are forbidden (think religious beliefs), there are no pig farms (no need for them), no wild pigs (?), nor any direct flights from Kabul to Mexico City. But yet with all this, Pig was sequestered to a winter house away from the public because of the public’s fear of contracting the “Swine-Flu.” Thankfully Pig wasn’t there for Eygpt’s misconceptions and overreactions.
As a preventive measure to stop Swine-Flu, the Egyptian government used the out-of-mind/out-of-sight technique to stop the spread of the denigrating-named disease. 300,000 thousand pigs were slaughtered without ever showing signs of the disease. This poorly thought action stems from a surge of cases from an unrelated bird flu that has taken its 26th fatality. Yes, they may be at edge but why the rush in eliminating all piggies? Egypt’s 80 million population is predominantly Muslim where eating pork is forbidden. There is only 10% of Christian Copts that may eat pork—majority wins pigs must die!
Seems that many of the Brazilian cockroaches, as I so barbarically and lovingly have termed them, will soon be leaving Japan. Japan has decided they no longer will need immigrant workers (mostly employeed in the Three-K job arenas: kitsui, kitanai, kiken — hard, dirty and dangerous) immersed in their recessing economy, so the first step to ridding themselves of them: inhumane bribery. Many of the Brazilian immigrants are now being contacted with a deal to have their entire families flown back to Brazil with a hefty sack of cash, if and only if, they agree never to seek work in Japan again. Now, is the Japanese government trying to weed out the immigrants or are they just helping the immigrants get back home? There seems to be a shadow of discriminatory ethnic nationalism lurking behind the stories.
Do not mess with Indian 
