Photo of the Week – Sunset over the Serengeti

Right after my hike of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, I went on safari to Lake Manyara, the Serengeti, and the Ngorongoro Crater.  One of the best views during the safari was seeing the sunset…  Magnificent!

May 12th, 2013 Posted by Raul

Delta Points - Delta DUMPS Azure Moon now just “ Skunky Beer” at zero cost (just when I got free DM club access).

Delta Sky Clubs are changing selecting both complimentary and for-purchase premium alcohol consumption beginning tomorrow. Complimentary well-known alcohol brands it's still provided at the Club just as they have been.

Altering our complimentary solutions will enable us so that you can expand our portfolio of premium for-purchase products and observe after complimentary spirits, beer and wine as we continue to invest in the overall Club experience. We review our Club offerings periodically so that we are able to make changes based on customer comments, financial considerations and other factors including all the different options we offer much of our members.

Other brands is going to be available through our for-purchase options available through our Luxury Drink station. Our goal is to provide members quality offerings at reasonable prices which can be competitive with other international airport lounges while continuing to provide good value for being a member.

I am all for Delta making as much money as they can within the Skyclubs but hardly ever is Budweiser and Callier Lite a drinkable alcohol. I have said it before but will say it again, soon Delta will charge for AIR over the jets (unless it is a stinky CRJ 200 because they smell so bad that it could be criminal to charge with the air)! – René

Link: France: enjoy the most beautiful gardens of the country

Swift Travel Chai - Cookware buffets are our accountable US pleasure – stay away from the glop and the goop.

I perhaps can't confess this in relating to trips to Shanghai crammed with exquisite feasts, but seeing as my wife and i are on the road in the us for the first amount of time in a while, we shall admit that individuals often stop at strip mall Asian buffets. You can always find them and they have long hours.

I actually hear the howls associated with derision, though hear people out. We love fruit and vegetables and we love results. Restaurants in China have always a major section with the menu devoted to veg dishes. At many restaurants in the usa, of many cuisines, veges are either salad and also garnish, the later often removed from a can and overcooked. Fruit are treated little far better.

You know those dishes which were foreign to Chinese at this point staples of Chinese restaurants in america alone, with sludge sauces that sit inside buffet congealing for hours? Give those a excrete.

More Info: The route of the Estrada Real in Brazil

That Wandering Aramean - Innovative slimline seats on United: not the crappiest possibility!

When United Airlines announced go on August that they'd come to be changing the seats on the Airbus A319 and A320 planes there was a lot of concern among their customers. The Recaro Slimline seat is often a VERY basic product. It has been widely deployed in Europe (the Lufthansa Number of airlines has made this their default for narrow-body planes) and it's also not particularly comfortable with regard to flights of more than an hour or so. That can work in Europe the location where the hubs are more central and also the flights are generally reduced. For the US economy, however, it would have been a potentially unpleasant cycle. A United official announced today that this carrier will be such as the "comfort package" in their version within the seats. That should have many passengers quite happy.

The new seats are manufactured by RECARO, and you should recognize the specific unit from several European totes, who feature it on most of their mainline narrow-body airplane. However, because we fly some of our Airbuses over longer stage lengths as opposed to the typical intra-Europe segment, our version with the seat will have several upgraded comfort features on the base model. These comprise multi-directional headrests, added lumbar support, and a different seat bottom cushion to learn padding and multiple layers of soft space-age foam. The literature seat pocket is actually moved higher, which facilitates this increase in knee space, and there's a new amenity pocket designed for personal items.

And Wi-Fi, the addition of on-demand streaming video turns into the standard for your Airbus fleet. As a result, when these aircraft go in to have the new seats installed, the standard audio/video system with dropdown monitors are going to be removed. However, these aircraft won't "go dark"—Wi-Fi will be available on all aircraft which happen to have the new seats. In any event, like Wi-Fi the buffering product will eventually have pricing linked to it, although we do will offer a limited array of complimentary content until most people finalize these plans.

The 747s are getting the streaming media option therefore was previously stated that content would be free of cost on those planes; it truly is interesting to see a slightly different tack being taken together with the short-haul fleet.

Finally, to your Channel 9 lovers, the IFE retrofit means that offering will disappear. That's undoubtedly a bummer.

A Wandering Writer: A Tour through Inner Northeast Portland by using Cheryl Strayed.

We walk along her quiet residential streets in Northeast Portland looking to track down the intriguing vehicle, my imagination sprinting wild. Are we about to free a grouping of shackled dogs from pet control? Does Portland send its pets to school with ones own owners?

Eventually we identify our target on NE Halsey and 26th Street. The altered school bus is displayed bright blue and splattered along with paw prints and pet faces. The license food says WAG. Strayed points out that Meg, a nearby woman, runs the quirky family pet sitting service. It's be familiar with whimsical spectacle that you'd expect in a city that uses this slogan Keep Portland Weird – and it's really just enough off the beaten path that going barefoot feels like a real glimpse into this tight-knit neighborhood where Strayed has ended up.

She arrived here up from the beaten path, too. Few folks today can declare that they literally walked their technique to a new life, but Strayed is one too. While hiking the Hawaiian Crest Trail at age group 26, the subject from her bestselling-soon-to-be-Reese-Witherspoon-starring-book Wild, Strayed traversed their state of Oregon before rotating up in Portland. It was subsequently 1995 and her funds were shockingly grim. Your girlfriend life savings hovered round twenty cents.

"A friend of mine had a space for rent in her house and she said I should have pay rent once I acquired a job, " Strayed claims. "I didn't know that I'd wind up staying. I just knew that needed to regroup and make some money. "

Her first modest income producing scheme was a yard sale where she offered in the few possessions she'd retained in storage, no more than could "fit behind a pickup truck: inches thrift store purses, catalogs and clothes, mostly. She mentioned to the friendly woman who got a dress that she needed job.

It's an understandable clarification. Portland residents often proclaim with varying examples of pride or shame that city has the a lot of strip clubs per capita with the U. S., though some deep Googling leads me to believe the statistic is possibly local legend.

Strayed's new dancer buddy also waited tables for the French restaurant L'Auberge, when Strayed soon started being employed, too. A Portland establishment, it's now closed, like the majority of Strayed's old haunts within the 90s, including Satyricon, the rock club where Nirvana's Kurt Cobain fulfilled wild child Courtney Love on top of a Dharma Bums concert.

"All that stuff is gone, " Strayed says. "It's been replaced using lovely things but points that are a little shinier and a little more polished. "

She's fond of some of the improvements – she loves Stumptown Coffee and the food cart scene – but feels something is actually lost as the location has gentrified. She admits she's nostalgic for old Portland but also frustrated by an apparent psychological shift here.

"Maybe the prevailing difference from when I first moved suggestions that nobody in Portland numerous thought they were super cool because they lived here. There was Portland vanity but it was from a more authentic internal site. Whereas now, everywhere I actually go, when I claim I'm from Portland, people like: Oooooh. I've heard it's so great. "

While Portland is a plus, it has its complications, like anywhere. Strayed's husband, Brian Lindstrom, currently contains a documentary film out approximately an innocent forty-two 365 days old man with schizophrenia who had previously been beaten to death relating to the street in the now posh Pearl District. He died in police custody and there seems to be a cover up nearby his death.

Still, it's clear Strayed's heart has arrived. She's traveled all around the globe and Portland remains the girl favorite city, warm-hearted and additionally community-focused. The inner northeast, along with the inner southeast, have always been her stomping grounds.

"I'm an east side person, " she proclaims with a authority that makes me essential info exactly what this self-designation suggests.

"East side isn't when wealthy, " she explains. "You know that Everclear vocals, where he says: I'll buy that you big house in the West Hills? Those will be the West Hills of Portland. It is really swankier there. The east side has more being employed class vim, more in the people I think associated with as my tribe: people, artists, filmmakers. It's even more funky. "

She's generalizing, this lady acknowledges, like we many do, but it's as well late. I've already definitively proclaimed around my own head that, As i too, am an eastern side side person.

One of her favorite spots inside neighborhood appears filled with her tribe with this sunny Monday morning. Costello's Travel Café on Broadway can be described as place with great cake and great coffee, where you're offered some flag from some far-flung nation after ordering to signal not your allegiance but your waitress.

Over steaming containers of tea, I ask Strayed if she's become a more public figure in the neighborhood after the success of Wild. She has got, she says, and locates the change mostly becoming and surreal (see: nice lady stops her over the street to say your lady enjoyed the book) with an occasional smattering of unnerving and frustrating (see: someone tweets about her being at the grocery store in the exact moment she is during the grocery store).

One of several places where she's surely most recognizable is a nearby Broadway Books, Strayed's native independent bookseller. She worked out a deal with the owners to direct every requests from her blog for signed copies for the store. This way, she can visit on a leisurely morning to mark up your girlfriend goods.

It turns out a bookstore has many lots of copies waiting for Strayed, 196 copies in the paperback version of Rough outdoors, to be exact, officially on sale the next day. Strayed promises to go back soon to tackle this signings. For now we have a slightly more delicious adventure in our sights like the bakery across the road.

If Strayed ever thinks nostalgic for old Portland, the Helen Bernhard Bakery may just be a sugary cure. Established in 1924, long in advance of Portland was cool, she calls spot "a real bakery. inches To strengthen her case, Strayed offers up that incontrovertible evidence: you may get a glazed twist at this point.

She picks out several elaborately decorated cupcakes to be with her kids, one adorned while using the face of a mischievous looking panda as well as the other a suspiciously pleased cat. The grandmotherly cashier softly places them in split boxes and cautions us being careful on our way home to circumvent squashing the animals. It's good advice that proves futile. An hour later we'll present a mangled-face panda so that you can her towheaded daughter who won't mind in the slightest that her artful snack is on the losing end associated with a heavy jostling.

Before we return to Strayed's house, although, we've got two more stops. The first will be the straightforwardly named Great Wine beverages Buys. The store is developing a special where customers can order cases from your small vineyard in Malta.

"You can buy wine in the grocery stores in Oregon, " Strayed says, "but I prefer a lot more of an individual partnership. "

Our last stop is surprising following on from the row of independent enterprises we've been patronizing: Strayed leads me on the Lloyd Center Mall. A lot more specifically, she takes people to its indoor winter snow storms rink.

"I had not visited a mall in, truly, fifteen years, but my kids desired to go ice skating eventually and I wanted to help you pass that tradition upon them because I'm from Minnesota. And, lo along with behold, there's a rink part way through the mall. "

Her answer is a emphatic yes. "This is actually home. I love Portland. I feel so lucky that I get access to an incredibly vibrant urban center – which can be really where I find out my life – and also the wild places that are so close, within 30 mins. The coast, too. It's just an hour and a half away and there you are on this incredibly pebbly beach. "

Strayed spent her first several years questioning if she ought to stay. She kept contemplating: why am I here versus any place else? Am I only being because I'm in love?

Then she and the woman's husband moved to Syracuse, The big apple, so Strayed could find her MFA. It was only following leaving that she realized the amount of she missed her Portland community. They returned a decade later and she's do not looked back.

"For us, " Strayed says, "It's always been important to leave the place. I think that's an extremely important piece of increasing up. It's a conscious act. You're not letting some river you need to you. You're actually guiding yourself. "

And Portland is where you'll discover the grownup Cheryl Strayed, even though, if you happen to own into her, maybe avoid tweeting about it, fine?

About this Wandering WriterCheryl Strayed could be the author of #1 The big apple Times bestseller WILD, the popular York Times bestseller MINOR BEAUTIFUL THINGS, and that novel TORCH. WILD ended up being chosen by Oprah Winfrey when her first selection with regard to Oprah's Book Club some. 0 and optioned designed for film by Reese Witherspoon's production company, Pacific Standard. WILD was selected for the reason that winner of the Barnes & Respectable Discover Award, an Oregon Book Award, a Off-shore Northwest Booksellers Award, together with a Midwest Booksellers Choice Award. Strayed's writing has appeared with the BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS, the brand new York Times Magazine, a Washington Post Magazine, Style, Allure, The Missouri Overview, The Sun, The Rumpus--where she has written the popular "Dear Sugar" line since 2010--and elsewhere. Her books have become translated into twenty-eight languages all over. She holds an MFA in fiction writing from Syracuse University and then a bachelor's degree from that University of Minnesota. This girl lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and their two children.

Via: WiFi free for tourists in Japan

New Girl inside the Air - Personal Elements: The Positives of Holiday Far Outweigh the Annoyances.

My trip out to help Colorado got off for a rough start, with my own original flight RIC-ORD-COS on United being cancelled. Through the end of the day, I finally got so that you can Denver on rebooking #4 (RIC-IAD-DEN) right after flip-flopping between airlines, airports, and connection points. Perhaps still, I landed 3. 5 hours later as opposed to I expected…and at a different airport to boot.

While it was really annoying to handle tweets, phone calls, and airline agents right at that moment, the truth of the problem is that it's still pretty amazing that i can get from your office in Virginia for a hotel in Denver in 10 hours, even like the many delays. Sure, I had produced to change my accommodation and car rental arrangements on the fly, but sometimes a challenge can be fun. Getting a sweet improve on my rental car made things some easier to swallow and being able to spend time with some family members in Denver unexpectedly has been also a welcome delight.

Mostly, though, I am just entirely grateful i made it to the expensive vacation event I had been looking forward to. I've had a excellent time reconnecting with other travel buddies with a few new ideas on where this web site is headed. Inspirational holdings and liabilities sense.

But the real reason that your positives of travel very far outweigh the frustrations along the route? I get this on the Friday at noon as an alternative to spending my day sampling into spreadsheets. If these mountains aren't worth it, than I'm not sure what's.

Previous Guide Describes Being Swallowed By Hippo.

© Doug88888 Have you ever been in a condition while travelling where you only realized afterward the magnitude in the danger you were around? A story has emerged which has me reassessing my own earlier travels in Photography equipment, where I was blissfully unaware which you can be swallowed by your hippopotamus.

Former African river guide Paul Templar gets attention for his video that recounts a 1996 unpleasant incident where he barely escaped with his life. Templar was in the Zambezi River near Victoria Crumbles when he encountered a "grouchy bull" hippopotamus. He was swallowed within the attack and spent several minutes inside beast, which was submerged inside the river, before narrowly getting out of. He required extensive surgeries to fix his arm, which is stripped of flesh, and bite wounds to many of his organs.

I knew that hippos are deadly and ought to be treated with a great deal of caution and respect, but that you can be ingested by one — and most people wouldn't have survived a great scenario — puts them for a whole different level around my mind.

Stephanie Spencer is a freelance travel writer from Canada with been held captive by the travel industry for finished 13 years. An not curable smart aleck, notorious green fanatic, hat person, and ukulele player of suspicious abilities, Stephanie explores the geeky side of travel on her blog A Nerd At large, and dispenses random quirkiness like @ANerdAtLarge on Twitter. She truly believes that anything may be possible with enough determination and copious amounts of chocolate.

More Info: Vilafamés (Spain): the small town of Castellón with all the charm

Please Don't Smoke Or Steal The Signs In Weed, California

But a visit to the Weed Store, a souvenir shop at the entrance to the town, quickly disabused me of that notion. Stacey Green, the shop manager, explained that the town was named after a guy named Abner Weed, a native of Maine who came to the place to open a lumber mill in 1897. It isn't clear whether Weed smoked ganja himself but Green said that marijuana definitely isn't legal or even decriminalized in the town.

The town's other primary claim to fame is that Weed is the place that George Milton and Lennie Small fled from in Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men."

Like many people who live in small towns, Green is something of a jack-of-all-trades. He manages the Weed Store, which sells weed-related T-shirts, hats, signs and other souvenirs, but is also an ordained minister and was elected to the Weed city council in December. Green grew up in Weed and moved back to town a few years ago to care for his mom. He said that the town's road signs get stolen all the time because everyone wants a sign that says Weed.

There used to be a sign just outside town directing motorists to turn one way for the College of the Siskiyous and another for downtown Weed. But the allure of stealing a sign with the words "College" and "Weed" with arrows pointing in opposite directions was too strong and so they eventually ditched the sign and replaced it with the one you see above. You can, however, buy a postcard of the old sign at Green's shop.

There isn't a lot to see in downtown Weed, and in truth, I've seen more prosperous looking places, but the town is dramatically situated right near Mt. Shasta, a 14,000-foot peak in the Cascade Range. Even if Weed isn't the hippie haven I thought it might be, the town's merchants seem to have no qualms with capitalizing on the town's name. I saw "Enjoy Weed" T-shirts with the Coca-Cola logo, "I'm High on Weed" hats and other Weed-related souvenirs for sale all over town, including at one of the town's motels and at a gas station.

He said that not only is marijuana illegal, the town also has a law preventing any medicinal marijuana dispensaries from opening inside the city limits. After I left Weed, I looked up the town's election results and it turns out that Mitt Romney carried Siskiyou County, where Weed sits, to the tune of 56 percent. I didn't stick around in Weed long enough to understand the town's political dynamics but even in a brief little foray off the highway, I learned that Weed is full of surprises.

Link: Airlines collect charges for baggage record in 2012

Lisbon: Even Better the Second Time

There are some places you never leave. You may not be there physically, but a piece of you stays behind forever to be with the place that stole so much of your heart. It lives there, reliving those initial memories and waiting for new ones to be made.

Last year, I visited Lisbon for the first time and though the visit was short, thoughts of it never left me. I fell madly in love and the city claimed a hold on me that I could never shake.

Last week, I returned to the city and it was as though I never left. Lisbon and I just fit. I walked new streets with that feeling I had been there before. I navigated the subway with ease. I felt at home in unknown restaurants. I sat around sharing jokes with Portuguese shop owners though neither understood each other's native tongue.

Mostly, I wandered the city dumbstruck as I marveled at just how crazy beautiful the city is – filled with beautifully tiled houses with red roofs and winding cobblestone streets that snake between multi-story homes draped with Portuguese flags and hanging laundry.

I worry a lot about going back to cities I fall in love with the first time around. What if I am just chasing ghosts? What if it won't be the same? What if I go back and hate it? Will I just compare the present to the past?

So, I touched down in Lisbon with a mix of excitement and trepidation, but as I stepped out onto the streets, I knew in my bones that we are soul mates. And when you are just meant to be with someone, all the change in the world doesn't matter.

On this visit, I relaxed at the nearby beach in the town of Cascais, where my ghost-like appearance become a bit more human-like after some time in the sun. I dined on fabulous fish at Santa Rita, a delicious and cheap (21 Euros for fish, a liter of wine, bread, and seafood rice) restaurant located downtown. I ticked off touristy sites like the city history museum and the castle. I stayed out so late in the Barrio Alto (an area known for wild nightlife) that I slept most of the next day away. (I still mostly blame the jetlag.)

There are moments when you travel where the stars seem to align and you think, as you sip wine from a cafe while watching neighborhood kids play soccer in the street and grandmothers hang the laundry from the windows, that somehow you got lucky enough for a destination to reveal itself to you in all its glory and that life couldn't get better.

Lisbon is filled with wonderful architecture, history, charisma, nightlife, people, and such incredible budget value that I can't help but daydream of renting a quiet little apartment on one of those cobblestoned streets.

Point Me on the Plane - 2013 List of Best Airlines for Prize Redemptions – Delta and US end of it.

IdeaWorks has as just stated released their annual Switchfly Reward Seat Availability rankings and Delta is just as before at the very bottom for the list, though this year these are joined by US Airways within a two-way tie. As per the blog post:

Air Berlin, Southwest, and Virgin Australia put into the top 6 with the 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 editions for the reward survey. For 2013 Air Berlin, GOL, and Southwest share first place with outstanding 100% scores, with every flight queried inside survey providing reward car seats. The list of companies was expanded to 25 for 2013 with the addition of Air Asia, Air China and taiwan, and AviancaTaca. The most significant year-over-year improvement were authorized by global players Environment France/KLM (up 22. 2 points) and Emirates Aircraft (up 12. 1 points). AirTran Airways (a product of Southwest) continued upward movement using a 7. 9 point increase and a nearly 50 point boost since 2011. Comparing total average result for the same 22 airlines within the 2012 and 2013 surveys reveals a half point drop designed for 2013. Thus, overall reward availability is essentially unchanged for the international airline industry. Continuing go on year's theme, survey findings indicate recurrent fliers are better served from the reward programs offered simply by value-oriented airlines. The average among the seven value- oriented airlines inside the survey was 96% that is definitely up from the 2012 reaction 93. 5%. The other more traditional carriers inside the survey group registered 61. 5% which is slightly below what the 2012 average of 62. 9%.

In terms of when to find the best availability, the survey does confirm what the majority of us already know. Legacy carriers release more award seats being the travel date gets closer and last minute travelers may have a more expensive chance of snagging their ideal award once they can wait until several days or weeks before reduction.

Now, as Gary likes to rightly point out each year, the results are thoroughly flawed! They do NOT consider the value of each particular person award (a short hop on Southwest surely can't be when compared to an international trip on AA) or the price tag on acquiring miles in every different program. They are also only reviewing online availability, which for a insurance company like US means that they have a lower score as compared to United, though they ever have identical award space. With all that said, for their very own metal awards, Delta probably truly does belong at the very bottom (even-though I've had some terrific recent luck with poor level awards). Unfortunately for the general public (but good for us), the survey will as just stated be reported on the nightly newscasts plus the advice given is to focus on accumulating miles with the lost cost carriers… I'll get United at 80% and additionally AA at 48. 6% any sort of day over JetBlue in 88. 6%.

Link: Applications travelers to book a hotel at the last moment

Egypr Offers Moustache Transplant Surgery Vacation packages.

Cosmetic surgeons in Turkey have recently been performing hair transplants on balding men for years; however, it seems there may be now growing demand from men with bald top lips.

Men from Asian countries, Europe and the Middle East are generally flocking to the country in order to give their mediocre moustaches your helping hand and tourism agencies have taken notice. Many local companies have begun offering "transplant packages" by which tourists can get their particular surgery done before chilling out on a Mediterranean Resort or hitting the capital's places.

Interestingly, there's little interest from Turks in getting the procedure done. According to your Wall Street Journal, the numerous Turkish men sporting moustaches has fallen radically in the past two decades – not they own any trouble growing face treatment fuzz. "Personally, I'd be suspicious of an Turk who couldn't increase a mustache, " some salesman from Istanbul shared with the newspaper. "But if foreigners ought to come anywhere for the operation, it should get here. The Turkish mustache continues to the envy of the entire world. "

Via: The ecological of the Tagus in Toledo path

Shanghai: Shangri-La Debuts 2nd Shanghai Hotel and Setbacks London

At the beginning of the year we were hoping that after seemingly endless expectancy, end of June would be the time to finally whiz up to the levels of Shangri-La at the Shard in London. Latest term but is that weall all have to hold our breath until following the summer before that could happen, with opening of the hotel forced back again to September. While we continue to wait, the party is providing something to wrap people over though: the Jing An Shangri-La Puxi, its second hotel in Shanghai, as a result of arrive on June 29 in the cit's west end. Its older sister is found in the western Pudong organization area, looking impossibly little from high up its vertiginous neighbor. Like so a great many other Chinese hotels we appear to learn about recently, the hotel are at one's heart of a huge mixed-use complex--the Jing An Kerry Centre a with retail, workplace, and residential parts. A shining glass structure, there will be views from nearly floor-to-ceiling windows in the 508 rooms, which will occupy the top 29 floors of the key 60-story building. Inside, you'll find the usual luxuries one wants at a resort, all the way right down to heated marble floors in the bathroom and TVs inside the bathroom mirrors. The Horizon Club bar, to which you have access if residing in a Premier Room or any collection, has 360-degree views of the town and sits on the 55th ground. Further down will be the hotelas restaurants and guest facilities, including outdoor alternatives at the center's piazza, which include numerous landscapes and water features, and a history house that Chairman Mao Zedong lived in in 1920. Weare curious to see some symbolism of the 80 silk lanterns that aappear to move magicallya in the Chinese cafe Summer Palace, which consists of several of differently designed rooms. 1515 WEST Chophouse provides Australian perfect beef, the Mediterranean restaurant is defined in its own two-story bamboo-clad, glass-roofed design, and CafA LIANG combines both buffet and dining table service alternatives. as could be the Nanjing shopping street, if all the meeting space inside the dedicated five-story Event Centre isn't enough, the Shanghai Exhibition Centre is down the street. Reservations for the Jing An Shangri-La aren't available nevertheless, but a River Wing Deluxe place at the Pudong Shangri-La begins at RMB2,250 ($366) a night on a in late May. [Photos: Shangri-La Hotels]

Link: Speakeasies, clandestine bars in New York

Rapid Travel Chai - Chai Book Club – Introducing Weekly Book Giveaway, starting with Korea

I make no apologies for appreciating the intellectual. I travel because I grew up reading histories, from Herodotus on down. When I am driving through Tunisia and see a road sign for Jugurtha's Table, my heart skips a beat.

In my weekly Chai Digest column I highlight articles that I find particularly useful or thought-provoking. To my regret, I find the more I do online, the less I read books, and I am determined to change that. I am creating Chai Book Club to share books of interest to the informed traveler and citizen. Each week I will highlight a book or topic, and give away a book to a reader. I welcome suggestions that will help me and readers expand our horizons on the subject of the week.

Ground rules for each entry are to comment on the post within the appointed time, preferably with something that will be of interest to other readers. Winners will be selected at random. Available only to US addresses.

I am in China this week but my mind has wandered over to Korea. I am reading The Koreans by British journalist Michael Breen. His perspective is nuanced and refreshingly direct, American readers conditioned in political correctness will be shocked. I came across this on the superlative China Law Blog.

I am pairing it with Wayfarer: New Fiction by Korean Women, edited and translated by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton. I read this in college and still remember Pak Wan-so's "Identical Apartments," with the drunk husband who stumbles back to the wrong home unaware. This is out of print but used copies are readily available.

Please leave a comment by Monday, May 6 at 11:59 EDT. I will select a winner who will have a choice of either title.

Via: Bellinzona (Switzerland): the Italian city of the three castles

Hack My Trip - From the Computer to the Host’s House: A Guide to Airbnb

Thanks to Angie from NerdWallet for today's post expanding on how to use Airbnb to book apartments, homes, or just an extra room as an alternative to traditional hotel stays. Eric surveyed Airbnb and similar services like Couchsurfing and VRBO last week, but Angie volunteered to go into more detail on this particular option.

Airbnb — the popular short-term travel site — has been in the press recently for their over-the-top invitations to a Gatsby themed party in the Hamptons. In some ways Airbnb represents the East Egg-West Egg phenomenon; it allows you to see a different side to a city with a dose of charm and even grit that a traditional hotel could not encapsulate. To ensure you have the most fulfilling and courteous of experiences, here are some suggestions for when to use Airbnb on the host and guest side, and what to do when you get there.

With transportation costs rising, a two-week-long jaunt to Bali may be out of the question but a week-long session in Maine may be equally out of reach when considering hotel costs. Consider using Airbnb to minimize on costs while bringing a fresh perspective to a place you may have gone a hundred times. The Carmel highlands are experienced much differently while staying in a yurt than a hotel room. These experiences definitely will not hurt your wallet or your soul. Although staying at an Airbnb rental when you have your own place in the city sounds a bit ridiculous, a change of neighborhood and an avant-garde lodging style in a cool warehouse or artists' colony can be inspirational way to recharge for a short weekend without taking any vacation days.

When visiting an unfamiliar place where you are less familiar with neighborhoods and surroundings, make sure to do a little bit more background research before settling down on a listing. Who knows, you may have unwittingly chosen the apartment in Paris' red light district, which may have worked in your mid-20s but the loft next to the flashing lights of the Moulin Rouge may disturb your three-year-old's sleep these days. The advantage of Airbnb is that it offers comparable rates with amenities that many hotels lack like access to a full kitchen with refrigerator, allowing you to experience local cuisine firsthand while cutting down on living costs during your stay.

The decision to start hosting your own place on Airbnb should not be taken lightly. First, decide whether or not you have a space that could feasibly be rented out. Preferable accommodations include an entire apartment, a room in an apartment with bathroom, a loft, or any sort of independent dwelling with running water (the running water part is negotiable depending on the type of guest you're targeting). Next, think about whether you want to put in the work to host. Coordinating guest arrival times and keeping your place tidy and guest ready may sounds like a relatively simple task but still require a significant time commitment.

Finally, tease out whether you can legally do so. There have been a number of horror stories of evictions, mounting legal fees, and sanctions against owner who have rented their places out in buildings that have stipulations against short-term rentals. Save yourself a couple of tens of thousands in legal fees and make sure it's all gravy before filling out that rental listing.

The company has taken a lot of heat in recent months with reports of unruly tenants and renters alike arising in the media. To step-up consumer confidence, Airbnb has implemented an official ID-based verification process for users looking to rent out their place. 25% of U.S users will now be required to go through the procedure of inputting an official government ID, social security number, and verification of prior listings.

Take advantage of this newly implemented system to assure guests of your existence and authenticity. In all seriousness, it is a huge selling point and a great place to build in some host-hostee trust, and you get a cool little badge to put on your profile if you get verified. As a guest, make sure you do not put yourself in a vulnerable position, if you are traveling alone, choose a place appropriately and use the messaging feature and prior reviews to determine whether it's the place for you.

If you're looking to host your place on Airbnb, your rentals will be as popular as your reviews are. Clearly, it is impossible to control the never-satisfied guest, but putting in personal touches can really elevate their experience and your subsequent rating. Consider leaving a small welcome gift to guests, something local that can serve as memorabilia. A nice drink would be more than sufficient.

Where many hosts miss the mark is coordinating an arrival time. Make sure to use the message feature profusely for this part and get down a solid ETA, an airplane number to check for delays, and a way to reach them if you can. On the guest side, you don't want to be the reason your host has to tap into Airbnb's $1,000,000 guarantee against damages during stays. Be respectful of your host's digs, try and keep your area tidy, and give your host as much information about your stay and arrival/departure as you can to ensure a stay without delays.

If you've ever had a deep seated dream to work on your novel while munching on artisanal mayonnaise drenched kale in a converted warehouse in an "up and coming" part of town, or you just want to see a different side of London for a week with a personal kitchen, check out Airbnb for all of your short-term hosing wants and needs.

Angie Picardo is a writer for NerdWallet, a financial literacy website where you can find advice on saving money while you travel and setting financial goals.

Link: Best deals for travel and summer destinations

Bike Share System Brings 10,000 Cycles To Nyc

London, Barcelona, Paris and Washington, DC are simply a few other towns that have presented cycle share plans. But in Nyc, the undertaking is on a huge scale; if the system releases, you will see 6,000 cycles at 330 stations in Manhattan and elements of Brooklyn. And that's just the beginning; there are plans to expand the bicycle share to 10,000 bicycles and 600 docking stations across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. With figures like that, Associated Press reviews New York's bike share could be the largest of its kind in the united kingdom (in case you are interested, the photo above is part of the world's largest public bike share method is in Hangzhou, China, where there are an estimated 69,500 cycles and near 3,000 docking areas). So this summer, take advantage of the 300 miles of new cycle lanes the town has included previously five years, plus 200 more miles of channels and greenways that traverse parks. Our prediction could it be is going to be a good summer to pedal around New York. [Photo credit: Flickr individual Payton Chung] Recorded under: North America, United States, Information

More Info: Travelling the world at full speed with Google Street View

Photo Of The Day: Skulls For Sale

You can find many things at local markets: organic vegetables, artisan cheese, perfumes, wine, textiles, souvenirs ... the list goes on. A look into the tastes and smells of a place, markets are a traveler's jackpot.

But market souvenirs come in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes you find the kind of things you might just get pulled over for in customs on the way home. Like this selection of morbid goods on the island of Boracay in the Philippines, captured by Flickr user Adam James Wilson. Skull and teeth anyone?

Have a photo that captures the spirit of travel? Submit it to the Gadling Flickr pool or mention us on Instagram @gadlingtravel and tag your photo with #gadling for a chance to be featured on Photo of the Day.

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