Articles by Nils

After several days in Qingdao checked out of the Shangri-La hotel and traveled to our next destination, Beijing. However, we would do so by train to see a little of the countryside. Since it’s quite a distance from Qingdao to Beijing, we made a stopover in Jinan. My host had gone to university there, and wanted to show me the city, and also had some business to attend to, so it was a very good and practical thing to do. But more about Jinan itself in a later post.

Qingdao Departure

Qingdao has a central station that hails from colonial times; it was built by the Germans. However, the station is being renovated in anticipation of the Olympic games 2008, where Qingdao will host a number of maritime events. So it was closed, and all the trains departed and arrived at another station - in the bad part of town. It’s as bad as you get in Qingdao - There’s some factories there, but mostly it’s just simply rundown buildings, poor people, and dirt everywhere. The traffic is atrocious too; mostly because the area wasn’t designed to handle the traffic it has to while it serves as the main train station. Within second of arriving, an old shriveled up female beggar had spotted us and wanted money. Since she didn’t speak English she resorted to a lot of prodding. Unpleasant. I was warned to take care of my wallet and my pouch and my luggage, as there would be pick-pockets about. I had already surmised so much.

The station itself was crowded. I am not sure whether this was because it was early morning, or a normal condition. Reaching the platforms involved a lot of shoving and pushing. Interestingly, the platforms themselves were quiet and deserted, so I am not entirely sure where all the people were actually going.

The Trains

The high-speed trains in China do deserve some notice for any travel geek. The Chinese seem to be employing a combination of technologies for their rail system, a hodgepodge of foreign and domestic products. The train we used was reminiscent of the Shinkansen. I’ll have to use the original some time, as the whole experience was decidedly anticlimactic. I had imagined something a little less basic. If you’ve ever been on one of the newer high speed trains, you’ll know they’re usually fairly comfortable. Not that our first class seats were really bad, but, it really didn’t feel “special” either. Of course we only paid something like 15 Euro per person for a 2.5h journey.

One fascinating thing I noticed was that the seats got turned around to face in the other direction after the train had arrived in Jinan. Most people prefer to face in the direction of travel, and I guess this reduces “unpopular” seats.

Sights of the Country

Out beyond the city limits were a lot of tiny settlements in a large wide open landscape. It didn’t really look all that different. But the settlements were different. Some were downright ugly. There was a lot of construction, and many rundown buildings, especially in smaller towns we passed through. However, I do have to note that, like Qingdao, the country seems to be lacking garbage. In Indonesia, people would just illegally dump their waste wherever they felt like it. In China, this doesn’t seem to be the case - or at least not within sight of the train tracks. I am guessing China’s pollution is simply more industrial in nature.

There isn’t really much to see on the way from Qingdao to Jinan (nor to Beijing, for that matter). I guess if you don’t really care to take a train ride for the experience (the train stations are an experience different from what we have here in Europe!) or you’re going somewhere you got to take the train… well, you might as well fly.

The day after I arrived in Qingdao, my hosts decided to do me some good and brought me to the Qingdao International Beer Festival.

The Beer Festival was a marketing gimmick invented by the Tsingtao brewery. Tsingtao beer, if you’ve never heard about it, traces its origins back to the time Qingdao was a German colony. The Germans built a brewery, which continued to operate, and it seems that Tsingtao Beer is the closest China has to a national beer. Despite the name, the Beer Festival isn’t really all that International. They’re using a Bavarian theme for part of it, and selling German beer, and on the first day - I am told - Musicians from Bavaria play some music (for which they get paid very well).

Despite the apparent popularity of the event, I can’t really say too much good about it. It’s horribly loud - very loud - the Bavarian theme is so superficial and fake that it is hard to even call it “a mockery of the real Bavaria”, there are some rusty rides, and, well, lots of beer. (I am guessing the later is why it’s popular at all.) I wonder if Chinese people would feel the same about China-themed events in Europe.

Much to my annoyance, the festival also featured a constant flow of salespeople: Every five minutes or so, some musician would come and offer to play music for money at our table. This, by the way, happened as the stage music was so loud I could hardly talk to my hosts.

Overall I definitely hated the event, and I can only recommend that you stay as far away as possible from it. Don’t waste your time and/or money.

Whoops. The links to photos were not working. They should be fixed now.

Here’s something I can not decide whether it’s serious or not. The BBC reports that an entrepreneur in Germany has started the Ostel, a hotel in which you can book a room in the “charm” of the now defunct Eastern German socialist dictatorship. I guess it’s something for masochists.

Connexion by Boeing is long dead. Now SITA and Airbus are trying a similar venture - Called OnAir - to allow passengers Internet access and - unfortunately - mobile phone access while en route to their destination.

Personally, I love to have Internet access on a long haul flight. But mobile phones? Please. I can’t imagine that a hundred stupid passengers calling their relatives would make for a relaxing flight. They’d have meaningful conversations like:

“We are on our way to Thailand!” (Yes, well, so you are one of a million, who gives a damn?)

“Yeah we are now over the ocean!” (And have been for an hour you baffoon…)

“Oh the food is terrible!” (Now there’s news…)

“This plane is really full, and we don’t have much room for our feet!” (Tell me about it…)

“Susy sends her regards!” (Can’t she just write a postcard instead of annoying me?)

Lufthansa have got it right. They’ve recognized that most (intelligent?) passengers would rather have their peace and quiet, and won’t allow mobile phones to be used on their flights.

Dennis G. Jerz wrote (is writing - the article is marked as “draft”) an exploration of the Mammoth Cave and of the original adventure game Colossal Cave, by analyzing the source, recapping the history, and most importantly, comparing the game to the actual cave system. A truly geek thing to do. And this would surely make for a great geeky travel, if only I were smaller - and not so claustrophobic when it comes to caves.

A quick hotel review: We are staying in the Shangri-La hotel, in Qingdao. The rooms are surprisingly expensive (I booked for 95 Euro/night plus taxes; 50 Euro more buys you a feather bed sheet and a view towards the ocean instead of the cityscape), but they are very comfortable. I liked them, including the bathrooms which are often lacking in other hotels. The location also seems to be okay, I think if you wish to stay in Qingdao, you can’t really go wrong by booking a room here.

Qingdao is a coastal city east of Beijing. It used to be a fishing village until the Germans arrived and set up a colonial garrison. One of my great-grandfathers actually volunteered to go to China with the Imperial expedition force to quell the boxer rebellion. Doubt he saw combat, but his wife married him upon his return because he “looked so sharp in uniform”.

A century later, his great-grandson would be the first family member to “return” to China. But I carried a box of chocolates and not a rifle.

The Qingdao airport is a small, simple affair. It’s almost completely not noteworthy. If you know the Hamburg airport from before it was fixed and renovated: That is the impression the Qingdao airport left with me. Not that I really cared what the airport looked like: What mattered was that I had finally arrived at my destination. Total travel time: 15h from my doorstep.

I got picked up and didn’t have to worry about taxis or such. The airport turned out to be quite far from the city; maybe 30-40 minutes by car.

The first thing you’ll notice about Qingdao is that the pollution is much better than in Beijing. In fact, it’s so low that it’s not really visible. The second thing you’ll notice is the construction: There are hundreds of construction cranes between the airport and the city proper.

And the third thing you’ll notice… is the traffic.

Now, the car traffic in Qingdao is light when compared to Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur (and Beijingl, as I would later find out). But what makes it so scary is how bad the traffic is. Pedestrians generally have no rights over cars, and have to be careful not to be run over (I doubt most Chinese drivers would actually stop for them). Drivers are constanly lane jumping, driving in between two lanes, and so on. It’s an organized chaos, an eat-or-be-eaten world of motorized transportation. My poor mother, considerate driver that she is, would never get from point A to point B in China. Bless her for her good driving manners.

My first reaction was of course one of fear. I think it mst have seemed amusing, to a Chinese driver, to see me cower in fear when a bus cut in front of us. My expression must have been one of continued amazement.

But later, when I thought about it, I realized that it’s really not that surprising. A part of the problem are probably bad traffic rules, and those could be fixed. But the deeper problem will likely go away in due time: Most Chinese drivers are utterly inexperienced at driving. They haven’t had much time to learn “good traffic manners”. And in China’s emerging semi-capitalism, egoism is probably very fashionable.

We survived the traffic and got to our hotel. We survived all traffic, but I think I have not gotten used to it in any shape or form.

The Air China flight to Beijing was very uneventful, if relatively comfortable. It arrived in Beijing on time. Even before the arrival, the airline prepares their passengers for the immigration formalities by handing out the appropriate forms and showing instructional films for them. It’s clear that China is not only a communist dictatorship, but can also look back on a tradition of thousands of years of bureaucracy.

I already had a visa for China. But I still had to fill out an Arrival Card, a Customs Declaration Form, and a Health Declaration Form. None are really complicated, and my neighbor on the plane told me not to be overly honest on the customs form. In the end, the few gifts I had brought would not remain, as the form put it, “in the territory”, as they would be carried on to Japan: so I told my conscience to go to sleep.

I wasn’t so surprised to learn that it was illegal to bring “deadly poisons” into China. I guess I should also have expected that it’s illegal to bring any printed materials, pictures, videos, or digital media into China that would be ‘dangerous’ to the country’s economic, political, cultural or moral well-being. Can someone please explain what that encompasses? All my belongings, including books, were apolitical, but could someone get arrested who carried a magazine that included an article critical of, say, Mao?

I hate dictatorships.

Another item I was surprised to learn was illegal to import into China: Used clothes. All of mine were fresh and clean, but is a returning Chinese really supposed to hand in his dirty socks at the Quarantine desk? I rarely come back to Germany with a suitcase full of clean clothes.

Anyway. The plane landed, and thus equipped with my filled out forms I entered China. The queue at the immigration check was insane. But, as predicted, nobody cared about my health form (empty) or my customs declaration form. They didn’t even pay me a second look.

I did have to pick up my luggage. And then check it in again. Beijing is not a transfer airport. It’s actually pretty easy to find all the required places, but it’s still a lot of hassle. I guess it saves them the customs / immigrations checks at other airports, but, well, it’s still very annoying, and I could imagine a big problem if you are in a hurry to catch a connecting flight. I seriously doubt the entire process can be done in less than 30 minutes (if there are no queues anywhere). Took me closer to an hour I think.

So I only had to catch the connecting flight to Qingdao. Waiting for it was interesting, because I was one of the very few European guys there. There were two or three people that looked like business travelers, and one small group of people consisting of a very fat guy with a really skinny Chinese girlfriend, and what appeared to be his two friends. Couldn’t help but wonder what she saw in him.

Boarding the flight to Qingdao meant going out on the airfield (a bus brought us to the plane). As I had expected, there was a haze all over the airport. No, not fog; Good old pollution. Yes, the stories are true, and yes, it’s worse than Jakarta. I would be back in Beijing later

So the big day came. I went to the airport - almost too late, because I had remembered the departure time incorrectly by 30 minutes. My taxi driver then drove me to the wrong terminal (I had told him quite clearly to drop me off at “Terminal 1B”. Terminal 2 doesn’t have a “B” area; something which I would expect every Taxi driver in Frankfurt to know) but I managed to arrive well in time.

When I boarded the plane, I was surprised to learn thatthe flight was an Air China / Lufthansa Code-Share. Surprised, because the Lufthansa agent had told me the ticket would cost 1600 Euros (yes, in Economy class) and I eventually bought the ticket from Air China for 800. Goes to show you that you can never trust an airline, and that shopping around for tickets is very well worth it.

I was lucky in that I got a pretty good seat: First row in Economy class. Not only did I had a little more foot space, but there were also no morons in front of me who could lean back all the way. I’ve never understood that, by the way: Sleeping in an airplane is still uncomfortable as hell, and you torture the guy behind you by leaning back. Maybe that’s the purpose of it.

So compared to my KLM flights to Asia, Air China already had managed to secure a huge lead. Unfortunately, that ended right there. The food was just as bad as on the KLM flights, and the service, well, what service?

There is only one thing I want to mention quickly: The in-flight entertainment. The movie they showed was a movie about ancient China; I didn’t follow it from the beginning and I am not sure what the title is. I think the basic plot is that the Emperor is trying to poison his wife, and various people (their sons and two women) attempt to save her. One of the sons even stages a revolt to accomplish this. Anyway, the notable thing about the movie is the violence level. We’re talking about a flight that has “all ages” in the audience. But in the movie, people got impaled, beheaded, cut down by swords, slaughtered by barrages of arrows, and beaten to death. The entire thing was very well filmed but I can not help but wonder how this got past the airline censors.

So I am still a geek without a notebook. I am sorry. And honestly I was having too much fun to update my blogs. I write these entries as I am sitting in the Phuket JW Mariott resort. I am not sleepy, and I figure it’s high time I update you all on my trip.

I will add photos later, when I am back home.

Yes. I really do need a notebook. Where is my MacBook Mini, Apple?!

Japanese Airlines (JAL) has banned bulldogs on its flights after several of the animals died. Apparently, bulldogs are particularly vulnerable to high temperatures.

The European Union has banned all Indonesian Airlines from European skies.

The United States and the European Union have agreed upon a new deal about storage of flight passenger data. No details are available, but it looks like the data will be stored for 15 years.

When you travel, you’ll take photos. I found two good articles about this topic today. First is Andre Gunther’s Ten Common Photographic Mistakes which gives some good, basic advice on how to compose your photos.

The other article is by Richard Knapp, and lists ten things to keep in mind when chosing your digital camera. Sounds fairly reasonable to me, so I thought I’d pass this one along as well.

A “Skywalk” has been built at the Grand Canyon in America, the BBC reports. The structure reaches 20m over the rim of the Grand Canyon - and is built 1219m above the canyon’s floor.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Australian and American scientists and engineers have successfully tested a scramjet engine in the Australian Outback. A rocket accelerated the scramjet to Mach 10 before it was activated. It is hoped that travel times from Europe to Australia could eventually be reduced to as little as two hours by the technology.

Well, yesterday’s booking problem was only temporary and I just bought my ticket. China, here I come! - Well, in two months.

Metro is free software for Palm pilots and other PDAs. It can store route plans for the public transportation networks of many cities all around the world. It doesn’t have schedules, but it’s perfectly able to tell you how to get from point A to point B. When I tried it in Paris several years ago, it consistently spat out perfect routes. I’d highly recommend it to anybody who travels to a city supported by Metro and owns a PDA that’ll run the software.

My next trip will take me to China and Thailand. It’s scheduled for late August and early September - three weeks in total. I’ve made a rough plan, with enough details that I wanted to buy my plane tickets today. And it turns out that Air China can’t sell any tickets. My travel agency said they don’t really know what the problem is, but no reservations for Air China are “going through” at all at the moment.

Tried calling Air China, but of course all their lines are busy. The Air China website isn’t exactly a masterpiece either, and it doesn’t have any kind of reservation system.

I’ll try again later, or tomorrow, but this is quite aggravating.

The BBC reports that a Harry Potter theme park is planned for Orlando, Florida, USA in 2009.

I have arrived back home safe and sound.

I had a lot of luck on the way back. I actually got a business class seat, while some other passengers had to stay behind - there had been a snowstorm on the east coast, and all the planes back to the Old World were overbooked. Enjoyed a nice dinner, several James Bond movies on the in-flight entertainment system, and arrived in Frankfurt half an hour ahead of time. Took a cab home - and the driver made it in under 20 minutes. Record time.

I’d like to extend a big “Thanks” to Joel, Corey, and all the other guys I met. Especially though to the two guys for putting up with me, I promise not to stay so long for the next live show, if I can make it anyway.

And by the way: My half-diet made me lose 1.5kg while in the States. Not too bad!

Last night was another radio night. This time I was taken to the ICP studio in south-western Detroit, where Psychopathic Records produces their online radio program, Wfuckoff Radio. Upchuck the Clown hosts a biweekly show called “The Funhouse”, together with his intern Andrea. I was to be a guest and see how that magic happens. This week, they had another visitor from Germany, as coincidence would have it: Hatchet Hans, a psychopathic serial killer on the run from Interpol. Scary looking dude, with tatoos all over, clad in black leather, and a large scar on the left side of the face.

The show was quite fun. After taking the first couple of calls Upchuck presented Andrea the intern with a slutty school-girl dress she was to wear during next week’s Tempest release party. Later on, Sampler X, a crazy 45 year old white rapper-wannabe from the ‘hood in Southfield called in. He was angry as hell that Upchuck wouldn’t play his songs. There were some other good callers too, like a stoned school janitor. Eventually Upchuck decided to wrestle Andrea in preparation to his fight agains the Corporal on Tuesday. Good fun, all of it.

Everybody at Psychopathic was really nice, and it was fun to sit and watch the show (except maybe Hans, who gave me the creeps). Thank you all, that was a good night.

Update: The show is available for download here via the WFuckoff Radio download page (select The Funhouse from the drop-down list, it’s the March 15th episode).

Last night was the 2nd aniversary show, the Corey and Joel Roast. It took place, as has been mentioned before, at Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle, a place that was quite a bit bigger than Bart’s. The guys set up while I fought with the fast food we had bought just an hour earlier – what Whitecastle hadn’t accomplished, Wendy’s did for me. I shan’t elaborate.

The show itself was okay. There were some really good lines, and some really bad ones. Of course I had to endure stupid Nazi jokes (I’ll say that anybody who tries Nazi jokes on a person born 30 years after the war ended had no right to lecture me on humour). Many of the roasters and roastees were former guests of the radio show; Rob the announcer of course was there; Chill, Mike Lundy, John Tortalot (sp?), Bill Hildebrandt, Steve Sabo, roastmeister PJ, Horetense the Puppet of Low Self Esteem, and the entire thing was moderated by Russ Brown. There were a few other guys who hadn’t been on the show but whose name I can’t remember. I probably forgot some people, I mean no offense. Missing were Sal Demilio (who was ill) and Bill Bushard (who was simply missing in (from) action). Steffanie was in the audience (I am sorry, Steff, for the jokes I attracted into your direction like a lightning rod. Next time I shall sit somewhere in a dark corner. ;) ) and I did finally got to meet Nadia, who is much, much smaller than I had imagined, but otherwise just as energetic as she is on the show.

After the show ended, some of the people ended up hanging around, and we all went for some snacks and drinks at a bar around the corner. That, too, was fun, and ended just in time for us to get into a weird snow-ice-rain storm on the way “back home”.

All in all that was a fun day. I think that anybody who enjoys the Corey and Joel radio show will also enjoy the live show. It’ll be posted next week (on the actual aniversarry I assume) so you will all get a chance to listen to it.

Update: The roast is available for download here and here

In the evening the guys and I went to a small performance by Mickey Avalon. It wasn’t so bad, although the noise levels almost killed me. There were plenty of cute chicks there, though, which somewhat compensated for the pain. (I’ll post the photographic evidence later.)

After the show, Corey, Joel and I went to have a bite of food. Ended up at the Sweetwater Tavern after it turned out Slow’s BBQ’s kitchen was already closed. Sandwich time. Cute waitresses there too.

We let the evening end in a few mellow matches of Worms, which is as fun as always. Got dropped off at the hotel at like 2:45. I tried to read a little but I think I passed out immediately and slept til like 11:00 am.

Every trip to Detroit must include a scary food experience. Last time it was Coney Island, and this time this experience was to be Whitecastle.

Joel and I stopped there after a little tour of the city. Think he had a lot of fun as I tried to eat the foamy, moist, not-quite-hamburgers. The texture of the roll is already not great, but the - is it meat? - well, let us not talk about it.

I do have to say that Whitecastle hamburgers, after you have managed to swallow a bite, are not quite as bad as the Coney was (which I could not get myself to eat). But it does have lasting aftereffects. For most of the rest of the day, you’ll have these small burps and when you do that the taste and smell of the Whitecastle burgers will just come up again. And that is, well, just vile.

That was a fun day. Got up late, did some work on personal stuff, then got picked up by Joel. We just ran some errands, then went to the palatial studio where we awaited the co-host and other guest (announcer Rob). And when they did, the show got started. Rob did some new announcements for the guys, and then the main show began. It was a very fun show. They had Rob and me do the announcement, and I stumbled very much at the beginning. It’s tough when you’re not used to a microphone in front of your face. I think I eventually did okay though. I will not tell you much about the content of the show. Yes, the guys couldn’t stop themselves from more bad Germany- and Holocaust jokes, but at least this time I was there to boo them for it.

Overall it was an interesting experience.

After the show Corey, Joel and I went for a bite (which turned out to be far more difficult than it should be in this 24×7 based economy). When we finally found a place I was being good and ordered a tomato and mozarella salad. I really do not want to return home heavier than I left it. There’s really not much more to this day. Go listen to the podcast when it comes out.

Update: You can download the show at the Corey and Joel Radio Show homepage.

Arrived in Detroit without problems, although I can’t say this year’s flight was nearly as nice as last year’s. And, just in time for my vacation, I am coming down with a cold. So far it’s not too bad. I just hope it does not develop into the flu my coworker Stefan had.

Immigration was hassle-free again, and so was customs. “Any tabacco or alcohol?” - “No” – “Have a nice day.” He didn’t even look at the form, I think, before signing it. Such enthusiasm.

I took a cab to the hotel/motel and eventually ended up hanging out with the guys. If they ever tell you they are not geeks then they are kidding themselves. Their favorite tv past-time these days is watching The Amazing Race – twice, because they end up using the replay feature on the DVR a lot. Still, I have to admit that it was relatively amusing.

The girl working the recption of the Travelodge Royal Oak when I checked in was quite fascinated with the high-tech id cards and passports we have in Europe. “I think it’s neat how they cut those lines into the photo so you can’t replace it”. She ended up wanting to buy a 5 Euro note from me, for her daughter, when she saw them. “She’s eight and they’re just learning about Indonesia in school, I am sure Germany will come up too.” I’d have just given it to her but she insisted on paying the normal exchange rate. I figure she could always get her money back by bringing the Euro note to a bank. I gave her one of each type of Euro coins I had left, too, as a freebie. All in the name of transatlantic friendship.

Wasn’t that many anyway. Note to self: Next time you travel, have more European coins in the wallet. People like these.

The motel is Okay, but I gotta say that for the same money I have stayed in much better places. Then again I have also stayed in much worse places, sometimes for not that much less money. In the end it is just for sleeping and recharging phone, notebook, and so on. Which isn’t actually all that easy, as of course the room has no spare wall socket, like so many hotels. Do they really think that nowadays, travellers have no need to recharge anything? And, do they likewise think that I am too proud to unplug the TV or another device to achieve that? Of course this place does not have an Internet connection either, and there are no wireless networks within range. At least I have room number 2^7-1.

To make up for it I got the complete entertainment program. The people in the next room woke me up at 8am by having noisy sex, which they then turned into a conversation which turned into a big fight. Kinda like animals chasing each other away after mating. Pretty much the kind of noise I remember of motels from years gone by.

Tonight’s schedule is episode #111 of the Corey and Joel Radio Show, guests will be Rob the announcer and, it seems, me.

I am about to call a cab and head for the airport. If all goes well I shall be in Detroit by tonight. When I was writing down all the addresses I may need, I found out that I am being used as advertisement for the Roast on the website of Mike Ridley’s Comedy Castle. Which is entirely cool with me, but I must say I found it very amusing.

I’ll see you all on the other side.

It’s 2007 and I am about to embark on the first travel of the year. I am going to go to Detroit for the 2nd anniversarry live show of the Corey and Joel Radio Show. Unlike last year I won’t fly there on a 48 hour tour de force. Instead I am staying for several days. I am not getting any younger.

My current travel plan is as follows:

• Sunday, March 11th: Flight to Detroit, arrival 5pm local
• Monday, March 12th: Whatever
• Tuesday, March 13th: Sit in on regular show
• Wednesday, March 14th: The Roast
• Thursday, March 15th: Tag along to The Funhouse with Upchuck The Clown and sit quietly in some corner while Upchuck has his way with Andrea The Intern and stoned Juggalos.
• Friday, March 16th: Return flight to Frankfurt
• Saturday, March 17th: Arrival at home

I will blog from the road whenever I get the opportunity for it. Unfortunately my hotel won’t have Internet access.

The BBC reports that a 737-400 belonging to Garuda Indonesia has exploded after landing in Yogyakarta. Reportedly, only 2 people were killed. One eye witness said that people tried to get their hand luggage before leaving. Tragic, really. But I am not so surprised. I have been on Indonesian planes (AdamAir) when I visited the country last year. Indonesians simply do not seem to have any appreciation for what being on an airplane means for emergencies. I think for them it’s just like being on the subway.

With all the recent problems it seems clear that Indonesia has a serious public transportation safety problem - especially as it relates to aircraft. Hopefully they will begin to crack down on this soon.

The BBC reports that British Airways cabin crew intend to strike if the company doesn’t compromise on their demands. The strike dates have been set for January 29th - 31st, and could likely cause great disruption for BA flights on those days.

After Wikitravel sold out in spring, the project has now been forked by concerned users. The new project is called Wikivoyage. It is being controlled by a non-profit association which operates under a democratic charter. This should prevent any disaster similar to the one that befell the original project. By travelers, for travelers, free as in speech and beer. I am very enthusiastic about this new project and will certainly contribute.

Two British Airways jets have tested positive for traces of radiation, the BBC reports. Passengers who traveled on the planes served the London Moscow will be contacted by BA, a spokesperson said BA had been advised that the risk to public health is “low”. Update: British Airways has set up a hot line for customers at +44 191 211 3690.

The BBC reports that 12 South American countries have agreed to let their citizens travel among each other without the need for passports. The signatory countries are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

After announcement of the planned shut-down of Connexion there is some bright news for us geeks who would not want to be cut off from the rest of the world while vacationing.

Lufthansa Systems will install internet- and entertainment systems on AIDA cruise ships, the company announced in a press release.

The system will provide passengers with Internet access from their cabins, which will also offer travel information and the opportunity to book excursions. The entertainment system will offer radio, tv, and on-demand movies and audio. The entire system will use satellite based connections.

The technology was originally developed for the FlyNet platform, which provided wireless Internet service on board of Lufthansa planes. LH Systems is partnering with Tomorrow Focus AG for the content, and with Meyer Werft for the hardware.

Please do not hotlink to any of my photos (using the IMG SRC tag), please link to the album page of the photo instead. I have turned on hotlink-protection, but this is of course no surefire thing. However, I would ask that if you like a photo and wish to link for whatever reason, to do it in a way that does not leave me with the bandwidth bill and no benefit.

Thank you for being considerate in the future.

If you’re a Chinese millionaire, you can now sign up for a matchmaking cruise that (supposedly) will let you hook up with hot chicks. Interestingly, the numbers are horrible at that income range too. They have 20 millionaires that signed up, yet only “fewer than 30″ women they accepted out of 1000 applicants.

I guess the quote from That 70’s Show applies: “Dating is prostitution. Only you don’t always get what you paid for.”

The BBC reports that Emirates will allow in-flight use of mobile phones as early as January 2007. I personally think this is a move in the wrong direction. It’s quite telling that the only other airline which has definite plans for something similar is the cheap carrier Ryanair.

The European Union has set new regulations for what can or can not be brought into the cabin of airplanes. Basically, the new rules put severe limits on the amount of liquids that can be carried. One good explanation of the new rules is over at the Lufthansa site.

The new regulations are effective as of today, November 6th 2006.

Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayerhuber told the German magazine ‘Capital’ that the airline does not intend to allow the use of mobile phone during flights. The Lufthansa boss likened mobile phone use to smoking, which is also prohibited as it would disturb other passengers.

As someone who enjoys peace and quiet above the clouds, I can only welcome this…

The Cambridge-MIT Institute has been looking at designs to build silent airplanes, the BBC reports.

Virgin Galactic has demo’ed a mockup of their planned spaceship which is based on SpaceShipOne.

Yahoo is carrying a story about tours of the Paris metro. Sounds very interesting, even though Yahoo (wrongly) uses it as a Halloween travel feature. I guess a subway system is a bit of a scary place. Basically the tour takes an old train and visits several abandoned subway stations.

The tours are organized by the railway club ADEMAS and there’s at least a six months waiting period. Tickets cost US$57 and are - so far only available in French. I will definitely want to go on one of these tours.

Johannesburg International Airport has been renamed the OR Tambo International Airport.

Another plane crashed in Nigeria. 117 people died. I hope my friend Bolanle doesn’t fly much down there. (Edit: She is of course fine.)

So I got tired of the broken Geek Travel theme and I stumbled across Tarski. I really like Tarski for its simplicity and clean looks. It is also very easy to customize it. The galleries look a little… weird… but I’ll fix that. Just not tonight.

I just found this rather interesting news story on BBC, and unfortunately I must say it is not quite unexpected. The BBC reports that the University College of London is developing a technology to tag and track passengers at an airport.

Dr Paul Brennan, an electrical engineer, is leading the tagging project, known as Optag.

He said: “The basic idea is that airports could be fitted with a network of combined panoramic cameras and RFID (radio frequency ID) tag readers, which would monitor the movements of people around the various terminal buildings.”

The plan, he said, would be for each passenger to be issued with a tag at check-in.

He said: “In our system, the location can be detected to an accuracy of 1m, and video and tag data could be merged to give a powerful surveillance capability.”

The article adds that the system is currently being tested in a prototype installation in an unspecified airport in Hungary.

This seems to be what the future holds. If you, as a fellow traveller, are as appalled by this as I am, you should raise your voice now - before this system is introduced and once and for all destroys any semblance of civil liberties we travellers retain.

As talks between the EU and US about data transmissions about plane passengers have run into problems, the BBC has an interesting article which includes all the data fields that the United States want to know about passengers - and which, until know, seem to have been transferred to them by airlines:

• Information about the passenger: name; address; date of birth; passport number; citizenship; sex; country of residence; US visa number (plus date and place issued); address while in the US; telephone numbers; e-mail address; frequent flyer miles flown; address on frequent flyer account; the passenger’s history of not showing up for flights
• Information about the booking of the ticket: date of reservation; date of intended travel; date ticket was issued; travel agency; travel agent; billing address; how the ticket was paid for (including credit card number); the ticket number; which organisation issued the ticket; whether the passenger bought the ticket at the airport just before the flight; whether the passenger has a definite booking or is on a waiting list; pricing information; a locator number on the computer reservation system; history of changes to the booking
• Information about the flight itself: seat number; seat information (eg aisle or window); bag tag numbers; one-way or return flight; special requests, such as requests for special meals, for a wheelchair, or help for an unaccompanied minor
• Information about the passenger’s itinerary: other flights ticketed separately, or data on accommodation, car rental, rail reservations or tours.
• Information about other people: the group the passenger is travelling with; the person who booked the ticket

Welcome to the brave new world of surveillance…

The exhibition “Game on” will show 120 computer games starting at October 21st. Among the exhibits is a PDP-1 which will run the original version of Space War. It will be open until February 25th, 2007 at the Science Museum in London. If you’re in or near London during that time, this exhibition may be worth an afternoon.

The German Transrapid crashed into a maintennance vehicle today on the test track in Western Germany. 23 people died, 10 were injured. This unfortunate event is probably a bad way to advertise for this, but hey, I didn’t know you could take rides on the Transrapid as a “tourist”. Presumably, they will improve their procedures after this accident. I wouldn’t mind taking a ride on it once it’s back in operations. I’ll peg it under “destinations to visit”.