Downgraded: Reptiles and amphibians
A German reptile collector was caught trying to smuggle 42 endangered lizards and skinks out of New Zealand. In his underwear. For once, I’m in favor of full-body scans, if only to see what this looks like on the monitor.
Upgraded: Advice for worst-case aviation scenarios
No one wants to think about what they would have to do in the case of an inflight accident. But if you were to survive such an event, make sure you’ve read this guide to surviving a 35,000-foot fall.
Downgraded: Machu Picchu
Sad news: The train line that provides access to the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu in Peru has been washed away, destroyed by recent flooding. This not only has devastating consequences for tourism in the immediate vicinity of the ruins, but for Peru as a whole:
Whether the fault of a mafia-like Cusco tourist industry, simple laziness by foreign and local tourism companies who slap an image of Machu Picchu on advertising and say “that’s Peru”, or the ignorance of cash-rich tourists happy to hand over money and be taken to where they are told – the result is the same. A Peru without Machu Picchu, despite there being dozens of equivalents across the country, is a country with a tourism industry in trouble.
See here for more amazing photos and videos of the destruction. Also here, for a sense of the breadth of the humanitarian disaster in Cusco.
Upgraded: Kayak’s hotel deals
Kayak, the leading fare aggregator, is following the online travel agency trend and pushing harder into the hotel space. Not only are they offering metasearch capabilities, which they have long done, but they’re now branching out and offering “private sale” rates. Though they’ll be technically sold directly by the hotel, it’s direct competition with the online travel agencies.
Upgraded: Hotel booking advertisements
Upgraded: Japanese business-cats
I don’t speak Japanese, but I suspect that this is an ad for a travel booking engine targeted at business travelers. Or at cats who travel on business. (Anyone who speaks or reads Japanese is invited to help with the translation. What’s on the business card??) The awesomeness of these 13 seconds cannot be overstated.
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February 1st, 2010 at 7:31 pm
the cat commercial in Japanese is for Jalan, (www.jalan.net), something similar to Expedia and Orbit. Since business travel in Japan is very common, all Japanese travel booking sites will have a dedicated section for it.
February 1st, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Thanks, tamausagi!
That cat gets around:
the cat’s summer vacation
the cat gets ready for a big date
the cat goes to a hot spring
the cat’s introduction
the cat gets a massage
the cat goes to a traditional hotel
(via metafilter)
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:48 am
in the underwear??? exactly how big were those lizards?
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:56 am
That Fall Guide was one of the most entertaining things that I’ve read in a long time!
BYT: the lizards were geckos and skinks – about 4″ long maximum.
I’m appalled at that case and the lightness of his penalty. NZ prides itself on the protection of its native flora and fauna, and when a guy like this is caught, the book should be thrown at him as an example and deterrent to other would-be smugglers. He had been in NZ 4 times before this – once with a reptile dealer – and you can bet that those weren’t just holidays either.
Bah!
February 2nd, 2010 at 8:12 pm
The larger text on the cat’s calling card (meishi) said “Nyaran”, which turns out to be, as expected, the cat’s name. Googling the name gets you this site with a good explanation (see the 3rd video down)
February 2nd, 2010 at 8:36 pm
@Michele, agreed, it’s an appalling case of endangered-species smuggling, and yes, this doesn’t seem like the first time this man has done this.
@RLee, thank you so much for the translation! A snippet of explanation:
Nyalan’s beef spheres look tasty, I must say.
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Isn’t Nyaran great! It was my blog that was linked above, and while I’ll take credit for the explanation, I found the commercial on Japan Probe (www.japanprobe.com), an excellent source of things about Japan, and especially cute animal videos (not all travel related). (^_^)/