Admit it, if this were part of a movie, it might be kinda awesome: Lovers have a fight just as the girl is about to leave town, perhaps for good. The guy must stop her from leaving—he sprints through the airport, of course—and then tries one last desperate move: Calling in a bomb threat so that her plane has to be evacuated. Girl de-planes, boyfriend apologizes. "You’re crazy!" she tells him. "Crazy about you," he replies. They kiss, music swells, credits roll.
We cannot vouch for any reconciliation, but a 31-year-old Chinese man reportedly did indeed call in a fake bomb threat to his girlfriend's flight to Shenzhen, because they had had an argument before she left. Her plane had actually already gotten some distance from Hefei Luogang International Airport and had to make an emergency landing at Nanchang Changbei. We're guessing that ruined their cinematic reunion. Perhaps even more disturbing, though, is that China has apparently endured a number of fake bomb threats lately: two within one week during fall 2012, and one last spring involving an 18-year-old man imitating the rules of a game; in fall 2011, a 28-year-old woman apparently even called one in on her own China United Airlines flight, to "make her husband worry."
If this trend continues, nervous fliers everywhere will have their own reasons to worry.
There are two things that Guam is particularly famous—or infamous—for: its residents love of Spam, and the area's snakes. According to some experts, Hawaii—another Spam-lovers paradise—is just one unlucky plane ride away from becoming a den of vipers, too.
Both canned processed meats and snakes arrived in Guam right after World War II, courtesy of the armed forces (the Spam as non-perishable meals; the snakes as stowaways on ships). Since then, Guam’s now-thriving brown tree snake population has been responsible for decimating the local bird population, gnawing on power lines, biting lots of folks, and generally giving Guam a bad name.
The destination wedding—having your family and friends trek to an island or foreign country for your nuptials—has become a staple of the wedding industry. But for the bride- and groom-to-be that can't commit to just one destination, Frankfurt has a new suggestion: Throw the party at the airport.
As part of its "Great to Have You Here!" campaign, Frankfurt International Airport (FRA) is now inviting travelers to get married in the terminal, as a convenient springboard for honeymoons. Indeed, it may be a nice lure for wedding guests, too. Your friends and family can fly into FRA just long enough to toast the happy couple, do the chicken dance and then catch a connecting flight to Prague.
In case you thought firing off a nuclear test might be bad for a nation’s global reputation, North Korea has some exciting news: according to its Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), foreign tourists are flocking to the communist state.
Sure, officials don’t provide any actual numbers, only saying that the visits have grown since 2000, and markedly so since 2009, with the biggest spike coming from European visitors. Tourists are dazzled, the news agency claims, by the range of “shining, socialist accomplishments” credited to the ruling Kim family.
No doubt, the typical hipster might not be fired up to go on a backpacking tour after looking at a brochure with pictures of people who look like his Uncle Larry and Aunt Karen.
Geckos Adventures totally gets that, bro. The tour operator just released a new brochure that, to plenty of travelers, might seem refreshing: According to a post on Travel Mole, it uses photos taken by actual customers—like their target audience of ages 18 to 35—and speaks in a language that, Geckos assume, their clientele understands.
Actually, pretty much anyone can understand it. One part of the brochure reads, “may your heart be light, your step swift and your stories @#$%ing epic,” except, well, they didn’t use the funny symbols found on more family friendly travel sites.
While some industry folks are already raising eyebrows, the company defends its strategy: "We are not trying to be controversial for controversy's sake,” says the tour company’s managing director. “Our new branding has been carefully thought through to speak to our travelers openly and cutting out all the usual marketing fluff."
Fair enough, but the danger here—beyond offending a few Uncle Larrys and Aunt Karens out there—is that those coveted 18-to-35-years-old might just see it as a bit of calculated marketing... Hey, “just sayin.’” (That is what the @#$%in' cool kids say, right?)
What do you think: Is this campaign smart, or will it f-bomb?
Usually, your only chance at "revenge" against a shady cab driver is just denying him a tip—or, perhaps less satisfying, yelling a few choice words over your shoulder as the cab peels away.
Not anymore. The city of Seoul is now offering cash money—to the tune of about $450—to anyone who blows the whistle on cabbies who are bilking foreign tourists.
Government officials say that despite past efforts to rein them in, corrupt cabs are "still rampant" in the city; the most common offenses by drivers include tacking on extra charges, or getting creative with the cab fare calculator.
To report a bad apple, just call the city's English-speaking tourism hotline (02-1330), and they'll investigate. To avoid the worst situations, however, you can look for the city-run cabs marked as International Taxis, and whose drivers speak both English and Japanese. Meanwhile, in a contentious situation, we imagine that cheerfully asking the cabbie for his ID number might not butter him up—but it could pay off.
The Russian cruise ship Lyubov Orlova is currently adrift in the North Atlantic—with no passengers, or even a crew, aboard. The 237-passenger ship—named after a Russian movie star from the 1930s and '40s—had languished in the harbor for two years at St. John's, NL, after a cancelled cruise and a lawsuit led to its falling into disrepair, and gradually becoming a Love Boat for rats. Perhaps as a result, the ship's new owners had decided to sell the ship for scrap in the Dominican Republic, but the trip to the D.R. was doomed by a series of tow boat snafus—the last being on Jan. 24 when the tow line broke in rough seas.
Most travelers know to avoid gypsy airport cabs, or to be mindful of pickpockets in crowds—but most of us don’t think to be leery of local thieving birds.
But that’s pretty much what befell Peter Leach, a Scottish traveler in New Zealand who pulled over in his rented camper to soak up the views at Arthur’s Pass—and, to take a picture of a colorful kea parrot posing near his vehicle. Reportedly, while Leach was distracted, said parrot swooped into the camper’s open window and took Leach’s wallet—holding about $1,100.
Adding insult to injury, Leach filed a police report—so that he could recoup some losses through his travel insurance—and met with some resistance. “The officer was very serious for the first few questions,” Leach told reporters. “Then he said, ‘Do you mind if I just stop to laugh?’ I suppose I can’t blame him.”
Apparently, many locals are already aware that the large, olive-green kea parrots are known for being pretty sharp—and perhaps even being malicious, with a reputation for upending trash bins and vandalizing cars. (Perhaps pecking “Go Home Campers” on vehicle hoods?)
Southern belles and the Duke boys? So 20th century. Georgia is hoping to lure visitors with a different kind of Deep South character: zombies.
In its new guidebook, the state tourism board is touting the town of Senoia, a miniature, sweet-tea-soaked Hollywood: it has been the filming site for Fried Green Tomatoes, Driving Miss Daisy, Sweet Home Alabama and, as we write, the AMC television series The Walking Dead. The town, about a half hour from Atlanta, has apparently played the part of Woodbury, which in the series is home to survivors of a zombie apocalypse.
While the studios in Senoia are not open to the public, we can’t deny that you might see some plain-clothes zombies tooling around the town of 3,300, which also boasts some charming-looking B&Bs and The Buggy Shop Museum. Given the show’s popularity, could zombie-phile shops and cafés be on the horizon for downtown Senoia? Would Miss Daisy approve?
We didn't need for scientists to tell us that a lot of us suffer from illusions when it comes to our money, but it turns out there's data to support it—and the problem gets worse when we travel overseas.
A recent study published in the Journal of Retailing—titled "Europoly Money: How Do Tourists Convert Foreign Currencies to Make Spending Decisions?"—showed that we do plenty of fuzzy math when we figure out exchange rates abroad. One culprit for the so-called "money illusion:" we tend to round down when doing calculations in our head. When in India, for instance, where $1 equals 54 rupees these days, a tourist will typically just use 50 for easier math, and as a result estimate that items will cost less than they really do. Meanwhile, blithely thinking that one euro is about the same as a dollar—they're always kinda close, right?—can make what seems to be a $400 bill top $500.
