How about when Jetstar Airline (budget sidekick to Qantas) made Paralympian Kurt Fearnley check his wheelchair, forcing him to drag himself through an airport and onto the plane. They did, in the end, offer an apology for any “embarrassment and hurt” that was caused by the incident.
(6 votes, average: 8.33 out of 10)
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Hard to say what was going through the mind of a 25-year-old man who climbed down into a bear enclosure at the Bern Park zoo in Switzerland. That is, besides the fangs of the bear. Apparently, he wanted to have a picnic with the bear — and he did. He was the lunch. Sadly, the bear was shot while saving this lunatic’s life.
See this piece in the Telegraph For the full story…
(3 votes, average: 10.00 out of 10) Loading ...
The BBC reports that a Brit was arrested at Rio de Janeiro’s airport when he attempted to smuggle at least 1,000 live spiders (many of them tarantulas) out of Brazil in his luggage. In Brazil, animals are banned from export without permission.
The man, a pet shop owner, was caught when security X-rays detected the spiders in two separate suitcases. (Lesson: animals show up on security X-rays.)
He’s out on bail but faces up to a year in prison and a max fine of $2.3 million.
(15 votes, average: 8.27 out of 10) Loading ...
For a million bucks, you figure the Bugatti Veyron should float.
The distracted owner drove into this saltwater lagoon after getting distracted by a bird.
(3 votes, average: 10.00 out of 10) Loading ...
Read, set, go nuts! About what you’d get if bees were allowed to drive scooters.
Video shot in Vietnam.
(4 votes, average: 7.75 out of 10) Loading ...Here’s how it’s supposed to work.
Reality…
(6 votes, average: 6.33 out of 10) Loading ...
According to Swedish TT news service, a man decided to sleep off a hangover by taking a nap on the railroad tracks outside of the Swedish town of Borås. He was woken by a train as it hit him in the head. However, the man only sustained minor injuries. In fact, he went back to sleep after the train passed. The train’s driver feared the worst and rang the police. When the police arrived, they found a sleeping man with a head wound on the side of the tracks. “He had woken up when the train came, raised his head and hit it on a metal object on the train. Then he went back to sleep,” police officer Sven Persson told TT.
(5 votes, average: 9.40 out of 10) Loading ...
Name Gary Arndt
Who? A software entrepreneur from Minnesota who has been traveling the world since 2007 and documenting just about every minute of it with videos, photos, blog postings, podcasts and tweets. His global journey now has an enormous global following. More at http://everything-everywhere.com/
Age 39
Countries Visited 50-70 depending on how you define it
Titanic Nominations
1. Worst Bus Ride A trip to Suez in Egypt. The bus was in decrepit condition. The seats weren’t attached so you’d slide every time the bus turned or stopped.
2. Worst Toilet Probably the worst I’ve seen was at a bus stop in Indonesia — water and feces splashed about everywhere. There was also a remarkably nasty one at a bus stop in Vietnam. The ammonia smell was so strong it was hard to breathe and pee at the same time.
3. Worst Car Ride After landing on the remote island of Renell (Solomon Islands) I made the 20-mile trip to the east end of the island where I was staying. The road was unpaved and made of sharp raised coral. Our small pickup truck had EIGHT flat tires, so those 20 miles took 10 hours. The amazing thing was they managed to repair each and every flat tire without spares or tubes. By the time we got to the lodge, the inner tube looked more like a pin cushion than circle because of all the crimping.
4. Worst Meal Pisa, Italy. I got soggy fries and boiled chicken and two soft drinks. The total was €27. The cost plus the quality set a record for meal suckatude.
5. Worst Souvenir Embarrassing as it is, I have to confess to having fallen for the perfume scam in Cairo. A guy meets you, sounds friendly, speaks English, walks and talks with you for over an hour and in the end takes you to his “cousin’s” perfume shop. I sheepishly bought a minimal amount, left, and never trusted anyone who initiated a conversation with me in Egypt again.
Name Spud Hilton
Who? Travel writer, photographer, editor, San Francisco Chronicle. He has earned three Lowell Thomas Awards and his stories have appeared in more than 60 newspapers. Find Spud on Twitter @Spudhilton and on SFGate.com/travel.
Age 44
Countries Visited 32
Titanic Nominations
1. Worst Beach The Hilton resort beach in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates; tanker ships going through the Strait of Hormuz spill so much crude that the beach showers are equipped with industrial cleaner and pot scrubbers to get the tar balls off your feet.
2. Worst Road A road in the Jebel Akhdar mountains in Oman that twisted past the ancient city of Ghul. Quickly learned it wasn’t a road, but a dry wadi bed full of water-polished rocks. We were the afternoon entertainment for the town, apparently.
3. Worst BS in a Travel Press Release Carnival announced their cabins were 50% (on average) larger than any other cruise line. Sounded suspect, so I looked at all the rooms on all the cruise lines. Even did a complete chart comparison. There is no math that backs up their claim. In fact, the only rooms that fit this criteria was in a single area of a single ship in the Norwegian fleet.
4. Worst Subway Schedule The subway in Rome, the eternal city, closes down earlier than most suburban day-care centers.
5. Worst Driving In St. George’s, Grenada, all the cobblestone streets were built for carriages, not two-lane traffic. Driving by yourself is dodgy – driving with a maelstrom of cabbies swarming around you, while you try to remember its British left-side driving and try to avoid the storm gutters that were built, oddly enough, to cripple any vehicle steered into them.
Great Wall of China. Not so great toilet. (Little bit too much information there at the end of the clip.)
(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 10) Loading ...Perhaps the couple had some legitimate complaints. Perhaps not. Certainly sounded as though they did, with a toilet overflowing waste into their room. But when Brenda and Gerald Moran finally got come compensation, they went online and wrote about it. You might call it praise for the cruise line for making good on a bad situation or you might call it a “how to get compensated” lesson. Guess how Royal Caribbean perceived it? Well, the couple received a life ban on Royal Caribbean ships.
See entire piece here on Tripso
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Name Simon Calder
Who? Travel editor for The Independent since 1994, presenter for BBC2’s Travel Show, BBC1’s Holiday program, and Simon Calder’s Travel Clinic on London’s LBC radio station,where he helps solve listener’s travel problems. He also maintains an active travel blog at Sky.com. Prior to the travel writing career, he worked as a cleaner for British Airways at Gatwick airport and a security guard charged with frisking passengers. His first book was Hitch-hiker’s Manual: Britain.
Age 54
Titanic Nominations
1. Worst Rental Car A 4×4 I picked up in Phuket, Thailand where the accelerator pedal got stuck in the fully down position. Me, my passengers and the bodywork survived, but the screaming engine was not so lucky.
2. Worst Airline Undoubtedly the late and unlamented Viasa of Venezuela. In the olden days of the late 20th century, this basket-case airline provided the only really cheap link between the UK and South America. Halfway through a tortuous, 25-hour trip from Heathrow via Paris, Margarita Island, Caracas and Rio to São Paulo, I contracted the worst food poisoning I have ever experienced. Since all the “meals” I consumed in that time were provided by the airline, I can pin the blame squarely on Viasa. In a gratifying bit of travel karma, this useless airline went bust shortly afterward.
3. Worst Tour One of the “free tours” of Paris, where the guide works for tips. He decided not enough of us had shown up to make it worth his while, and promptly canceled the tour.
4. Most Disappointing Attraction Copan in Honduras – not because of the miraculous (or so I am told) Mayan site itself, but because it closes for lunch. I finally reached it after two-and-a-half days of painful traveling, with a plane to catch that evening from Guatemala City, only to find it was closed for lunch.
5. Worst Line in a Travel Story “An island/city/region/nation of contrasts.” Passim
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