Geeky Traveller

Here's an interesting interview with Bob Arno, who studies pickpockets for a living:

How do you track down pickpockets?
I stuff my wallet with paper and keep it in my pants pocket. Then I linger in prime tourist spots in foreign cities. Sooner or later, someone steals the wallet, and I try to steal it back.

 His advice to travellers: "Stash most of your money in a security pouch that you wear over your shoulder, around your neck or around your waist."

I bought my Wallet 2.0 about a decade ago, on my way to Costa Rica. It fits snugly in my front pocket, and is thus much more difficult to steal. I've gone through at least three of them, and so far I'm batting a thousand on that one.

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UPDATE: As somebody pointed out on my personal blog, the developers of Poet’s Cove were responsible for some egregious crimes against local First Nations people, including knowingly disinterring at least 50 bodies from a traditional burial ground. They’re currently in court facing related charges. As such, I cannot recommend going to Poet’s Cove, and I won’t stay there again.

My wife and I own some property on North Pender Island, which is a Gulf Island off the coast of BC, and north of the US's San Juan Islands. We go visit it occasionally, to ensure it hasn't been overrun by hippies, or yuppies desperate for a home away from home.

We did so this weekend, and for the second time we stayed at Poet's Cove, a resort at the southern tip of South Pender Island. It's a 'family' resort with cabins and a lodge attached to a marina. In the summer, I imagine that it's overrun with kids, but it was pretty quiet this weekend. 

The rooms are nice and large (there's a separate shower and bath tub, for example), and attractively appointed. They all have a pretty gorgeous view of the marina and the water beyond, and there's apparently a good spa downstairs.

What I like about Poet's Cove is the lack of nickel-and-diming. We paid CAN $160/night, but that includes:

• A full breakfast
• Free wireful Internet
• Robes in the room (I dig the robes)
• Replenished bottles of water in the fridge

Many hotels will charge you extra for some or all of these items, but there were no such extras at Poet's Cove.

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I'm not sure how I stumbled upon the Propeller Island City Lodge, but I'm glad I did. It's got a curious name for a German hotel, but its rooms are even weirder. They've got 30 rooms, and each one is a unique work of art. There's a room with all the furniture on the ceiling, a room of mirrors ("very sexy!") and a room of coffins. It's all kind of a gimmick, but the rooms look more surreal than your standard Las Vegas weirdfest. Plus, they're priced quite reasonably.

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I recently got an email about Travelistic, which is currently in private beta. Their pitch is "YouTube meets The Travel Channel". I got a sneak peek, and that says it all. It's a video hosting community targeting travellers, and apparently a talent search for the TC.

The implementation is very smooth, and very Web 2.0. You can rate or comment on any of the videos, and sort them in all the ways you would on YouTube. You can also share share the videos externally.

Each video is preceded by an ad. I emailed Travelistic to ask about revenue-sharing on the ads, but haven't received a reply yet. 

Travelistic has a bunch of seeded semi-pro content. I would share a video with you, but they’ve got them set to auto-start when the page loads, and that’s just arse.

To be honest, I'm not really sure what the point is. Why not save themselves some dough and just create some branded space on YouTube? That's where all the video creators are today–why would they move?

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Bilingual colleague Marc Snyder sends along a recommendation for AirTroductions. It's kind of social networking meets air travel, as it's designed to help you pick the person sitting next to you on your next flight:

Make your next flight more interesting, and choose the person who sits next to you! Build a profile, enter your itinerary, match, and sit with them on your next flight! It's that simple! You’ve found AirTroductions. 

"Make your next flight more interesting?" I'm not sure about that pitch–it kind of evokes Cillian Murphy and a pit viper. 

It's a good idea. That said, there were several questions missing when I created a profile:

• What's your dress size/waist size?
• How often do you bathe?
• Are you going to torture me with small talk?

If I were launching a site like this, it would be called MuteFlights.com, and it would be for seat mates who agree not to speak to each other for the duration of the flight.

Tags: airtroductions, air travel, flights, seating, small talk

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I was recently up at the slightly hippy-dippy technology-meets-social change conference Web of Change. It was on remote Cortes Island, and thus very, very dark at night.

Happily, the 'educational retreat centre' where the conference was taking place had a store, and they sold flashlights. They only sold hand-cranked flashlights, but I wasn't picky.

I should have been picky, because my $10 Eternolight hand-cranked flashlight is pretty crap. It only casts a half-decent light if you're constantly cranking it. If you stop cranking it (even after several minutes of constant cranking), the light rapidly dims to a meagre, dim spotlight that's barely better than darkness.

I was all keen to go green, but this flashlight is totally disappointing. I guess I only paid $10, but I was hoping for something a little more reliable. 

Tags: eternolight, flashlight, green product, hollyhock, webofchange, woc2006

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The Business 2.0 blog points me to Jeff's entry on two forthcoming underwater hotels in Fiji and Dubai:

But these two dudes—Bruce Jones, the personal submarine designer, and German architect Joachim Hauser—have the look of serious contenders. Jones just announced that a private Fijiian island will be the home of his new undersea resort, called Poseidon (suite rendered at left). It was originally to be built somewhere in the Bahamas. Hauser, meanwhile, has a much bigger-scale project under construction in Dubai, called Hydropolis, where you can build anything as along as you pay for it and you have the blessing (and money) of the crown prince, which apparently Hauser does.

Sweet! I've just added another thing to my list of 100 things to do with my life. I can't wait.

I do wonder how they'll keep the outside of the hotel clean without, you know, totally spying on the guests. 

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