Geeky Traveller

I can’t get enough of these sites that combine travel ideas with social networking. TripSay is a great little website that you can join to get recommendations for travel based on what you’re looking for in travel. It also takes into account other places that you’ve seen and how you rated them.
When I signed up, I set a profile for myself saying that I tend to look more for budget travel than luxury (that’s an understatement!), I like to be a little off the beaten track, I love multi-lingual more than just English-speaking, and that I seek out …read more

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Anyone can go to Europe or South Africa and eat a lovely meal in a nice little five-star restaurant. But can you sit at a table suspended by a crane 50 meters above the ground?

Dinner in the Sky is an organization that will use a crane to hoist you and over 20 of your friends or colleagues way up above the ground so you can eat your meal with an incredible view. You can book yourself for any kind of meal, whether you want to start your morning off with breakfast and heart palpitations, cocktails, or a …read more

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There’s another great site that has been recently launched for travel fanatics, and it’s really the kind of site I’m loving more and more. Nothing personal against travel agents, because they’re awesome too (and I studied Travel & Tourism for that purpose myself once upon a lifetime, pre-kids) but not every travel agent has been to every place you want to visit. As a result, they give you the best generic info they can but there’s nothing personal about it.
VibeAgent is another great personalized human-touch website that will give you access to personal stories. You can read …read more

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What with Halloween being just around the corner (my favorite holiday of the year!), I thought it would be very apropos to provide you with some websites that will help you fulfill your love of all things spooky for your next getaway.

 
Over at About.com, there’s a great listing of the top haunted hotels in the United States. From a haunted cruise ship-turned-hotel to the haunted hotel that inspired Stephen King to write the scary The Shining, you’re sure to find somewhere to lay your head down while you keep an eye out for ghostly presences.
Meanwhile, if you’d prefer to …read more

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I just came across an awesome way to keep your kids – at least pre-schoolers and up, infants may be less enchanted! – from getting too bored and whiny on long road trips. Since some families take their vacation in August, this could come in handy now for the rest of the summer, but it could even help during holidays when you’re driving all over the earth to visit all your family.
This parent shared how he hooked up his GPS service with his kid’s DVD player. He uses TomTom Navigator and a Nokia N95. However, I’m pretty …read more

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Via Neatorama, he's something you don't get to do on your average day in Essex–tank paintball battles.

Tank driving would be most people's idea of fun, but imagine the thrill of actually taking part in a tank battle – not with live ammunition, but with paint!! Take it in turns as part of a three-man crew to negotiate a tricky tank course set in a world war II bombing range. Your tank of choice will be a unique 17 tonne FV432 armoured personnel carrier, with specially modified cannons capable of firing 40mm paint rounds.

Okay, more of an APC than a tank, but it still looks like a ton o' fun. Plus, no welts the next day.

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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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Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter and geeky star to the masses, died this weekend:

Irwin was killed by a stingray barb to the heart on Batt Reef, off the remote resort town of Port Douglas in northeastern Queensland state, his wildlife park Australia Zoo said in a statement.

I've always enjoyed his programs, and he'll be missed. It's much too soon, but I think it's a fitting end for a man who spent his life around deadly animals.

I don't want to dwell on the subject, but what's the deal with stingrays? I didn't know they could actually kill people. Wikipedia to the rescue:

Contact with the stinger causes local trauma (from the cut itself), pain and swelling from the venom, and possible infection from parts of the stinger left in the wound. Injuries to humans include, but are not limited to: poisoning, punctures, severed arteries and possible death.

Fatal stings, such as that which killed Australian naturalist and television personality Steve Irwin, are extremely rare (as of 1996, worldwide known deaths from stingray barb injuries numbered 17), but can occur if a sting punctures the heart or chest, causing complications due to both the sting's location and the poison in the barbs.

Raise a glass of Fosters, everybody, to the passing of this great environmentalist. 

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Driving north along California's historic and twisty Highway 1, we overnighted at the Big Sur Lodge in Pfieffer Big Sur State Park in, yes, Big Sur.

We rented a little cabin, which looked dodgy on the outside but was newly renovated and quite modern on the inside. Not surprisingly, there was no Internet access (or television or telephone).

There was electricity, but puzzlingly the outlets had these little brackets screwed over them. If I hadn't had my extension cord for my PowerBook, I probably wouldn't have gotten the big blocky Apple power cord into the outlet.

Does anybody have a theory as to why the Lodge would do this?

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My friends Robert (of Raincity Studios, who designed this site) and Kris are in China on a Web 2.0 field trip. The lucky bastards.

They're both talented photographers, and they're taking a ton of photographs from the far east. You can check out both Kris's and Robert's.

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