China continues to deal with the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake, while aid continues to trickle into also-suffering Myanmar. In China, officials are worried that the Zipingpu Dam may have been damaged by the 7.9-magnitude quake. We're not engineers, but it seems likely: One look at our map shows how close it was to the epicenter of the May 12 temblor.
The endangered dam sits just upstream from Dujiangyan, a city of several thousand people that is home to a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Dujiangyan Irrigation System was built in 256 BC and is still in use today.
Hundreds of other dams in Sichuan may have been damaged, but officials say the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei Province is safe. The monumental construction project/environmental disaster-in-waiting sits about 350 miles east the earthquake epicenter.
Gossip Girl here. Looks like Georgina might not be so evil after all. She was spotted making friends with an older man in first class on a Virgin America flight earlier this week.
OK, forget it. We can't write in that annoying Gossip Girl voice (yay for that!) but we can tell you that Georgina, aka Michelle Trachtenberg, was flying in first on a Virgin America flight from LAX to JFK on Monday night.
We were about two rows behind her in the plebes section and we tried to get a shot of her. This is the best we could do. (We didn't want to get thrown off the plane!)
Michelle was nice to everyone around her, or so we observed and we did stare for quite some time. She didn't even do the whole "sunglasses at night" thing like a lot of other celebs do. She spent most of the flight talking to some older actor guy next to her who was/is on some soapy/drama show. We think he hit it big in the early 90s but we can't for the life of us remember who he is. Sorry guy.
Maybe Michelle can get you a spot on GG to boost your Q rating?
Forgive us if we haven't been breathlessly reporting all the latest merger gossip: All these rumors and anonymous sources have us more than skeptical. But since everyone seems to be involved in something these days, here's a cheat sheet for all the merger mania swirling in the industry:
Delta and Northwest: These two are getting together, pending approval from the US government. You can keep up on both carrier's plans at the pompously named newglobalairline.com. Oh, and before you believe the hype that nothing will change when they get together, Northwest CEO Doug Steenland just announced that, yes, they probably will be cutting some service.
We're all about supporting the underdog. In tourism terms these days, that'd be Kenya. But last week European travel agencies publicly endorsed the recently troubled country as a recommended and safe summer safari destination. Sweet!
This summer we're backing an awesome Kenyan adventure from UK-based Exodus Holidays called the Classic Kenya Safari and Kili Climb. A word to the weary: It's not your grandmother's safari.
The 14-day excursion takes you from Nairobi to stunning Lake Nakuru National Park, then on to the Masai Mara Reserve where big time animal migrations start in July. After sleeping in a bush camp and comparing battle stories with local Masai warriors, it's off to Tanzania where it's man versus mountain. You'll spend the next six days climbing Kilimanjaro's Rongai Route until reaching the summit where you'll do that tribal victory dance your Masai friends taught you.
The safari departs from Nairobi on Aug 10 and costs £1,399 ($2,717), not including flight.
Tales of the Cocktail, the booze-focused "conference" for bartenders, restaurateurs and, uh, enthusiasts, runs July 16-20 in New Orleans. With seminars, demos, dinners and hobnobbing, it's like a giant cocktail party without the black ties and annoying co-workers.
One day passes are available for $175 and include four events and nighttime drinks. You can also just pick and choose a couple events, hanging at the festival as a smaller part of a New Orleans vacay. Tickets range from $25-$75, depending on what you're attending.
If you really wanna get serious, the Founder's Day pass gets you into everything and goes for $625. Seems steep, yes, but it's probably less than your bar tab for five days in NoLa would be.
Festival headquarters is the Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter, and we can tell you from experience that it's the best place to stay for the event. Aside from giving you easy access to the Carousel Bar and festival seminars, it's also got discount rooms available if you book early.
For an island experience that's equally as unique, look no further than The Bubble Room, a kitschy, hodgepodge of a restaurant that specializes in quirky meals and wacky décor. Picture TGI Friday's on crack and you'll begin understand what this place is all about.
Terminal 2 at San Francisco International, which was closed in 2000, will re-open by 2010. It will host domestic flights from Virgin America and both JetBlue and Southwest may also move in, making it a veritable LCC battleground.
Aside from generally modernizing T2, which opened in 1954, SFO will add four gates to the 10 already present. And since this is the Bay Area, construction materials will be green whenever possible, high-effeciency lighting is going in and there will be priority parking outside for hybrid cars.
For now, passengers interested in seeing the abandoned terminal can, though it will eventually be closed as work proceeds. You can also find a similar ghost terminal at Lambert-St. Louis International. Concourse D is almost completely vacant, and it makes for somecoolphotos.
By now, you've undoubtedly heard about Gokhan Mutlu, who's suing JetBlue because the airline allegedly forced him to sit on the toilet for an hour and a half during a California-New York flight.
If not, here's the quick version of the story: Mutlu had a voucher from a JetBlue employee which got him the last available seat on a flight February 16. He claims that after a flight attendant complained about her jump seat, the pilot bumped Mutlu from his seat--and into the lav. "Go hang out in the bathroom," the pilot supposedly told him; he's asking for $2 million for his troubles.
We think there's more to this story, but here's the one thing we really want to know: Shouldn't the other passengers on the flight be the ones suing? After all, they were the ones denied access to the bathroom! We're not begging to spend a whole flight trapped in a smelly, drafty, teeny lavatory, but at least we wouldn't have to hold it the whole flight.
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by pbb
