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Tags: Royale with Cheese / Fast Food Travel / The Little Differences / Food / Restaurants / Dining / → All Tags

Chicken Maharaja-Mac Anyone? International Versions of American Fast Food

Vincent Vega said it best. They've got the same things overseas that we have here in America, but as a traveler you notice the little differences, like beer served in movie theaters, French fries served with mayonnaise, and funny names for fast food sandwiches like Royale with Cheese. LA Weekly must have been thinking along the same lines when they published their funny list of American fast food items that you can't get in America.

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Tags: Train Travel / India Travel / First Class Travel / → All Tags

India Re-Imagines The Orient Express For $950 Per Night

If you know even the littlest bit about train travel, then you've probably heard of both the Orient Express and the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Both luxury trains associated with the gilded age, they are now shadows of their former selves, carrying fannypacked tourists on shorter or altered routes instead of the evening gown-wearing, long cigarette-smoking moneyed classes who indulged in a leisurely trip between Paris and Istanbul, or through Mongolia and into Moscow.

Luckily for those who have romanticized these luxury trains, there is a country that still embraces the idea: India. In the new few months, two new opulent trains will launch on routes that aim to cover some of the most famous sites in India, including the Taj Mahal and Varanasi of course. Per person, per night prices for the trips—the shortest trip being a week—begin at a staggering $500. But you'll be getting your money back in spades with these choo-choos...

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Tags: New Routes / Asia Travel / Air Asia / India Travel / → All Tags

Let's Go Thiruvananthapuram! Asian Airlines Loving India Right Now

While we're busy being happy for the winner of the CN Traveler Awards, plenty of other airlines around the world have news of their own, and mainly in the new routes area. For those of you chilling around Asia like our own Claire Duffett, here's the need-to-know new routes coming your way:

· Air Asia begins low-cost direct flights from their base in Kuala Lumpur to Calcutta, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) in India in November. One-way flights (including tax) begin as low as $32, and these new routes compliment Air Asia's current India destination of Trichy, effectively quadrupling their Indian routes.

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Kanye West Might Be Taking The Vacation We'd Least Expect Of Him

Has Kanye West been reading Eat, Pray, Love lately? It's been reported that the megalomaniacal star is considering going on retreat in India, to an ashram in Pondicherry to "reassess life."

After his famous interruption of Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV video music awards last month, and the open liquor-swilling and outlandish behavior he exhibited in the front row and on the red carpet at the same event, it seems like Kanye is overdue for such a calming vacation. Ashrams are however designed for lengthy stays, without contact with most of the outside world and devoid of all the luxurious comforts that Kanye enjoys.

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Is Mumbai Working To Become A Capital Of Contemporary Art?

We tend to think of Paris or Florence as the places to go for an art hit, but India's largest city Mumbai might be the up-and-coming spot. A new art gallery has just opened there and wants to start showing off India's huge art tradition to the world.

The Gallery BMB is one of the first new galleries in India for a long time—the few that do exist are mostly from British colonial times—but the directors predict it will be the first of many more. It will showcase art from international artists as well as encourage emerging Indian artists to make a name for themselves.

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Julia Roberts Deals With Disruptive Asses While Filming In India

Filming the movie version of the popular book Eat, Pray, Love, Julia Roberts has been all over the world. Now that she's moved on to the "pray" portion in India, a closed set hasn't been easy. As they shoot in the town of Mirzapur, south of New Delhi, Roberts has been hounded by everything from paparazzi to gawking townspeople to—and these won't relent—asses.

Donkeys interrupted filming the other day when, during a scene, they wouldn't stop braying. Stupid asses, making noise about celebrities trying to work. Don't they know who Julia Roberts is?

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Tags: Flight Delays / Airline Delays / Air India / Airline Travel / → All Tags

Air India Needs To Build A Better Mousetrap After Rat Sneaks Aboard

We’ve seen our share of airline delays due to weather, mechanical delays, and even wacky passengers. However, there aren’t too many delays caused by furry critters. Well, that’s exactly what passengers of an Air India flight had to deal with as they were stuck to wait things out for about 11 hours.

Apparently a flight with over 200 passengers from Amritsar, India was supposed to head out to London over the weekend. Early on Saturday morning passengers spotted a rat on the plane, and then the rest of the day was spent searching for the little stowaway. After all, it definitely didn’t go through security.

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Tags: Jet Airways / India Travel / Strikes / Airline Pilots / Airline News / → All Tags

Half Of Jet Airways' Pilots Call In Sick, Attempt To Form Union

India's third largest airline Jet Airways has been going through some troubled times lately. From selling off planes to fight economic woes and having to cut prices by 40% to try and get some more passengers on board, they have drawn the short straw in terms of airline luck this year.

Now their latest drama has involved a sustained campaign by pilots to call in sick. From last Tuesday, more than half of the airline's pilots said they were unable to fly due to illness—their version of striking, since the rules forbid them from striking without giving management sufficient advance warning. The reason for the "strike" is that four pilots were sacked after asking the management to recognize the union they'd formed.

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How Taking A Vacation Can Save Your Marriage...In India

Divorce travel has, somewhat ironically, arrived in India. Ironically, because about one in one hundred marriages fail in India, compared to about half of marriages in the United States. Just the same, KV Tours and Travels have started offering packages designed to stop their customers from getting divorced.

Targeting near-break-up couples whose families are worried about the relationship—to the point where the family members might pay for the couple's vacation—KV Tours also arranges a qualified marriage counselor to accompany the couple on the trip. We hope they've figured out that three can be a crowd, though.

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A Traveling Without Insurance Nightmare For Aussie Man In India

Remember how your parents pestered you about getting travel insurance before you headed off on spring break or to Europe? We admit that our own insurance coverage over the years has been hit-or-miss, but every now and again we remember why we pay for it.

This is one of those times. Recently, an Aussie tourist took an unlucky fall off a steep mountain track in India and ended up paralyzed in a hospital in New Delhi. And yes, you guessed it, this guy was traveling without any insurance, even though he was 64 years old and should have known better.

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Kingfisher Goes International, And Not Just Around Asia

Last year Kingfisher Airlines out of Bangalore, India wasn’t doing too swell with their international routes, so they scaled things back and focused again on service in India. Well things must be on the up and up, because they are back to work announcing new routes:

There are eight new international routes planned for later this year, and Mumbai to Singapore and Mumbai to Hong Kong are scheduled to start up in September. Most of their other new plans include flights from New Delhi, which will be the first international routes out of that city. London, Bangkok, and Dubai are now all options for those looking to get out of India for a bit.

Despite all the good news, the airline did axe two routes. Bangalore lost its flights to London and Colombo, Sri Lanka. For now, their ambitious plans to expand to the US market are still on hold. If Vijay Mallya starts mouthing off about any plans to serve our west coast, we’ll let you know.

Related Stories:
· Kingfisher Launches Flights on 8 International Routes [Times of India]
· Flying Getting Way Cheaper. In India. [Jaunted]
· Low Cost Carriers coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: BangaloreAviation]

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Tags: First Class Travel / Air India / Travel Snapshot / → All Tags

Air India Breaks Out the Bling In First Class

When we last took a peek at the first class cabin of an Air India Boeing 777, we were a little concerned about the bright Bollywood-purple lighting in the publicity shots. So we sighed with relief when we saw this "real life" shot of what business class and first class looks like on a recent flight from Delhi to London.

The scary purple-ness is gone, and now what we see is blissful gold bling. Beyond what you can see in this picture, there's even more shiny gold bits with gold trim on the windows and other parts of the seats. This is so Bollywood that we're practically awaiting dancing girls to come down the aisles; we already spot a colorful sari off to the left.

In case you're tempted to mix in with this bling, a one-way business class ticket—they call it Executive—from Delhi to London will set you back just under 72,000 Rupees ($1,500); or you could just rent a good Bollywood DVD for $3.95.

Related Stories:
· Air India's First Class Seats Have That Bollywood Glow [Jaunted]
· First Class Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: vm2827]