Jaunted - Tag: 2008 Travel Awards

2008: So Over

Jaunted — 2008-12-31T12:30:39-05:00

Looking back, it's hard to imagine that our trip to Sundance kicked off 2008; it feels like years ago that we were stuck in Park City traffic with Charles Ogilvie. But despite losing a travel inspiration, a scrappy new airline and any hope of keeping our shoes on at the airport, we're plunging forward into 2009.

See, now that we've handed out all The Jauntys for this year, there are new stories to break, new scams to report, new destinations to "discover," new airlines to obsess over and, 12 months from now, there will be new award winners to congratulate. So take a minute, if you must, and reminisce about the year gone by. Us? We're already planning our next trip.

[Photo of Sydney, where it's already 2009: Charles Haynes]

2008's Best Jaunted Embed Is...

Jaunted — 2008-12-31T12:00:40-05:00

Travel embeds are Jaunted's superheroes: Boldly going where no tour bus has gone before, they come back with unforgettable stories of the adventures you can have by setting down the guidebook and picking up your pack. We salute all our embeds, but particularly Tim Patterson, whose series on his trip to Cambodia was an invaluable addition to our pages in '08.

Patterson's series, as outlined in his first post, was not only about getting off the beaten path but about seeing Cambodia uncoupled from its history and measuring it on its own merits, from local transit to tourist traps.

From describing the seaside town of Kep as "a steamy bath of crab meat and rose petals" to tantalizing us with the offer of orangutan boxing in Koh Kong, his eye for detail made us feel like we were really there. In 2009, maybe we will be!

[Photo from Patterson's report on the Phnom Tamao Zoo]

Bruges: 2008's Best Travel Movie Is...

Jaunted — 2008-12-31T11:30:40-05:00

If you're like us, you see travel everywhere, so of course 2008 was a marquee year for travel movies. (Let's face it, for us, everything is a travel movie! We almost went to Passaic, New Jersey because "Be Kind Rewind" told us to.) Whether you preferred Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn strung out at the ticket counter as their dream holiday vacation gets canceled in "Four Christmases," a Hawaiian vacation via "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," flying below the radar with Bond in "Quantum of Solace" or the magnificent cross-country train sequence starring the orphans of "Slumdog Millionaire," nearly every trip we saw depicted on film made us say, "Yeah, we've been there."

Well, we haven't actually been hired guns of this type, but our favorite movie trip had to have been the one undertaken by Ray and Ken, two killers sent on a mission in Martin McDonagh's "In Bruges." The exact business of the men (played by Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell) isn't clear right away, so they fall into arguing about what to do with their off hours. Ken is a guidebook slave, while Ray would much rather take a detour from the obligitory historic sites to see what the locals are up to.

Get some sleep or get a pint? Obey your scary-sounding boss's instructions or cut loose and face the consequences? It's only later that the ramifications of the pair's decisions truly become clear. The thrilling conclusion of this flick made us simultaneously want to visit Bruges and never set foot in Belgium. Ever. If you missed it in theaters, check out "In Bruges" on DVD with your (adult) relatives. It's proof that no one returns from a trip unchanged.

Related Stories:
· Belgium Travel Guide [Jaunted]
· Movie Set Travel: Quantum of Solace [Jaunted]
· A Boxing Day Vow: Next Christmas, a Luxury Hotel in Bruges [HC]

[Photo: cinemapolis.org]

2008's Worst Travel Experience Is...

Jaunted — 2008-12-31T11:00:40-05:00

Used to be all you had to do during a plane crash was hope to live. Now you have to update your social networks with news live from the scene of the accident--and field requests for more info from the likes of Rick Sanchez. Because victims would obviously rather be slamming vodka tonics than punching 140-character messages into phones, live tweeting a disaster is the worst travel experience of 2008.

The sentiment extends, too, to the earthquake that was announced on Facebook, photos of the terrorist rampage in Mumbai posted to Flickr and the other plane crash that was documented on Twitter. It's not the wealth of first-hand information that rubs us wrong--we quite like that--it's the way our gizmos have us shackled to home. If the point of travel is to go somewhere new for fresh experiences and a change of perspective, let's resolve in 2009 to live in the moment with our new-found friends in far-away lands instead of digitally seeking comfort in the familiar of back home. Now excuse us as we cross-post this to Twitter.

Related Stories:
· The Future Will Be Microblogged [Jaunted]

Chicago: 2008's Best Villain Is...

Jaunted — 2008-12-31T10:30:40-05:00

Whether it was because more people acted like idiots or we just heard about more people acting like idiots, 2008 was the year of the bad seatmate. And while there are plenty of candidates among those ranks from which to draw the year's best villain, one trouble-maker went even further.

Former flight attendant Eder Rojas is accused of setting fire to an airplane while in flight, and rather than show up in court to answer charges, he's apparently fled--to Mexico?--in a move that makes him even less sympathetic than we imagined possible. Flight attendants are supposed to be keeping passengers safe not dooming them to a fiery death by sparking paper towels in a regional jet lav!

Rojas is, like all criminal defendants, innocent until proven guilty, so maybe next year we'll be issuing an apology, noting that his only crime was awful camel capping on his MySpace page. Until we hear otherwise, though, he stands as the best villain of '08.

2008's Destination Of The Year Is...

Jaunted — 2008-12-31T10:00:40-05:00

For hosting the Olympics, for capturing the world's attention, for inventive restaurants and for rebuilding quickly the Destination of the Year is China.

You may not be able to access the whole internet there and the environment is a distant concern compared to economic and infrastructure growth, but at least one white rapper from Atlanta says you're not really living if you're not visiting Chengdu.

Related Stories:
· Segway Travel: China Clearly Prepared to Handle the Olympics [Jaunted]
· Mount Everest Officially Over [Jaunted]
· Beijing's T3 Is Ready for the Games [Jaunted]
· Happily Welcoming Our New Chinese Aviation Overlords [Jaunted]

[Photo: Sprol]

2008's Best Map Mashup Is...

Jaunted — 2008-12-31T09:30:40-05:00

It's been a while since we so enjoyed rooting for the bad guys. While the 2008 International Plague of Jellyfish ultimately never delivered, we'll always have our Jellyfish Invasion Map as a souvenir of those heady summer days when we stared the beach-pocalypse in the face.

A spin off of our Killer Beach reports, the Jellyfish Invasion affected supermodels, surfers and adorable children alike. Lucky for us, it looks like 2009 will be even worse for jelly attacks worldwide. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

[Photo of jellies in the Monterey Aquarium: chuck12600]