Action star Jeremy Renner had to fight off a real-life attack last night during a bar brawl in Thailand, one that sent two men to the hospital.

Jeremy was drinking with friends at Rachada Pub in Phuket Town around 4:30am when, according to the police, one of Renner's friends, Vorasit Issar (GM of the luxurious Sri Panwa Resort), dropped a glass on the floor which started an argument with the staff.

As the disagreement escalated, six men, who worked at the bar and the Canara restaurant next door, started attacking Renner and Issar with a a rotor axe, metal pipes, and a wooden club. ]]> cmb 2012-01-05T13:29:12-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2012/1/2/94239/52660

In the long tradition of destination stories here at Jaunted, we've never abandoned covering the dramatic history of the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop in Vassalboro, Maine. Opening nearly three years ago with $3 coffee and $2 donuts and free gazing at the waitress' gazongas. As expected, the joint was controversial from the start and even a mini-documentary went about profiling the place and its customers.

Then it burnt to the ground. Suspiciously. Well CBS News shares that the arsonist has finally been convicted, and he wasn't doing it for morality reasons at all; he was angry at his ex-girlfriend, an employee of the Grand View who had left him to shack up with the coffeeshop's owner. Raymond Bellavance Jr. is now headed to jail as the Grand View gets on with business. ]]> JetSetCD 2012-01-02T09:46:17-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/30/92817/292

It's that time of the year again, the time when the year just plain ends. Alas, we can't just let 2011 go that easily, especially since travelers spent it both up in the air and up in arms over a crazy range of topics, encompassing everything from nudie scans to tarmac delays. Needless to say, we're ready for 2012, but first we're taking a brief look back at the best of 2011 with the Jaunted Travel Awards,—or as we fondly refer to them—The Jauntys.

Each year there are plenty of wacky travel stories that just make us shake our head, so it was hard to pick just one weird event as deserving of this year’s Jaunty for craziest travel story.

Stealing like five-digits worth of first class swag was pretty funny, and who wasn’t slightly alarmed when the entire East Coast started shaking? We looked long and hard through the 2011 Jaunted archives, but one event stood high above the rest... ]]> Jaunted11 2011-12-30T09:46:17-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/27/92430/569

In the travel industry, today is what's known as an exodus, where those who've been home all holiday weekend finally extricate themselves from the cocoon of family and friends and head back into the regular world. What that means is hundreds of thousands of travelers will again take to the skies, their luggage busting with foil-wrapped frozen leftovers and new techie toys. Which is why you need to see this short video.

This is freaking us out. Breaking into a bag using only a ballpoint pen? Sure, we knew it could happen, but what's so odd about this video is that we can't tell if they're trying to warn about or encourage doing this. Hey, if you lost your lock key, you can get in! Or hey, if you want to steal someone's panties, you can get in! Weird.

The easiest way to protect from a ballpoint break-in, we suppose, is just to bite the bullet and go for one of the hard-case luggages that latch closed, like Samsonite's Oyster line. As for us, we're just going to continute not putting valuable items in our checked bags.]]> JetSetCD 2011-12-27T10:02:36-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/19/132826/98

The French, suffice it to say, are not a nation renowned for their devotion to industry. Retirement ages are low, work weeks are short, and benefits are plentiful. The stereotype is that French workers will erect barricades in the streets for a month before they agree to increase the retirement age by a day.

And that, boys and girls, is how stereotypes can sometimes be misleading. It turns out that some Frenchmen are very industrious indeed. Take for example the main character in this simply insane story. A French thief managed to steal $13,000 worth of goods—"airline napkins, glasses, plates, blankets"—from the first class cabins of Air France flights. He was at it for a full three years apparently. Just imagine all the hard work and dedication that took.

When he was finally caught it was red-handed with a carry-on full of trinkets from the Air France flight, which landed in the tiny Indian Ocean island of Réunion.]]> Omri 2011-12-19T15:25:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/16/131946/42

Sometimes (most of the time) TSA agents make a point of being studiously straight-laced. That's more or less how we prefer our airport security officials, and we still reference this very matter-of-fact story from last year. Somebody was ejected from San Diego International Airport for refusing to choose between a full-body scan or a patdown. There's a job to be done; TSA agents intend to do that job; and they get sad and grumpy when you don't let them.

It's also worth noting that when TSA officials decide to show off their freestyle improv skills, things tend to go awry. Last October, a TSA agent searching journalist Jill Filipovic's checked baggage found a vibrator and left Filipovic a note encouraging her to "get her freak on." An angst-filled blogosphere firestorm immediately erupted and the agent was duly punished. We personally weren't really offended because we suspected that the note might be a failed attempt at being sassy.

Now a TSA agent has left another destined-to-go-viral note in another piece of checked luggage. We anticipate that, in contrast to the incident with Filipovic, the Internet will respond with something less than outrage.]]> Omri 2011-12-16T15:00:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/6/172037/374

Did you feel that? If the internet could have earthquakes, we'd have just experienced a minor one as Alec Baldwin went from tweeting like normal, to getting kicked off an American Airlines plane at LAX, to being in custody, to becoming a trending topic, to giving his side of the story via Twitter in just about the span of one hour.

The reason for the tarmac takedown? Apparently, according to Alec, he was playing the popular mobile Scrabble-like app Words With Friends when a flight attendant "reamed" him out. Of course he was probably still playing it beyond the point of being asked to turn off and stow all electronic devices for take-off, hence the flight attendant interference. We predict that the next few days will see news channels rehashing the old argument of whether or not cell signals interfere with airplanes. You know, that old chestnut. ]]> JetSetCD 2011-12-06T17:20:37-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/