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Celeb Travel / Drinking Travel / Thailand Travel / Crimes / Phuket Travel / → All Tags

Jeremy Renner's Latest Action Scene? A Bar Brawl in Phuket, Thailand

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.

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Naked Travel / Nude Travel / Maine Travel / Crimes / Grand View Topless Coffee Shop / Coffee Travel / → All Tags

Maine's Famous Topless Coffeeshop Finally Sees Justice

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.

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The Jauntys / Jaunted Awards 2011 / Travel Awards 2011 / Travel News / Crimes / Air Antilles / Money Travel / → All Tags

The Craziest Travel Story of 2011 Is...

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...

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Travel Safety / Luggage / Baggage / Crimes / Videos / → All Tags

The Ballpoint Pen Baggage Break-in: VIDEO

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.

Crimes / Air France / First Class Travel / Travel News / Bad Ideas / Airlines / → All Tags

Thief Steals $13,000 of Air France First Class Swag, Gets Caught on Tiny Island

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.

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TSA / Airport Security / Drug Travel / Crimes / DEN / → All Tags

TSA Agent Leaves Exasperated Note in Rapper's Drug-Filled Luggage

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.

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Airplane Hell / iPhone / iPhone Travel App / American Airlines / Alec Baldwin / Words With Friends / LAX / Celeb Travel / Crimes / → All Tags

American Airlines Plane Boots Alec Baldwin Over 'Words With Friends'

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.

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Bad Ideas / Airline News / Delta / Crimes / Sex Travel / → All Tags

First Class Flyer Views Child Porn Mid-Flight, Promptly Gets Arrested

It's been quite the season for in-flight porn news. It was only a few months ago when Qantas started airing their instructional video "The Female Orgasm Explained," a mix of shoddy porn and musings about the mysteries of feminine sexuality. Then Ryanair did what Ryanair does, with the airline's aggressively anti-customer CEO Michael O'Leary announcing that his LCC might soon rent porn-filled iPads to passengers. Apparently Ryanair executives take statements like "there's literally no way a Ryanair flight could be more uncomfortable" as challenges.

Now there's this story. University of Utah engineering professor and father of two Grant Smith was taking a flight from Salt Lake City to Boston and—there's no gentle way of putting this—allegedly started looking at child porn on his laptop while seated in First Class. According to reports, a fellow first-class passenger saw Smith, then filmed Smith, then informed the flight crew regarding Smith, then emailed his relatives about Smith (yay, in-flight WiFi), then arranged to have Smith arrested on the ground. Admirably completionist.

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Drug Travel / Amsterdam Travel / Holland Travel / Travel Bans / Tourists / Crimes / Travel News / Tourism / → All Tags

No More Passing the Dutch as Holland Moves to Ban Tourists from Weed Cafes

It's happening! That ban on selling marijuana to tourists and allowing them in Dutch pot cafes—the one Holland's been discussing since earlier this year—will begin taking effect next year. And while "next year" seems like a far enough time away to not freak about this, may we remind you that next year is little more than a month-and-a-half away, and the ban hits January 1, 2012.

Don't go booking the first KLM direct to Amsterdam quite just yet, however. This first phase of the pot-for-tourists ban will only reach the southern parts of the country—Limburg, North-Brabant and Zeeland—where drug tourism is more of a problem (the rest of Europe just comes across the border down there for a joint or two, you see). Maastricht has been trialling the program since October, actually. Regardless, officials promise to include Amsterdam and the rest of the country in the ban come January 2013.

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Bad Ideas / Airline Safety / Lasers / FAA / LGA / Crimes / → All Tags

Aiming a Laser at an Airplane is Not Cool. In Fact, It's Dangerous.

In 2005 there were 283 US incidents in which pilots coming in for landings had lasers aimed at their eyes. By 2010 the number had risen to 2,836 incidents per year. By October of this year we had already had 2,795 reports, which means we're easily going to clear the 2010 figure.

Another six incidents were reported at LGA just last weekend. The laser strikes were done with the relatively new and significantly more powerful green-color lasers, which are extra-dangerous. The FAA, suffice it to say, has declared itself to be unamused.

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Drug Travel / Holland Travel / Maastricht Travel / Amsterdam Travel / Tourists / Crimes / Netherlands Travel / → All Tags

Maastricht Keeps the Sticky Icky for Itself, Bans Foreign Tourists from Weed Cafes

We're not going to say "I told you so," but we kind of did back in May when Holland first announced plans to possibly close "coffee shops" to tourists after crime rose. Now, from this last Saturday, the hammer has dropped and foreign tourists are not permitted in the coffee shops of Holland's southernmost city of Maastricht.

There are exceptions: Germans and Belgians are still welcome, but no Americans or Italians or English or French or...we could continue but you get the point. And if you are German or Belgian, then be prepared to show your passport and allow the coffee shop to retain your identity information for up to two days, even if you're only in the shop to smoke weed for fifteen minutes.

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Bad Ideas / American Airlines / Military Travel / Crimes / → All Tags

Some People Will Do Anything for an Upgrade, Even Criminally Impersonate a US Soldier

Are you prepared to read a travel tale so pathetic, that it could very well either be the best or worst thing you read today? Here goes: the NY Post reports that a man was arrested for impersonating a US Army soldier in order to score a free First Class upgrade on American Airlines. Wow. Just wow.

It seems that Rock Diaz (pictured at right in his faux army duds) was caught by a detail-oriented customs agent at JFK Airport after he disembarked an AA plane from the Dominican Republic and couldn't correctly answer questions about his rank and station. Nor could he produce a military ID. All this came after Diaz enjoyed the long flight in First Class, as a flight attendant spotted his uniform and upgraded him.

He blames the whole thing on a misunderstanding and language barrier, but he has a history of pulling this stunt; Diaz has impersonated military for flight upgrades (and even a cockpit visit) in the past.

This the smartest/stupidest upgrade idea ever. It's smart because it's so low that it's almost unexpected and depending on the uniform details, flight crew may never be the wiser. It's stupid because it's ridiculously cowardly, cheap, and underhanded. We feel sorry for the flight attendant and other crew he's duped in the past, because here they thought they were being patriotic and kind to a real soldier, and here it's just another petty criminal looking for a free meal.