Camping sounds like a smart way to enjoy a country as sunny and warm as Australia, and you'll probably get to meet a bunch of friendly Aussies sitting around the campfire with a beer or ten. On November 9, 2007 you'll be able to afford more beer because Big4 Holiday Parks are having another Come Camp Night, where you can pitch your tent and not pay a cent.
When we mentioned Come Camp in 2006, we were probably unnecessarily cautious about dangerous snakes and koalas. Big4 Holiday Parks doesn't mention any nasty critters at all--in fact the campground operator talks more about mini-golf, spas, swimming pools, tennis courts and giant jumping pillows. Although maybe the giant jumping pillows could turn out to be just as dangerous. Happy camping.
For those of you who hate sake or are simply equal opportunity drinkers, know that there's beer to be tasted in Japan, too. Asahi may have pioneered the fabulous beer robot, but Sapporo is still more famous. So famous and important in fact, that they have the Sapporo Beer Museum, "the only beer museum in Japan." Except for the Beer Museum Yebisu which is listed right below it on Sapporo's website.
Technicalities aside, Sapporo offers some interesting museum and brewery tours in Japan for beer aficionados. Brewery tours are free, as is museum admission. Tours are in Japanese only, but there must be some sort of universal language at work here.
Much like those chronically expensive Antarctic expeditions, trips to the North Pole don't come cheap. A Russian tour company called North Pole Adventures has an alternative for all you cheapskates out there, but you'll have to bring them big business before it works for you. Here's to hoping you've got some rich friends. Per their website's F.A.Q.:
It is my cherished dream to go to the North Pole but I don't have so much money. What should I do? The most common way to get to the Pole free of charge is to find for us several clients who can afford paying full price. So if you act as our agent either privately or as a travel agency you may go free if you find at least 10 customers.
If it is indeed your cherished dream to hurl yourself out of an Ilyushin Il-76 into the impossible frost of the north, bless your heart. It's good to know there are options out there for the less fortunate. The company's standard skydive-inclusive expeditions cost about $13,300.
Not only does this exhibit look awesome, but it's free. "Bottoms Up! A Spirited History of Drink in Canada" examines the history of Canada's love-hate relationship with alcohol, and how "it has become a vital part of [Canadians'] social lives, political lives, health, media and popular culture." BlogTO recently checked out the show and had some nice things to say about it.
From the "outlandishly amusing" anti-booze propaganda posters to more serious historical anecdotes, "Bottoms Up!" provides a brief but satisfying study of Canada's boozy past. Though the drinking age in some provinces of Canada is now as low as 18, our friends to the north weren't always so enlightened and evolved. Before you head over to the Bovine Sex Club to get crazy drunk, stop by the Steam Whistle Brewing Gallery (255 Bremner Boulevard / Monday - Saturday, 12 p.m to 6 p.m. and Sunday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. / Until April 2) and pay tribute to your forefathers. Not all of them were so lucky.
We usually accept there are around 200 countries in the world, give or take a few toppling dictatorships, reunifications and independence declarations. But if you start including those strange entities called micronations--those parts of the world that might issue their own passports or currency but are not UN-recognized nations--the list gets much longer. Wikipedia lists nearly 40 of them, and Lonely Planet has published a guidebook about them.
You might be grateful to learn, however, that the traveling public might not be quite so keen on reading about these weirdo mini-countries. Lonely Planet's had to resort to sending copies out as a free gift now if you spend over $40 on their other goods. Maybe, after all, we do have the taste to know we want to travel to real countries.
JetBlue can't make you look any better in your passport photo, but they can at least save you from questioning why you paid for something so heinous. On every Thursday, Friday and Saturday of this month, JetBlue will partner with the tourism boards of Aruba, Bermuda, and Nassau to provide free glamour shots within its terminal at JFK Airport in New York.
To get your photo, go through security at the JetBlue terminal and head to gate 12A between 12:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, or 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. on Saturdays. Be prepared to have a lot of tourist propaganda forced on you, too. The truly paranoid can get primped at the in-terminal Oasis Day Spa.
Yup, this sounds just like a Sweet 16/Bat Mitzvah party activity...down to the part where you have to sneak your bubbly in. Except in this case, Kip Hawley's doing the fun-hating, as opposed to your friends' folks.
According to the BBC, "hundreds of people have made off with" the valuable spoils of shipwreck at a beach in England. The abandoned cargo ship was left to be beached after its crew escaped during a storm, and some area folks managed to make off with goods like BMW motorcycles.
Apparently it pays to be near the beach in England in the dead of winter. The beach in question, Branscombe, is promoted by the local tourism industry as a romantic place to visit. Your time for beach looting may already be up, but lodging options in the area include the charming Mason Arms Hotel, where rooms start at £75 a night.
Boeing is sure in a good mood after the whole A380 delay debacle. The schadenfreude has got them so sauced up, they're keeping up their offer to pay your way through Seattle. Well, they'll pay for a bit of it.
On the first Thursday of every month, Boeing sponsors All Access Nights at the Experience Music project, when admission is free from 5-8 p.m. It's the perfect time to visit, because tickets are otherwise a whopping $19.95. Not a big surprise for this type of place, but a bummer nonetheless for those who just want to rock or whatever.
Permanent installations at the EMP include a Jimi Hendrix exhibit, the Sound Lab recording studio, and an experience called On Stage that'll let you play rock star and simulate the experience of playing an arena in front of thousands of fans. Hookers 'n' blow not included with freebie tickets.
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by amandak
