Tag: Thanatourism

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Zombie Survival Camp: Yes, It Exists and Yes, You Can Go

January 26, 2012 at 2:33 PM | by | Comments (0)

Do you want to be prepared for the coming zombie apocalypse? Maybe you need to polish your zombie-fighting or shelter-building skills? Then TrackersPDX in Portland, OR is offering a survival training camp just for you.

The outdoor and adventure specialist have created an intensive 2-day course—taught by seasoned experts who have fought on the frontlines of the zombie epidemic—where you will learn all of the essential skills you'll need in the event of a zombie takeover.

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Got $189 Million? Then You've Got 5,500 Artifacts from the Wreck of the 'Titanic'

January 5, 2012 at 4:33 PM | by | Comments (0)


A mug from third class on the Titanic

Anyone got $189 million just chilling in the bank? If your answer is yes, then you've probably also got enough extra space to house some 5,500 artifacts raised from the ocean floor wreck of the RMS Titanic, because all that is about to be auctioned off...in one fell swoop.

That's right; if you want to buy just one piece from the massive collection, you're going to have to buy all of it, since the auction comes complete with a 19-page document of what you can and cannot do with the items. It's mostly cannot do. So there'll be no drinking your morning coffee from a steerage class mug, nor will there be fogging up a porthole with your breath, only to write "J + L = <3" with your finger. You've got to treat these items with respect, just as the salvage company has attempted to do until now:

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Brangelina and Brood Head to Ho Chi Minh City for a Vietnam War History Lesson

November 14, 2011 at 12:37 PM | by | Comments (0)

The Brangelina clan added more stamps to their passports last week as they traveled from Tokyo to Vietnam. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie took their six children to Vietnam, where their son Pax was born, after premiering Brad's latest movie, Moneyball, in Japan.

The couple wanted Pax to visit his home country so he could better understand, and be proud of, his culture. "They are all learning about each other's cultures as well as being proud of their own," Jolie recently said of her three adopted children.

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Good News: It's Not the End of the World

Where: Egypt
November 11, 2011 at 10:35 AM | by | Comments (0)

It's Veterans Day today, and it's also 11.11.11 as the date goes. Naturally tourist sites have been preparing for both, but with the major difference that Veterans Day takes place in the US and focuses on looking at history and remembering while 11.11.11 happens around the world, with a focus on the future.

For some however, it's actually a lack thereof (the future) with the belief that the world will end today. Well it hasn't yet, and Egypt's Great Pyramid can attest to this. Fearing negative attention and spiritual ceremonies, the Great Pyramid was closed to tourists. The AP notes that only the pyramid was on lock-down:

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Inside and All Around Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights 2011

Where: 1000 Universal Studios Plaza [map], Orlando, FL, United States, 32819
October 19, 2011 at 10:08 AM | by | Comments (0)

Universal Studios Orlando is in the midst of its annual spooky-fest, Halloween Horror Nights. Each fall crowds converge on the park to experience the transformation; during the day the park welcomes guests of all ages to experience Shrek 4D, ride ET's bike, and hug Curious George while at night—for 15 nights every fall—the park turns itself into a big screen-like horror movie.

Eight writers work year round to come up with the themes and schemes that inhabit Universal's annual Halloween Horror Nights. While the details, both cinematic and thematic, are incredible, you have to wonder if maybe the eight writers got a little too intricate with some of these ideas (Spanish fort run by a mutinous undead crew of Columbus' missing fourth ship—we are looking at you). After all this isn't Lost. However, despite some of the themes being a bit convoluted, some are just downright scary (Saws n' Steam), some are incredibly visually compelling (Nevermore), and some just might be the future of fright (The In Between house).

We toured all eight haunted houses and here's what we think, in order from scariest to not so scary:

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The Travel Channel Will Go Deeper Into Thanatourism Territory with New Show 'The Dead Files'

August 4, 2011 at 2:15 PM | by | Comments (0)

Excuse us if the only upcoming show we can really focus on is ABC's Pan Am, but there are other travel-themed series scheduled to debut this fall and towards the end of this year. For example, Travel Channel has already confirmed that they're having a second helping of Anthony Bourdain with his new show, The Layover, but there's another show up their sleeves that's unlike anything they've done before: The Dead Files.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show will be like Bones and The Mentalist had a baby:

[It's] an investigative one-hour series that pairs Steve DiSchiavi, a retired Homicide Detective with the New York City Police Department with more than 21 years of active service with psychic communicator Amy Allan who has an established sixth sense and an affinity for channeling the dead. The partners explore each case on their own and then link up at the end to compare notes.

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Don't Wish You Were Here: Copenhagen's Assistens Cemetery

Where: Nørrebro, Copenhagen, Denmark
July 29, 2011 at 4:43 PM | by | Comments (0)

What do Hans Christian Andersen, Søren Kierkegaard, and Nobel Prize winning scientist Niels Bohr have in common? They've all taken up a final resting place at Copenhagen's Assistens Cemetery, a lush and serene plot of land in the city's Nørrebro neighborhood. Thanatourists among you will, without a doubt, appreciate the cultural significancy of a visit to Assistens, but even those who lack interest in the great beyond will find solace in its green and leafy surroundings.

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In April 2012, All Eyes Will Be Back on the White Star Line's Liverpool Headquarters

July 21, 2011 at 2:53 PM | by | Comments (0)

In April 2012, legions of Titanic buffs will likely descend on Liverpool, England to remember the centennial anniversary of the ship's tragic sinking. Why? Well, the ship didn't sail from Liverpool on her fatal maiden voyage, but Titanic's owner White Star Line was registered there, earning the ship the "Liverpool" painted on her stern as city of registration.

Additionally, most of the ship's crew was from Liverpool, and the White Star building—called Albion House—was home for the company from 1898 through 1927. Thus, its historical, striped facade is something of a tourist site, which has the capability to turn a bit morbid since, according to Wikipedia, "in 1912, when news of the disaster of the Titanic reached the offices, the officials were too afraid to leave the building, and instead read the names of the deceased from the balcony."

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The Fangtasia of 'True Blood' is Real, as are Other Vampire Bars

June 28, 2011 at 2:35 PM | by | Comments (0)

True Blood returned Sunday night for its fourth season, bringing humans and vampires together once again at their favorite hang out, Fangtasia. Fangtasia doesn't actually exist in that name, though some fans wish it did. Exteriors of the bar are filmed at Alex's Bar, 2913 E. Anaheim St in Long Beach, CA, while the interiors are shot on a Los Angeles soundstage. We bet Alex's Bar makes a killing (ha) selling souvenirs to curious True Blood fans.

There might not be a real Fangtasia but there are plenty of other bars across the country willing to cater to the vampire set. According to vampire commentator Michelle Belanger, "These places do exist." She adds, "In episode one when they first went to Fangtasia, all I could think about were the vampire nightclubs I’ve been to in New York and Los Angeles and New Orleans."

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Three of the Most Macabre Tourist Attractions Opening This Year

March 10, 2011 at 9:41 AM | by | Comment (1)

You don't need us to tell you this, but tourists really love to see some morbid things. Just think about it...the Paris Catacombs, Concentration Camps, famous graves and worse. To help sate the public's desire for the macabre, more new Thanatourism attractions open every year, but it looks like 2011 will be particularly dark. Here's the top three to look forward to:

· "Old Sparky" Electric Chair, Ohio
It was just reported that a particulary shocking exhibit will hit Columbus, Ohio's Historial Museum on April 1, and this is not an April Fool's Joke. "Controversy: Pieces You Don't Normally See" will be limited to guests 18 year old and up, because what's on display may be disturbing: Ku Klux Klan hoods, mental patient restraints, and "Old Sparky," the electric chair that brought capital punishment down on 315 inmates for over 30 years. No, you won't be allowed to sit in it. More info here.

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Times Square Grave-Robs Pompeii of Its Vesuvius Victims for New Exhibit

March 7, 2011 at 3:31 PM | by | Comments (0)

I see dead people...in Times Square! Leave it to one of the world's biggest tourist meccas to attract one of the world's biggest thanatourist (thanatourism = death tourism) draws to it: New York City is showing Pompeii's ash casts of the victims of the volcano eruption some 2,000 years ago with an exhibit at Discovery Times Square, in partnership with Alitalia.

The event, which opened a few days ago and has no set end date, showcases 250+ artifacts from the old Roman city, which were buried and preserved under layers of volcanic stone and ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. Alongside pottery and whatnot will be a selection of the "bodies" found at the excavation site, which are injection molds of hollow spaces left deep within the ash by the long-gone bodies of the volcano's victims. The bodies, in their contracted and huddled shapes, show the final torturous moments of the citizens of the once-great town on the Bay of Naples.

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Appreciating Cuba's Clichés: Che Guevara is Everywhere, Everything

Where: Cuba
February 25, 2011 at 11:01 AM | by | Comments (0)

With President Obama working to lessen Cuba Travel restrictions, the island risks getting caught up in a hurricane of clichés. Thinking travelers aren’t generally fooled by the shiny veneer of places plugged in a Lonely Planet, but don’t discard Cuba’s clichés. They’re what make this intriguing country so exotic, so vibrant and so darned colorful. A Jaunted special secret correspondent discovers the best of each, all this week.

They tell you Communists and religion don’t mix, but Cuba has a God. His name is Ernesto Che Guevara and he is omnipresent: on walls, doors, museums, shrines, monuments, galleries, billboards, t-shirts, caps, postcards, on people’s lips. Strange that Fidel, who has never been a shrinking violet, is almost nowhere to be seen.

Che’s arrival in Cuba in December 1956 was less than godly, crashing into the coast on the rickety yacht Granma and stumbling onto land half seasick with the Castro brothers. 60 of the 82 men squeezed on board that 12-person cruiser were immediately caught and killed, while Che ran off wheezing (he had chronic asthma) to hide in the Sierra Maestra mountains, near present-day Guantánamo Bay. There he bumped into the Cuban army, who promptly shot him.

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