Tied up in Thailand

What another mess. Thailand is undergoing political upheaval and political protestors have brought the two airports in Bankok to a standstill. Link

Thousands of travels have been stuck there for over a week. Options are travel to another country such as Malaysia but trains going there are full.

Foreign embassies complain but nothing is happening. The Thai government is in weak position and unwilling to send in force to resolve it. So far, passengers are not in any threat but the situation has led to gridlock to all flights in and out of the country.

What is disturbing is this seems to be a clash between urban vs. rural voters. Bloomberg.

With a recent grenade attack that injured 51 protestors, I hope this is not the opening positions to a civil war.

This situation is a PR disaster for Thailand and it's dependance on tourism. Like the Hotel California, you can check any time but you can nevel leave..

P.F. (Not about to Visit Thailand soon but someday would like to)

Houston, Texas

30th November 2008.

Ice Age in Iceland

What a mess. Iceland's banks have f*cked up their country big time. A country of 300,000 people face a troubled future.

From #1 place to live in Europe, they are facing financial meltdown where the value of the Krona has nosedived. It has halved against the dollar due to bankers gone wild. From the Dallas News Article who got it from Washington post:

"Our Loss – Your Gain ... Devaluation Is Silver Lining for Americans," entreated a page on the official Iceland tourism Web site (www.icelandtouristboard.com). They aren't kidding.

The financial crisis may be worldwide, but nowhere have things turned so serious so fast as in this once-expensive island nation of 304,000. With Iceland facing national
bankruptcy, as its prime minister recently said, the entire country is on sale.

Three-course meals at Reykjavik's Lobster House (www.humarhusid.is) are going for $26, the four-star Hilton Nordica is offering $114 rooms on Expedia.com, and a relaxing dip at the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa costs just $20 (http://www.bluelagoon.com/).

It's a beleaguered American tourist's dream, right? Especially with flights on Icelandair running as low as $476 round rip from New York, taxes included.

And so, "it's business as usual in Reykjavik," according to the city's tourism board (http://www.visitreykjavik.com/).

Take plenty of cash. With the Icelandic krona in free fall, most businesses are accepting foreign currencies. Moreover, tourists have reported trouble when trying to withdraw money from ATMs.

I've always wanted to visit Iceland and have toyed with idea of going there as a few days stopover to London.

However, I can't say a winter visit temps me even at these so called bargain basements. My guess is that prices were already sky high so halving it is relative.

With so little hours per day, you wouldn't see much scenery in the winter. I guess if you wanted to hang out in the thermally heated swimming pools it would be good but as for attraction of shipping, it isn't for me. So what if those Gucci bags are cheap here.

As their crisis deepens, I don't see this needing such a rush to visit. I may wait until more light.

On the otherhand, I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights but since I'd have to do a complex flight pattern to get there from Houston to London via Iceland, I think I'll skip it this time.

Sorry Reykjavik. I know you need some hard currency and support from the outside world at the moment. I just hope IcelandAir stays in business.

Phil Fogg

Houston, Texas

9th Nov 08.

If you can't say anything nice, type it instead.

Jan 5th 2008, I blogged some projections for 2008 in "The housing bubble: a travel outlook" :-

• 1) 'Discretionary vacation trips will be cut back. ..Vegas will be especially vulnerable.' NOV 08 CHECK : See 1 , 2 or 3

2) 'In 2008, I expect the UK to be more slightly more attractive as a destination as the pound decreases. Since Nov 07, pound peaked at 2.11 to the greenback. It is now 1.967: a 7.5% decline in just 2 months!It is still not a steal as I remember it at 1.5 but for a frequent visitor to UK, I like the trend.' NOV 08 CHECK British pound is around 1.60 having dropped to 1.52.

3) 'I also predict the the Euro to decline in 2008 as ECB caves under pressure to help it's exporters and drop interest rates'. NOV 08 CHECK . Though Euro has dropped for different reasons and may go lower. It is now 1.27 from a high of 1.6.

4) 'Ben Bernanke in attempt to protect economy will likely drop interest rates again'. NOV 08 CHECK We are now at Greenspan post-911 rates and possibly go lower.

Seeing 4/4 predictions come true, do I consider myself a Nostrodamus ? Nope. I predicted a run up in commodities but didn't see it's decline. With hindsight, perhaps it was obvious. Commodities were just another trading vehicle and they are base inputs to an economy. Cut back on the ecomony, cut back on commodities. China's fantastic GDP rise was biased by spending on new factories, buildings etc. Things geared towards capacity increase which we may not need afterall.

So what does the future look like now 'Mr. Know it all Smarty Pants'?

I believe it is one of a DEFLATION spiral.

For the 1st world consumer driven economies, this will be a disaster. Consumers will not be consuming as credit dries up. This 'miraculous economy' was facilitated by credit. Turn off the credit faucet and we go back to a savings or cash economy. That is turn leads to less demand , less production and more unemployment which in turn leads leads to less demand.

Deflation means that all assett prices will decrease. Real Estate will go down, Stocks will go down and possibly commodities (I say possibly as they've had such a dramatic drop). Finish goods that you want but not necessarily need, will decline.

In this world, Cash will be king. If you have it, you'll hang onto it. You'll realize how difficult it will be to earn more. No more buy and hold in the stock exchange.

Open for a future next shoe to drop is Government bonds and the dollar. Asia has been a big consumer of Goverment bonds and if they go into recession, will they be able to continue to buy them? If no, look out US and the dollar.

So to come back to travel. Short term future as we knew it, will change. Oil is unlikely to spike up but less people and companies will have the disposible income to travel. If your future income stream is also potentially affected, then why would you consider a 2 week vacation?

Future bargains ? If you are financially secure for the intermediate term, you bet. Just look at Iceland. Hungary, Poland, NZ and Russia ? Add any other country to that list. All are welcoming hard currency which today is the dollar.

So according to our lame duck Nero-esque leader of the free world, the economy is strong. However, my take is that the light on the horizon is the economic future burning down.

Phileas Fogg,
(Trying to engjoy that nice sunny day in)Houston, Texas
Nov 2nd, 2008.

The Arabian Gulf.

In a follow on to an earlier post which discusses Dubai, a British couple got a jail sentence for having sex on the beach. The issue was not just that it was public, but they were unmarried. They got 3 months each.

From the LA times :

Vince Acors and Michelle Palmer, who had been accused of being drunk and having sex on the beach, were each sentenced to serve time, fined $272 for drinking alcohol in public and ordered to be deported immediately upon leaving prison. The pair were charged with having unmarried sex after a taxi picked them up from a champagne brunch at a five-star hotel and drove them to Jumeirah Beach in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates' most culturally tolerant emirate.

What happens in Dubai, stays in Dubai. At least for 3 months that is.

Phileas Fogg,

Houston, Texas. 1st Nov 08

Sign Language

Ever heard the phrase, "lost in the translation". Well in this case it was literal.

From the BBC, Swansea Council ordered a translation of "“No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only.”" via email. Getting a reply, they cut and pasted the result and ordered a sign.

However, the reply was saying “I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated.”

I bet this will not be appearing on the workers resume as an achievement.

Phileas Fogg,
Houston, TX.

It's The end of the world as we know it. (And I feel fine..)

I've not posted since August but boy, do I have some things to blog about:-

FINANCE and ECONOMY: Today, Dow down 500 to a 5 year low. World finance is on a brink of the abyss. I'm seeing ripple through in travel. Looks like my projection in January 5th came true.

WEATHER: I was 'Iked'. So was Galveston. Don't think Galveston will be a tourist destination for a while.

"SAM". Don't bother about 'son of Sam' movie. I had to travel with his father for 3 weeks. He was a client of mine. Talk about high maintenance and probable undiagnosed case of Asbergers syndrom. ARGHHHH !!!

LAX: Never will I connect through you again.

CONTINENTAL: I have now travelled enough to be upgraded 2 frequent flier classes. I still don't like you even though I was upgraded on one segment to LAX only to miss my flight and get my hard case luggage smashed.

What else ? Hm.

FUNNY / BIZARRE. Stories that I would have commented upon, the lady who checked herself into luggage.

So why the delay in posting ?

- July was corporate escort to maniac customer representative where I was out 3 weeks. See "Sam" above.

- August was moving house and formal change in job but within the same company.

- September, Hurricane hit. No electricity which meant no internet.

Now I'm back to blogging.

'Cause I'm back.

Yes, I'm back.

Well, I'm back.

Yes, I'm back.

Well, I'm back, back Well I'm back in black.

Yes, I'm back in black.

Yes, In back. Yes, I'm b-a-c-k in black.

Or am I back in blue?

Phileas Fogg,

Post-Ike Houston, Texas

Oct 7th 2008

Amnesia: The Capital of the Forgotten World

Here's a story that is hitting the strange stories today where a family got on thier flight without their three year old daughter. From the BBC news:-

Staff at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel have found a three-year-old girl alone in a duty-free shop after her parents accidentally took a plane without her.

The parents boarded the flight to Paris with four of their five children.

The parents did not realise their mistake until the captain of the plane informed them after take-off, according to police.

The girl was put on the next flight to Paris. The parents will be questioned when they return to Israel.

"It is usual that travellers in a rush forget their luggage but not a child. This never happens," AFP news agency quoted a police official by as saying.

In their defence, they had 5 kids which must have kept them busy. On the otherhand, perhaps this kid was the red headed stepchild. What a complex this kid will have when she grows up : Talk about neglected !

Forgetting the relative is not a one off where in 2005, a Macedonian man drove away from an Italian service station without his wife. He only noticed she wasn't in the car when police phoned him six hours later.

This also happened in France where a motorcyclist also left his wife at a service station after coming back from a ride into Germany.

The cops advised "You'll need more than a bunch of roses".

Fogg Phileas,
Texas Houston.
3rd August 2000 and uhm?

Ask, and ye shall NOT receive

The Penisula Hotel in Philippines, charges 1800 Philippines pesos for a journey to/from the airport, equivalent to $40 US.

A licenced taxi costs around 300.

To catch a taxi from the airport, you get a voucher from the taxi controller stating the destination and give it to the driver. I asked approximately how much it would cost for my destination and was told, it is metered.

I have a dialog with the taxi driver but watch the meter as it increases. As we round the Mikati block to the hotel I see the driver turn off the clock and when I ask how much, he says 500.

I blow a fuse and tell him in uncertain language that I know what the meter just read and know what he has done. I then tell him that since meter is reading nothing, I don't need to pay him anything ! He panicked muttered something about a misunderstanding, apologized etc but since I was tired and wanted to get to the hotel room, I could no longer be bothered with this so I paid what I last saw.

Left alone, I probably would have given him a 500 note and said keep the change.

Ah, Caveat Emptor since I don't know Latin for 'Greedy bastard'.

Phileas Fogg,
Manila,
26th July 2008.

You can checkout any time you like, But you can never leave!

“The Philippine Star” is usually a source for a laugh or two today’s newspaper didn’t fail with a story titled ‘Motel Chain shuts down for God’.

The quote the article:

There will be fewer lovers’ trysts in Metro Manila as the owner of one of the most popular motel chains in the country said he has succumbed to “God’s will” and decided to padlock the last of his establishments.”

Wyden King, chairman of the Anito Hotels Inc. (AHI), said the closure of the 137-room Anito Arellan Kalookan in Barong Barrio was the proverbial last nail on the coffin of his family’s decades old motel business.

The ways of Lord are very strange and we can’t fully comprehend them. Many people, too, do not understand our letting go of this business,” King, 54, said.

We did not want the devil’s mannon going into the family coffers,” said King, a born-again Christian.

Later on:-

King dramatized his distain for his old business by slashing with a knife the familiar red apple logo on the canvas signage that was brought down form its perch during ceremonies marking the Kalookan motel’s closure.

A white tarpaulin over the main gate read “ Anito Hotel closed for the glory of God”.

The closure was also a religious event attended by family and friends, and even former self confessed patrons of the motel.

Pastors of the Caloocan Minsters Associated (Camia) and the Metro Manila for Jesus Movement officiated at he religious ceremonies.

The ceremonies included King’s sprinkling of water on a bed to exorcise “the devil’s presence.”

King said the beds were mute witness to sins like abortion, suicide, incest and drug abuse, amongst others.

Huh? Suicide and drug abuse I may get as going on in a hotel room, but mute witness to incest?

Back to the story:

“I declare all the beds redeemed, (the hotel) totally closed and destroyed in the name of Jesus. I also destroy my covenant with the devil,” he said.

“Our love for mammon had blinded us all these years. I declare this covenant totally cancelled.” He declared.

Hallelujah. Another soul saved. Lets have a round of “Kum by ya”.

Oh yeh, I almost forgot to mention:

King also asked foregiveness for city officials by encouraging corruption by offering bribes, among others, to promote his business.

And finally this:-

King told The STAR that the business was making more the P2 Million a day before the oil crunch. He admitted that theh current crisis had affected revenues but this was not why he gave up the business.

He said some 11,000 individuals “used” his motels daily and their “lives were ruined by falling into immoralty using these rooms”.

C'mon, if he was so religous, why didn't he change the hotels to a lodge for pilgrims or homes for the poor. Sounds like he is getting closure to death, he's cleansing the negatives on his sin balance sheet.

With declining revenues, there is a lesson that Las Vegas hotels should learn in this story. The City with the slogan “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas approach”, should take a hard cold look at what goes on in their rooms.

It is scandalous and I am outraged.

They a missing out on such a gold mine where they should be promoting more decandence to get the tourists in.

Imagine this telephone conversation:

“Hello, BL Z Bub Hotel. Room service?”
“Yes, this is room 666. I like to order some heroin before I perform an abortion on my daughter.”
“Sorry sir, we are out of heroin”.
“Oh ok, what about crack.”
“Sir, we have crack. I’ll have someone bring it up”.
“Whilst I am at it, I was wondering if you have any other debauchery specials?”
"We have a special on human sacrifices. Buy one, another killed for free”.
“Are they free range? I am a environmentalist back home you know”
“No sorry sir, we only have factory farmed humans”
“Then I’ll skip it, Thanks. I pride myself in being green”.
"Have a nice day and thank you for staying at BL Z Bub. The hotel that brings the devil out of you”.

Phileas Fogg,
Manila Peninsula Hotel,
26th July 2008.

All bets are off

It seems that our earlier January blog prediction on Las Vegas' declining fortunes is coming closer to reality every day.

From UK's Telegraph:

Casino owners in Las Vegas have been warned that America's economic slowdown had left the gambling mecca facing "its most severe downturn ever".

Challenging the resort city's traditional boast that it was virtually recession-proof, shares in companies that operate casinos have dipped to new lows this week.

With casino owners plunging into heavy debt and even bankruptcy, industry experts have warned that the world's gambling capital faces the toughest economic challenge in its history.

Keith Foley, a gaming analyst who tracks 55 gambling companies for Moody's, a credit-rating company, said the casino industry was "in the midst of what could be its most severe downturn ever"

"After 9/11, when it bounced back really quickly, everyone thought Vegas was immune to just about anything," he said.

"It is suddenly obvious and maybe kind of scarey that it is not." A combination of rising petrol prices, the housing crisis and cuts in airline services have helped drive down the number of people coming to the Nevada resort city and the amount they are spending there.

The spending downturn has primarily affected the shops and restaurants on which the casinos rely for most of their profits rather than the gaming rooms.

I read on:

Many casino operators have borrowed heavily to finance ambitious expansion plans intended to keep Las Vegas as the world's gambling mecca.

Four casino companies have already gone into bankruptcy this year, including Tropicana Entertainment, which defaulted on $2.7 billion debts.

Harrah's, the world's biggest casino group by revenue and owner of Caesars Palace and seven other big casinos on the Vegas "Strip", posted a fourth-quarter loss in the Spring.

Also from Las Vegas Review Journal, the bright lights don't look so bright:-

Forecasting the demise of Las Vegas is a game that's as tired as puns on the city's ubiquitous "what happens here, stays here" advertising slogan.

But for the first time in recent memory, two benchmark indicators of the health of Las Vegas, the number of hotel rooms in development and airline seat capacity at McCarran International Airport, are moving in opposite directions.

According to the Official Airline Guide, seat capacity at McCarran is expected to decline 12 percent in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, the number of available hotel rooms on the Strip is expected to increase 18 percent by the end of 2009.

That has investors wondering how resort operators intend to maintain the 90 percent occupancy rates to which they've grown accustomed with fewer available airline seats for customers and drive-in traffic slacking off as gasoline prices approach $5 per gallon in parts of Southern California, the No. 1 source of Las Vegas visitors.

"In our opinion, this could not come at a worse time for Las Vegas," Wachovia analysts Brian McGill and Denis Kelleher wrote in a note to investors. "With the cuts in airline capacity, we do not think there will be enough seats to fill the new room supply."

A major Duh for LV!

Looks like the gambling Corporations have been participating in their own products and spinning that wheel. Betting on being in the black but ends up in the red.

What is ironic is that Casino operators get a mention in Taleb's book "Black Swan".Overview. Though in this Bloggers opinion, this event was not a black swan but entirely foreable as it highly correlates to the housing bubble.

Me no more Heloc = Me no more travel, me mo more gamble.

Room rates in LV are already coming down. The legendary hotel buffets offerings are being cut back. If this continues, the Elvis impersonators will end up pawning their "Blue suede shoes" and moving to "Heatbreak Hotel".

Phileas Fogg,
Houston, Texas
6th July 2008.

For further read see also WSJ article.

Ruff Riders

Humans are not the only animals which like to travel.

This link has a funny clip of a dog that likes to travel by motorbike.

It seems he is not the only one. Here's one from Asia. At least the small guy above has some protection.




Dog Breaks Law! - video powered by Metacafe

This video below probably illustrates why having dogs unrestrained is a bad idea.



Police and investigating the above videos and aiming to collar the owners. A police spokesman said that at this moment, we have no leads.

Phileas Fogg,
Houston, Texas
6th July 2008

The Armchair Travelers

Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?
Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?
We could float among the stars together, you and I.
For we can fly.
We can fly" ....... 5th Dimension

Just as I thought I couldn't be surprized by much in life, real life events throw me a curve ball. From the BBC News most emailed stories:-

An American man has succeeded at the third attempt in making a 235-mile (378km) trip in an armchair held aloft by party balloons.

Kent Couch soared across the Oregon desert to the neighbouring state of Idaho in a journey that took him about nine hours.

Mr Couch took an air gun and blow pipe to control his elevation.

He had to bail out by parachute on his first attempt and his second fell short of the state border.

The total expense of the flight was around $6,000. Most of that being the helium gas.

The idea started when Couch, 48 saw a TV documentary on a ex-nam vet named Larry Walters, who did much the same thing in 1982, Walters was fined $1,500 when his adventure elevated him to 12,000 feet and violated air space at Los Angeles International.

Larry Walters is one of the the few to contend for the Darwin Awards and live to tell the tale. From Darwin Awards.com:-

He hatched his weather balloon scheme while sitting outside in his "extremely comfortable" Sears lawnchair. He purchased 45 weather balloons from an Army-Navy surplus store, tied them to his tethered lawnchair dubbed the Inspiration I, and filled the 4' diameter balloons with helium. Then he strapped himself into his lawnchair with some sandwiches, Miller Lite, and a pellet gun. He figured he would pop a few of the many balloons when it was time to descend.

Larry's plan was to sever the anchor and lazily float up to a height of about 30 feet above his back yard, where he would enjoy a few hours of flight before coming back down. But things didn't work out quite as Larry planned.

When his friends cut the cord anchoring the lawnchair to his Jeep, he did not float lazily up to 30 feet. Instead, he streaked into the LA sky as if shot from a cannon, pulled by the lift of 42 helium balloons holding 33 cubic feet of helium each. He didn't level off at 100 feet, nor did he level off at 1000 feet. After climbing and climbing, he leveled off at 16,000 feet.

At that height he felt he couldn't risk shooting any of the balloons, lest he unbalance the load and really find himself in trouble. So he stayed there, drifting cold and frightened with his beer and sandwiches, for more than 14 hours. He crossed the primary approach corridor of LAX, where Trans World Airlines and Delta Airlines pilots radioed in reports of the strange sight.

Eventually he gathered the nerve to shoot a few balloons, and slowly descended. The hanging tethers tangled and caught in a power line, blacking out a Long Beach neighborhood for 20 minutes. Larry climbed to safety, where he was arrested by waiting members of the LAPD.

As he was led away in handcuffs, a reporter dispatched to cover the daring rescue asked him why he had done it. Larry replied nonchalantly, "A man can't just sit around."

No indeed. "A man can't just sit around". That's what Ken Couch must have been saying to himself otherwise he would be wait for it...a Couch potato.

Phileas Fogg,
Houston, Texas
5th July 2008

Bridge over Troubled Waters

Scanning through the radio whilst in my car, I came across a local radio station playing "Ode to Billie Joe" by Bobbie Gentry. Not exactly 'pedal to the metal' driving music such as Wagner's "The Ride of the Valkyries" or foot tapping stuff, but since I was driving urban with a few traffic lights to wait at, it gave me a chance to listen to the lyrics.

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet"
And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge"
"Today Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

Since the song was released, the lyrics has had many folks to philosophise on the story behind the story. Billie Joe was apparently the narrators' boyfriend. What exactly was it that they dropped off the bridge? Why did Billie Joe jump?

I on the other hand, wondered where the hell is the Tallahatchi Bridge or even Choctaw Ridge?

After some false Google search leads believe I found it: Panola County, Mississippi which sorta ties up with Bobbie Genty's background of growing up in Chickasaw County, Mississippi. Perhaps Genty's line "Nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge" reflects the historic cultural antagonism between the Delta whites and "Rednecks" from the hills.

I know nothing of the Tallahatchi river flow but Tallahatchie is a Choctaw name meaning "rock of waters". Maybe he jumped into the waters and hit the rocks instead?

Before my search, I was expecting it to be bridge over the Mississippi which is one mofo of a river to jump into.

When I visited New Orleans a few years ago, we took a boat ride on the Mississippi river. Looking into thefast flowing turgid water, I was amazed at power that the river has. I once stayed with a friend of family in Harvey, Louisiana. The husband told me a story that whilst participating in some commercial construction, he fell into the Mississippi where he said he was swept downstream so quickly but luckily managed to get rescued. Although, I can swim, I was thinking that I would not like to put my swimmiming skills to the test here.

At its headwaters, the Mississippi is less than 3 feet deep. The river's deepest section is between Governor Nicholls Wharf and Algiers Point in New Orleans where it is 200 feet deep ! The Mississippi River Basin or Watershed drains 41% of continental United States.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens wrote extensively about the Mississippi River. He worked as a licensed Mississippi river-boat pilot (1857-61) and adopted his pen name, 'Mark twain!' - meaning by the mark of two fathoms which was the safe depth for the steamboat.

The Mississippi river is also records to the worst loss of life in United States maritime history: the steamboat Sultana explosion. In the early morning hours of April 27, 1865, one of the Sultana’s four boilers exploded and almost immediately set the steamboat aflame. Those who managed to escape into the Mississippi River were met by cold waters near flood stage. More than 2,400 passengers aboard the Sultana, with most of them former Union prisoners of war making their way north from Vicksburg, Miss., to Cairo, Ill. From there, they were to disperse to be reunited with family and friends. Many were swept down river or died from hypothermia. 1700 died.

Even in modern days, the Mighty River still takes it's death toll. On May 29 2007, just as he was to begin recording the follow-up to his acclaimed album, 'Grace,' Jeff Buckley decided to take a swim in a channel of the Mississippi River and was swept away by its raging undercurrents. He was 30 years old.

Ten days after Buckley's body has surfaced, his road manager, Gene Bowen, stands by the riverbank. Looking at the muddy rush of water, he asks, "Why would you even put your toe in that? But it's typical Jeff. He was a butterfly, you know? He was just like: 'Go with it.' "

Another Rock star which has a linkage to bridges and suicide bid is Ritchie Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers. In 1995, Edwards disappeared where the speculation is that he jumped off the Severn Bridge. The Severn Bridge is the link between England and South Wales.

Not that I am contemplating ending it but it has me curious: Which bridges account for largest number of suicides ? I refer to two Wikepedia links: suicide bridge and list of suicide sites.

Number 1 is San Francisco : the Golden Gate bridge. So much for SF's image of flower power and city of love. Even if you survive the fall, the cold waters will get you and the current will take you out to sea. Brrrr.

The second Wiki site I quoted suggests 'Beachy Head' in England has a large number of jumpers. This was site where the character "Jimmy" from the Who's Rock Opera, Quadrophenia drove his moped over the top. The queston then becomes but did Jimmy go with it? A true cliff hanger of an ending.

I was thinking about attempting a humorous ending to this blog topic but knowing many people in my life who have taken their own life, I'll pass on this. One was a teenager, another 19, was at University but survived with serious head injuries. Another a Dad who hanged himself and was discovered by his 11 year old boy.

I just want to say for anyone who may come across this blog searching on keywords, Please don't do it. You may be hurting inside now but think of people you'll leave behind. Suicide is NOT painless.

Phileas Fogg,
Houston Texas
5th July 2008

The Irish Rover

For the sensitive minds, skip this blog article NOW. Do not play this video.

Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

The video from is a German press interview with Micheal O'Leary, Chief Executive of Ryanair. For those of you who may not know, Ryanair are a successful budget airline in Europe, based in Ireland. Mr. O'Leary has a uhm, very interesting take on Business class benefits versus economy.


http://view.break.com/527054 - Watch more free videos

O'Leary is infamous in European airline circles. To quote from Wikepedia

O'Leary has a somewhat fiery reputation among both his competitors in the airline industry and regulators. He has been described in many press articles as arrogant and has on numerous occasions stooped to gratuitous rudeness and foul language in his public statements. His no-nonsense management style, extreme cost-cutting and meanness towards staff, provocative advertising, and his deliberate targeting and scathing criticisms of competitors, airport authorities, governments, and unions have become a hallmark. He has been reported to have been aggressive and hostile in dealings with a woman who was awarded free flights for life in 1988 and abusive and prone to outbursts when dealing with staff and former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Recently he was forced to retract a claim that Ryanair had cut emissions of carbon dioxide by half over the past five years. O'Leary has been reported to have impersonated a journalist in an attempt to find out what information an airport authority had passed on to a newspaper following a safety incident on a Ryanair flight.

In 2004 he purchased a hackney plate for his Mercedes-Benz to enable it to be classified as a taxi so that he could legally make use of Dublin's bus lanes to speed his car journeys around the city. A press report suggested that he was stopped driving his own taxi. In 2005 the transport minister of the Republic of Ireland expressed concern at this abuse by O'Leary and others.

Wow. Can you imagine this colorful behaviour from a CEO in US ? Nope, too polished, too busy backdating options and sweet dealing Congress.

Time to rewrite that old Irish classic song: "When Irish eyes are smiling, Sure, 'tis like flying business class in Spring...."

Phileas Fogg,
Houston, Texas.
28th June 2008.

Row Row Row your boat..

Browsing the web today, I came across an'in joke' on Google maps. Type in driving instructions from Sydney, Australia to Houston, Texas and you'll get maps shown left. Look closely at the Driving instructions in steps 6:-:

Kayak across the Pacific Ocean
Entering United States (Washington)
12,724 km 40 days 19 hours

Don't believe me? Click on this link.

Ah, Blessed are the Geeks: for they shall inherit the (Google) Earth.

Phileas Fogg,
Houston Texas nowhere near Sydney Australia,
28th June 2008.

Twinkle Twinkle little Star

It looks as if Continental and United have agreed to link their networks and services. This will eventually lead to Continental joining the Star Alliance.

Currently Continental is part of the SkyTeam members who include Aeroflot, AeroMéxico,Air France, Alitalia, China Southern, Czech Airlines, Delta, KLM, Korean, Northwest. Without Continental, there are some dogs left with Alitalia leading the pack.

From my perspective, this is a good move for Continental in that the partners in Star Alliance are more attractive as they include Lufthansa and one of my favorite airlines, Singapore.

This will present me with a bit of a dilema now: Which airline do I accumalate rewards on? Houston is hub for Continental but I don't particularly like flying with them. However, if I can use Continental for some of the other airlines, things look better already. I also have a Lufthasa 'Miles and More' account with some milage on it though not as much as Continental.

The other major airline consortium that I fly with and like is 'oneworld' which features British Airways, American, Cathay Pacific, JAL and Qantas amongst their membership. I've flow with
Cathay and that are not quite Singapore standard but good nevertheless.

Is this an opening shot for the battle of the skys? There is too much capacity at the price bracket we all pay where all airlines are hurting with high price of fuel. (There I go again bloging on about energy..)

CodeShare is one way to reduce capacity - airlines agree this to keep their financial interest in ticketing of a route but not necessarily fly it. It may also portend takeover paths for stronger airlines to absorb a weaker partner. Witness KLM being taken over by Air France though things aren't going so well on Air France taking over Alitalia. Alitalia is a basket case.

One thing hampering the merging of the airline industry is yes, you've guessed it : Politics. Policians of all countries whether left or right are stuck in the mode that their country must have a national airline. Their argument is that it 'flies the flag' when abroad.

What a sock of crock. Why should a country run an airline? It is as stupid as each country have their own cola company. This is legacy from days of old when air travel was in its infancy and air fares we high.

It is good to see companies like EasyJet run across Europe that runs its flight like a bus route as in not just direct but a round trip. Same with Southwest in the US.

Whilst US doesn't have 1 national airline, it does have barriers to stop foreign companies from flying within it's borders. They can fly into the county but not continue to fly within in it such as a bus. So much for free trade.

For the mess that politicians create inside air travel, you just need to look at European Union and US 'open skies' agreement. In the US, look at the Wright Amendment.

It seems to this blogger that the cost of fuel may accelerate the merging of many airlines companies so we have a few strong players. Bad news for the traveler but realistically, I don't see the status quo surviving.

I just hope that it bring a merge of the best attributes. Ideally we have a Singapore airlines standard across them all but I doubt it.

For SkyTeam what I fear we will end up with opposite and a lowest common demoninator approach: an Aeroflot safety record, an Airitalia business sense, any American carrier attitude to food, and an AirFrance record of loosing my luggage.

Ah, the romance of travel.

Philea Fogg,
Houston, Texas
21st June 2008.

Here comes the sun

21st June is the summer solstice. There is no better place to celebrate this than Stonehenge, England. Sunrise here is the party place to be.

According to the police, an estimated 28,000 people turned out. This was a fair mix of Druids, New Age travellers, party people and the curious.

This is also the one time of the year when you can get access to the stone circle albeit under the watch of the custodians. This is to prevent some wanker adding deep thoughtful graffiti such as "Knobby was here".

The henge has been a source for traditional British ways of life for a number of years. I don't mean the 1000's years tradition of druids worshipping the great celestial being but another British tradition: an excuse for a good old Fight. From an AP article:-

A clash between police and revellers at the solstice celebration in 1985 led to closure of the monument for the solstice for 15 years. During those years riot police and people determined to celebrate the solstice often clashed.

But in 2000, English Heritage reopened Stonehenge for the solstice, and celebrations since have been peaceful, with only a few arrests for minor offences each year.

"People generally respect the stones and we don't have a problem," English Heritage spokeswoman Rebecca Milton said.

I have been to Stonehenge once before and was disappointed that you couldn't access the stones. I think I will add a summer solstice visit to my future trips to make.

My overall impression on Stonehenge was that it is worth a visit. It will look very nice when it is finished.

Phileas Fogg,
Hiding indoors from the summer Houston sun,
21st June 2008

Dumb and Dumber

A colleague and I arrived at the Dallas Love Field AVIS airport depot to pick up our rental. As our plane had a trip of severe turbulence no refreshments were served, we dropped out hand luggage in the car and ran inside the AVIS office to get some free coffee. It was now raining heavily.

About 4 minutes later, We had our take away coffees and ran back to our car. We jumped inside, and to our horror, our laptops we gone.

Panicking, we went back inside and told them desk staff our story. After "Are we sure we didn't leave them on the bus" type questions, My colleague went with the station manager to look at video tapes.

I went back outside with another AVIS employee. "What was you bay number?" "Number 27".

Together we go to "27" and look inside and see our laptops still inside the car.

A MAJOR DUH MOMENT !!!

In our haste to get our of the rain, we had ran back to the car in bay #26 instead.

Panic over. Colleague come out of managers office and we made our apologies and made a very sheepish exit.

Phileas Fogg,
Dallas, Texas
19th June 2008.

A Rosetta Stone gathers no moss

Have you seen a commercial for Rosetta Stone language CDs? I caught one today whilst watching Bloomberg and part of the pitch, is that NASA uses them.

Why on earth (or any other planet) would NASA wish to be learning languages since they are North American Space Agency that is focused on exploring the heavens?Perhaps they've taken the term 'illegal aliens' to be literal and all Astronauts need to be speaking Spanish just in case 'natural aliens' also speak the same lingo as 'illegals'. On the other hand with area 64 consiracy theories (I reach for my tin foil hat here) Maybe they are secretly learning Martian or Klingon just in case. Perhaps the CD has "Repeat after me : Greeting. Take me to you leader and can I exchange $1000 for Martian zonks?..."

Don't laugh too hard on the Klingon part as there are a bunch of sad individuals who actually do learn this language. See http://www.kli.org/ if you think I jest. Not only that, but the site has 2.7 million hits. (I can think of a few hits I like to give them but it would involve a baseball bat but I am not being a caring/sharing blogger to even think that.) What's more, the site is a freaking charity. Geeks 1: US taxpayers 0.

Speaking of Geeks, I once worked with an engineering manager who visited Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. I asked how it went. He said it was great and I listened anticipating an interesting debacauched yarn or two. "Yes it was excellent, there happened to be a Star Trek convention there at the same time". I almost let out a belly aching guffaw but kept it to a smirk instead. If this is what happens in Vegas, they can bloody well keep it in Vegas.

I've always wanted to learn different languages but realized I have fundamental character flaw: I am lazy. I've bought multiple language tapes and CDs over the years but my linguistic skills are confined to English, conversational German, some french and how order in Spanish.

Even though I lived in Germany for 3 years, I never mastered it. I guess, it was having so many people switch to English whenever I attempted to speak my hesitant German, that I didn't invest time to learn it properly. It didn't help that the crowd I hung out with were predominantly expats. Whilst I could remember the words, I couldn't absorb the genders of the nouns. As such knowing whether it der, die or das impacted my confidence. (For example I know "Tisch" = table but today, can't tell you if it is male, female of neutral).

Having visited Germany and Austria since, I resigned myself never to know the genders, so I just speak in Pidgeon German. I no longer care if I make a mistake and found that I was still understood. As such, this has improved my confidence. I will make an effort to have a conversation in German whenever I hear it being spoken and probably along the lines, repeat some key phrases that I have learned the correct gender such as "Ich wohne in Den USA". I've even been complemented on fact that I speak good German! One of my Polyglot Irish friends commented after a Dallas 'Stamtisch' that he'd heard me speak more German in one night that what I'd spoken in entire time in Munich.

Which brings me on to how much language do you need to know to get by? I've found that I don't bother learning for situations where people probably speak English: At the airport, Hotels, car rentals etc and instead concentrate on situation such as restuarants, shops and getting directions. There are also some countries that English is not widely spoken. For example, Italy so you'll need to make an extra effort. The same with South America in that some degree of spanish fluency is required.

In Japan, English is tought to younger generation but my experience is that spoken english is not at a good level although written english is better understood. I guess it is the confidence thing.

Go to Philippines and English is widely spoken. A Filipino senior manager once told me that English is used as the language to bridge all the local dialects.

I was also found out that when I visited Central Europe, that if English wasn't understood, I could often get by in German.

So is my mission to learn more languages? Yes, but only to the point of getting by. It is not that I am an little Englander )I am a welshman afterall) or an English language supremist but realize that I already speak the second language of the world. The dilema of the English speaker is that if I am to specialize in a second language, what would that be : Mandarin, Hindu, Spanish?

Modern English itself is a pidgeon language developed in older days from when the top half of England needed to speak to bottom half. It has been basterdized from french, latin, german, norse and celtic and other influences. "Ich sprache, du spricht etc" has been simplified to 'I speak, you speak etc" and genderization of nouns has been jetisoned. Even the formal "you" (of du or tu) has been au revoir'ed. (Impressed with my french !)

Still there is a linguistic battleground going on even in English: American English vs. British English. They have gone their own ways over the years. In most cases it is is minor spelling (eg/ color vs. colour) but in other instances it can lead to interesting situations over colloquialisms.

'Fag' is British English refers to a cigarette so saying "I am dying for a fag" (as a Brit friend on mine once said innocently in California) can lead to a few eyebrows being raised.

The opposite of this dual language was an American collegue who on a trip to London, didn't quite understand why everyone burst of laughing when he said that he needed to sit down as his 'fanny' was hurting after a long days walking. (Explanation: "Fannie" in UK is slang for a certain part of the female anatomy a but further to the front of the American version).

English is not the only language to present such linguistic misunderstandings. It took me a few weeks on Germany to realize that "I am hot" should not be literaly translated to German as "Ich Bin Heiss". The sniggers after I said it gave it away and I later found out that "Ich Bin Heiss" was slang for "I am horny" and that I should in fact be saying "Es ist mir Heiss" (Literally 'It is to me hot') ! To my dismay, I also realized that in my prior usage of "Ich Bin Warm" and "Ich bin Kalt", had inavertantly described myself as "I am gay" and "I am frigid".

Oh well. C'est la vie.

Phileas Fogg,
Houston, Texas
June 18th 2008

Postscript: Since most business trips are dealing with engineers, perhaps I should swallow my pride and learn Klingon instead!

It's all Water under the Bridge

Go to LakeDelton.org website and you'll see the following

Welcome to Lake Delton!

More than a million come to visit.

The lucky ones already live here.

1.5 million visitors come to the Wisconsin Dells-Lake Delton area each year.

And more and more of them choose to stay each year in the area blessed with scenic beauty and a wide range of man-made recreational opportunities for year-round enjoyment making it the Midwest's most popular vacation area.

Uhm, that was until last week this is. Last monday, Lake Delton emptied after one of it's sides breached, sending water into the Wisconsin river and in the process wiped out the County A road together with a few houses.

The good news is that nobody lost their lives when it happened. The bad news is the existance of the lake was THE attraction here. People will be wiped out in the economic sense. Imagine owning a Marina and lake side accomodation with no lake. Whilst some have business insurance, I don't think it would apply to this scenario. The same applies to unfortunate house owners who couldn't get an flood insurance.

See Chicago Tribune for more details. Note the appeal for previous Chicago visitors to come. I doubt many people will take them up on the offer.

The factor that stimulated this was the very wet weather that is impacting the wider region causing floods all over. Iowa is particularly hard hit with flooding in Cedar Falls and Many of the Great Rivers forecasting surges that will creast anyday now.

The flooding in Iowa will impact us all. 'Why do you say that - I'm nowhere near Iowa'. The reason is that region is a big supplier of corn and the floods have drowned the corn crop. 'But I don't buy much corn', you may say. Indirectly you do: It is key contributor for Ethanol which makes up 10% of gasoline (('oh no, there he goes again harping on about energy' I hear you say. Yes but only briefly) but it suppliers the farmers growing meat. Prices will go up and as direct result, corn hit record prices per bushel.

At this same time, Southern China is experiencing a major flood. Imagine 1 million people having to evacuate. (see BBC news). When it rains in Asia, it can have some spectacular results. I once visited Philippines in rainy season and had to go up the mountain area. It was not something I'd care to repeat and seeing the rivers now in torrents sweeping bolders like balls and the landslides, I can understand why the Filipinos are so religious: you could be very dead, very soon.

In nature, Glacial melt lakes have always been prone to bursting.In 1995,the Nepal Village of Ghat was destroyed.

Nawa Jigtar was working in the village of Ghat, in Nepal, when the sound of crashing sent him rushing out of his home. He emerged to see his herd of cattle being swept away by a wall of water.

Jigtar and his fellow villagers were able to scramble to safety. They were lucky: 'If it had come at night, none of us would have survived.'

Ghat was destroyed when a lake, high in the Himalayas, burst its banks. Swollen with glacier meltwaters, its walls of rock and ice had suddenly disintegrated. Several million cubic metres of water crashed down the mountain.

The same Guardian article that mentioned above says that in addition to the floods, there is a flip side to the glacial melt. Eventually less water leading to a drying up of the rivers leading to drought.

Lakes bursting and causing time major upheaval are not new. However, from the New Scientist was one that still blows my mind:-

Just over 8000 years ago, a huge glacial lake in Canada burst, and an estimated 100,000 cubic kilometres of fresh water rushed into the North Atlantic.

Researchers now say they know for sure that this catastrophic event shut down the Gulf Stream and cooled parts of the northern hemisphere by several degrees for more than a hundred years.

Is Gaia reseting herself? "It hot in here, lets puts on the air conditioning".

A bit more recent in that man supposidly witnessed it, the ultimate flood event has to be the Biblical flood. I'm not a theologian but the Black Sea deluge theory is supportive that this flood was the Black sea being formed by Meditterranean Sea spilling over at the Bosphorous. It would also explain why people seeking Noah's Ark are looking at Mount Ararat in Turkey.

I just did a Google Search and would you believe that 1st site it pulled up was "Noah's Ark Wisconsin Dells". The Address, 1410 Wisconsin Dells Pkwy N, Lake Delton, WI. !!!

YIKES: I've just found a Biblical link from the Lake Delton flood to Noah's Ark and I wasn't looking too hard for it! Maybe I am a prophet and should start up my own cult. Just need some gullible people now.

If this is the trend of Biblical history repeating itself can't say I am looking forward the modern day version of the 10 plagues. Water turned red, stinking rotting fish and all that. Wait a minute. It sounds a bit like California's Salton Sea.

Phileas Fogg,
Humid Houston (originally a swamp and was flooded in Tropical storm Allison), Texas.
15th June 2008.

Running on empty

I'm not meaning to make this an energy blog but I noted the headlines in BBC news Fuel strike hits supply.

The twist here is that the gas truckers are the ones out on strike over wages. It affects a subcontractor firm who delivers for Shell. Shell account for 10% of UK's supply so concerns are there about shortages and panic buying.

Across the Channel to mainland Europe and add to this picture - truckers strikes in Spain which has resulted in no fresh food in the supermarkets.

Looks like the workers are having a grand old time going on in Europe. Vive la revolution and all that.

It's begining to look like the 70's all over again. Going back to this time period will be a disaster: The thought of "Disco music" is just too much for me to take at my age.

Phileas Fogg,
Houston, Texas
14th June 2008

I'd like to request a downgrade, PLEASE !!!

With the price of gasoline going up, the attraction of a free rental car upgrade go into reverse. If you book an economy car, then getting a gas guzzler SUV with satallite radio, DVD in every seat and the jacuzzi in the trunk, is going to hit you large in the pocket book.

Even if you do book such a compact car, you may find out that when you get to the airport late in the day, all they have available are the larger cars. This happened to me a few times but this has always been on business trips so didn't hit my pocket book. For my private trips abroad, I've got what I booked but European gas prices tend to be x4 US prices anyhow, so a compact there is already expensive.

Like airlines, rental companies are slowly altering their contracts to make more money. In feb, I rented a car from Indianapolis and returned it to Louisville, KY. I noticed of the contract that instead of a flat per day rental with unlimited milage, it was now a per milage charge.

I guess this is another symptom of 'peak travel'.

This week I read that GM intends to close 4 car assembly plants that make SUVs due to the change in the market. Ford are also cutting back in this market. As car rental companies are a significant purchaser of new auto's, will we see the paradoxical situation in the future of gas guzzlers bought from the car manufacturers dirt cheap where these end up being the low tarrif cars?

'Sir, You want the SMARTCAR instead of the Hummer? That will be an extra $50 per day.'

btw: related to car rentals, don't get me onto the stadium taxes surcharges that get tags onto the final car rental bills. You'll not like it when I'm angry. Pen mightier that the sword and all that.

That phrase sounds a bit old fashioned doesn't it? I mean who writes on paper anymore. However, the keyboard is mightier and the sword doesn't have same impact.

Phileas Fogg,
Houston, Texas
8th June 2008

Oil's well, ends not so well.

Matthew Simmons' book "Twilight in the Desert" discusses the concept of Peak oil. Basically, we have reached the economic sweet spot for getting oil out of the ground. No major oilfields are being discovered and older ones are getting depleted. Statistics on actual reserves of the biggest oilfield in the world, Ghawar, is a closely guarded secret. The second largest oilfield, Kuwait's Burgan field, is also past it's peak output and is in decline.

Whilst there may still be oil in the oilfield, it is getting more expensive to get remaining oil out. This will drive up prices and gone are the days of $10 per barrel.

Simmons book came out a few years ago. We are now > $130 per barrel and peak oil seems to be a reality each day. Not factored into this picture is the increased demand from China and India.

This high oil price - and it could go higher See Bloomberg's $200 projection - will decimate the travel industy. Already we are seeing airlines cut back flights, retiring aircraft and increasing ticket prices. Last week, British Airways announced a $109 surcharge for long haul flights. I still remember the days of getting a ticket from US to London for around $600.

This surcharge, was not a surprise to me. I flew to London last month and flight was ~40% full in both directions and I was wondering how long airlines can continue absorbing this without passing it on. AA are now charging you just to check in a bag.

Even industry insiders expect more blood to happen. To quote BA CEO, "I suspect that many airlines out there that struggled when fuel was less than $100 a barrel are not going to be able to take the required actions and we will see further failures," said Willie Walsh.

The list of bankrupt airlines continues. This week SilverJet - a business class only flight - went under leaving many people stranded.

In this environment, I can see no other scenario but a drop in air travel - both leisure and business. This will further add, excuse the pun, fuel to the fire.

High oil price is not only impacting air travel but road and sea travel also. In Europe, there has been protests over high diesel costs and in US, discontent on the ever increasing fuel prices become noisier. Also last week, Disney became the last cruise company to throw in the towel and add a fuel surcharge.

Add to this a totering US ecomomy, the housing bubble deflating and it's removal of one of the biggest ATM's - the Home Equity loans and Mortgage refi's - and the low value of the US dollar and we have a right old storm about to hit the travel market.

I wonder if what we have here is not just Peak oil, but Peak Travel. Gone are the days of easy travel. I wonder how industry will look in the future : Who will be around and what ticket prices will be.

There is one silver lining in this that may make Al Gore happy. A reduction in fuel consumed may be one way to the cut back on greenhouse gases.

Phileas Fogg,

Houston, Texas

June 1st 2008

Rings of Fire

A few weeks back, I was walking in Houston's Hermann park with 2 year old Patrick and the mutts. Hearing a plane, I look up and see one towing a banner saying along lines of "We support Beijing Olympics". I've seen political statements in Houston's sky before usually involving "The Decider" president and impeachments, but an international banner was a new one of me. To set context, this was at time of Tibet demonstrations going on around the torches parades in London and Paris.

Houston has a large Asian population and I often see Falon Gong demonstrating outside the China Consulate on Montrose. It is a bizarre scene of 20 or so folks meditating outside whilst Houston's Goths and Houston's Gays go about their business on their respective next doors. The Goths in Soundwaves music and surf shop and the Rainbows, in Berry Hill and M2M clothing store.

In my eyes, the Olympics and hosting of other major sports are one big political hard on and self enriching opportunity by lobby groups and self interest groups such as construction. For the politicians, it is their chance to get into the history book.

Olympics are the holding nation's venue to puff up their nationalistic chests, put on a good opening and close show, wave a few flags and show the world that their Country's appendage is now the largest in the world. During the 'games' themselves, the competing countries will also be arguing that their medal count gives them bragging rights in the lower nether region.

Unless you are going to Olympics, avoid Beijing in August like the uhm, bird flu. Everything will be overpriced. If you are looking for a bargain, go when the Olympics is finished. They will have built all that room capacity but there will no demand for it once games are finished.

China are using this a forum to show that they have arrived. We are modern and we are back to claim our place as a strong Civilization after many years of humiliation. Afterall, China has shown they can climb Everest with the Olympic flame.

Problem that I, and many others have, is the politics of China's regime. As a one party state, they are one brutal bunch. However, this is not the first brutal regime to host the Olympics, so would I choose NOT to visit a country over it's politics?

Would I have gone to South Africa in Apartheid days? No, I was a firm believer in boycotting goods and services of big business in SA in my student days and was glad to see it transition over peacefully.

Would I have gone to Russia at height of Communist days? Yes. That alone would have been worth seeing. Their people gladly seemed to go along with it.

Would I go to China disliking their regime? Probably yes. They have relaxed somewhat and eased up travel restrictions. I also know some Chinese nationals and they don't seem too upset with thier situation. Real reason is I'd really like to visit before it gets changed irreversibly with development. I have been to Schenzen on company business many years ago and have 2 impressions: Everywhere I looked, there was cranes and construction - no old China. Secondly, spitting. Yes, People young and old, men and women seemed to be continually coughing greenies and launching. If spitting was a Olympic Sport, China would be Gold, Silver and Bronze. (I won't visit for that !)

Would I go to Burma (pre-Typhoon)? Yes, there are some beautiful temples that I'd like to see in Rangoon and Mandalay the people would benefit from my small contribution to their economy. (on side discussion, the callousness of the Military Junta wrt typhon and relief leave me speechless with anger.)

Would I go to North Korea? That is a hard one. North Korea is one dangerous and sinister operation. The whole nation revolves around "Dear Leader" and his whims. From what I understand, there is nothing to see and Government minders will watch you very closely anyhow. In this case, I would say "no" in that people would not benefit from tourism but also there are other things I'd like to see with my limited time here. Why go to see a Concrete Stalinist hell hole when you can see Patagonia or New Zealand instead?

Would I go to Cuba? I would love to. "WHATTTTT", the more extreme Americans may say. Firstly, I believe tourism is a great way for locals to interact with foreigners which will seed discontent and a desire to change. Cuba also has unspoilt beaches and Havana itself a 1950's time warp. (Remember, the like of Castro will die out at some stage and next Generations, will demand changes. Youngesters have only know Communism and look where that has got them.) Secondly, I find it outrageous that US government bans it's citizens from visiting. So much for freedom: If I want to go, Govt should not stop me. Still it is good that Obama has recently questioned the effectiveness of the Cuba Embargo and is discussing lifting it. Good for him. Good for Cuba. If it worked in fall of East Germany (the East Germans could pick up West German TV signals), interface to West may result in change in Cuba.

Look back to the Olympics itself and in amongst the Country dick swinging, you see a history of Politics and controversy behinds the scenes.

The Olympics committee is highly political organization with a history of corruption - see Sydney vote buying scandal and cash payments and other gifts made to IOC delegates by the organising committee for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

The Olympics and World events have always been inter-related.

• 1936 Berlin Olympics where Nazi's used this to promote superiority of Aryan Race. Jessie Owens blew that one away.



• 1968 Mexico Olympics where Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave the famous "Black Panther" salute. (Remember in 1968. both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were dead. Mohamed Ali was stripped of his title for refusing to fight in Vietnam).



• 1972: Munich where Israeli athletes were killed by the PLO.



• 1980/1984: Moscow / Los Angeles boycotts. (Communists and Capitalists) which sorta goes against 'one of the basic principles of the Olympic Games: that politics play no part whatsoever in them'.

An angle that doesn't get too much focus on is the sheer costs of these games. It is widely perceived that hosting Olympics is going to be an economic boom but that is flawed by assumptions politicians will use to put together case for why it should happen. Once awarded, not many come back and revisit if that really happened. An excellent article on economics of Olympics is discussed here. An Excerpt:-

"Mega-events" such as the Olympic Games require large sums of public money to be spent on venues and infrastructure improvements. In order to justify the use of public funds, economic impact studies are often commissioned which invariably project large inflows of money that will have a long-term positive effect on the economy by such means as job creation and visitor spending. Events of the scale of the Olympic Games, which attract large amounts of money from outside a local economy, are forecasted to have economic impacts in the billions of dollars.

Ex-post studies, however, have consistently found no evidence of positive economic impacts from mega-sporting events even remotely approaching the estimates in economic impact studies. In a study of the impact of Super Bowls on local economies, Philip Porter (1999) found "no measurable impact on spending associated with the event. The projected spending and spillover benefits of regional impact models ever materialize" (Porter 1999, p. 61) Porter's explanation is that capacity constraints in the hotel industry cause room prices to increase with no change in occupancy rates. Higher rates contribute to the crowding out of regular traffic and net spending in Areas other than hotel rooms changes little or not at all

The same can be said for other major sporting activities like Soccer World Cup or Superbowl. In Houston's case, we held a Superbowl a few years back. We now have 1 metrorail line to show for it that was built specially for this event. Whilst I am a mass population transport advocate, the legacy for the locals is that the route does not service a heavily populated area.

When I was in Capetown South Africa, everyone was talking about them hosting the world cup. They are building the stadium and there is massive construction going on with financial speculation going on. They are even building a 6 star hotel. I keep thinking to myself, what happens after that world cup. My projection. BOOM.

London will hold games in 2012 and there are already concerns about how much it will cost. From BBC article on 2006, it was already 3.4B pounds. ($6.8B). Holy cow. Read my earlier blog on British management to say to give you a thought on what I project will happen here. Here is a clue: It rhymes with 'chuckup'.

The Olympics coming to a place also involves changes. In Beijing's case, they have been busily bulldozing the old city for development. Vancouver is hosting 2010 and question I have is what will happen to Vancouver downtown. You may not know but Vancouver has a big drug and homeless population. One thing I heard concentrates this is the relatively mild winters here. If you are homeless, you'd freeze to death in other cities. So let's see how Canadians handle this one. I doubt this will take a tip from previous 1936 Olympics:-

Hitler removed signs stating "Jews not wanted" and similar slogans from the main tourist attractions. Hitler desired to clean up Berlin, the German Ministry of Interior authorized the chief of Berlin Police to arrest all gypsies and keep them in a special camp.[1] Nazi officials ordered that foreign visitors should not be subjected to the criminal strictures of anti-homosexual laws.

Will I be watching Olympics on TV in August? I shrug my shoulders. I missed all the 2004 Athens games and ceremonies. I may watch Beijing opening and closing if I have nothing better to do: Maybe there will be a Janet Jackson moment? The 'games' themselves are of peripheral interest to me and why is synchronized swimming a sport? BTW: the only sport I like watching is International Rugby.

Should the Olympics come back to basics? Yes, let's cut down the sports, try to remove the business and political interests. So, how far back should we go ? We'll I don't advocate going back to Ancient Greece Olympics. Yuk, Lots of nude males athletes running and wrestling. We've enough swinging 'you know whats' at the country level as it is !

With all this scandal and upset going on, Maybe the official sponsors of the Olympic rings should be these guys...

Phileas Fogg,
Houston, Texas
31st May 2008

The mile High club: Japanese style

From the BBC news "Cannabis blunder at Tokyo airport"

"An unwitting passenger arriving at Japan's Narita airport has received 142g of cannabis after a customs test went awry, officials say. A customs officer hid a package of the banned substance in a side pocket of a randomly chosen suitcase in order to test airport security."

"Sniffer dogs failed to detect the cannabis and the officer could not remember which bag he had put it in. Anyone finding the package has been asked to contact customs officials."

""This case was extremely regrettable. I would like to deeply apologise," said Narita International Airport's customs head Manpei Tanaka."

Pretty funny stuff. Can you imagine the passenger's face as they unpack especially if they are a stoner? Hey wow man, Banzei !

On the other hand, I just hope that passenger is not on route to Singapore and gets pulled up by customs.

"But, But But...that isn't mine". "No, you bad man. They all say that. You go to changi prison and get hanged".

Speaking of substances and instransit, pay attention to Dubai airport. From a previous BBC article :

"Travellers to the United Arab Emirates are being warned about its severe drug laws which have seen dozens detained for apparently minor offences. Fair Trials International said arrests were being made over tiny quantities of drugs and over-the-counter medicines."

"British tourist Keith Brown was sentenced to four years in prison after Dubai customs officers found a 0.003g trace of cannabis stuck to his shoe."

"Possession of painkillers like codeine and some cold and flu medication could result in a mandatory four-year prison sentence, Fair Trials International said. In one of the most extreme cases, it reported a man being held after poppy seeds from a bread roll were found on his clothes."

My advice if going to Dubai, just don't try smuggling cannabis in a teddy bear . If you do make sure the Teddy is called something innocuous like 'Eric'. Otherwise you'll REALLY be in trouble.

Phileas Fogg,
Houston, Memorial day 2008

Life in the bus lane

The other week I was driving from Wales to London Gatwick and passed a "National Express" bus on it's way from Swansea to Cardiff. On the side was sign 'Free Internet access' onboard. As a net freak with 3 hours boring driving ahead of me, it got me thinking about public transport and maybe that I should re-look at public transport in my future travels.

I'd recently used Gatwick and Heathrow expresses and they also had such features though in the casee of Heathrow, by the time you'd logged on, you'd be in Paddington.

When younger, I'd use National Express to travel. I quite enjoyed it though you'd have to allow some time to get there. This is similar to flying Southwest which if you are going a distance, allow for change overs. Some years back, I found a flight from Dallas to Seattle took us 8 hours. Not so good, if this is part of your long weekend.

With price of fuel going up, I see a resurgance of public transport for traveling. I love travelling by trains but in Texas, Forget it. Amtrak does go from Houston but I've been told it is such a slow trip. I envy North East for their choice.

I've yet to take a Greyhound bus trip but someday I will if only for the experience. But that brings up another disadvantage of publc transport: the public. You're hostage to having to sit next to some nut that nobody wishes to sit next to who may suddenly start singing.

Which brings me back to my car journey. As I got nearer to London, I picked up Eagle 96.4 and it was playing some rocking music. So I did something you cannot do on public transport: turn up the volume and sing your head off. Not unless you want to be regarded as some kinda nut that nobody wishes to sit next to that is..

Phileas Fogg,
Houston Texas but mentaly penned on M4 motorday going 'Up the smoke', UK

Say it loud, say it proud

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.

A riddle for you: Dimitris Lambrou is a lesbian but he is a man. He was born a man and has not had a sex change. How can that be?

The answer lies is the fact that he was born on island of Lesbos: A native of Lesbos is a Lesbian.

As discussed in the UK's Times newspaper "Dimitris Lambrou, along with another Lesbos resident and a member of a nationalist pagan association, have started a legal action to gain the exclusive right to call themselves Lesbians. Their legal action seeks to prohibit the Greek Gay and Lesbian Union (OLKE) from using the name "lesbian". The claimants argue that the “seizure” of the term lesbian to mean more than simply “of the island of Lesbos” (in the northern part of the Grecian archipelago) has caused them mental distress."

The irony of this gave me a rye smile since 'Greek' is also slang for a type of sexual practice, forbidden until 2003 in Texas.

A different name argument is taking place in Greece and the former Yugoslavia "Republic of Macedonia" (FYROM) which is now an independent country. Athens' problem is that they also have a region on North Greece called Macedonia and thus, are concerned that FYROM names implies territorial claim on their Macedonia.
Would you believe it that it is now at United Nations level and it is holding up FYROM's membership of Nato? Even President Bush is involved in it. (That alone, will likely be an inverted Midas touch !).

Alexander the Great would be proud of this rift. Speaking of which, When Oliver Stone released his film "Alexander" a group of 25 Greek Lawyers wished to sue of portrayal of Alexander being so effiminate.

The Greeks are not the only ones claiming name exclusivity and resorting to legal system. Even though I like Cava from Spain, only the French have the right to make "Champagne": Bubbly can only be called "Champagne" if from the Chamgagne area. They have EU lobbyist that thank for that but it would be interesting to see if Champaigne Illinois fremented some grapes, could they call it US Champaigne and launch a spoiler product ? Whilst not a place per se, Budweiser US lost out in a claim against worldwide rights to Czech brewer of "Budweiser".

There are some places that no other country would wish to claim but are minor tourist attractions in their own right.

The Austrian place in photo above is one and for the Brits, Wank in Baveria.

Apparently in both places, they have to spend a lot of time replacing signs which get stolen by infantile British visitors.

One place which will not get a title claim against it is England's Great Snoring .

However, the ultimate is name trumps has to be the longest place name in the UK: Wales' Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch on Anglesey Island. A bit crap really in that your main attraction is your sign post.

Thieves beware on LLFPGG sign: To steal this sign will require at 3 people just to carry it. On the bright side, the Greeks will have no claim on it.

Phileas Fogg,
Houston, Texas
3rd May 2007

He's got a ticket to Ride

STOP THE PRESSES ! Huge important News this week:AFP "Former prime minister Tony Blair was caught travelling on a train without a ticket and any cash to pay the fare, his spokesman said on Wednesday.

Blair was confronted by a ticket inspector as he travelled to London's Heathrow airport to catch a flight to the United States on Monday, spokesman Matthew Doyle said.

"Mr Blair just didn't have any cash on him," Doyle said. "One of the policemen travelling with him offered to pay for the ticket, but the ticket inspector said it wasn't necessary."

"All right for some" may some people who wish to discuss the two tiered system of the Hoi-poloi vs the plebs but my commentary is more on the ticket inspector. I applaud the common sense attitude of the ticket inspector for not making a big deal over this. The Lower ranks of Britain are usually great for their pragmatism.

I've been let off two speeding tickets thanks to the leeway of the individual British policemen. First one was after coming out of 45 mph to 30 mph and my house was just inside that, the second when I was VERY over limit when I was cruising like I drove in Germany. The cop let me off as I didn't have a UK address on my licence and whilst I should have to appear in front of a judge for a non-fixed fine, the courts would not open until 3 days away due to a public holiday weekend. He didn't want to put me in the police clink for that length of time so he let me off with a caution. Thanks PC Plods. It is not forgotten.

At school, I was guilty of many things that got me trouble. I was caned at least twice but my peak crime was being busted with having my homemade beer in my bag. I was intending to give it to somebody later in the day where is was end of term. Luckily for me, I was not expelled based on the Deputy head looking at my academic record and fact that I was so near to finishing school. He just confiscated my illicit stash and gave me a stern lecture about pulling myself together and not fecking my life up. Kids will be kids and I went on to University and speeding excepted, sorta turned out OK. Thanks Mr. Deputy head for that but I know you enjoyed my beer.

The Zero tolerance of the school system in US would have been a disaster to me. I shake my head when I hear of stupid practices such as kids finding something at school, turning it in to teacher and then being busted for being in of the thing they turned in. Randy Cassingham on his "This is true" raises the stupidity of ZT.

Same with much of the Police and their attitude to enforcing laws. Sometime I believe we have a Legal system in the US, not a justice system. For traffic offences, they ticket people only for them to play the system and get off. Two people committing same offence will get different punishment based on the calibre of their lawyer. Sometime is it the enforcement of stupid laws that gets to me: For example the case of jailing 1 teenager for 10 years for consensual Oral sex. See Genarlow Wilson's story. The kid's life was ruined by doing things kids are doing throughout America and not prosectuted in other states.

I'd add the TSA to my rant on the ZT approach that would be discussing "SECURITY". Das ist Verbotten. We've all heard the message in the airport "Security is a serious matter. Jokes made will be taken seriously".

I guess I'll keep the "How many TSA personnel would it take to change a light bulb" joke to myself next time I am at the airport. I imagine their response "A wiseguy eh?" Let me put on another rubber glove. Come with me. Extra dry KY over here.

Phileas Fogg,
Houston, Texas
April 26th 2008