Travel

While it will go unnoticed by most, tomorrow marks the end of an era in U.S. commercial aviation. On Wednesday, May 21, Herb Kelleher, one of Southwest’s co-founders and its very public face for more than 30 years, will step down as the airline’s chairman. Since 1971, Kelleher has piloted the prototypical low-cost carrier through good times and bad, prospering through airline deregulation, recessions, crises related to fuel prices and terrorism, and so on. Dozens of other discount airlines have come and gone in that time. Many of them assumed that Southwest’s low-cost, point-to-point model was simple, and could be easily copied as a blueprint for success and profitability. They were proven wrong. Under Kelleher’s leadership, Southwest has grown to become one of the largest U.S. airlines, and arguably the most successful, racking up the industry’s longest unbroken series of profitable quarters in recent history. Just as Southwest’s history and Kelleher’s are linked, so are the
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  Note:  This is 1st page.  For most recent date, click right on tiny green link ”Jump to most recent entry”  For *ALL* dates: http://tinyurl.com/47fhqj or click above on “Table of Contents” 1st Blog: Jazy’s 100 Wishes:  Here are some things I want to do over the next 15 months of travel: ride in a hot air balloon go to Europe hold a baby panda order something in spanish make at least one friend a week run along a the white beaches of Central America go up the great wall of China in a go cart, and back down! learn enough Chinese to survive in China swim with the dolphins go to the Albequrque ballon fiesta sit on top of my rig’s roof and watch the fireworks at the Allbequrque balloon fiesta go scuba diving live through the trip become a professional anvigator go eat pizza in Italy go on a zipline in Costa Rica volunteer at a Chinese orphanage go to the Artic Circle volunteer at a school in Panama see a bear in Alaska go to the
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Holding the big day away eliminates much of the stress over guest lists, bridesmaids and seating arrangements. It's sometimes cheaper, although it does add a burden of red tape, with visa and marriage licence requirements. "Destination weddings are a rapidly growing trend," says Victoria Black, publisher and editor-in-chief at wedding experts Wildfire Publishing, with titles including Modern Wedding magazine. Generally, she says, fewer people are invited and celebrations go on for longer. "Modern brides and grooms want a wedding that will stand out from those of their friends," Black says. Online guides litter the internet like confetti. Britain's was launched in January 1999 by Karen Thornton-Brown, who lives in Newcastle Upon Tyne and was inspired to become an international wedding planner after she married at Sydney's Curzon Hall in 1998. She has had some bizarre requests. "Once we had a client ask if we could provide penguins for a wedding in
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Punk is not just a music genre, but a lifestyle. Music plays a very important role in the punk lifestyle, but so does a fierce independent streak, DIY work ethic, and anarchic political leanings. In Punk House: Interiors in Anarchy, Abby Banks travels across the country, visiting these punks. But this is not a socio-political research paper. This is a photographic journey, visiting “punk houses.” Punk Houses are small houses that are usually occupied by far more people than the house was originally designed for. These houses are often times abandoned, in the middle of nowhere, and certainly run-down. The idea behind these punk houses is twofold. By cramming as many people as possible into a living space, rent is significantly reduced, allowing the inhabitants to spend less time working for the man, and more time dedicated to their interests. These punk houses also become living, breathing art projects. Banks’s photos show a lifestyle that many people might associate
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Trying to figure out whether that “rustic lodge” in Montana is rustic because it’s in the woods or because it’s a shed built on top of an ant colony? (I found out the hard way.) Is the “history” part of that “historic hotel” in Paris the result of its period antiques or its 300-year-old plumbing system? (Ditto.) With help from the growing number of hotel photos and videos posted online, it’s possible to do virtual site-inspections of many hotels before you book. TVtrip, a relatively new site, allows you to search for hotels in 115 destinations and view professional-looking videos of hotel exteriors and interiors taken by TVtrip camera operators. Currently, it has about 5,000 videos, with heavy representation in big cities like New York and London. It appears the site focused on shooting videos of four- and five-star hotels initially, and now is adding videos and still shots of more two- and three-star properties. Let’s hope they flesh out these areas more and also expand to smaller
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After being given the mission of spending a weekend like a millionaire, I can assure you there was nothing unhappy about the entire experience. There were no tantrums. No arguments. No new frown lines. Certainly no tears – for two whole days. I was jovial, smiley and pleasant to everyone. Maybe the only stress was being handed the keys to a half-million dollar Bentley and being told to go and have fun driving around Sydney for two hours. But by the time I turned into George Street, the stress was gone and I was in love with my new car! Call me a million-dollar baby, but thanks to Sydney's Hilton Hotel, I was lucky enough to have a wee taste of its newly-launched Million Dollar Package, and it was like throwing a duck to water. So if you've got a cool mil to throw around, I can totally recommend how the Hilton and its partners will help you spend it – and in style. Every element of luxury has been covered in the package, so you can just sit back, sip Dom Perignon
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The Taoist Temple in the rich suburb of Cebu City called Beverly Hills is well worth a visit. It’s build by the chinesse community in Cebu (which makes up about 15% of Cebu’s population) and is a very beautyfull landmark. To reach the top of the temple you need to walk the 99 steps up there which makes it possible to graduately get a better and better view. The temple is still a place of worship which makes it a sanctuary of peace and calmness, that can be well needed in the middle of a stressed holiday. taoism taoist temple cebu Part of the South East Asia 2008 travel blog Taoist Temple, Beverly Hills,Cebu Taoist Temple, Beverly Hills,Cebu Taoist Temple, Beverly Hills,Cebu

When my wife and I moved to Shanghai some nine months ago, we knew we would eventually move back to the States. The plan was to stay for one, maybe two years with the possibility of extending that for another year or two. After that we knew we would have to come home. As anyone who has spent an extended time in a foreign land can tell you, there are good days and bad. The good days are clear and beautiful. They make like home. The bad days roll up on you like rain and make me wish I was anywhere but this strange land where everything is different and nobody understands. Having lived on foreign soil before, I knew all about both types of days before we left and as such promised myself not to make any final decisions on how long we would stay for at least six months. Even so there days when I was sure I wanted to live in China, and days when I wanted nothing more than to catch the next plane out. We have been thinking it over these last couple of months and we have now decided to head
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This summer is shaping up to be an especially lucrative one for mileage earners, particularly those who plan to rent cars. In response to expectations of unusually weak demand, rental car companies are offering generous frequent flyer promotions—mileage windfalls that can put renters on the fast track for a free ticket. Following are a few of the offers, pulled more or less at random from my inbox. Members of Continental’s OnePass program can pick and choose among offers from Alamo, Avis, Budget, Hertz, and National. Alamo partisans, for example have a choice of two offers: triple miles and a discount of up to 25 percent; or 1,000 bonus miles, plus a 15 percent discount and a car upgrade. The former is in effect through the end of the year; the latter ends on June 15. Midwest Miles members can earn double miles on Hertz rentals, plus a discount of either $30 or 50 percent, through June 30. Northwest WorldPerks members can earn double miles and save 50 percent on weekend rentals
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Looks like all the news about airfare hikes, outrageous fuel prices, and airline intrigue may be convincing a lot of travelers to stay at home this spring and summer. The airlines reported a year-over-year drop in demand this April, the first such drop in more than year, and now both the AAA and Air Travel Transport Association (ATA) are predicting a drop in the number of passengers taking to the air this summer. Thursday, May 15, AAA came out with its Memorial Day travel forecast, projecting that compared to last year, about 200,000 fewer travelers will be flying and 360,000 fewer drivers will embark on road trips of more than 50 miles. That’s the first time AAA has predicted a slowdown in Memorial Day travel since the start of the Iraq War in 2003. Not coincidentally, AAA notes that airfares for the holiday weekend are up 8 percent over 2007, and gas prices are 68 cents higher. A few days earlier, the ATA looked into travel trends for the summer (June 1 to August 31) and said it
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