Odds + Ends

Vagabondish Wins 2008 Editors’ Award for Online Excellence

Like what you see? Subscribe to the full RSS feed. Much to our pleasant surprise, that great bastion of all things hip, relevant and newsworthy - yes, I’m speaking of course of The Morning News - has tipped their cap this year to Vagabondish as their “Favorite Pop Travel Magazine”: You know when you want that […]

Apologies to Our Daily Digest E-mail Subscribers

My apologies to our Vagabondish Daily Digest e-mail subscribers. You’ve probably noticed that, for the past week or so, text formatting of Digest e-mails has been a little squirrelly (i.e. text for each post is displaying in large, nearly illegible blocks without appropriate line breaks). I promise - I’m working to get this resolved ASAP! Cheers, -Mike

Bugs on a Plane: Wasps Cause Aborted Qantas Take Off

I Sting © furryscaly According to the BBC, a series of aborted take-offs at Australia’s Brisbane airport has been linked to wasp infestation of the airplanes involved. Apparently, wasps got to work building nests inside five Qantas airplanes while they were waiting on the runway. On one of the flights aborted during take-off, the pilot reportedly […]

109 Year Old to Receive First Passport … Several Decades Too Late

Maria Kostova is receiving a welcome gift on her 109th birthday – her very first passport … several decades after she initially applied for one. Kostova, who was born on February 7, 1898 in the Macedonian town of Shtip, did not have a birth certificate issued at the time of her birth. Twenty years ago […]

Traveler’s Charm Offers A S**tload of Luck on a Rope

Think you have the crappiest luck? A poo themed lucky charm might be just the thing to break your jinx. Following in a line of crap themed products, this Japanese charm is called the Lucky Golden Poo. The Japanese word for luck is also similar to the one for poo - go figure - […]

Bizarre Culture: The Infectious Spanish Disco Pop of Loco Mia [Video]

It’s like Color Me Badd hired a team of Spanish matador costume designers. Try not watching it until the end. You can’t - it’s just too delicious. It almost beats out the Benny Lava video. Almost.

Ad, a Reminder to Get Rid of All Your Crap [Video]

I remember reading a study a while back noting how storage rentals in the United States increased some astronomical percent in the past decade. Enter this award-winning commercial: There’s no denying it’s pretty damn cool on a technical and artistic level. However, the intent is clearly to influence pack rats to expand their available space to […]

Weird Things in the Hotel Lost and Found: Boy, Cat and Human Remains

According to Travelodge Hotel in Edinburgh, the strangest piece of lost property that guests left behind in 2007 was a 4 year old boy (?!?). The parents apparently had a family party to attend, and loads of luggage. In all the excitement, they forgot to take their son along. Thankfully, they returned […]

Bizarre Culture: Master Plunger Thrower on German Television [Video]

Somehow, the back flip and John Travolta-style disco split at the end seems fitting, no? You’re jealous. Don’t lie.

TSA Tied with IRS in Popularity Contest

With all the confusion about what and how much you can take on a flight, rude officers and publicly humiliating Roto-Rooter-style cavity searches, the Transport Security Administration is officially tied with every U.S. citizen’s bogey man, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), for the title of the least popular federal agency in the country, a poll […]

Grandma Trekker Crosses Indo-Nepal Border With … Bus Pass

A quick thinking pensioner traveling on a trekking trip in the Himalayas used her bus pass to get through a check point on the Indo-Nepal border. Seventy-two year old Helen Carter, an avid adventure sports enthusiast, was part of an organized trekking group tour to India. The group was based in the Indian hill station […]

Entire Hungarian Beach - Complete with Sand - Stolen

Owners of a beach-themed leisure park in Hungary are hopping mad after they lost an entire beach complete with sand, lounges and shacks to thieves. Yes - you read that right: complete with sand. The beach had been set up on the riverbank at Mindszentas, in a country which has no natural oceanfront of its […]

Road Trip Travel Inspires the World’s Most Boring Video Game

On November 23, 2007, a group of Canadians sat down to raise money for a children’s charity via a gaming marathon. Nothing novel about that you might think, except that the game they’ll play, “Desert Bus”, is so boring it’s never been officially released. The road trip travel game comprises an 8 hour drive in […]

American Woman Cooks Pizza in Hotel Safe … Or At Least Tries To

You really can’t make this stuff up. Hotel staff are used to guests using their rooms to do strange things. But this one takes the cake … er … pizza. A guest at the New Zealand’s $300 a night Hermitage Hotel in Mount Cook called staff to her room claiming that she couldn’t get her microwave […]

Journey to the Center of the Earth

The Hollow Earth theory – that the earth has an empty hollow, possibly inhabitable interior – has had many notable takers over the centuries. Plato, Edmund Halley and Hitler were ardent believers. Hollow Earth © midi8 Man has never drilled deeper than 15 miles into the earth and this has helped create some fantastic theories […]

German Pub Skirts Smoking Ban with “Butt Holes”

This is one trend that promises to be the butt of many jokes to come. (Get it? Seriously, we’re here all week) At the Maltermeister Turm in Goslar, Germany, the enterprising owner found a novel way to beat the new smoking ban, and accommodate customers who complained about having to freeze their butts off […]

Air Rage Incidents Triple in Last 3 Years

Those mid air scuffles that provide such entertainment to the rest of us stuck in coach on a 14-hour journey have only gotten more frequent. According to the Civil Aviation Authority, the number of incidents of “disruptive behavior” on airplanes has tripled in the last few years. This year, the CAA received around 2,219 […]

Indian Airlines Agree to Pay for Passengers’ Mental Agony

Ever been stuck in an airport with yet another plane delay, and seething in silent fury? If you’re in India, you could be eligible for compensation for your mental agony. An Indian consumer court has ordered a private airline to pay its passengers who were left stranded when the flight was canceled $380 […]

Autumn Sex Tourism Flourishing in … Kenya?

Kenya’s beautiful coastline has long been known as a magnet for pedophiles. At last estimate close to 15,000 girls between the ages of 12-18 in at least four districts in the region were involved in some form of sex trade with some of them participating in the most horrific sex acts with moneyed tourists […]

Japanese Underwater Toilet Provides Patrons a “Loo” with a View

Akashi, Japan’s Mumin Papa Café - built at a cost of $275,000 - offers this underwater restroom (or “loo” if you like) with a view to its patrons: I can’t imagine this is too healthy for the fish’s psyche.

Hidden Hotel Wall Art: The Secret’s Lurking in Your Hotel Room

If you thought all hotel room art was singularly bland and unimpressive, you might want to check what’s behind that cheesy countryside painting on the wall next time you’re holed up in your hotel room. You just might discover a hidden treasure. As this video shows, enterprising artists are leaving mementos of their talents […]

Cultural Optical Illusion: What Do You See?

This is a fascinatingly simple optical illusion. From Eyes-and-Vision.com: The influence of culture and environment can have an effect on our visual perception. This theory was first explored by Robert Laws, a Scottish missionary working in Malawi, Africa, during the late 1800’s. Take a look at the picture below. What you see […]

Google Introduces Collaborative Mapping

Imagine a wiki-style map program that allows hikers and backpackers from all over the world to map out their favorite trails; or traveling sun worshippers around the globe to pinpoint their picks for best beaches on the planet. That’s exactly what the new collaboration feature on Google Maps allows you to do. This […]

Lookin’ for Love in All the Web’s Places

A few e-mails have been rolling in asking where Vagabondish can be found on social bookmarking sites. So I’d like to extend the invitation to anyone interested in “friending” or otherwise “favoriting” us (and vice-versa) on the site’s below: Digg: vagablogger de.licio.us: Vagablogger Technorati: Add to Technorati Favorites If you have a blog and would like to “hook […]

Chasing Moonbows: Like Rainbows, Minus the Pot o’ Gold

While rainbows have managed to create an iconic place for themselves in the public imagination, “moonbows” haven’t been as lucky. No pot of gold to be found at the end of one, and chances are kids at schools don’t include one in their nature drawings. So what exactly is a moonbow? Well, it’s […]

Photo of the Moment: Test Sign, Denver

Eighth Wonder of the World: Underground Temples of Damanhur

Buried deep underground in the valley of Valchiusella in the Italian Alps lies a secret so stunning the Italian government has dubbed it the “Eighth wonder of the world.” Unlike the other seven wonders however, this one isn’t centuries old. In fact, until a few years ago, few were even aware of its existence. More than […]

Australia Proposes “Tubby Tax” for Obese Travelers

An Australian proposal intends to charge obese passengers an additional tax for every extra kilo they weigh.

4 Ways To Be A Traveler, Not A Tourist

Tourist or traveler? The debate rages on.

Southwest Passenger Asked to Change Outfit Bares All for Playboy

If the prim Southwest Airlines employee who told Kyla Ebbert to adjust her revealing outfit before getting on board meant for the 23 year old college student to be mortified enough to cover up in the future, it hasn’t worked. Ebbert is once again in the news, and this time for wearing even less than […]

Keep Looking »