16 posts tagged “travel”

How odd, the compose screen comes up twice over a short period, despite being out of action for two solid days. Even before those two days, it was only working intermittently (but I could deal with clicking refresh for a few hours—a few days gets boring).
   Before the service goes away again, here are some shots I wanted to share with you of Christchurch from my last visit. These were shot from my suite at the Hotel Grand Chancellor.

It was an interesting experience driving home yesterday. I thought I would go via Napier on State Highway 5, since I have never been to the sunny coastal town. I never made it, because the route to the sunny coastal town was like this:

   State Highway 1 (Desert Road) was also closed, which originally made the detour on SH5 a clever plan—not so when it snows in the supposedly warm springtime here.
   Napier has a reputation for having great weather but my one and only memory of getting there will be this! However, I can no longer say I have not seen snow up close any more.
   And how.
   Knowing that the Desert Road was closed off, I took State Highway 41 west, where I was greeted with similar scenes. A very helpful motorist in a pick-up truck led the way down to the Taumaranui intersection, otherwise I would have been stranded at the top of the mountain. As I had discovered earlier on 5, the BMW is terrible on sludge and I had next to no traction in attempting to make a U-turn.
   It didn’t end there. I got as far as the National Park area and stopped for dinner. As I headed down on State Highway 4 (which was also shut for a time as I waited, while Wedding Crashers came on the BMW’s TV tuner), it turned out that SH48 was closed—it would have been much faster going to Wellington from there. I was advised to continue on SH4, which, incidentally, has no lighting. I dodged quite a few slips and if it were not for the three-dimensional sat nav, I would probably not have attempted the drive, as it was tricky for a first-timer.
   I got as far as Wanganui, because I was running low on petrol and a lot of stations were shut at that hour, or on pre-pay. I spent the night in a hotel where a lone cockroach walked atop my blankets—I will not name the place because I cannot say for sure whether this little creature walked in while the door was open as I shifted in my luggage. I am no entomologist. But I have advised the place that they need to take whatever steps are necessary to clean the room.
   Wanganui is an interesting town: the sat nav told me that there were hotels called the Four Seasons (which was really a motel that has nothing to do with the Four Seasons that I know) and the Quality Inn (which has nothing to do with Quality Inn). Sorry, I won’t confirm if either of these was where I stayed. Neither is breaking the law here as far as the names are concerned: as far as I can make out, the old Quality Inns are now the Quality Hotels, and Four Seasons does not operate here.
   So a six-and-a-half-hour drive turned into one lasting about 25 hours, but I had a whale of a time.
   And finding a way to State Highway 2 would not have helped. The police shut that off because a killer was at large yesterday (yes, just one—and in a generally peaceful country, that’s sufficiently for our police to act).
   Oh, and to the asshole in the Touareg who overtook me on SH4 (reg. DZC ***): tailgating in the snow is a really bad idea, dick. I don’t care if you do have four-wheel drive.

I now know of one colleague who is cancelling her plans to visit the United States because of the Obama administration’s changes to travel requirements.
   While I am unsure whether these are a hangover from the Bush days or not, they are fatal to US tourism, and disconnect the country from the rest of the world in terms of international travel.
   As mentioned, people from countries which were once eligible to visit the US for 90 days under the visa waiver programme (this includes close allies such as the UK—excepting British overseas nationals, as the USA now practises apartheid against British subjects) now have to fill out a form with the Department of Homeland Security 72 hours before travel.
   And although the US Government claims this takes seconds, the reality is that it takes 20 minutes per person—far longer than the old system which took mere minutes per traveller. If you are the person applying on behalf of your family to travel, be prepared to be by your computer for over an hour.
   The form applies even for people transiting who have not entered the US through Immigration—which suggests to me that whomever dreamt up this policy actually has no understanding of where US sovereignty begins.
   Americans already have a stereotype of being ignorant of overseas affairs. While untrue for the most part, policies like this do not help.
   Secondly, the US Government has the right now to charge travellers not holding a passport with a chip US$545, even if they have filled out the Homeland Security forms.
   This is despite the passport being valid. Apparently, for the United States, passports valid anywhere else in the world are not good enough for Americans.
   While the charge is at the airport’s discretion, who can tell when one would get stung?
   Americans already have a stereotype of being arrogant. While untrue for the most part, policies like this do not help.
   Hang on, there’s déjà vu there.
   The US Government, even under President Obama, is as detached from everyday Americans and the citizens of the world than ever.
   I can only hope these are things that the President has not got around to sorting out. For they sound just like Patriot Act-inspired policies that restrict freedom. Or, as the President himself once put it, ‘the failed policies of George W. Bush’.

[Cross-posted from Lucire] Lucire has a distinct Italian flavour at the moment, thanks in part to photographer Thomaz and his Milano shots from two fashion week shows so far: Byblos and Frankie Morello. Of the two, Morello is more newsworthy in its three-dimensional, origami quality; Byblos is more subtle, using silks and cashmere in showing off a structured, almost military inspiration.
   Stanley Moss, who gave us news of a special at the splendid Palazzo Magnani Feroni in Firenze, reports on more bargains in these budget-conscious times from Italy’s most artistic city. Whether you are shopping for gloves and handbags, ceramics, or a great-value meal that includes truffles, then his ‘Florentine Insider’ article has the low-down.
   The world does not revolve around Italy, as much as we would like it to: Elyse Glickman and Leyla Messian report from Hollywood on the Golden Globes’ suites, and we show off some beds that we spotted at a Design Mobel launch in Wellington, New Zealand last Wednesday.

My colleague Marie and I were chatting about travel and webcams, and wound up surfing to one for Times Square, New York City. This lady, chatting on her cellphone, waved at the camera twice—of course it was a coincidence, but it wasn’t half spooky.

I’ve been talking about all these remakes of late, but one I forgot to mention is a biggie: that time the Germans remade The Love Boat. There are a few differences: Das Traumschiff (it is not called Das Love Boot as The Simpsons once parodied) has been going since 1981 and it has never, unlike the original American version, been shot in a studio. Each season is short because of the lavish location filming—trust the Germans to take a formula and improve on it no end. I think they also managed to keep the cruise director off cocaine.
   The title sequence from the below 2007 special in San Francisco (found on YouTube) is awful, and set in the very un-German Arial Rounded, but even the late Aaron Spelling didn’t beat the money that has been poured in to the 50-plus episodes since the 1980s.
   The Germans’ approach to state TV is: if it works, and it pulls in viewers week after week, then don’t tinker and ruin it. Tatort has been going for God knows how long.
   I prefer my Alarm für Cobra 11, still the perfect car-chase cop show.

When you travel, do you use a guidebook so that you’re well prepared, or do you go without much prior knowledge so that you’re surprised?
Submitted by Jack Yan.

Yay, one of my questions! Almost always the latter for me. I was reading GinBaby’s response to this and thought she was right about Vietnam, not that I have ever been, but I would probably read up more about potentially unfamiliar places. So far, however, I have gone to mostly developed nations, so I haven’t had a need to research too heavily beforehand.

There are a lot of connections between myself, Stanley Moss, Pierre d’Huy, Lucire and the Medinge Group. Rather than explain things too much, I’d like to share some photos that won’t be in a future Lucire from Stanley, who serves as its travel editor. This was from a road trip in Arizona, passing the red rocks at Sedona, back in the late summer and early autumn.

   The last shot is Pierre with Hopi chief Allen Pooyouma. Pierre is not freakishly tall: the Mustang is a good indicator.

If you had a time machine, which year would you travel to and why?
Submitted by Michelle.

Probably 2015. Jennifer and I turn out fine, but it’s our kids, Marty. Something’s gotta be done about our kids.