TravelPod News

Have you seen this? Some bright 19 year old, flight attendant, apparently upset at being responsible for the boring Minneapolis to Regina run, doesn’t quit, or ask for a different job. Instead he…sets FIRE to the aircraft…yep…

Well he’s charged with “setting fire aboard a civil aircraft” anyway… whether he did it or not is up to the judge to decide I suppose…

Something tells me somebody didn’t take a psychological exam before he was hired at Compass Airlines

Link to the article at Travel Weekly: http://www.travelweekly.com/Article.aspx?id=173912

What do you think? Would you still fly Compass Airlines? Are you afraid of flying in general because of these types of incidents?

Come chat in the TravelPod forums about it!

Louise Brown

TravelPod Community Manager

That was quick.

The private message system in the TravelPod forums is back up, and it’s more secure than it was before. Spam is not something we tolerate and it’s not something you should tolerate either!

If anybody receives any spam that looks like it comes from TravelPod in the future, let me know by emailing the support team ASAP!

Thanks again for your patience,

Louise Brown

TravelPod Community Manager

We have noticed that some people were receiving unsolicited offers for a free trip to the Bahamas in their private message. These were not sent from anyone connected with TravelPod and it was done without our consent.

To counteract the evil spammer, I have disabled the private messaging system on the travel forums. If you are trying to send a private message in the forums and can’t do it, this would be why.

Please send your private messages through your friend’s personal TravelPod blog profile, rather than through the forum profile while I fix the problem.

Thank you for your patience,

Louise Brown

TravelPod Community Manager

The Earth Times has been reporting that Cambodian authorities will be cracking down on the marijuana-laced pizzas found all over the backpacker circuit in that country. Eating a slice of so-called “happy pizza” has been a backpacker rite of passage for a while now. So what will become of the hippy paradise now that the ganj is no longer a welcome pizza topping?

Cambodians aren’t the only ones to mix recreational drugs into food.

Have you tried the space cakes in Amsterdam? How about the mushroom shakes in Vang Vieng? Let us know about your experience in the TravelPod travel forums.

Louise Brown

TravelPod Community Manager

Feeling stressed? Maybe it’s time to start a blog. Two recent articles expound upon the benefits of blogging for your mental health. One article from CNN and another from ABC in Australia cite scientific and anecdotal evidence showing how blogging can bring you back from the brink of death, (in the case of one suicidal woman) and how you can create a stronger circle of friends, simply by writing about your daily experiences on the internet.

While doctors say that blogging should never replace actual psychotherapy, some say that blogging can work well with an established therapy program. It can create a strong social support system, helping you gather a group of people who really care about you.

Has blogging saved your sanity? Traveling is stressful and it’s a great help when you know that your friends and family are behind you. Sometimes your social network can push you along, even when you feel like giving up.

Share your thoughts about blogging and mental health with other travelers in the TravelPod forums.

Louise Brown

TravelPod Community Manager

If you haven’t heard already, Orkut is Google’s version of Facebook. TravelPod’s Traveler IQ Challenge game application has recently been approved for use on the social networking site. It was one of a group of only 28 approved worldwide.

Right now, you can only use it if you are registered in India or Estonia, but soon, it will be available to the whole world. Can’t wait? Just set your country information in your profile to India or Estonia, and you can start using the application.

Right now, my IQ is 118, and my score is 192,434. Think you can beat it?

Like all the other Traveler IQ apps, this one lets you compete with your friends on the leaderboard. Download and add the Traveler IQ Challenge application, then add me to your list of friends and let the competition begin!

Louise Brown

TravelPod Community Manager

After the recent incidents involving women who have been kicked off of planes for wearing too little clothing. Journalist on the travel-beat, Chris Elliott expounds upon the things that people should not be wearing on an airplane.

I kind of agree with him. I think people should wear nicer clothing when they are traveling in general, especially when flying, but I don’t think airlines should start regulating clothing.

Come on now, if someone wants to look like they just stepped out of a girly magazine, who cares, really? If you don’t want to look at it, avert your eyes, that’s what I say.

I think there should be more regulations governing the amount of time you are without your luggage when it is inevitably lost, let’s stick with what’s important, folks. Namely, getting you and your belongings to your destination on time, appearances are inconsequential.

There’s a new discussion topic in the travel forums, have your say.
See you there,

Louise Brown

TravelPod Community Manager

Travelpodders are an eclectic bunch, and this month they’re talking about everything from the meaning of love to traveling in Europe on a budget. Check them out and have your say in the travel forums.

1. Love, infatuation, sexual desire, chakras

2. Amazing Facts…

3. What’s your favourite ice cream flavour?

4. Where would you live?

5. Right or Wrong?

6. Traveling or just wasting time?

7. Speaking English WILL kill you

8. When would you boycott a destination?

9. Europe on a budget, give me some tips!

10. Shooting guns…

Louise Brown

TravelPod Community Manager

There’s a very nice review of TravelPod today on the travel blog Ready to Roam. Vagabondpoet says that “Travelpod is great simply because it’s the biggest”, and lists it as one of his favourite travel blogging sites.

Check it out.

Thanks for that endorsement Vagabondpoet!

Louise Brown

TravelPod Community Manager

This has got to be the best celebrity-product pairing I have ever seen.

Jaunted is reporting that William Shatner may be the next spokesperson for Virgin America. With their tongue-in-cheek advertising and generally campy ambience, Shatner couldn’t have found a better partner.

He’s currently “negotiating” with Priceline, so there’s no telling what he’ll do with Virgin.

Watch out here he comes! *duck*

What do you think? Could Virgin POSSIBLY get a better celebrity endorsement? Methinksnot.

Which celebrity would be a better match for Virgin than Mr. Shatner?

Tell me in the TravelPod forums!

Louise Brown

TravelPod Community Manager

Wow, talk about some travel controversy. The Lost Weekend is reporting that author Thomas Kohnstamn had written the Colombia guidebook without even going to Colombia. He justifies it by insisting that Lonely Planet wasn’t paying him enough to write the thing.

Is that the best you can come up with? I personally, spent a few years being a freelancer, however, not as a travel writer. I was also paid a pittance, but I never faked my writing and editing! It never even crossed my mind! Travel writing is something you do for the love of travel, not for the virtually non-existent paycheck.

In this case, I am more disappointed in the starving writer than in the big corporation signing his cheque. If you want to be a travel writer, you should be a travel writer, and worry about the money later. Not only does constantly worrying about money corrupt your travel writing biases, it also doesn’t get you into an occupation that you will enjoy.

What do you think? Tell me about it in the TravelPod forums.

See you there!

Louise Brown

TravelPod Community Manager

There are some real numbers behind the decline in tourism to the United States. Overseas arrivals in the U.S. have declined 11 per cent this decade, down from 26 million in 2000 to 23 million in 2007. That has all happened while the travel industry as a whole grew 6 per cent per year!

That’s some astounding stuff. Why are people staying away from the states in such numbers? Is it American’s attitude toward foreigners? Cutting through the red tape needed to visit? How about a lack of signage in other languages? I guess it all adds up.

Will you be visiting the states anytime soon? Why or why not?

Come tell us in the TravelPod discussion forums.

See you there!

Louise Brown

TravelPod Community Manager

Which one couldn’t you wait to leave? What makes a bad airport suck so hard?

One of our forum members says Miami’s airport is constantly under construction, another says Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 is “a joke” and he also hates the plastic chairs at Frankfurt Hahn.

There’s also the danger factor. There’s a myriad of dangerous airport runways around the world. Saba, in the Caribbean has the shortest in the world, would that scare you away from visiting the airport? What say you?

See you in the forums,

Louise Brown

TravelPod Community Manager

Did you know, you can put your new blogs on your MySpace page, just like on Facebook? I just tried it out for the first time today, and I was really impressed. You can display your travel map on your MySpace homepage and all your blog entries are just a click away! Your friends can display your entire trip route or narrow it down to view just one of your blogs.

Check it out on my homepage for yourself, then add the travel blog application to your own homepage and watch as your blog hits rise!

Louise Brown

TravelPod Community Manager

Elisabeth Osmeloski of SearchEngineWatch has written recently that TravelPod’s addictive gaming creation, Traveler IQ, is continually “blowing away the competition” on Facebook. Read it for yourself:

“There’s little doubt that travel lends itself well to the most popular social networking tools on the Web. As I write this, there are 174 travel applications on Facebook, but of those, it seems like only two have actually been able to prove themselves. The two most popular examples – TripAdvisor’s Cities I’ve Visited (with more than 60,000 daily users) and TravelPod’s Traveler IQ (with more than 20,000 daily users) – both blow away the competition. No other apps even come close.”