Ever since Twitter released their list feature, I’ve been collecting all kinds of delicious travel-centred Twitter accounts to follow.
I’ve put all of my favourites into one gigantic list.
I know that this may be information overload for casual travelers. So, I’ve trimmed it down to the best 25, so you can follow the best of the best travel Twitterers on the web.
We’ve gotten lots of positive feedback about the new stats page on the TravelPod Dashboard.
You guys liked it so much, that we decided to update the numbers on a daily basis.
Your stats are now updated daily
Question to the TravelPod masses:
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Howard Hillman of the site Hillmanwonders.com puts together many lists of travel-inspiring destinations. I’m going to take a few and compare them to the experiences that TravelPod bloggers have had there. Shall we begin?
Rucamuffin got majorly ripped off at the Great Pyramids of Egypt
A man with not a full set of teeth greets us and brings us into his courtyard front yard area. He proceeds to write the “prices” of riding a camel into the dirt. I’ll spare you all the sad painful details of the haggle. Basically after unloading all our US money and Egyptian Pounds, we settle on the official dirt posted price of 500 Egyptian Pounds each. Feeling a little uneasy with the deal, we mount up, ready to take on the pyramids!
Now here is the best part…….We come back to our “hotel” and told the nice guys that work here how it went. When they found out we paid 500 Egyptian Pounds EACH, they laugh and say we could have bought our own camel with just a little bit more money! Great……. – Rucamuffin
Akbar thought the Great Wall of China was incredible
Great Wall (SPECTACULAR – must see before you die) – Akbar
Rachellecornel also recommends a visit to the Taj Mahal
We saw the Baby Taj, the red fort and the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal was so amazing. Definitely something everyone should try and see! – Rachellecornel
Jwmoles at the top of the Huayna peak
People start lining up in the middle of the night at the gate. From the gate, it’s a two-hour hike to the Sun Gate (the first view of Machu Picchu). Many people hike fast (and even run) to the Sun Gate for a view of Machu Picchu at sunrise. We were toward the front of the line and managed to make it to the Sun Gate around sunrise for a beautiful view of Machu Picchu about a mile away and 1,000 feet down. Absolutely breathtaking.
It’s an amazing place. Ruins everywhere. Mountains everywhere. I set out for the hour hike to the top. It was very steep and required the use of fixed cables for support in some of the steeper sections. The view at the top was amazing. I spent thirty minutes on top and headed back down to the city, which by then was populated with all the lazy tourists who ride the buses into Machu Picchu. A city built for 500 was holding about 5,000. Tough. I’ve heard rumors that the government has tentative plans to place further limits on the number of peeps who can hike the trail and enter the city. – Jwmoles
Thebogantrekker enjoying the facilities in Bali
We paddled down the Telaga Waja river for a good couple of hours, on what was, all in all, a pretty tame ride. For what it lacked in adrenaline it made up for twofold in scenery, the river snakes its way down between cliffs and ridges covered in jungle, with the occasional waterfall or farmers rice paddie cut into the side of the hill. We finished the course pretty much unscathed bar a killer sunburn on my legs. – Thebogantrekker
Harryvs traveled to Angkor Wat on his Gap Year trip
We ended the day climbing up to a top of a temple on a hill with thousands of other people which gave us a panoramic view of thick jungle, the sunset, Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. There were so many people that we thought we’d head down before the sun actually set. – Harryvs
Sywellfrasers inside the Forbidden City
We were not quite expecting what we saw at The Forbidden City as it is such a large place, the buildings are so amazing and very colourful – through one square into another and another and so on. The emperor had a building for every part of his day and life!!! There were 9,999 rooms (not surprisingly we did not visit them all!!) Hard to believe that for over 500 years the chinese people were not allowed anywhere near this city let alone enter it. – Sywellfrasers
Mannchild... in Bagan, Myanmar
The ancient capital of Myanmar, Bagan, is a great place to chill out. It is surrounded by green mountains, full of dusty roads, and oh yea, is the site of about 4,500 ancient temples, stupas and pagodas in a 45 square kilometer area. It is an absolutely breathtaking experience to see 11th, 12th and 13th century temples that dot the landscape as far as the eye can see. The pics do no justice to the experience of seeing this amazing place. It was one of the coolest places I’ve seen in my life. – Mannchild…
Sabenafrica in front of the Karnak Temple
The Hypostyle Hall with its hundreds of columns was stunning and well worth seeing, but the rest was just many ruins overrun with thousands of inappropriately dressed (although some single men and women i know would disagree) tourists from Eastern Europe. – Sabenafrica
Meluebke on top of Teotihuacan's pyramid of the sun
After an amazing lunch, we traveled to the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacán, a nearby district of Mexico City. The Pyramid of the Sun is the 3rd largest pyramid in the world. It is claimed to have been built by the Aztec Indians but, as our amazing tour guide, Armando, explained, this is false because the structure and details of this pyramid do not match with other Aztec structures. Thus many speculate that the Aztecs were trying to claim the pyramid as theirs when, in reality, no one is quite sure what tribe constructed it. – Meluebke
A nifty new feature in your Dashboard automatically adds up the distance you’ve traveled in between all of your map pins.
Your TravelPod odometer measures how far you've traveled
Click the stats link on the right hand side of your Dashboard and you’ll see it in the top right hand corner.
The intricate details of this mosque and the angle at which the photo was taken from caught my eye. Incredible.
A haphazard-looking mass of old and new buildings made of mud brick, red brick, wood and some cement, the Old City impressed me. It had the same feeling as the souqs in Morocco and the back alleys of Egypt: Old and exotic. Heavy wooden doors blocked us from peering into most homes, but we could get a feel for the way people lived here. Every few turns we came to the thin minarets and complicated brickwork of a community mosque. A man with a donkey cart sold vegetables at the far end of the hill complex, and public-service graffiti in Arabic writing was scratched into some of the walls. China as I’ve never seen it before. – Bethverde
TravelPod bloggers get to every nook and cranny in the world. Including some of the most visited “tourist traps”. I sifted through the blogs and found that these so-called traps aren’t always as bad as they seem…
Broc_and_bailey's Canadian friends on the Great Wall
We had an early start as we were heading to the ‘Great Wall’.It took us 2hrs to get there,then we had 3hrs on the wall, lunch & 2 hrs back again! We got a cable car up, to save time (nothing to do with being lazy)! The wall was really good, it was really foggy so the views weren’t the best! We were on the way back down to the 2nd part but met up with 2 Canadian guys who twisted Brocs arm (was really hard) to have a beer, so we had a rite laugh with them for about a half hr, so our time was limited for the 2nd part! got as far as we & got this slide down, that was really slow to start with but ended up being really fun! Lunch was gorgeous, 7 different dishes & rice! got a taste of everything! were sitting with a few local, who were giving us funny looks as we tried to master the chopsticks! one of the girls even ordered us a fork, but we didn’t give up!! – Broc_and_bailey
Bobstine eating wurst in Hof Brau Haus
We had lunch at the Hofbräuhaus and watched the brass band. We met a nice young man from Hungary over lunch. He’s visiting friends of his wife and was lunching alone while she and her friends went shopping. He currently lives in Switzerland and is a bond broker; so we had a good conversation with him about offshore accounts, the economy, politics and relative costs between Europe and the USA. – Bobstine
Kayaker902's parents at Graceland
As we toured the grounds I started feeling slightly transported to the 60’s. Very much 60’s decor which was how it was when he lived there, it just made things seem different. He had a very elaborate house for the time period, however, today I am sure the TV and other things that made Graceland seem so elaborate people would just say yeah everybody has those. Anyway, as we started through the house I really just didn’t get. It wasn’t until the meditation ground that this strange feeling hit me. I really can’t explain it, it just felt really weird. Now let me explain the meditation garden is where Elvis’s twin brother is buried along with his grandmother and parents and Elvis. Thus that might explain the really eerie feeling I had. – kayaker902
Cmj enjoyed the Tiki Village dinner even though it was "contrived"
That evening we splurged on a dinner theatre show at the Tiki Village. It was of course a contrived and stereotyped package for tourists, but a very well done one. Dinner was excellent and the show was great fun. We were a bit baffled when the traditional fire dancers cleared the sand stage to let Joseph usher Mary to the manger, but decided it was better not to ask questions while the chieftain led the carolers in silent night. – Cmj
Warrmb7's friends in Venice
once we got off the bus at the beginning of Venice we had to navigate our way through the city’s narrow streets and attempt to find out way. Venice is full of small streets that lack names and seem to go the most roundabout ways to get to places so we were pretty lost before we finally found our hostel after about an hour. The evening was spent exploring the city streets and trying to find a place that had good food, was near the canal and was not terribly expensive….nothing like that existed so we settled for an expensive meal of pizza which turned out to be worth all the money we spent. We stayed out until about 2am exploring and arrived back at our hostel, weary and ready for sleep. – Warrmb7
Explorerjones' cottage in Williamsburg, Virginia
We are staying in a cute little cottage right in the center of Williamsburg which as Luke said “this house is like in colonial times except if this were colonial times they wouldn’t have books and puzzles out about colonial times.” That’s a curious, engaged traveler for you! – Explorerjones
Addicted2travel visited Sally Lunn's House in Bath
We passed Jane Austen’s house, saw the Royal Crescent which is a super huge building shaped like a crescent that faces a park, went by Pulteney Bridge which is a bridge that has shops on both sides of it, walked around the Bath Abbey which is another beautiful cathedral, and passed Sally Lunn’s house which is the oldest house in Bath. Overall, I would say Bath is one of the cutest English cities I’ve seen that is just fun to walk around. Super cute! – Addicted2travel
Missmizon enjoyed the view of the skyline from her New York Harbour Tour
We managed to find a 72 hour ticket which allowed unlimited use of the hop on hop off tours, a cruise on the river, the ferry to the Statue of Liberty, access to the Empire State Building and a night tour of the city. Tickets in hand we took a walk down to the ferry terminal to river cruise which was really nice as the weather was good and we got some excellent views of the city, some of New Jersey and the Statue of Liberty (hence the 101 pictures!). – Missmizon
Travellingross was deeply impressed by the Tower of London
I had seriously under-estimated what this was and very impressed in the end – i was thinking dungeon’s and a tower, but nooooo it is actually the original castle of William the Conquerer in 1066 and adapted & re-constructed many times by pretty much every monarch since. Fascinating stuff; especially the Crown Jewels (no photos allowed), torture rooms, beheading location, inscriptions/graffiti on the walls from all the prisoners, the moat which is now drained and basically a lawn. Spent a lot longer here than anticipated, but well worth it. The Jewels were fascinating, but way overly commercialised (you view them from a horizontal escalator!) and sooooo many people. tourists everywhere. I wonder what Henry 8th would think if he saw this place now. So much history, and where people were murdered/tortured/beheaded there are now ice cream licking fat tourists with cameras around their necks posing in front of the place that people had their heads chopped off or imprisoned for years. Totally bizarre in my mind when there is still a Sovereign reigning over this Kingdom and it is still a castle with full status. I don’t think u should commercialise history until it is truely history. But who am i to talk – i paid £17 to get in the gates. But i am respectful of what this place is, i mean Elizabeth I was imprisoned here to stop her being Queen because of her religion. Being able to stand in the same place that this happened is surreal.
The_stamms loved visiting Montmartre, even if it was crowded
We took the train to Montmartre (which seemed even more crowded than we left it), but since the weather was beautiful, we joined the masses in walking around, getting great pictures of my favorite church painted for me by my husband, Sacre Coeur, and watched the artists in the square at work. – The_stamms
Manzara is TravelPod’s Local Expert for Turkey. He’s always got a funny street sign to share with us or an interesting travel news update. Besides that, of course he is well versed in all things Turkey. He took the time to answer some questions about living in Turkey for me.
David Chadwick is TravelPod's Local Expert in Turkey
Why did you become a Local Expert?
Travel is very important to us. We usually plan a four-week ‘long-haul’ holiday each year, in addition to exploring Turkey where we now live. We research our holidays in deadly detail and for a number of years have been offered excellent advice from forums such as TravelPod. Becoming a Local Expert, allows me to help ‘pay back’ the superb help we have received in the past and which has ensured our holidays have been enjoyed to the full.
What are the best and worst things about living in Turkey?
There are so many good things about living here and we have had no regrets following our decision to abandon the UK Rat Race. We now enjoy a much simpler and more relaxed lifestyle; live in a safer environment; eat more healthily with so much fresh food on offer; and, of course, living in a small fishing village on the tip of the Çeşme Peninsula, we have a choice of so many spectacular beaches with crystal-clear waters for relaxation.
After living in Turkey for over twelve years, what we would have considered the ‘worst things’ in our first few years, are now considered simply ‘minor irritations’! Turkish bureaucracy, for example, can often try your patience. We used to miss some of our favourite foods but the choice of products here has grown tremendously in recent years.
What are the top five things for travelers to do outside of Turkey from your personal experiences?
(In no particular order)
1. Snorkel in the Red Sea
2. Visit Jordan and include Petra and floating in the Dead Sea on your itinerary
3. Spot a tiger, leopard and other exciting wildlife at Ranthambore National Park, Rajasthan
4. Swim and snorkel off Elephant Beach, Havelock, Andaman Islands
5. Explore the paradise beaches of Zanzibar (such as Pongwe Beach) and find time to visit Jozani Forest to see the Kirk’s Red Colobos Monkey, Zanzibar being the only place in the world to see this rare, endangered (and very playful) species.
What are some of your best and worst travel experiences?
As we plan our holidays so carefully, we haven’t had any really bad experiences. The reason I spend so much time researching them is that although we don’t mind surprises on holiday, we don’t want any bad ones!
Probably our best experiences have been the superb snorkeling in the Andaman Islands (especially Havelock) and in the Red Sea, and the sensation of floating effortlessly in the Dead Sea during a visit to Jordan earlier this year was quite amazing!
I suppose the worst experience was in Sri Lanka when, on the penultimate day of our stay. We had arranged for a car and driver to take us from our hotel in Unawatuna to the capital Colombo for our flight home the following day. Looking at the map, it looked as though we would have plenty of time to visit (not enough research here, David!) Sinharaja Rain Forest – Deniyaya entrance. I think the problems began when our driver couldn’t find the Deniyaya entrance and consequently the experienced guide we were supposed to meet there. Anyway, our driver who wasn’t to be beaten ‘picked’ up a passing wood cutter and ‘employed’ him as our guide. To be honest, we didn’t see a great deal of exceptional flora and fauna apart from a few purple-faced Langur monkeys high up in the trees. But there were the leeches of course – always included in abundance in any respectable rain forest.
Tracker Elaine (always prepared for everything, clever so and so) placed plastic bags over her socks which stopped the leeches dropping down the sides of her shoes and attaching them to her feet. I didn’t and the result was typical. I had leeches all around my feet and legs. Then a long drive – five hours less would have been a bonus – to Colombo and our overnight stay. Not one of our better days out!
What is your proudest accomplishment?
I hope I am allowed to substitute the word “accomplishment” with “experience” on this occasion. Call it writer’s license. I have to go back to the mid-1970’s. I was traveling through India with a colleague monitoring foreign aid projects on behalf of UK voluntary agencies. We were fortunate enough to arrange two meetings with Mother Teresa at the Missionaries of Charity convent at 54A Lower Circular Road, Calcutta.
We met in her modest office and although a tiny, almost frail looking woman, her spirituality, gentleness and quiet determination filled the room. I shall never forget spending time at the convent, meeting the other sisters, joining them in the chapel for early morning prayers with the whole group singing “in our honour” their hymn ‘Something Beautiful for God’. A truly amazing experience.
Where are you planning on traveling in the future?
Well, we always seem to adding to the ever-increasing list of places we plan to visit. Malaysia is certainly one and possibly one or two of the South Pacific islands if our budget will allow. However, some travel decisions are suddenly being made for us. With a son now living in America and a daughter moving to Western Australia in January 2010, another two destinations are now in the pipeline!
What do you do with most of your time?
Elaine would say I spend most of my time at the Laptop! It’s not strictly true, but I keep up with the TravelPod Forum (of course!), I am Destination Expert for Çeşme on Trip Advisor; SuperMod (think that’s a misspelling of SuperMAD!) on Turkey Central; and complete the occasional questionnaire on behalf of Lonely Planet’s Travellers’ Pulse. Oh, and there’s always the next holiday to research, of course! We also enjoy quiet socializing with friends at our house or theirs. Only very rarely does this involve a bar or restaurant. Our social spending is on our overseas trips and enjoying different food in hotels and restaurants on our travels – and ensuring our shared children and grandchildren enjoy their holidays with us here in Turkey.
What’s a typical day like for you?
The answer to this depends whether it’s summer or winter. In the holiday season, we welcome guests to our two self-contained apartments in the picturesque fishing village of Çiftlikköy, close to the resort centre of Çeşme in western Turkey. Elaine is busy preparing the apartments for arrivals and ensuring the change-over day cleaning is carried out to her (very high) standards. I sort out the administration and communications concerned with inquiries and bookings, carry out airport transfers personally and offer a varied selection of full day and half day trips to places of interest – the usual’ must see’s’ of this area such as Ephesus, for example, but also visits to places well away from the usual tourist spots. The summer is also a busy time for family visits, too.
The winter months are much quieter. A time to relax, do some exploring ourselves around the region and beyond. Visiting friends or welcoming them to our home for quiet socializing over tea, coffee and home made cake. Maybe a game of ‘Rummikub’ (English version of the popular Turkish game ‘Okay’) or Triominoes. We really know how to enjoy ourselves here, you know!
Winter or Summer, I pour myself the first glass of wine at around 6 p.m. – sometimes even a gin and tonic (living dangerously now you see!) – followed by a lovely meal together and just a couple of hours television or DVD. Hope the excitement of our lifestyle isn’t too much for you all!
What’s your favourite part of the TravelPod forum?
It’s the exciting and ever-surprising variety of topics, questions and information which invariably receives such friendly, helpful and often comprehensive responses (can’t say that for all forums, you know!). However difficult and sometime bizarre the question may first appear, there’s always someone out there with something to offer.
So, to get back to the question (off topic again!) my favourite part of the forum is appreciating the wealth of knowledge and travel experience of members, complemented by the added ingredient of regular humour. Although it seems rather clichéd to say so, TravelPod Forum does achieve the feeling (for me certainly) of being part of a huge international family.
Beautiful colours and perfect framing make this my favourite photo this week. I love it.
Virgin vacations put out this list a while ago of the best 16 museums in the world.
I believe this list is a little American-centric, but I decided to put it to the test and see what real travelers thought about each one anyway.
Chelseyineurope inside the Louvre in Paris
As for the Louvre, it is GIGANTIC. I sat in the lobby of the museum for 20 minutes before finally convincing myself that I could conquer the Louvre and go all the way inside. When I finally convinced my legs and my lower back that I am not 85 years old and that they can deal with the Louvre, the first painting I saw was the 2nd painting (Cimabue’s Madonna) I studied in my art history class last fall. That’s when I really realized I had hit the art history big time. I am so so glad I took art history in college, and I think I saw close to half of the paintings I studied in class during my time in Paris.
I walked through the Italian hall, which is pretty much different artists painting the same scene (the Madonna and the Christ child). And of course I saw the Mona Lisa. Not that exciting, but she does have an odd enticing quality. The Louvre visit was made well-worthwhile by watching tourists push each other to take photos in front of the Mona Lisa and listening to people talk about her in 20 different languages. I also get a kick out of the people who video tape museums. What poor family member left back it home is going to be forced to watch 3 hours of footage of the inside of the Louvre? – Chelseyineurope
Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Jimandlaura
Took the subway uptown to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wow, what a place. We loved it and we only scratched the surface. Particularly liked the modern art (Hirst, Pollock) and the ancient Japanese silk prints. You could spend a week there and still not see everything. Great cafe too! – Jimandlaura
The ceiling in the Vatican Museums
The museum was extended in 2000 for the millennial year celebration of Christ’s birth, and the renovations included a large spiral ramp leading to the entrance to the museums. We had fun by challenging the group to run up the spiral ramp while they took the escalator.
We saw a number of interesting sculptures while waiting in a courtyard to enter the first of the museums. One was of a pine cone from 1 AD or 2 AD, that was a symbol of fertility and was first made as a Roman fountain. In the courtyard, we also learned about the story and significance of the Sistine Chapel. The chapel is used as the place where the cardinals choose the next Pope. It was named after Pope Sixtus IV.
As we walked through various parts of the museums, I was surprised to see some art from Ancient Egypt and Greece, even including two marble sculptures of Diana the fertility goddess and Diana as the goddess of the hunt. Worship of Diana was notorious in the New Testament. It seemed to me as though the presence of the artwork indicated the idea that the church acknowledged and saw itself as the fulfillment of many earlier traditions and religious practices. My interpretation could, however, be incorrect.
I was awestruck by the tapestries depicting various events in Christ’s life. The tapestries were housed in a darkened room and one of them gave the impression that Christ’s eyes were following you as you walked past. Another interesting room was a room of ancient maps. – Woodsfamily
Ruthperelstein on the terrace of the Uffizi Gallery
Tuesday we visit the Uffizi Gallery. This is another place where you have to have a reservation. It does make it less stressful and you do beat the lines, which are long and full of grumpy tourists.
The Uffizi Gallery has the greatest collection of Italian paintings anywhere, including Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. It is beautiful. The time periods this museum are not my personal favorites but again the sculpture knocks us out.
Building of the palace was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de’ Medici as the offices for the Florentine magistrates — hence the name “uffizi” (“offices”). There is also a corridor that extends for the end of the building along the Arno river and through the Ponte Vecchio to the Pitti Palace that is no longer used by was the way the elite could travel without stepping a foot into the dangerous streets. – Ruthperelstein
Juliana of Paul-jules at the Prado Museum in Madrid
We got to our hotel, and headed out to the Prado museum immediately. It is one of the best museums we have seen on the trip. It has a large number of El Greco paintings. He has become one of our favourite artists. It also has many by Raphael, Reubens, and Durer. – Paul-jules
Fishtails04 found the State Hermitage overwhelming
The State Hermitage, located in the former Winter Palace of the tsars, in St. Petersburg, houses one of the finest art collections in the world, with more than three million pieces – it seems that Catherine the Great liked big numbers in more than just her lovers. And that’s the problem really: it’s estimated that to walk through each of the galleries would total about twenty-five kilometres – i.e. it’s just too big to cover in an afternoon. It’s also too excessive in style for me to really enjoy: all busily decorated floors, marble pillars, highly decorated ceilings, heavy furniture, dark portraits of gloomy monarchs, imposing sculptures, huge crustal chandeliers, and gold and gilt opulence. As the guidebooks says, “One must visit the Hermitage on a visit to St Petersburg…”, and it was worth it to gain an appreciation of its scale, but I felt something of a failure when, after an hour and a half, I’d had enough and, with that sense of panic I experience in large department stores when I can’t see a way out, started frantically searching for an exit. – Fishtails04
Inside the J. Paul Getty Center with Jeznkez
At length the road wound up through the hills and we arrived at the J. Paul Getty Centre, which is a gigantic art museum, housed in a purpose built series of monoliths amid the verdant grounds. The museum is perched on a hill in the Santa Monica Mountains, looking over L.A. and out to sea.
We had nowhere near enough time to do justice to the whole four buildings, each of which contains different styles of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present, but had a good look around and enjoyed the peaceful and exquisitely conceived gardens, interwoven with sculptures and water features. The whole complex is constructed from Travertine (1.2 million square feet of it) which is a fossilized, textured stone that reflects the bright Californian sunlight, imparting the whole place with a luminous, ethereal glow. Overall an incredibly successful public space and a great example of modern architectural design and realization. And all free of charge! – Jeznkez
Londonpenguin at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris
Our long walk ended up at the Musee d’Orsay. I headed straight for the Impressionists upstairs, and leisurely made my way back down. Happened upon the Salle des Fetes, which is a glorious burst of gold, crystal and mirrors. I also found the Art Nouveau rooms and was really enjoying them when the announcement came over the loudspeaker that the museum would be closing in 15 minutes, which was half an hour earlier than we had been told. Slightly disappointing, but it was definitely worth going back to. – Londonpenguin
The Enemans standing in front of a fountain at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC
The style of the buildings downtown is such a far cry from anything else you’ll see. There were times when I thought even the Greek Gods would be impressed. I was surprised to see how brand new the art gallery looked, despite having been open for sixty years. The marble floors were pristine and the walls were un-scuffed as if it had been built last week. I was particularly anxious about the Ansel Adams beach photography gallery on display for a limited time. – Jeneman
Mamakarpus at the Centre Pompidou in Paris
I really wanted to see the Pompidou Centre, so we went looking for that. It took us forever to find it, it was so annoying. We kept looking at the map backwards, so we were wandering around forever. Oh well. We eventually found it and it was pretty cool. It’s a modern art museum. I honestly didn’t care about going in to see the art, but I wanted to see the building and the fountains right beside it. So I was happy. – Mamakarpus
Laohallo's friend at the Tate Modern in London
After borough markets we headed over to tate modern which is a modern art museum. Im blaming Tammy for picking this tourist attraction. Lets just say the art is very strange and modern. It was a good laugh though. – Laohallo
Julesjb found this statue in MoMA's sculpture garden
After that I then went across to Manhattan to see the MOMA (Museum Of Modern Art) which was amazing. All my favourites were there including Cezanne, Magritte, Picasso and Dali. I also saw a few Jackson Pollack’s which I thought were very impressive in terms of scale and use of paint. – Julesjb
Harmony at the British Museum in London
It was spectacular and we could not believe the size and the amount of artifacts, especially since it was free to get in! We saw the Rosetta Stone, a massive Easter Island head, many beautiful Greco Roman sculptures, and much much more. – Mikeandharmony
Ineednewears found this to be one quiet place in the Guggenheim museum
Who would have thought that on a windy, rainy, cold Friday evening dozens of people were willing to queue underneath the semi-permeable dripping roof of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in their damp clothes and soaked shoes just to get in for close to free (for some, pay-what-you-can comes frighteningly close to nothing). I pictured a Friday night at the “Gugg” along the lines of a Friday night at the library or much like a sheep pasture with but a few bodies scattered around in the far corners, but what I got involved much more arm-against-arm rubbing and additional queuing as the spiral-shaped interior, seven-levels high, filled up.
I complained not about the crowds but about the barriers along the spiraling platform being too low, and constantly feared toppling over to free fall and be torn open by one or more of the suspended cars on my way down. - Ineednewears
Toddfamily had a "Rocky moment" at the Philadelphia Art Museum
The next day we spent the morning on a bus tour of the city and ended up at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We really enjoyed this museum too and were once again lucky to join a tour with a very knowledgeable guide. We met Mark at the front of the museum afterwards and had a little Rocky moment on the front steps – those of you who know the first Rocky film will know this scene! – Toddfamily
Traveled loved the Chicago Art Institute
We took the Metro to Union, then walked down Adams to the Art Institute. We saw more exhibits in one day than I recall seeing on any of my previous visits. We started off in the European area, then lunched at the cafe, which was surprisingly satisfying, and finally we took a couple more hours to walk through the American and photography exhibits. One my favorite works of the day was one that probably does not receive the attention it deserves, located in the corner of the same room as “American Gothic” by Hopper, called “Nightlife” by Motley. But of course, I also loved almost everything I saw there. – Traveled
I went on a trip to Thailand last year with the Tourism Authority of Thailand and I can say for a fact that they will treat you like pure gold.
Beautiful Ko Phi Phi in Thailand
If you are a frequent TravelPod blogger and you can get to the Los Angeles airport, I might be able to hook you up with a representative of Thai Airways and the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s Los Angeles office.
In case you haven’t noticed yet, there are new buttons on all the photo and video pages.
Use the StumbleUpon and Facebook buttons to share photos and videos
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Ever since missing my high school trip to Portugal, I have been in love with that country, and drawn to visiting it. This photo makes me believe that every view in every city will be just as quaint as I imagine it to be. Although I know it’s probably not true, I can dream, can’t I?
Our first stop was the Elevator de Santa Justa. This historic elevator, build in 1902 inside a Gothic wrought-iron tower, once served as transportation to Barrio Alto, a central neighborhood, but now takes tourists (us) up 45 meters. Once we got up there, we enjoyed majestic views of the entire city, taking in the brisk air while pondering the appearance of white houses with reddish-orange rooftops that extended for miles. Conveniently, we could also see the water and some of the port city of Lisbon. – Jakester21
The recent instability in Honduras is causing some TravelPod bloggers and their friends and families back home to worry. One unexpectedly became trapped in the middle of a military curfew. Hess found it difficult to leave the country because none of the buses would take her. She is now safe in Nicaragua:
Hess and James safe in Nicaragua
We woke early, packed had the complimentary breakfast, asked the front desk to get us a taxi to take us to the Tica bus station. At this we were met with blank and confused looks.
“I don’t think the bus will be running?” This stopped us in our tracks.
“What?” we collectively asked.
“Er, the bus it won’t be going. The ex-president returned yesterday.” The bewildered man replied
“Yes we know he returned, why can’t we leave?”
“There is a military lockdown, there is a curfew.” He tried to explain
A curfew during the day? Baffled we looked at each other, none of us had contemplated that the curfew would continue into the day.
“Please would you call the Tica bus to see if they are leaving?” we pleaded.
None of us could afford to spend another night in the hotel. He called and confirmed that no they were not leaving. We sat down and tried to think of what we were going to do. I was all for trying to find the action, which he overhead and promptly warned us not to leave the hotel.
We got back to the room and called the British Embassy in Guatemala and were advised not to leave our hotel, that they were monitoring the situation and it could become volatile at any moment. In fact the military had moved into the disperse Zelaya’s supporters who had defied the curfew outside the Brazilian embassy. Tegucigalpa resembled a ghost town, there were no cars, few people on the street and all shops were shut. We slowly came to the realization we would not be leaving on the Tuesday and just hoped that on Wednesday we would be able to get out. 6 pm rolled on and the curfew was extended to 6 am. – Hess
People in Samoa and American Samoa are still busy cleaning up after a massive tsunami struck their South Pacific island.
I checked in with Adam Wolfe aka Wolfeac, a TravelPod blogger who has been living there for the past few months. Here’s his account of the devastating event
Adam Wolfe, involved in tsunami cleanup efforts
It was about 6:40 a.m., and I was in my bathroom trying to decide if the amount of stubble on my face warranted a shave when the earthquake hit. At first I thought it was another car driving by with some of the most intense bass I’d ever heard, or maybe a jet was taking off at the nearby airport.
It took me five or ten seconds to realize that the vibrations were far too strong for either of these, and that I was experiencing my first earthquake. I quickly moved to the doorway of the bathroom and stayed there for the minute or so that the earthquake lasted. After it was over, I finished getting ready for work and walked to school, feeling exhilarated, but ready to teach for the day.
It was not until I arrived at school that I realized something else was wrong. The kids at the school were all being herded up the stairways to the second floor of the building. This was the first time I heard anyone mention a possible tsunami. I learned that the earthquake we’d had measured an 8.0 on the Richter scale, and was far from an average quake here. School was canceled at about 7:30 and most of the students left and walked home.
The rest of the students were kept in classrooms on the second floor. I stood watch over one of the railings waiting for the ocean to get sucked out much farther than normal (the first sign that a tsunami is about to hit). It was while I was doing this that I first heard that the wave had already hit the capital Pago Pago, which lies about 6 miles east of my school. Soon after this another teacher said that the wave had also obliterated the west side of the island, starting about 3 miles west of our school.
I kept watching the ocean and trying to keep the kids under control and in the classrooms for the next three hours, until we were sure there was no danger of our school being hit. The students were still evacuated by bus to a village up the mountain, but I was allowed to go home at this point.
I was incredibly fortunate that both my school and village were untouched by the tsunami, but because of this, I did not fully realize the scope of the damage caused until two days later.
Of course we had seen that the story was the top story on cnn.com and Yahoo, and had been watching the death toll, but none of it was real to me until I actually drove through decimated villages and saw how it had affected the people living there.
I volunteered with the Red Cross and was sent all over the island delivering water and gathering information. There were whole families sitting on the cement foundation of what used to be their house. I saw washing machines, stoves, and twisted vehicles sitting 100 feet out in the bay. In the capital, half a dozen 25-35 foot long ships sat on the earth, some as much as 100 meters inland. I talked to some of my fellow teachers who had lost students at their school, and who knew of many more students that lost parent and relatives. I delivered water to a retired woman from Florida who had been sailing around the world with her husband when the tsunami hit. She survived, he didn’t.
It has been a very sobering last few days, and I’m sure it will be a long time until life gets back to normal here. FEMA, the Red Cross, and the Coast Guard are all here, and I’ve been very impressed with the speed and quality of their relief efforts. Hopefully with the help of these organizations, the people here can return to some semblance of normal life soon.
We’d welcome any help you can all give here. I know Red Cross is taking donations from all over, so that would probably be the easiest way to lend a hand. I know some people are doing clothes and school supply drives as well, but anything you can do would be greatly appreciated.
Well, there’s been another tiger attack on someone who jumped into a tiger enclosure at a zoo.
Two men at the Calgary Zoo jumped over a metre high fence and ended up badly injured after the tiger swiped at his arms.
Lots of people visit the zoo in Calgary every year, and manage to safely observe the animals from a distance. Here are their stories:
A peacock attacked Kawaiguy at the Calgary Zoo, but he was OK
The Zoo was awesome, they had tons of funny animals. I had a freakin’ peacock jump at me, and had to endure some really stinky primate-areas, but overall it was a blast just to watch Mia May point and the animals and try to name/imitate them. TOO cute. – Kawaiguy
Milski thought the Melbourne Zoo was better...
I always like the Canadian wildlife section, as you get to see local animals that are fairly elusive in the wild (such as mountain goats and moose). Most of the exhibits aren’t as impressive as the Melbourne zoo, but I guess it’s got to be hard to simulate the habitats of many species when it’s freezing and snowing much of the year! - Milski
C.reynolds saw a timber wolf at the Calgary Zoo
The zoo is one of Calgary’s main visitor attractions and it is easy to see why, it is well laid out, reasonable and has a strong emphasis on education and conservation. – C.reynolds
