“A city is the pulsating product of the human hand and mind, reflecting man’s history, his struggle for freedom, creativity, genius-and his selfishness and errors.” (Charles Abrams)

Here are Road Junky Travel’s 10 favourite cities. Our votes: Cape Town, Sydney, London and Bangkok (all SWAP destinations!). More

A peaceful, imaginative and fun protest against oil dependency and car culture. A celebration of the bicycle and also a celebration of the power and individuality of the human body. A symbol of the vulnerability of the cyclist in traffic. The world’s biggest naked protest: 50+ cities and thousands of riders participate worldwide…More

Photo: Newsbie Pix

Why do we swoon over some accents and gag at others?

Carrie, an American reader desperate for advice, submitted the following question to the Non-Expert:

I recently started dating a British guy. I think he’s cute, but maybe it’s just that he has an English accent. How can I tell the difference?

Carrie did not know if she was actually physically attracted to her British beau or if she was blinded by his accent. The way a person speaks can change our opinion of him, whether it be in a negative or positive way. More

Out of these 10 countries which would best be adapted to you? Find out here!

VIEW THE VIDEO HERE

1) United Kingdom: 24.6% Pictured: Bangers and mash with peas.
(Note: The rest of the vote was divided among a number of other countries, most with less than one percent each.) More

Matador Network’s Alex Nolette took the beefy challenge of picking 50 of the world’s best burger joints. He came through with a list of the most recommended, droolific burgers on earth. More

Spring Break 2010 might be over, but now’s the time to start getting pumped over summer vacation…and all of the splurge purchases that come along with it; from “collector” novelty cocktail glasses to sweatpants that read “Down Under” across your bum, nobody can resist the urge to return home with cheap goodies that flaunt your tropical travels in the most garish way possible.

And what’s the king of souvenirs? The T-shirt! If you remember the days of “Coed Naked this” and “I Survived that,” and even those trompe l’oeil scuba tees that, when you turned around, revealed you’re hooked up to a Corona bottle and not an air tank, then prepare to be blown away by these.

More

You always hear about the distinction made between tourists and backpackers, but even among backpackers, we love to group each other into categories by who is the better traveler. Check into any hostel, and you will find a variety of different travelers wearing their distinctive tribal gear. Here are some of the more common that can be found in a hostel’s jungle  …More

photo by Cormac Mulhall

What is Busking?

Busking is the time-honored practice of performing for spare change in public – generally on the street or in a park. Most buskers are musicians, but if you have any sort of talent, you can generally make some good money by putting on an honest performance in a high traffic and relatively affluent area.

If you’re looking to get a sense of the local culture, street performance is a great way to do it. Your status as a foreigner adds to the exoticism of your act, so it can help give you a leg up on the locals.   …More

1) Tandem hang gliding in Queenstown
Arguably the best way to see New Zealand’s adventure capital is hang gliding. If you’re not enough of an expert to run off the nearest mountain by yourself, don’t worry. Like skydiving, tandem options (flying with a seasoned instructor) are available.

Check out SkyTrek for a good tour.

2) Jump from an airplane
Taupo is famous for its hot pools, views of Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom in Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth), and having the largest yearly influx of skydivers. More than 30,000 visitors fly here just to get back on a plane and see it from above: clear blue skies, a snow-capped Mt. Ngauruhoe, and a huge lake.

Skydive Taupo offers limousine service from the town.

3) Take a morning hike to Cathedral Cove
As much touted as the South Island is, I found the Coromandel Peninsula near the town of Whitianga one of the most undisturbed places in New Zealand.

It’s been voted the World’s Third Most Livable City and is as diverse with its sub-cultures as it is with different drinking establishments. With the competition between watering holes being so high, you’ll find it difficult to find a place in Melbourne that you disagree with, or find without having to venture down alleyways and corridors.

Cookie

The whiff of subtle (yet pleasant) Thai dishes engulfs your right nostril and the banter of the crowd hijacks your left ear. The Cookie’s cocktail list is elaborate, the top-range beer is book-sized, and the presentation is even more impressive.

Even on busy nights, bartenders will create lavish cocktails without breaking a sweat or aimlessly look for an abstract liqueur up the ladder.

more>

Together we studied the Humanure Compost Toilet Manual. It read, “There are two types of people in this world. Those that sh*t in their drinking water and those that don’t.”

We were about to experience how the other half lived.

The toilet was a yellow bucket with sawdust, placed under a wooden toilet seat frame. For 10 days we followed a routine of eat-excrete-sawdust-repeat. We bonded each time we had to collect another wheelbarrow load of sawdust or shovel the contents of the toilet bucket onto the humanure compost heap.

As a city girl travelling with my farm girl friend, the compost toilet was the source of many discussions as we sat around in our mobile home after a day’s work. And while no television, mobile coverage or WiFi will do that to a girl, the compost toilet was the first of many opportunities WWOOFing in Ireland provided to learn about healthy, sustainable living.

more>

By: Tristan Cano

Okay, so strictly speaking, Japan’s wartime aim was control of the Pacific and not world domination.

However, if by some freak accident they had ended up inheriting the human race, things may not have been that bad.

Here’s why: more>

Saint Patrick’s Day, the 17^th March, is a date etched upon all Irishmen’s hearts. Originally a Catholic festival celebrating Ireland’s patron saint, it’s now a bank holiday in both Ireland and Northern Ireland and is the one day a year where all things Irish are celebrated long into the night from fiddle playing and folk music to outlandish leprechaun costumes, four-leafed clovers and the Pogues greatest hits on repeat on the pub juke box.

Of course its also an excuse for a jolly good knees up, and no party Irish style would be complete without a pint or two of the Emerald Isle’s most famous beverage- Guinness.

With thousands of people expected to descend upon Dublin to celebrate Paddy’s Day at the home of St James’ Gate- the Guinness capital of the world- two Dublin hostels are offering guests a free pint for every night booked over the holiday period on selected accommodation.

more>

photo by Greg Goodman

“Please Do Overstay!” exclaims the website for one of the cheapest guest houses we’ve seen in a while. A tour around their site makes this seem like the smartest spot in BKK, a real find for people who are “into exchanging ideas, languages, music, art and love.” The space includes a bar, a music studio, free language classes and nightly dinners. The catch?

It turns out that the dormitory, according to The Overstay site, “has the feel of a hippie refugee camp with mosquito nets and big backpack brought by people from all around the world.” Photos from past guests would suggest that it’s more of a pigsty than anything else.

more>

By Jennifer Green

I was one of those kids who obsessively watched The Learning Channel, especially when they featured a program on sharks. I remember watching “Jaws” with my hands over my eyes one night with my parents when I was about eight, and getting endless books from the Indio Library with pictures of sharks in them. I have always been fascinated by any kind of shark. So you can imagine my delight when I found myself in an underwater cage in the ocean waters of South Africa, mere inches from a great white shark.

Shark-cage diving is particularly good in South Africa, according to many Capetonians. You will see more sharks in a few hours off the shores of South Africa than many people will see on week-long sharking excursions in other places like Australia. It was something I had always wanted to do, and the experience was even better than I could have imagined. more>

A Queensland surfer has fought off a shark with his fists in waters east of Bundaberg in south east Queensland.

A woman who witnessed the attack, which happened late yesterday at Archie’s Beach, says the water around the surfer began to bubble before he started punching the sea.

The man, who had been surfing with his son, returned to the beach unharmed and told lifeguards his board had been hit by a “large grey shape”.

Queensland Shark Control Program manager Tony Ham says it was most likely a tiger shark.

“We catch quite a number of tiger sharks off Bundaberg each year,” Mr Ham said.

“At the end of the day the reality is we know they’re present all year round.

“I guess we’re warning people to be proactive and be a bit clever.”

Mr Ham says the attack may be linked to the region’s turtle breeding season.

He says nesting turtles along the coast provide a feeding ground for lurking tiger sharks, and it is likely the shark mistook the man for a turtle.

“Sharks, particularly tiger sharks, are one of their natural predators so they’re out there having an opportunistic feed,” he said.

So yesterday in the land of the Kiwis, Air New Zealand unveiled their “revolutionary, Kiwi designed lie-flat economy and ground breaking premium economy seats,” and initially we were thrilled at the promise of lie-flat seats in economy…until we saw the pictures.

That’s it above, their “lie-flat” design, which depicts your pretty typical airline seats, but now with footrests that can raise to create a larger flat surface for stretching out. It’s called the “SkyCouch,” and although the light of heaven seems to be shining down upon the young, beautiful couple, we’re skeptical.

So first off, we have a problem with the fact that these two fresh young faces seem to be two people taking up three seats. In order to experience the full SkyCouch, you’ve got to purchase the two seats as usual and then you pay half-price for the third. Only 22 sets of these SkyCouches will be available in economy, and they’ll be up in the first 11 rows of the class, effectively creating another class between premium economy and economy. “SkyCouch” class, we guess. Who knows what the odds are of buying one of these SkyCouches, since as we saw on our recent Air New Zealand flight, they need all the passenger space they can get.

more>