Gadling

Where I'm sitting winter has arrived. Snow flurries and windchill. Brrrr. Now that winter looks like it's settling in, let's see if anyone has come up with places to that are warmer.

• Brenda's post on the drop in tourism in Hawaii, and what there is to do in this tropical paradise this time of year, ought to be reason enough for a person to rethink the budget and see if Hawaii is doable after all.
• Meg suggests sitting in the scariest swimming pool ever--Devil's Pool at the top of Victoria Falls
• Jeffery pointed out that Cuba knows how to treat its 2 millionth tourist--with an ice-cold mojito and a salsa band
• Along with the warning that snacks in India could cost more than you counted on, Josh sounded a warning to be careful of the party scene in Mumbai--you could find yourself drug tested.
• And, although New Mexico is not THAT warm, the great thing about traveling here to ski is that it feels warm during the day when the sun is out--kind of. The best part is, the sun almost always shines in New Mexico. Every day. All day.

In case you've been time traveling and are confused, utility companies in Adelaide, Australia do not accept drawings of spiders as payment for utility bills. Read the article here.

I'm disappointed, of course, that artwork is still not accepted as currency. Just imagine the kind of economy we could build:

If someone rich was owed money by someone poor, the poor person could just draw a picture, and the rich person could hang it on their wall. Or, if a poor person wanted food, they could just draw a picture of the food they wanted and then leave the drawing on the shelf at the grocery store, confidently striding out the door with the item. But then, of course, rich people would want to pay for things with artwork, too, so eventually someone would have to judge how much each work of art is worth. Thusly, this new economy, which for just a moment teetered on the edge of communism, would become a dictatorship - unless, of course, there were some kind of international online community where everyone in the world could vote and value each piece of new art democratically. A new world economy would be born. What? It's better than the one we have right now. . .

I think maybe David Thorne traveled to the future.

A Japanese man named Hiroshi Nohara has decided to take full advantage of his tourist's visa in Mexico City and has moved into the airport. He's been living there for two months, and the initial avoidance from the locals has recently turned into a curiosity.

Nohara, who can't explain why he decided to live in the city airport, has been getting by on free donations from local fast food stands and kind visitors. Apparently he was gaining so much notiriety with the local media that he's even being sponsored by a few of the stands who give him free hats and shirts to wear. Now, as a tourist attraction in and of himself, people stop by the airport just to take their picture with him.

Meanwhile, Mexican officials can't do anything to remove him from the airport as it's a 24/7 facility and technically he's there legally. His tourist visa runs up in March.

Until then, make sure you stop by on your connection to Acapulco and get your photo taken with Mr. Nohara. It's a limited edition engagement so your photo will be worth millions on Ebay someday.

Here at Gadling we'll be highlighting some of our favorite sounds from the road and giving you a sample of each -- maybe you'll find the same inspiration that we did, but at the very least, hopefully you'll think that they're good songs. Got a favorite of your own? Leave it in the comments below and we'll post it at the end of the series.

Manu Chao is a vagabond by nature. He was born in Paris to a Spanish mother and father, but he's really from all over. Chao's music wanders and meanders like his personal life, drifting languages from Spanish to English to French, and picking up influences and passport stamps from South America to Spain and to France and then back again. His improvised concert tours are equally freewheeling, featuring actors, circus performers and tour stops only accessible by boat (?!).

I stumbled across Chao's free-form music while I was in college. There was something that sounded very culturally rich about it - it felt authentic and regional, yet somehow equally global and devoid of place. As I began to travel and see more of the world, I found Chao to be a poignant soundtrack for my travels, particularly in the Spanish speaking world where I happened to be visiting.

Whether wafting over the balconies of ancient windows in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, jingling from makeshift speakers in an apartment in Buenos Aires, or bouncing out of a car radio in Mexico City, Manu Chao's music somehow made a particular sonic sense to me. Perhaps my favorite example is his song, Me Gustas Tu:

After writing the Winona post another flight diversion story came out. Winona's seemed trivial in comparison, although I'm always interested to sift through vagueness of words like "sick," and who gets what treatment.

The latest diversion story that I read at CBCnews.com has a sad ending. Yesterday, a Delta plane taking Liberian conjoined twins from Brussels to New York had to make an emergency landing at Halifax airport after the twins stopped breathing. The mother, sitting next to them, noticed the problem. A doctor on board provided help, but the twins died before the plane landed.

The one month year-old twins were on their way to New York for treatment. Once in Halifax, the mother and twins were taken to a medical examiners office to find out what went wrong, and the other passengers who were sitting close by were interviewed. The plane continued to JFK once the mother and babies were off and the interviews were completed.

Being on an airplane with conjoined twins would be dramatic as it is. When I read the story, I imagined what it would be like to be on the plane rooting for their survival, but to no avail.

Now, several people have had a flight experience and a story to tell that most of us will never have in our lifetimes. So sad to think about that mother. [This photo from One Tree Hill Studios is of a plane landing at Halifax.]

This surreal shot from flickr user arunchs was taken at Tsomoriri Lake in Ladakh, India. I love the rich, earthy colors and the sense of otherworldliness this photo brings to mind. Take a look at the Google Images of this lake, and it really looks like it's hard to take a bad photograph there.

Got a pic you want considered for Gadling's Photo of the Day? Submit it here.

When it comes to chocolate, I'm a bit of a snob. I grew up on European chocolate so I never quite understood the fascination with the Hershey bar.

My favorite chocolate brand is La Maison Du Chocolat; a French chocolate maker with just a few stores around the world. Their prices are pretty steep, (about $45 for a box of champagne truffles) but the flavors are quite simply mind blowing. Thankfully they have something for every budget in their assortment, and you can pick up a box for as little as $7.50.

If you live in New York, you can visit one of their boutiques, including the recently opened Wall Street store, which opened just in time to sell chocolate to desperate traders.

If you are chocolate fan, then I highly suggest telling Santa about them, and begging for a sampler box. You will not regret it.

To me, nothing says I love you, more than A sweet and melting Gianduja praliné mixed with caramelized and finely ground hazelnuts.

The new Maison Du Chocolat store can be found at 63 Wall Street, if you can't make it to the store, they will gladly accept online orders from anywhere in the world.

You can't drive drunk. You can't operate heavy machinery on NyQuil. And you can't fly angry. At least according to US Airways. Consumerist picked up a story of a traveler who was hoping that US Airways would price match a ticket that he had purchased to the new, lower price. US Airways informed him that they couldn't match the lower fare. When he expressed his true feelings about the airline's inability to be polite corporate citizens, he was told that angry is the new al Qaeda.

Just check out this exchange from his conversation with customer service (CS):

CS: "Did you say you were going to be angry on the flight?"
James: "I totally did. If I know that the guy sitting next to me spent $150 less for his seats than me, you better believe I'm not going to be happy."
CS: "Well, if you're telling me you're going to be angry I'm going to notify security."

A representative from US Airways Executive Relations later reiterated that James had said that he was "going to be angry, and that's one of the words we look out for."

I'd love to know what other words get you added to the watch list. And is it just for security? If I say that I'm parched, do they warn the bartenders in the airport lounge? If I mention that I'm horny, are the flight attendants put on high alert (sorry Heather)?

So add vocabulary profiling to the list of airline security techniques. And the worst part? Now real terrorists know not to tell their customer service reps that they are angry. Beware of the happy man with a one-way ticket.

Two days ago, Winona Ryder's British Airways flight to Heathrow airport was granted priority landing status after Ryder became sick on the plane. Jaunted's blurb doesn't say how she got ill. One wonders was it the food? Is this normal for her? What about me or you? Could we get special treatment? Could we get a plane to land before all the others?

I was on a flight once when the plane turned around before it took off because a woman was complaining of being sick. She did keep hitting herself in the face as she was being led to the ambulance that whisked her away. As much as going back to the gate wasn't a fun picnic, it was a good thing that she was let off the plane. Better that she was hitting herself in the face as she was getting off the plane than miles up in the air.

A quick Google search found these two articles about other diverted flights.

Dear Heather,

I've written to you before and now I have another question. So I've told you that we're traveling w/ our one-year old next month. No car seat, etc. Are there any sneaky ways to insure that we could get an 'empty' seat for her???? I think currently we have it booked so my husband gets the window seat and I get the aisle. We thought that might work as nobody would want to sit in the middle of us. But, I'm sure they'll have to put a single traveler in the middle. We're leaving on the 26th of December w/ American Airlines. I'm sure it will be busy, but what do you think?

Thanks so much!
Marlo

Dear Marlo,

I remember your question, as my answer did get quite a rise out of many Gadling readers, especially those who do what I do for a living. Flight attendants everywhere scolded me for telling you that it was okay to travel without the car seat, even though I did point out that it was much safer to book the extra seat and take the car seat along with you. For those of you who missed that one, here's a link to Galley Gossip: a question about traveling with car seats and strollers. If you'll be traveling with kids during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season, make sure to check it out, along with all the informative comments it generated.