Airline passengers will be able to carry small knives, souvenir baseball bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment onto planes beginning next month under a policy change announced Tuesday by the head of the Transportation Security Administration.

Good job TSA. Afterall, shampoo and bottles of water are far deadlier than small knives or baseball bats. Who decides these things anyways?

Hawaii’s Big Island brews a cup of paradise

Prime pickings: Ripe coffee berries are sorted by hands at Hula Daddy Kona Coffee.  Laura Bly, USA TODAY

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2013 marks the 200th anniversary of coffee cultivation in Hawaii.  Laura Bly, USA TODAY

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Hawaii coffee’s industry

“All of our clothing is covered in blood. It’s just dripping off of us,” Jennifer Wolfrom said.

The group was marched to the village center, where more residents appeared, shouting, beating and even whipping them.

“I was like, I’m going to see my sister and my wife probably get beaten to death with stones right in front of me right now,’” said Jed Wolfrom, who still bears a bruised left eye and busted teeth from the night of the attack.

Suddenly, some of the villagers began pointing guns at the tourists. Thinking they were about to die, the threesome turned to each other and “we just said we loved each other,” Jennifer Wolfrom said.

But one of their captors instead fired a shot over their head and made some demands.

“They basically said, ‘We’ll let you go if you sign this document that says that you were drinking and you crashed the car into the ditch and that’s why your car is so damaged and that’s why you have these injuries,’” Jennifer Wolfrom said.

The group signed the document and were taken back to their ransacked vehicle. They eventually met up with police who took them in for medical treatment. The trio received more than 100 stitches between them.

Elizabeth Power, the consul general for the U.S. embassy in Lima, Peru, expressed surprise over the attack.

“We have not seen anything like this in Peru before. This appears to be a very isolated incident,” she said.

The mayor who oversees the Peruvian village where the attack took place insisted to NBC that the events stem from a misunderstanding. He said the villagers thought the Americans were delinquents, but couldn’t explain why the residents responded so violently. He said the event is being investigated.

Meanwhile, Peruvian tourism officials have met with the Wolfroms to apologize.

“We really sorry and surprised because this is not common at all here in Peru,” said Andrea Martinez, the country’s tourism deputy director. “We hope this won’t happen again.”

What a horrible experience. I have yet to hear of an official openly admitting that any acts of crime are a common occurrence.
How bad do the stories have to get before people stop visiting a destination?
How cheap does a destination have to get before people return?

10 most overrated tourist traps (and what to see instead)

Stonehenge, England: This group of mystery stones has been described as mystical and magical. But what you rarely see in the postcards is that Stonehenge is wedged between two very busy roads—and that you’re not even allowed to get close to the stones. You’ll pay an admission fee, of course, but you’ll only be able to view the site from afar. (Tourists used to chip off pieces of the ancient rocks as souvenirs. This is why we can’t have nice things, people.)  Dave Caulkin, AP

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Blarney Stone, Ireland: Legend has it that kissing this rock will give you the gift of gab, but judging by how many people smooch the stone every day, we think you’re more likely to come away with a communicable disease. (Especially if you believe the rumor that locals think it’s funny to sneak in after-hours and use the Blarney Stone as a bathroom.) You’ll also have to brave long lines and a vertigo-inducing climb, and you’ll be unceremoniously tipped backwards and headfirst over a ledge by a worker in order to get your peck.  AP

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Pyramids at the Giza Necropolis, Egypt: If you’re expecting a journey out to the quiet desert to see this world-famous wonder, think again. Located in a suburb not far from downtown Cairo, the pyramids are set against the backdrop of a Pizza Hut, a KFC, and a ton of litter. Be prepared to be surrounded by some of the most aggressive touts in the world, some of whom will literally jump into a moving taxi to try to sell you a camel ride. You also can’t touch the Sphinx or climb up the sides of the pyramids anymore.  Nariman El-Mofty, AP

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Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy: After you’ve taken the obligatory photos “pushing over” the tower (and accidentally photo-bombed the background of many strangers’ photos), there’s not much to do here except be hounded by the many hawkers who patrol the area. It’s a long journey, especially if you’re coming all the way from Rome, just to see that the tower does, in fact, live up to its name.  Alexander Hassenstein, Getty Images

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Prague Astronomical Clock, Czech Republic: Sure, it’s the oldest working astronomical clock in the world. But unless your idea of a good time is staring at a giant glorified cuckoo clock while being jostled by fellow tourists, there’s not much else to recommend it. If you must see it, be sure to time it so that you arrive right as the show is starting (every hour on the hour), so you don’t have to waste 50 minutes standing around staring at the clock, waiting for it to perform.  Medioimages/Photodisc Getty Images

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Times Square, New York: Flashing advertisements, obnoxious peddlers selling knockoff DVDs, chain restaurants, and hordes of lost tourists looking at maps await you in the five famed blocks of Times Square. Residents of the city go out of their way to avoid this area where personal space goes to die. We’ll never understand why visitors travel all the way to New York City to buy grocery-store candy at the M&M’s World store, dine at an Olive Garden, and gawk at billboards.  altrendo travel, Getty Images

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If you’re reading this, you clearly have access to the Internet. So why not just Google famous people’s names instead of traveling to see those names etched into a sidewalk? Plus Hollywood visitors are often shocked by the seedy streets filled with hustlers in superhero costumes trying to sell photos to tourists.  Reed Saxon, AP

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Manneken Pis, Belgium: Yes, the name of this statue in Brussels pretty much translates to “Little Man Pee.” No, we don’t know why tourists flock to look at a statue of a naked child peeing. If you insist on going, time your visit for when the statue has been dressed up by a city employee—you’ll feel a little less like a creep. (Or come during one of the occasions when the fountain’s water is replaced with a keg of beer, so you can at least get a free drink out of it.)  Getty Images/Brand X

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The Little Mermaid, Denmark: This famous sculpture in Copenhagen, based on the fairy tale, is actually a copy. The real statue is kept at an undisclosed location, which is probably for the best since the replica has been defaced, vandalized, decapitated, and blasted with explosives. Pay a better tribute to the author by visiting the Hans Christian Andersen statue in New York’s Central Park, where you can climb on the sculpture for photos.  Khan Tariq Mikkel, AP

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A list of 10 of the overrated tourist traps. Sadly I’ve been to many of the ones on the list. At least a lot of these ones are free. The worst tourist traps are the ones you actually paid loads of money to enter.

No, no, no’ Brit gran sobs as she is sentenced to death

Drugs mule … Lindsay Sandiford as she hears sentence

By VINCE SOODIN

Published: 22nd January 2013

 

A BRITISH grandmother sobbed “No, no, no!” as she was sentenced to death by firing squad today for smuggling £1.6million worth of cocaine into Bali.

Yes kids, even grandma can make bad decisions. The British grandmother had been sentenced to deal for smuggling £1.6 million worth of cocaine.

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CAPTIONS

Katherine River
Canoeing on the Katherine River, which flows through Arnhem Land and Kakadu National Park. The river runs through the 13 flaming red-walled gorges that make up the Katherine Gorge of Nitmiluk Park, and past the namesake town of Katherine. (Amanda Jones / For The Times /July 22, 2012)

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By Amanda Jones

January 20, 2013

NORTHERN TERRITORY, Australia — It was a terrible thing to admit to myself, but my teenage daughters are a bit spoiled. My own youth involved riding public transportation, taking bug-infested hikes, sailing competitively in thunderstorms and sleeping on the ground. My children, I realized, would be adrift if asked to do any of these things.

Summer was approaching, and I knew I had to do something.

“We are,” I informed them, “going to remotest Australia, and there we shall sleep on the ground and in tents. This will be very good for you. And don’t bother to bring your phones. They won’t work.”

What a wonderful and memorable experience this woman has give her daughters. I hope they appreciate it. Australia is still on my list of places to visit, but it doesn’t help that the flight prices are so high, and the distance so far, that I can’t justify going for a week.

Counting the days for the best deals on airfare

If you’ve ever found yourself fretting over how far in advance you should buy plane tickets in order to snag the best deal — and, really, who hasn’t? — you can relax. The airfare geeks at CheapAir.com revealed the answer on Thursday: 49 days if you’re flying domestic; 81 if you’re flying international.

CheapAir.com

Analyzing 560 million fare searches last year, CheapAir calculated that, on average, the best day to buy a domestic ticket was 49 days before flying.

According to CheapAir, the best time to buy a domestic ticket is 49 days, and 81 days ahead if you’re flying internationally. That sounds about right, although if you are traveling through lower time periods, you may be able to catch a sale before that.

Courtesy Kayak.com

Kayak.com’s new airfare forecasting tool predicts whether a searched-for airfare is likely to rise or fall over the next seven days.

I’m curious how the tool predicts the airfare, and if it is biased towards getting the consumer to purchase early.

TSA to remove controversial full-body scanners

Despite the title, TSA will still have the full-body scanners, but they are being replaced with ones that show a generic image of the body, rather than the actual naked image. They say a total of 174 will be removed, although it does not say how many will be replaced by the “millimeter wave body scanners”. Wish I bought stocks in the scanner industry, business is booming.