Gadling

To celebrate their 80th birthday, Leading Hotels of the World is running a promotion where you can stay in almost 100 of their properties around the world for US$19.28.

At 12 noon GMT (8 a.m. EST/Eastern Standard Time) on October 1, 2008, LHW will release a limited number of rooms in these properties for 80 minutes only, in which you can try to secure rooms for US$19.28. You can pre-register here.

It's not clear what type of rooms will be up for grabs; rooms at LHW properties range from US$500-2000, so for $20, any room will do!

80 minutes is not long and I imagine tonnes of people trying to milk this offer, so let's hope that LHW have their act together and their servers do not crash.

[Via globorati]

A British student researcher while on a project in Kamchatka in Russia broke her leg after falling off a horse. She had a 406 megahertz beacon locator, the distress signal of which reached Scotland -- 3,700 miles away! She was rescued and is currently recovering.

Kamchatka is a scarcely populated remote part of eastern Russia, one of the world's last great wildernesses that is also home to 300 volcanoes.

I think we tend to take safety for granted; you never think you are going to be stuck in the middle of nowhere alone and disconnected. The girl in this case was with 8 others, and she had an advance beacon thing. What happened to the Russian rescue services?

I'm not very knowledgeable about the types of personal beacons, the way the work, and the distance they cover, but if they can send SOS signals to centers cross-continent, whoa, hats off to technology. Apparently, this is not normal though.

Here's a good piece with basic information on personal beacons. They are available for around £200-300, probably worth the investment if you are going to be away from civilization for a while.

An Australian version of "The Daring Book For Girls" has guidelines on how to play a didgeridoo. This has angered some Aborigines because the didgeridoo is considered a male ceremonial instrument, not to be played by women as it could possibly cause infertility, among other terrible things.

I would have pointed fingers at this Australian faux pas, especially since the book is published by Australians, in Australia! But I can't because I lived in Australia for 3 years, I have been to Darwin -- around where the Aborigines are situated, I have tried to play the didgeridoo, and I even own one; but I had no idea that if a girl plays the instrument she is believed to suffer bad consequences. Never was it even brought up in any conversation about the instrument with native Australians. That's quite sad and rather inexcusable.

The Aboriginal leaders have demanded the withdrawal of the book. Although Harper Collins have apologized for not being aware of this belief, they have refused to withdraw the book on grounds that there is a "divergence of views" amongst Aborigines. In other words, all of them are not offended.

Despite efforts at educating yourself about different cultures and trying to absorb and accept what you learn, it's amazing how you can still miss crucially important details.

I've heard of many cruisers offering trips to the Antarctic, but this is the first time I hear of a flight that takes you over the continent in 12 hours. The Boeing 747-400 covers five main spots on the continent's east coast.

Organized by Croyden Travel, you can board one of these flights from Sydney or Melbourne, and cost between $999(economy)-$5699(first class). The plane doesn't land, you don't require your passport to travel, and you get to change seats once on the flight. Meals and drinks are provided too.

The next flight is new year's eve 2008; if you take this flight you will be the first to see the Sun of 2009!

Although it sounds great and I'm sure the aerial view of the glaciers is mind-blowing, I'm not sure I'd want to pay that much for a trip where I'm couped up for 12 hours. I'd take a week long cruise instead.

Although this photo doesn't have any scenery or people, for some reason it screams "vacation!" It's the colors and the way the light has been captured that the first words that come to my mind are "happy", "sun", and "fiesta". Also, I was 100% sure that this photo was taken either in Jamaica or in Brazil -- but nope, it was taken by user LadyExpat in Kota Kinabalu, capital of Sabah, a state in Malaysia.

Have any cool photos you'd like to share with the world? Add them to the Gadling Pool on Flickr, and it might be chosen as our Photo of the Day.

I don't want to laugh but this is too funny: A 78-year old Swedish woman misunderstood check-in procedures at Stockholm-Arlanda Airport and along with her bag, she also stepped onto the conveyor belt and fell down the baggage chute. She was rescued by baggage handlers and taken back to the terminal. The conveyor belt was unmanned at the time so no one was there to stop her.

Luckily, she came out with no injuries and in time to catch her flight to Germany.

Poor lady, such an innocent mistake. I hope atleast she enjoyed the slide down.

A Ryanair flight from Bristol to Barcelona had to make an emergency landing in France because its cabin lost pressure. It had to plunge 8000 meters immediately in order to reach a level where the air was breathable.

The sudden drop scared many passengers on the flight to the extent that they thought they were going to die; apparently they were not informed of what was happening until 30 minutes into the incident. Also, there's an argument going on between a passenger and Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary about whether all the oxygen masks were working properly or not.

Fortunately, other than the lack of communication and hiccups with the oxygen masks, reports say that the landing was smooth. No fatal injuries, however 16 passengers were taken to hospital complaining of ear problems.

There's an interesting report in the Telegraph that emphasises how losing cabin pressure can be fatal. Once this happens on board, pilots have 30 seconds to put their masks on to then make the plane land immediately. Any problems with this can lead to the pilots losing consciousness.

This has happened a few times over the last decade, the worst of which was an incident that happened 3 years ago resulting in a Boeing 737 crashing in Greece and all passengers onboard dying. The history of other such incidents can be found here.

If you can't decide where to go and you need some direction or original suggestions, you might want to check out travel website Trazzler. What makes you actually want to use this website is 1) Its simplicity 2) The fact that it tries to assess your "travel personality" before it makes suggestions.

Log on and it will give you short trip suggestions wherever you live. I logged on and immediately got 3 recommendations of trips around Madrid, so I'm assuming it picks up where you are logging in from and gives you ready information, (or it's a random coincidence). Likewise, you can ask for the same for any other destination, or if you want to narrow your search for a trip that (for example) will stimulate your taste buds, you can search under "culinary".

Then you can fill information about what sort of trips you have already been on, and where you'd like to go. This is partly how they capture some of your emotional qualities and recommend your trips accordingly. For the same purpose, there are also some travel pop-quizzes you can take.

It has a talented team behind it and like Tumblr and Twitter, it functions on an easy platform -- so it's no surprise that the co-founders of Twitter are the "Founding Advisors" (whatever that means) of Trazzler. It's quick, effortless, and worth a check out.

I'm a total sucker for street performances, especially when I travel, and especially if it's something cultural - I always stop and watch! This shot has been taken by user jonjanegoin on Nanjing Road in Shanghai, China. Its simplicity makes it so real -- and he's managed to capture a moment with as much precision as possible.

Want your photo featured on Photo of the Day? Submit it to the Gadling Flickr pool for consideration.

Gwyneth Paltrow, celebrity chef Mario Batali, food book author and New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman, and Spanish actress Claudia Bassols (who *gasp*doesn't have a Wikipedia page!) will star in a show called "Spain...On The Road Again", documenting their travels across Spain.

I like all these celebrities but would watch it just for Paltrow, who by the way sounds like she speaks fluent Spanish. The show is food-centric so they really couldn't have chosen a better country to start than Spain.

I'm a bit disappointed with the name of the show though: 1) Extremely uncreative ("On The Road" are probably the 3 most commonly used words in travel, and, being a food/travel show, you'd think there would be some reference to that in the title, 2) Why the "again"?

Anyway, what's in a name, eh? It's a 13 part series that was shot in 2 months across the country. You can watch a sneak preview of the show here.

Sometimes I wish I was an actor just so I could have my own travel show when I felt like it. No, vlogging is not the same. Sigh.