The 19 most hated companies on the American market have been revealed. The vast majority includes airlines, telephone service providers and banks.
The Atlantic compiled and published the 19 most hated companies in America, based on the information from the American Customer Satisfaction Index. The Index rates companies based on thousands of surveys. (more…)
Are you ticked off at the airlines…again? Many travelers are fuming because of the undisclosed fees that are being attached to the price of their tickets. First airline passengers had to endure long hours on the tarmac with no food, water or proper toilet facilities. Through the power of consumer lobbying, Congress passed a bill that limits the hours a stationary airplane can keep passengers sequestered. Now, travelers are faced with another issue—hidden fees on airline tickets but there’s a platform where consumers can voice their displeasure. (more…)
The Travel’n On Radio Show congratulates President-Elect Barack Obama on his victory and vows to support the new Administration on its efforts to encourage public diplomacy, global citizenship, cross-cultural understanding and responsible tourism.
Tonya Fitzpatrick, Esq., Executive Producer and Co-Host of the popular syndicated show said, “Among the many challenges facing the new Administration, revitalizing
“Additionally, tourism to the
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We’ve been hearing a lot about John McCain’s prisoner of war experience in the infamous North Vietnamese prison dubbed the “Hanoi Hilton.”
But have you heard that the “Hanoi Hilton” site now includes an actual Hilton Hotel?
When I came upon that Hilton during a somber stroll after touring the small prison-museum in the Vietnamese capital, I stared in disbelief. Holy Ho Chi Minh.
The soaring Hilton was only steps away from the Hoa Lo Prison (a.k.a. Hanoi Hilton) with coffin-sized cells, manacles, torture instruments, and the flight suit, helmet, and parachute Navy pilot McCain wore when shot down over Hanoi in 1967.
What kind of branding is that? As soon as I was back in the U.S. of A., I asked a Hilton spokeswoman.
She e-mailed this explanation: “in recognition of past sensitivies (sic), and given the location of the hotel immediately adjacent to the Opera House, the word ‘Opera’ was added.” So the name is Hanoi Hilton Opera Hotel.
Well, my jaw dropped again – and not to belt out an aria, or to (mis-)quote Shakespeare. “What’s in a name? That which we call a (prison), By any other name would smell as sweet.”
Speaking of the sweet smell of success… Most of the Hoa Lo prison had been destroyed for the hotel complex, which also encompasses a skyscraper office/apartment building, a supermarket, and glittering boutiques.
Wait just a minute: Didn’t the Communists defeat the capitalists? All our Vietnam war casualties, P.O.W.s, violent protests over that defining event of my generation, and now glitz and glam more Hollywood than Hanoi? Their stock market? Gee, maybe their dong currency is getting harder than our dollar?
I vaguely remembered that Vietnam’s economic liberalization policy, called doi moi, began in 1986. And their economy was helped greatly by the normalization of Vietnamese-U.S. relations in 1995 — an effort led by Senators John McCain and John Kerry, also Vietnam veteran and former Presidential candidate.
Whoever is your Presidential candidate this election year, and whatever you think about our current wars, please vote. And that’s all you’ll hear here from me about politics.
Hello again, “Travel’n On” blogees and listeners.
I hope my August 23 radio segment whetted your appetite for Nevis, my favorite Caribbean island of the 30 or so I’ve visited. Why Nevis? The lush, tranquil island remains the true Caribbean, back when sugar was king and rum was the devil.
And now, I’m salivating over Nevis’s food (and drink) festival October 17-19. At the NICHE festival, you can nosh, feast, sip, and sample your way through the tiny Leeward Island.
“To eat is human, to digest, divine,” as that innocent abroad, Mark Twain, once wrote.
Here are just a few divine tidbits as appetizers for NICHE:
The event begins Friday morning October 17 when a true island character, Mansa, takes guests on a tour of the six-acre organic farm he tends with a little help from schoolchildren. Mansa’s fresh squeezed juices range from avocado – the one he handed me weighed over two pounds — blueberry, pumpkin, sorrel, sour sop to mauby juice, which some term “liquid Viagra”.
Friday and Saturday, local and international chefs will give lunchtime cooking demonstrations at the Old Manor Hotel, one of Nevis’s five original plantation inns. Between demonstrations, eat your way from booth to booth, sampling specialties and wines from local restaurants. The Old Manor’s lava stone buildings were part of its sugar plantation which functioned for almost 250 years.
Friday evening, to aid the digestion and fun of eating various types of BBQ on the beach at Coconut Grove restaurant, it’s including tastings of wine, and rum, and martinis. Then dance on Coco Beach. On Saturday afternoon, indulge in chocolate bon bons and Bacardi with impunity – the $35 tickets go toward a college scholarship fund for a Nevis student.
Saturday evening, the Four Seasons Resort Nevis hosts a poolside champagne reception and then its brand new cabanas become food stations. During all days, each cabana comes with its own butler. But on this night, instead of butlers, there’ll be experts hand-rolling tobacco into cigars to go with the cognac and rum tastings. Perhaps Bizet’s opera “Carmen” about the gorgeous cigar factory worker will be playing on the cabanas’ DVDs.
On Sunday morning, after muffins and pastries at the Old Manor, a local bartender will demonstrate his award-winning mixology talents.NICHE concludes with a scrumptious three-course meal prepared by some of the leading chefs on Nevis and its sister island St. Kitts. Fine wines including champagne accompany each course.
Maybe the festival should include liquor in its acronym – NILCHE instead of NICHE, which stands for Nevis International Culinary Heritage Exposition.
Additional chefs are being added, so check www.nevis-niche.com for the latest.
One chef not to miss is the divine Miss June, an octogenarian whose cuisine is as eclectic as she is. Miss June’s Restaurant in her gingerbread-trimmed home offers 35-dish extravaganzas, including about five curry selections – by appointment only.Miss June Mestier told me, “People are afraid of cooking. If they add the wrong spice, they sit down and cry. But cooking is fun, an adventure.”
Nevis and NICHE are, most definitely, deliciously fun adventures.
