7 Days; 7 Travel Stories

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1. Tips on Avoiding One Of Travel’s Greatest Maladies: Jet Lag

Limit the alcohol, make sure you don't get dehydrated, wear loose clothing, walk up and down the aisle several times during the flight and avoid red-eye flights. When flying west, try to absorb some afternoon sun upon arrival even if your biological clock is telling you it's nighttime. Similarly, when traveling to London say, and landing in the morning, fight the urge to "go to a hotel room and sleep for several hours," which will only keep you on your departing city time. Instead, the minute you land, go outside and walk around in the sun.

Enter a new contraption called Litebook Elite ($199 at http://www.litebook.com, that uses daylight spectrum LED bulbs, not unlike the light therapy boxes used by sufferers of seasonal affective disorder. The difference is that at five inches square, the Litebook is portable and can be used to help shift your biological clock quickly no matter where in the world you are. Purchasers of the Litebook also gain access to a calculator on the company's Web site. After entering data on their normal wake-up times, as well as what time zones they're traveling from and to, the site spits out a customized schedule of when they should avoid light and when they should engage in light therapy (which usually involves 30- to 60-minute exposure the first day, and 15- to 30-minute exposure the second). Washington Post

2. Destinations

It might be safe to visit Kenya again. Insiders report that Kenya’s most popular parks--Tsavo, Amboseli, Maasai Mara and Naivasha—are waiting for the tourists to return. Tanzania has opened all of its borders, allowing tourist vans and passenger buses to head to Kenyan cities. Visitors to Kenya have doubled during the past three years. ETN

A new government directive has decreed only “genuine” Malaysians can now man the frontline in the country's hospitality industry. "We want tourists to meet 'local' workers, including those pushing trolleys and taking bags," said Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, who made the announcement after chairing a cabinet committee on tourism. "We want our airports to give tourists a truly Malaysian welcome." The ruling stems the tide of employer dependency on “imported” labor, which the government has estimated now numbers some 3 million legal foreign workers. ETN

China's railways are expected to carry a record 178.6 million passengers during this year’s Spring Festival travel period, January 23 through March 2. Tickets to Sichuan Province, Chongqing Municipality and Jiangxi Province, where a large number of migrant workers in Beijing come from, have been selling like hot cakes, according to Beijing rail officials. Many of these workers only get the chance to go home and see their families once a year, during the Spring Festival, the most important holiday for Chinese. But train tickets are difficult to come by since millions of Chinese are in the same boat. chinaview.cn

Oops. A leaflet extolling the elysian beauties of Thornham Walks - a 12-mile footpath network in Suffolk, England features a picture of a young girl picking her nose. A local official says the photo “does not represent our youth in the best light" and wants the amateurish pamphlet to be withdrawn. telegraph.co.uk

3. Online

www.VacationRental.org announced a Green Certified Vacation Rental program, identifying environmentally friendly vacation rentals that meet recycling, energy efficiency and energy conservation standards.

Part secret agent, part superhero, William Shatner as the "Priceline Negotiator" returns this week in the first installment of a new series of commercials based on the karate-chopping, hard-bargaining Priceline character. To see the first spots, visit: http://www.priceline.com/promo/shatner_pcln_negotiator.asp.

PhoCusWright’s recent consumer technology survey divided buyers into two groups: those that visited between one and five sites and those that visited more than five. Among the findings, the more than five group were more likely to post travel reviews and be influenced by engaging rich media hooks such as videos and interactive maps. Travel Weekly

4. Ever Wonder Why

New scientific research concludes that Venereal Disease evolved in the Americas and was carried to Europe by the crew of Christopher Columbus. The findings suggest that while the European conquest of the Americas led to the decimation of native populations from diseases such as smallpox, the traffic was not entirely one-way. London Times

Some 3 billion fortune cookies are made each year, but there is one place where the cookies are conspicuously absent: China. The reason, according to a food researcher: Fortune cookies most likely originated in Japan in the mid 1800s or earlier. They were brought to the US and first served in Chop Suey restaurants run by Japanese people in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Originally they were called Fortune Tea Cakes. The cakes became a staple of American culture after World War II when soldiers returning home from the Pacific first came across them in Chinese restaurants on the West Coast. The cookies rapidly spread across the country at the urging of these veterans who asked their local Chinese restuarants why they didn't serve them. NY Times

5. At The Airport

Overcrowded skies? Think again. Consider the ground traffic involving drivers circling the terminal or terminals again and again waiting for arriving passengers to make it to the curb to be picked up. Many airports, from Florida to California, have found a simple partial solution to the problem by creating what they call cellphone parking lots within the airport. The parking is short term and usually free. The lots often have portable toilets and an electronic arrival board to know the status of arriving plans. NY Times

New York State’s airline passenger rights law took affect on January 1. The law requires airlines serving the state to provide passengers with food, water, fresh air, working restrooms, and power on any flight that has been delayed for more than three hours. Failure to do so can result in a fine up to $1,000 per passenger. Travel Weekly

Virgin Atlantic will become the first commercial airline to use biofuel in-flight during a planned demonstration in February on one of its 747s. The Virgin Atlantic 747 will fly from London Heathrow to Amsterdam and is part of airline’s strategy to reduce its environmental impact wherever possible. ETN

In light of yesterday’s plane crash at Heathrow (no one was killed), 2007 was one of the safest on record for air travel. Which begs the question: is one seat safer to sit in than another? The simple fact is that every accident is different and flying is one of the safest things to do, so it shouldn’t matter where you sit, say the experts.

6. Travel Industry Insider

An informal survey of USTOA members revealed that Americans are increasingly looking for action on vacation. Nearly two out of three tour operators responding to a recent member survey conducted by the US Tour Operators Association said that adventure travel is on the rise. The USTOA website — www.USTOA.com or www.USTOA.travel — contains a drop-down list of member companies by type of activity, from heli-hiking to whale watching. For more information by phone contact one 800-go-USTOA (468-7862).

Travel & Tourism created over 231 million jobs worldwide in 2007, making it one of the world's largest employment industries. Over the last year the travel industry accounted for more than 72 million jobs in China, putting China at the top of the employment list followed by India, the United States and Japan. China's Travel & Tourism industry contributed 12.2 per cent of GDP in 07 and the industry's economic activity generated over CNY 3,360 billion (US$439 billion), positioning China's Travel & Tourism economy as the 4th largest in the world, after the United States, Japan and Germany. Globally, the travel industry will need about 1.6 million new employees in the next ten years, according to one expert.

7. Green Escapades

Cruising has achieved the dubious distinction of being named the poorest performing sector of the travel industry when it comes to caring for the environment. Cruise lines may not have carbon-offsetting schemes to publicize, yet there are stringent rules and regulations that lines have to abide by.

There are limits on the sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide emissions allowed from ship exhausts and strict guidelines about dumping waste at sea, although most new ships store waste and bring it back to port for disposal. In a nutshell, vessels must be three nautical miles from land to dump treated sewage or 12 nautical miles for untreated sewage; food waste must be pulped before being dumped within 12 miles of land. By 2010, all cruise ships will have to have either a sewage treatment plant or a sewage holding tank. Telegraph, UK

Rich’s Weekend Reader is published by AndTyler222 Communications. All rights reserved. Information from various sources and mostly rewritten. andtyler222@verizon.net www.itinarod.com