Thursday, May 17, 2012

CNNGo.com

CNNGo.com

How to lose your durian virginity quickly and painlessly

Posted: 16 May 2012 02:55 PM PDT

by Leela Punyaratabandhu

We see you at the mall. We see you on the train to work. You lurk in our neighborhood, pushing grocery carts up and down the same supermarket aisles. 

But, all you durian virgins, it's the dread and yearning in equal measure in your eyes as you behold the "king of fruits" that gives you away.  

Quiver behind your white gossamer veil no longer, O chaste ones. For we've put together a guide on how to lose your durian virginity joyously and painlessly -- just in time to enjoy Thailand's durian season.  

Prepare yourself mentally

Durian's larger-than-life persona can be intimidating. No other fruits have been described with so many hyperbolic similes.

It doesn't help that long before stricter security measures on in-flight luggage and suspicious packages in hotel lobbies were introduced in the face of terror threats, durian had already got its pungent self banned from both places.  

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More than an airport, Narita is a must-see city

Posted: 16 May 2012 11:55 AM PDT

by Lisa Jardine

A quick stop in London, then on to New York for a few days, before that final stretch in Tokyo -- it sounds like a typical travel itinerary for any modern, jet-setting CEO or a particularly unimaginative traveler.

They are the world's three busiest cities in terms of air traffic for a reason, after all.

But which of them offers an overnight layover right beside a major airport that's so accessible and enjoyable you'll look forward to each takeoff or touchdown there?

If you've done London and NYC to death, you'll be pleased to know that it's Tokyo.

More specifically, Narita; Japan's best-known airport, attracting upwards of 35 million fliers annually, but also one of our favorite pre-flight overnighters in any major city.

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Inside the cold heart of an Icelandic volcano

Posted: 16 May 2012 09:00 AM PDT

by Violet Kim

This summer, some travelers may choose to spend their days sunning on a beach, while others might take refuge inside museums and department stores in air-conditioned cities. 

But with an exclusive single-summer tour opening this June at Thrihnukagigur, a dormant Icelandic volcano near Reykyavik, others -- particularly cave enthusiasts and spelunkers -- might want to rethink their plans to include a tour of Thrihnukagigur's insides. 

Journey to the bowels of the earth 

The tour starts with a light 40-minute hike across a lava field and up to the crater, from where visitors are lowered into the enormous -- 120 meters deep and 70 meters wide -- magma chamber of Thrihnukagigur via a cable lift. 

The setup is comparable to the way window cleaners dangle outside skyscrapers, like "an open elevator system," as 3H Travel, the Icelandic tour company that guides visitors into the heart of Thrihnukagigur, states on its website. 

Visitors, five or six at a time, are transported into the bottle-shaped vault inside a basket, attached to cable wires, which in turn are attached to a huge crane on the surface. They enter through a relatively narrow aperture, a mere four meters square. 

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at 9:07 AM