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- Ryanair sells its bodies for advertising
- Trekking the Ridgeway: Britain's oldest road
- Report names world's top skinny dippers, Speedo enthusiasts
- Welcome to the most creative restaurant in China
| Ryanair sells its bodies for advertising Posted: 19 Jul 2013 01:33 AM PDT Budget carrier offers up its 300-plus fuselages for "budget" endorsements  Don't be freaked out if you see a huge smiling face of Ronald McDonald or a giant Coke can sliding into the clouds next time you look out from the departure lounge. Ryanair is selling advertising space on its airplane bodies, Airnation.net reports. The Irish budget airline has never lacked ideas for bringing in the cash. Its mooted schemes include charging for toilet use, offering standing room only tickets and building planes with wider doors to herd passengers on and off more quickly. While most of these ideas have been dismissed as publicity stunts and not realized, it seems this time Ryanair is serious. Ryanair's 5 'cheapest' money-saving schemes "We're now offering businesses the chance to reach millions of consumers through livery advertising," said Robin Kiely, a Ryanair spokesman. Advertisers will be able to choose from locations on the front and rear of the fuselage and the "winglets" at the end of the wings, according to the Airnation article. Ryanair will retain its own harp logo on the tailfins. The cheapest placement, on the inner and outer winglets, would cost €20,000 ($26,000) for a year. Ancillary revenue such as from fuselage advertising helped to keep costs low for passengers, Ryanair said. Ryanair busts our cabin girls calendar "Cheap" and "discount" are the most searched travel terms, so it's little surprise that Ryanair is one of the 10 largest airlines worldwide in terms of passenger numbers. The carrier flew 79 million people last year. The comparatively low price of the fuselage advertising -- "a fraction of the price of a newspaper advert," the airline trumpets -- should give small businesses, and perhaps even comparatively normal folk with some spare cash, the chance to emblazon their message on a craft carrying thousands of people around the world each year. Could "John and Irene" newlywed announcements and ads for bargain teeth-whitening be coming to a fuselage near you?      |
| Trekking the Ridgeway: Britain's oldest road Posted: 18 Jul 2013 11:00 PM PDT A lot can happen in 6,000 years. You'll see a long stretch of history -- and grab a few pints -- on this ancient highway  The stone in front of me, twice my height, has been standing here in Avebury, England, for more than 4,500 years. The rough, pitted rock forms part of a huge Neolithic stone circle within which a pub, a post office and several cottages now stand. Avebury is one of the world's great pagan heritage sites -- and one of the most mysterious. Exactly how, and why, its stones (originally numbering almost 100 and some weighing more than 50 tons) were erected is still debated.
Travelers, soldiers and settlers have walked this route for 6,000 years. Equipped with a backpack, five spare days and probably not quite enough pairs of clean socks, I recently joined them. Passing through five counties, the Ridgeway Trail runs through southern England from Avebury in Wiltshire to Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire. London isn't far away, but its crowds are entirely absent. Instead you get one gorgeous or stirring view after another. Much of the trail follows a raised chalk ridge, which in ancient times provided a dry pathway above the boggy lowlands below.
They're generally of cheery disposition. "Lovely day for it," was the typically English greeting of more than one walker I passed. British countryside at its bestHistory aside, my walk is also a chance to explore rural Britain at its most archetypal. This isn't the England of Premiership soccer, tabloid-starring royals and multicultural shopping streets. This is its slow-moving cousin, a world of beech woods, chugging tractors and thatched-roof cottages.
The past drapes itself over the trail in layers. I pass prehistoric burial mounds, Iron Age hill forts and Roman temple sites, as well as two of the region's renowned hillside chalk horses. Carved more than 2,000 years ago into the white chalk beneath the topsoil, the Uffington White Horse is the oldest surviving example of these striking figures. It makes for an impressive lunch spot -- even when you're dining on squashed cheddar cheese sandwiches. By divine deliverance, the lesser-spotted British sun joins me for almost the entire week.
Halfway along the trail, the River Thames breaks through the hills of the Ridgeway. In another 150 kilometers or so, the waters here will flow past the Houses of Parliament in central London. For now, they're occupied by rowers, ducks and canal boats. The path follows the river for a pleasurable 10 kilometers. Wildlife is a constant theme on the walk. The morning skies are full of caroling skylarks and swallows; the verges stir with rabbits and spring butterflies.
For long periods of the walk, the wide, winding path along the ridge genuinely gives the feeling of traveling an ancient freeway. But then, like the road, modernity intrudes again in the form of power stations, rail lines or planes overhead. A good long-distance walk needs good pubs, and the Ridgeway obliges. They have names like The Plough (Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire; +44 0 1844 343 302) and The John Barleycorn (Manor Road, Goring-on-Thames, Buckinghamshire; +44 0 1491 872 509) and serve local ales and cook filling, unfussy meals. Rabbit and cider casserole anyone? They're also well accustomed to muddy-booted walkers straggling in for food. As the route snakes its way towards its eastern end, it becomes less defined by open downland and more by quiet villages and valleys.
Five days and 140 kilometers after setting off, I reached route's end at the top of Ivinghoe Beacon, in the Chiltern Hills. There's no grand signage, no gift shop. It's perfect. The walk was deeply enjoyable: a week to appreciate the shades of Britain's past and tune in to the rhythms of rural life. You inevitably wonder: Will people still be walking the path in another 6,000 years? Find out more about how to plan a trip, and where to stay, at the National Trail website.
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| Report names world's top skinny dippers, Speedo enthusiasts Posted: 18 Jul 2013 07:30 PM PDT Expedia's annual Flip Flop Report examines beach attitudes worldwide and reveals our biggest seaside fears  Some tips on how to be a better beach bum: Build sand castles in India, avoid Speedo-like swimwear in Japan, go topless in Germany. Travel booking website Expedia has released this year's Flip Flop Report, its annual survey beachgoer behavior worldwide. The survey counted 8,606 survey responses from across Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. Most respondents favor beach vacations above any other type of holiday. Australians, Dutch, French, Japanese, Singaporeans and Spaniards prefer historical/cultural sightseeing, whereas New Zealanders say visiting friends and family is the most important holiday activity. More on CNN: Naked, wet, free: 21 sexy skinny dips As it did in last year's Flip Flop Report, Germany outranked all other free-spirited nations in the enjoyment of public nudity. Some 17% of Germans have sunbathed naked on a public beach. The French are the least likely Europeans to go topless or nude at the beach. Americans (8%) are about half as likely to have sunbathed topless as Canadians (15%). Globally speaking, Indians, South Koreans, Malaysians, Singaporeans and Japanese are the least comfortable with nudity at the beach. Leave the Speedo at home, unless in France
Only half of U.S. beachgoers consider "Speedos/Speedo-like swimwear" to be acceptable beachwear. Don't even think about strapping on one in Japan or Norway, where respectively only 29% and 34% of respondents recognize Speedos as appropriate. The French have the highest tolerance for Speedo devotees (91%). More on CNN: World's 100 best beaches Walking on the beach (78%) is the most popular seaside activity for Americans, followed by people-watching (64%), swimming (61%) and rolling around on a towel like a sausage in a pan (i.e., "sunbathing," 56%). Americans also report that they buy new outfits (46%), work out (33%), diet (26%) and get waxed (13%) before embarking on beach vacations. C'mon, get in, what are you afraid of?Not all nationalities bring the same anxieties to the beach. According to the survey, when at the beach, Americans most fear, in order, theft, drowning, sharks and jellyfish. The overwhelming top fear among Singaporeans is sharks (85%), with 40% of Singaporeans saying they won't swim in the ocean because of sharks. About 40% of Americans fear sharks, but only 7% say they avoid the water for that reason. Indians beachgoers are the biggest lovers of building sanding castles. They're also the most active beach bums -- playing the most water sports -– as well as the group that gets the most massages at the beach. With or without their tops and bottoms, Germans swim at the beach the most (90%). Germans second most favorite beach activity? Reading. Maybe it gives them something to pretend to be doing while sneaking looks at their fellow free-wheeling sun worshippers. Tags:    |
| Welcome to the most creative restaurant in China Posted: 18 Jul 2013 03:00 PM PDT In Chengdu, Asia's first UNESCO-listed City of Gastronomy, Yu's Family Kitchen is giving Sichuan food a makeover  While the flavors are familiar, the cuisine at Yu's Family Kitchen in Chengdu, Sichuan, is anything but common or safe. Even the chef's simplest dish, a seemingly uncomplicated steamed red bean bun, is artistically pricked with shears, transforming it into an edible hedgehog. Artistic details like these have propelled Yu's to the top of Chengdu's "must dine" lists -- and lend considerable clout to claims the Sichuan city is one of the hottest culinary destinations on the planet right now. In 2010, Chengdu became the first city in Asia and the second in the world to be named a UNESCO City of Gastronomy. (The first, in 2005, was Popayan in Colombia.)
A Sichuan native, Yu dedicated 10 years of meticulous study to the art of cooking spicy and classic Sichuan cuisine under traditional chefs. He ventured off on his own in 2006, opening Yu's Family Kitchen with his wife in one of the city's restored Zhai alleyways in the heart of Chengdu. Since its inception, Yu and his restaurant have won praise both at home and abroad for culinary dexterity and exceptional creativity. He's garnered accolades from foreign experts on Chinese food such as Fuchsia Dunlop, as well as visits from the likes of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. He teaches diners there's more to Sichuan cuisine than mapo tofu –- though his play on the traditional dish is superb –- and invites them to discover the cuisine of his home through the eyes of a detailed and thoughtful artist. More on CNN: Chengdu, Asia's first City of Gastronomy The experienceFour of us gathered for lunch at a large round table at Yu's Family Kitchen on a recent sunny Chengdu afternoon. The restaurant is set in a traditional Sichuan lane house. Meals are served in the usual Chinese banquet style. But the experience is anything but traditional. Reservations are required. Not because the restaurant is booked solid every meal, but because that's when diners decide how much they want to spend, discover what seasonal ingredients are available and inform the staff of dietary restrictions. Once we arrived at the restaurant, no menus were presented.
Cold dishes (liang cai) are conventional precursor to nearly every meal in China. Many of Yu's are creatively crafted, like the hand-tied piece of lettuce. "Traditions are made not to be broken nor kept," says Yu. "I use traditional methods and styles as the foundation on which I build the rest of my house. I don't trade past experiences for new ones; I create new experiences with traditional ones." Instead of breaking with Chengdu's culinary traditions, Yu refines them. After our 16 starters -- which represent the 16 additional courses to arrive later -- we were offered three seemingly simple dishes of hand-shredded duck, a sesame and chili oil rabbit and a spice-rubbed chicken. The ingredientsIncredibly executed, these dishes shined not because of their creativity, but because of Yu's careful consideration in obtaining ingredients. The fowl was completely free-range and the MSG -- an often feared and misunderstood hallmark of Asian cuisine -- is made in-house using only organic ingredients. "It's nearly impossible to source 100% traceable, environmentally sound and organic products all the time in China," laments Yu. "But I try my best to obtain them. That's why almost no two meals at my restaurant are the same. Ingredients change daily based on availability." Yu's commitment to responsibly sourcing free-range and organic produce should be applauded, but it's his ability to re-introduce Chinese traditions that should really be celebrated. His creativity is best witnessed in his marriage of two iconic Chinese symbols: calligraphy and dumplings. He takes something as simple as a dumpling and transforms it into a piece of art, nearly too exquisite to eat. Instead of enveloping minced pork into a typical doughy wrapper, he creates floss from the dough, spins it onto the end of a wooden handle, and cleverly hides the free range Tibetan ground pork within the threads of floss. The result is an edible calligraphy brush best served dipped in its ink -- either a tomato dipping sauce or pungent black vinegar. Equally impressive is Yu's ability to recreate a classic Sichuan mapo tofu experience without using a single cube of tofu. In place of tofu, he simmers cubed jelly noodles in a pungent huajiao (Sichuan peppercorn) broth to create a traditional Chinese medicinal concoction as savory as it is healthful. More on CNN: CNNGo TV in Chengdu 'A lot of chefs play safe.'"I want to inspire creativity in Chinese kitchens," Yu says. "I think that is really lacking here. Chinese chefs often get stuck with the recipes that have been handed down to them generation to generation and they don't possess any discipline. "Some of those traditional recipes may be great, but they need new life breathed into them and a focused chef. But a lot of chefs play safe." The price of his creative cuisine is reasonable. The four of us paid just under RMB 250 ($40) per person for our four-hour, 16-course meal, though the restaurant will try to accommodate most budgets. Yu's Family Kitchen, 43 Zhao Xiang Zi, Xia Tong Ren Lu Chengdu, China; +86 028 8669 1985 More on CNN: 10 of China's spiciest dishes    |
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