New York Travel Show

This past weekend, tourism boards, travelers, travel agents gathered at the Jacob Javitz Center. It was the 10th Annual New York Times Travel Show. There were booths representing every corner of the world, big and small. The signs were big and the representatives were welcoming. It wasn't a competition for the best booth but presentation did not go unnoticed. It was as if you hopped from one country another as you maneuvered through the crowd from booth to booth. It was a blend of voices in different languages. I skipped around only to gather information from countries I'd never been to, establishing conversation and make new friends.

As I looked around, the Taiwan table caught my attention with its bright colors, pamphlets, flags, big crowd,  and display of calligraphy. Yes! There was an older man patiently writing what people requested atTaiwanese table. I ventured onto the line to request that he write the name of my blog. As I explained the best I could in a series of hand gestures and descriptive adjectives, he looked puzzled at me. He had taken the word "wanderlust" out of context. The guy behind me starts to chime in saying that he has seen the movie. No, I said its "an irrisistable desire to travel". "Ahh travel, yes like planes" he replies. Apparently, his english was fairly limited. He smiled and started drawing a series of curved lines intersecting straight ones all over the paper to make into what ended up being his interpretation of what he thought I was saying. He asked me to write down my blog name as he was intrigued by its title and wanted to read up on it. "Very original" he said over and over. I honestly just hope it really says "Mbracing Wanderlust".

If he was any indication as to how friendly and inviting people from Taiwan are, I would definately love to visit sometime. And at the end of it all, isn't that the purpose of this Travel Show?- To open your mind to countries you would not have thought of going to?

Bourdain Travel Rants

Anthony Bourdain

He is just so frank, a genius of his craft and truly an admirable man. I think anyone who knows me well is clear on my fascination with Anthony Bourdain. I wouldn't miss his shows "No Reservation" and "The Layover", as he travels from city to city pin pointing the best points of interest, the culture and the most amazing culinary experiences.

Ha! Safe to say, I idolize this man and would love to work with him. In reality, it seems his job is just to go all over the world and try new food.
(Food + Travel = My Ideal World)
I follow him on Twitter and on occasions, I pretend we are friends and I tweet him.

Well, in his most recent set of tweets, he speaks about being en route to the Cayman Islands for another culinary experience. His flight from MIA to the Cayman Islands was delayed through American Airlines. We have all been there, at an airline's mercy for timely transportation because let's be honest here, what's the point of being able to pick your flight times, if they will be delayed 9 times out of 10.

In his outrage, Anthony mentions that he has been waiting for 2 hours. While he waited, as the greatly frank man he is, he updated us real time as it was all happening. His tweets started with:

@Bourdain: Love the poor gate agent, standing mute under the “on time ” sign when clearly we are f**ked. #AA

@Bourdain: What does “special situation” mean in airlines speak? Ain’t nothin’ special about late departure #AA

@Bourdain: Latest news is it took #AA two hours to admit a passenger dropped a wet deuce on a seat. Need to change planes

Unbelievable, how in our day and age a flight can be delayed for 2 hours for something so primitive. Someone had defecated on the plane. They left the flight attendants a less than pleasant surprise. As analytical as I am, I got to thinking. How severe could this "number 2" have been, that it caused an airline to delay for exactly that, 2 hours. Comical but real, there is never a dull moment in travel. One of Bourdain's last tweets on the subject, was him jokingly thinking of paying it forward with the airport panini he had eaten earlier.

American Airlines opted for a very diplomatic answer to this rant by stating that "the flight in question was delayed approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience."

Travel Zoo #traveltuesday Contest

Tuesdays might very well be my favorite day of the week. It is the best day for travel and tourism since most airlines and travel agencies send out their weekly promotion on this god sent day. Nowadays, we even have twitter to help us figure out what deals and promotions and are out with the trending topic #traveltuesday.

Last week, I saw that Travelzoo, a very well known coupon and deals global internet company, had a contest on twitter for #traveltuesday. They asked that followers replied with their favorite beach. I quickly answered it to be Maidstone beach in East Hampton. To my surprise, I was greeted with a direct message from Travelzoo in my inbox congratulating me on my "Twitter Winner Swag".

A week later, I received a fedex at my doorstep filled with promotional goodies, $25 worth of gift cards to be redeemed at Travelzoo.com and an actual handwritten note. Talk about personalization! Woohooo!! ;)



Great Quality Umbrella with Travelzoo Logo



Umbrella, Tote, USB, Pen, $25 Giftcard & Note





Handwritten Note from D. Brooks



Big THANK you to Travelzoo!!