Eat, Pray, Love -- and Watch Your Tail

Travel journalist Bruce Northam urges intuition when soloing

Julia Roberts is all over the tube these days promoting the movie, "Eat, Pray, Love," based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling bookabout her soul-searching odyssey to mend a broken heart. My travel-writer colleague Bruce Northam (left) wrote "Eat Pray Love, and Be Cautious," as the title implies, a cautionary but not paranoid piece on Huffington Post. He began, "The book Eat Pray Love issued no travel warnings; nor does the movie. However, somebody needs to remind women traveling alone that Halloween-night-style caution is always necessary. I'm the only guy I know who read Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert's wildly successful travelogue-cum-romance novel that's now a movie starring Julia Roberts portraying the lovesick and soul-searching editor who met her second husband in Bali."

I'm not paranoid when it comes to travel, and I don't advocate that travelers always leash themselves to a tour guide either, but caution and precautions make sense -- not just for women traveling solo but sometimes even for men as well. Northam is a believer in following your instincts about what is safe and what is a silly flirtation with trouble.  Read his piece and the practical tips he includes from two well-traveled women writers, Carla King and Lisa Alpine. The more adventurous and out there the traveler, the finer line between reasonable caution and folly. Northam is just sayin'

Aircraft-Bird Encounters Rise

One bird strike made headlines, but many occur -- including Denver

The surprise water landing of a US Airways plane in the Hudson River last January. Investigations revealed that a major bird strike had knocked out at least one engine. All 155 passengers and crew survived, with few injuries, and Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger became an instant hero, making the talk-show circuit and landing a book contract. It turns out that the very aircraft the Sullenberger ditched in the frigid Hudson,

Associated Press reporter Michael J. Sniffen has been looking into bird strikes and has unearthed some amazing figures -- ones we don't generally think about when we fasten our seatbelts low and tight about ourselves and make sure that are seats and tray tables are in their full upright positions. Sniffen reported:

"Airplane collisions with birds or other animals have destroyed 28 aircraft
since 2000, with New York's Kennedy airport and Sacramento International
reporting the most incidents with serious damage, according to Federal Aviation
Administration data posted...The FAA list of wildlife strikes, published on the
Internet, details more than 89,000 incidents since 1990, costing 11 people their
lives. Most incidents were bird strikes, but deer and other animals have been
hit on runways, too.

"The situation seems to be getting worse: Airplane collisions with birds
have more than doubled at 13 major U.S. airports since 2000, including New
Orleans, Houston's Hobby, Kansas City, Orlando and Salt Lake City. Wildlife
experts say increasingly birds, particularly large ones like Canada geese, are
finding food and living near cities and airports year round rather than
migrating.

"The figures are known to be far from complete. Even the FAA estimates its
voluntary reporting system captures only 20 percent of wildlife strikes. The
agency, however, has refused for a decade to adopt a National Transportation
Safety Board recommendation to make the reports mandatory.

"...The Federal Aviation Administration says there were about 65,000 bird
strikes to civil aircraft in the United States from 1990 to 2005, or about one
for every 10,000 flights....air traffic control towers routinely
alert pilots if there are birds in the area."

Alysia Patterson filed a Denver-specific AP report, in which she recounted that DIA "led the nation in bird and wildlife strikes last year" -- 318 during the first 11 months of 2008. Of some comfort to passengers, Patterson was told by the FAA's Mike Fergus that DIA has "an aggressive wildlife mitigation program, [and] pilots are more aware of the problem and more apt to report a strike."

Whenever I've felt a jolt when taking off from or approaching DIA, I have assumed that it was turbulence of some sort. Next time, I'll speculate (to myself, not to my seatmate) that it might be due to a bird strike.

Mexico: Swine Flu Fears

Outbreak in Mexico sets off pandemic in cyberspace impacts travel to Mexico

Associated Press headline: "Mexico swine flu deaths spur global epidemic fears." About one thousand cases (and 81 deaths) in Mexico, mostly in Mexico City, the capital, "where authorities closed schools, museums, libraries and theaters in the capital on Friday to try to contain an outbreak that has spurred concerns of a global flu epidemic.The worrisome new virus — which combines genetic material from pigs, birds and humans in a way researchers have not seen before." Eight cases, more or less (but no deaths), in California and Texas.

• People photographed wearing face masks.
• Caution to "avoid hospitals" in Mexico City, since they are breeding grounds for contagions. Caution against handshaking or cheek-to-cheek kissing as a greeting.
• Pasesengers at Mexico City's international airport questioned to try to prevent passengers with flu symptoms from boarding airplanes and spreading the disease.
• Concern at the World Health Organization, which is "convening an expert panel to consider whether to raise the pandemic alert level or issue travel advisories. It might already be too late to contain the outbreak, a prominent U.S. pandemic flu expert said late Friday. Given how quickly flu can spread around the globe, if these are the first signs of a pandemic, then there are probably cases incubating around the world already, said Dr. Michael Osterholm at the University of Minnesota," according the AP report.

For travelers, where's the line between reasonable precautions and unreasonable fear? Everyone has to make his or her own decision, but for my part, I can think of a lot of reasons to avoid the congested and confusing airport in Mexico City if at all possible. I traveled to China in 2003, not long after SARS hit there. And, I attended the Society of American Travel Writers convention in Houston last October, where many of my colleagues came down with similar symptoms (mostly fever, vomiting and diarrhea). I didn't contract SARS in China in '03 or turista in Texas in '08, so I'm probably no yardstick.

Travel to Mexico has already been slammed by the recesssion and by reports of drug-related violence in border cities, far from tourist destinations. Now this. Bottom line, again, is that each traveler has to assess the decision, but there are great values to be had. And, for what it's worth, the American Medical & Health Tourism Conference is going on right now in Monterrey, according to a report on the Mexico Vacation Travels blog site. Click here for the New York Times report on steps Mexico is taking to curtail the spread of swine flu.

Thoughts About Travel Safety

Well-traveled American septuagenarian traveled to Iraq without incident

When I was heading for Egypt a few months ago, a number of people asked whether I was "afraid" or "nervous" about visiting the Middle East. My response was, "No." After I returned, people were happy that I had a "safe" trip. Several weeks later, when an explosion in Cairo rocked a popular tourist area, the questions and expressions of relief that my trip was uneventful continued. Click here for my post after I heard about the blast.

I would still return to Egypt in a heartbeat, and I am encouraged when other people aren't scared into staying home. Therefore, I was cheered to read "Travelers, Your Tour Bus for Basra is Boarding" in today's New York Times. Reporter Campbell Robertson wrote about 79-year-old Mary Rawlins Gilbert from Menlo Park California, who joined a 17-day group tour of Iraq by "mostly middle-aged and older, that has the honor of being on the first officially sanctioned tour of Westerners in Iraq since 2003 (outside of the much safer enclave of Kurdistan). The guide is Geoff Hann, 70, the owner of Hinterland Travel, a 'specialist adventure travel company' based in England." Hann is also the co-author of a guidebook called Iraq Then and Now and is presumably very knowledgeable and realistic about travel to this country. (Ignore that "Click to Look Inside," which came with the upload from amazon.com. You'll have to find the book there to preview it online.)

Robertson's report continued, "The trip has not been nearly as perilous as most expected. On Friday night — six years after the American invasion began — a white-haired British man and woman bought big bottles of cold Heineken in central Baghdad, walking home in the dark. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, which helped arrange the tour, had provided armed guards for the trip, but Mr. Hann said they were too restrictive. So the group had driven around, in a minibus, with little or no security."

It seems as if Iraq might be taking a page from Egypt's tourism playbook by linking tourism and antiquities under one jurisdiction. Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities Police also guard the ancient sites and assigned an armed security officer to accompany every tourist bus. At many destinations, they were joined by a uniformed local police officer or two (right), and plainclothes security personnel seem to be everywhere too. I don't know whether this show of force is meant as reassurance to nervous travelers, as a deterrent or both, but I never felt a pang about being there.

Meanwhile, US and European shopping malls, convenience stores and even schools and universities have been the sites of all too many random, murderous rampages. Drug cartel violence has hit Mexican border towns hard, but Mexicans and not visitors have suffered, and the problems have not spread to popular tourist destinations or states to the south. Yet many people tend to be more fearful of violence in other countries, especially in the Middle East and now Mexico, than of our own shores.

A Blast in the Present

Cairo explosion was no blast from the past but a current menace that I recently avoided

Just three weeks ago, while visiting Egypt during a Society of American Travel Writers Freelance Council meeting, I along with other SATWers and tourists, plunged into the tiny "streets "of Cairo's Khan el-Khalili bazaar (below). Tourist-oriented as it has become, classic Middle Eastern market is endlessly fascinating. And endless streams of visitors flood into the labyrinth.

The narrow streets -- lanes, really -- provide abundant sights, sounds and energy, as merchants hustle to attract buyers (mainly tourists) to their tiny shops. "Hello!" "Where you from?" "Come visit my shop." "No hassle." "I make you a good price." My sense was of energy and enterprise, but not of any kind of threat.

My colleagues and I entered the bazaar from a narrow street that runs alongside the beautiful 12th-century Al Hussein Mosque (below). Like everyplace in Egypt that tourists are likely to visit or where expats live, security presence was obvious -- and there are, of course, plainclothes personnel all around too. A uniformed police officer stood at one street corner across from the mosque at one entrance into the labyrinthian market. (As you look at this photo, Khan el-Khalili is directly to the left of the mosque). I peered inside an open door to the mosque, brillitantly lit with fluorescent lights even during daylight. I would have liked to go in, but I didn't think that non-Moslems, especially a foreign woman, would be welcome there.

On another side of the mosque is the large open area with a rare square of actual green grass and towering palm trees that seem nearly as high as the imposing minarets. It is fenced off, so that no one actually walks on the grass. During the day, tour buses unload on an adjacent paved square (just behind where I stood to take this photo. In the evening, vehicles are not permitted there and traffic is kept at a distance, turning this greenspace and the blocked-off square into a kind of buffer for the mosque.

The mobility-challenged vendor below was selling some modest goods from a folding table alongside the mosque, just across from the entrance to the Khan el-Khalili market that I went into and out of.

Facing the grassy square, and therefore just steps from the mosque, a row of busy cafes (below) attracts many visitors and also Egyptians as well. On the evening of February 4 at around 7:00 p.m. (after dark), another woman and I left the bazaar, passed the mosque and the greenspace, and crossed the area where vehicles are prohibited to grab a taxi that would take us back to our hotel.

After I returned, friends who asked me about my trip and my impressions as often as not also asked whether I was nervous or afraid, and I always replied that I wasn't. I reminded them that people who go about their business at home or abroad without incident do not make headlines.

Given my recent visit, today's CNN headline, "Tourist killed, 23 others wounded in Egypt blast," and msnbc's "Explosion in Cairo Bazaar Kills 1 Injures 21," were not abstract to me, even if the news services weren't in agreement over how many people were injured. According to the report, "The explosion occurred during the height of the evening rush at 6:30 p.m. in an area of coffee shops located near the Al Hussein Mosque, one of Cairo's largest, Interior Ministry press officer Hany Abdelatif said. The bomb was left under a stone chair, a ministry statement said. An undetonated bomb was found near the mosque, which sits close to an entrance of the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, a huge market and a tourist attraction, Abdelatif said."

I am not sure exactly where the bomb went off, but I certainly had a powerful picture of the lay of the land. When I heard the news, I was sad about the tourists and locals who were victims of the blast, relieved I wasn't there to witness it and sorry that this incident might negatively impact visitation to the country that has so much worth seeing. I also immediately remembered the vendor, heavily seated next to her wheelchair, and hoped that she was unhurt.

P.S. Please see this story from the New York Times.

TSA Tightens Policies -- After Bombing Suspect Slipped Through

Terrorists are creative; security agencies need to be as well

Little old ladies, families with toddlers and harried road warriors better be prepared for closer scrutiny by the Transportation Security Agency. After permitting Faisal Shahzad, who was charged with last Saturday's (fortunately) unsuccessful attempt to detonate a car bomb in New York's Times Square, screeners permitted him to pass through security at JFK International Airport on Monday evening, and Emirates Airlines let him on the plane.

Shahzad's name had been added to the no-fly list a few hours earlier, but it appears that no one (or at least no one with both responsibility and a functioning brain) at the agency or the airline had bothered to look at the list. He reportedly purchased his one-way ticket with cash in the last minute.Isn't that supposed to be brightest of all red flags? He could well have been winging his way to Dubai International Airport andthen on to Pakistan efore anyone looked at the list. Things changed fast after the close call.

Even though TSA personnel are supposed to match names on airline tickets with photo IDs before letting them proceed to the metal-detector and X-ray of carry-ons, airlines are responsible for monitoring the no-fly list. Everyone involed has gotten a wake-up call.

The government is now requiring airlines to check the no-fly list within two hours after being notified that the list had been updated. Until this new policy was instituted, airlines had had to check for updated every 24 hours. In 24 hours, a passenger boarding an international flight could be anywhere in the world. While TSA agents missed Shahzad at the security checkpoint and Emirates missed him when he checked in, Customs and Border Protection spotted his name on the passenger list and apprehended him before the plane took off for Dubai, Emirates' home base Meanwhile, since the incident,.Emirates, an enthusiastic proponent of Open Skies, does not mention a word of new alertness on its website.

According to a report in Travel Weekly, a travel trade publication, "The U.S. government's plan is to eventually take over the task of watch list matching. In 2009, the government began phasing in domestic flights. International flights aren’t covered by the government yet."

Like the Army is often accused of "fighting the last war," the TSA has been obsessed with the America's big airline incident, namely 9/11. The hijackers took over aircraft on domestic flights, so the security efforts have been directed there. A U.S.-bound Nigerian with explosives sewn into his underwear and a troubled Pakistani-American on the lam for a failed midtown Manhattan car bombing just wasn't on U.S. security's radar screen.

Good that someone was paying attention. And I hope that the TSA can keep its collective eyes and minds open, look for something else "unusual" and lay off little old ladies, families with toddlers and harried road warriors.

More on Snow that Stays & Snow that Slides

Followup: With great ski conditions come avalanches

Since December 29, when I wrote a cautionary post on avalanches in western North America, the snow has kept falling and fatalities have continued to rise. Even the New York Times, which doesn't often concern itself with our mountains, has noticed. According to an article called "Fatal Avalanches Rattle Ski Country in the West" in today's sports section:

"Since Dec. 14, avalanches have caused 13 deaths in the United States and
23 total in North America — one in a roof slide and the others in skiing,
snowboarding, snowmobiling and ice-climbing incidents, according to Dale Atkins,
vice president for the avalanche rescue commission at the International
Commission for Alpine Rescue.

"Perhaps most troubling to resorts and safety officials is that three
people died in-bounds — areas at resorts that are perceived as safe terrain.
Avalanches in in-bounds areas have led to deaths of skiers at Squaw Valley in
California, at Snowbird in Utah and at Jackson Hole. It is the most in-bound
deaths in one season since three skiers were killed in a single avalanche at
Alpine Meadows in 1976.

“'One in-bound fatal avalanche in a season is unusual; three separate
fatal incidents in one season is really rare,'” said Bob Comey, director of the
Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Center. “It’s been a really big problem.
We’re doing what we normally do. Our techniques work really well, but they’re
not ever 100 percent guaranteed.'”

This is the rare kind of winter when reports of epic snowfalls at Western ski resorts are cause for both joy and concern. So again, skiers, snowboarders, backcountry skiers and snowmobilers are advised pack a good portion of caution when venturing into the high country.

Epic Snow = High Avalanche Danger

Fatalities and non-fatal incidents underscore the need for caution

In a recent post, I ooh-ed and ah-ed and cheered the prodigious snowfall that the West has enjoyed this winter. At the end of my post, I added the caution, "All that snow does mean avalanches are a real hazard, so this is a time to stick to resort skiing and riding. Save the backcountry until conditions are more stable. And, if you're driving, make sure your car is fitted with adequate snow tires, possibly chains, emergency gear and a level-headed driver." Now, I'm elevating the caution to a red-flag warning.

Colorado

I've been skiing at Snowmass for a few days, under idyllic conditions: blue sky, sunshine, no wind, superior snow conditions. But every once in a while, the boom of avalanche-control explosives can be heard as the resort's patrollers and snow-safety crew blast dangerous snow depositions and cornices, presumably on the backside steeps, before they can slide on their own and harm anyone.

Amazingly, not all avalanches occur in the backcountry or steep inbounds areas. At Snowmass' heralded new Base Village, I watched a series of harrowing slides unload from a brand new condominium building's metal roof directly onto the Sneaky's Tavern terrace, where visitors were having lunch. If those huge chunks of sun-softened wet snow had fallen on anyone's head, the result would not have been pretty. Quick-thinking managers emptied the tables, cordoned off the danger zone (right) and before long, dispatched workers with shovels up to the roof to push the remaining snow off the edge.

Given this unfortunate design, they are going to have shoveling teams at the ready after every significant snowfall. Think about it: A snow-loaded, south-facing metal roof + bright sunshine = problems like this afternoon's. Imagine what this will be like in spring when generous March/April snows are typically followed by warm sun.

The developer, Related Westpac, is proud of such high-profile projects as Time Warner Center in New York City, CityPlace in West Palm Beach, Florida, and other places far from ski country. Did they hire architects from Miami or Phoenix? Didn't the Town of Snowmass Village building inspector alert them to the ill-conceived combination of design and materials?

Wyoming

Meanwhile, following inbounds slides in Utah and California earlier this winter, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, has experienced far more catastrophic problems from several inbounds avalanches. Laramie Bowl reportedly slid to the ground, and just two days after Dave Nodine, a 31-year-old local was killed in an inbounds slide, the Headwall released, and tons of snow ran straight into the lodge at the top of the Bridger Gondola. A site called Skiing the Backcountry posted a report about Nodine's death and a second report with dramatic photos of the snow damage to the restaurant. Stephen Koch has also premitted me to post photos like the one on the right. For more images, see his blog. Fortunately, this avalanche happened around 9:30 a.m. If it had released three hours later, the restaurant would have been filled with skiers who lunch. According to the resort's official press release on the incident:

"At approximately 9:30 am this morning, after JHMR Ski Patrol had completed one
avalanche hazard reduction route and were getting ready to conduct another, the
Headwall slid naturally from the southeast aspect above the Bridger Restaurant.
This incident took place before this area of the mountain had been opened to the
public. A search for potential victims took place and everyone has been
accounted for. This incident is under full investigation and a more detailed
report will be released at 4p.m. At this time, JHMR will remain closed until
further notice."

Followup news report: The day after I posted this item, the Jackson Hole News reported more extensively on the Headwall slide that damaged the Bridger Restaurant:

"The Headwall avalanche that raked the Bridger Restaurant building...trapped or hit seven ski patrollers...Five patrollers were slightly injured in the incident, which tore the railing and glass shields off the restaurant deck, burst through doors and windows and piled snow 8 feet deep inside. The avalanche roared down the Headwall slope at 9:26 a.m. after being provoked by a ski patrol bomb, resort officials said. It piled snow about 30 feet deep around the mid-mountain restaurant building and sent patrollers and other workers scrambling to free colleagues.

"Airborne snow that eddied around the corner of the building pinned or partially pinned four patrollers among scattered furniture on a patio. The blast knocked down two other patrollers who were hiking up to the building. Debris shuttered a seventh, and his search dog, inside the ski patrol room in the restaurant building until workers cut through an interior wall to set them free.

"The slide ran two days after an in-bounds avalanche below the Paintbrush
trail buried and killed 31-year-old David Nodine, of Wilson. Nodine skied off
the trail into an area unofficially known as Toilet Bowl with a friend when the
slide ran; patrollers found him within six minutes using a transceiver and
uncovered him within another four minutes. Bridger-Teton National Forest
avalanche forecaster Jim Springer and resort President Jerry Blann on Tuesday
fleshed out details of the Headwall slide, including how Blann dug out veteran
ski patroller Larry Detrick, who was buried up to his neck."

Remarkably, but perhaps on lawyers' advice, other than one "incident statement" following the Headwall slide, the resort's website makes no mention Nodine's death or of the avalanche that slammed into the restaurant and could have killed some of its own patrollers too. The Mountain Dining page still lists restaurants at the top of the gondola. Perhaps the resort cleaned out the snow and fixed the mess fast, but Nodine is gone, and there is no word about the injured patrollers.

British Columbia

The Vancouver Sun reported that eight snowmobilers are missing from a group of 11 buried in an avalanche in southeastern British Columbia in the Harvey Pass area, about 25 miles south of Fernie, on Sunday afternoon. According to the report, "The group had reportedly split into two when seven of them were buried in an avalanche at about 2 p.m., said Fernie RCMP. As the other four tried to dig them out, they were hit by another avalanche, which buried the entire group. All of the men, who are from nearby Sparwood, B.C., were wearing avalanche beacons. Police said two of the buried riders managed to dig themselves out within 20 minutes and used their avalanche beacons to locate a third man, who was rescued after another 20 minutes of digging." Three safe; seven bodies reportedly recovered on Monday and the final victim still missing. The search had to be called off because of darkness and continuing high danger.

Just a week ago, in Grand County, Colorado, two of four snowmobilers riding up a steep slope near Gravel Mountain in the Arapaho National Forest. One was a 38-year-old firefighter and paramedic and the other a 19-year-old.

These are examples of the differently types avalanche-caused fatalities in the West this winter, so please, skiers, snowshoers and snowmobilers, be careful. For my part, I'm sticking to the groomers.

Oh, What a Beautiful Winter!

With Western resorts are wallowing in snow, skiers and riders don't "need no stinkin' palm trees"

Never mind Santa Claus. Praise the snow gods who showered Western skiers and snowboarders with the best gift of all: snow, prodigious quantities of snow, especially in the southwest. In Colorado, Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort got 19 inches on Wednesday and more than 36 inches over a three-day period. Wolf Creek saw 29 inches over two days. Telluride received a record 21 inches of white gold.

Nearby in crow-flight miles but a long way by road, Silverton Mountain snared 40 inches, bringing the season's total to nearly 200 inches. Avalanche hazards forced road closures -- a blessing, in a sense, because it gives the area time for snow control before it is expected to reopen on Saturday, December 27.

Taos Ski Valley is New Mexico's new-snow leader, with 9 inches. Snow totals are more impressive farther north and farther west, not just in Colorado. In Utah, new ranged from a "modest" 12 inches at Sundance to 28 inches in Deer Valley. Jackson Hole, Wyoming (lower photo, right, on Christmas morning) and Montana's Whitefish Mountain (formerly The Big Mountain) were each blanketed with 17 inches in 24 hours. Sun Valley, Idaho, got "only" 7 inches overnight, but the 48-hour total measured to 22 inches. Similarly, Schweitzer, Idaho's most recent 2 inches was the literal icing on the cake that saw 28 inches in the last 72 hours, most of it in one phenomenal 24-hour, 25-inch dump. California's Lake Tahoe resorts, like Heavenly (right), have been digging out, packing down and wallowing in the two feet of snow that fell on Christmas Day.

All that snow does mean avalanches are a real hazard, so this is a time to stick to resort skiing and riding. Save the backcountry until conditions are more stable. And, if you're driving, make sure your car is adequate snow tires, possibly chains, emergency gear and a level-headed driver.

For my part, I'm planning to head to Snowmass tomorrow. I'll report.

State Department Warnings: What's in a Name?

Decoding US government warnings to international travelers from the US

Unrest and violence cause travelers -- especially Americans -- to reconsider international travel plans. Ten percent more Americans visited India in 2007 than in 2006, but with the recent terrorist attacks in Mombai (aka, Bombay) in which six Americans were among the 170 people killed, that number is likely to drop. Ditto travel to Greece, which welcomed 12 percent more international visitors in '07 than in '06 but has recently been plagued by riots in Athens, the capital, and concurrent strikes by workers at the Acropolis and other popular tourist sites.

Violence, of course, is volatile, and the US State Department doesn't always get it right. There were periods when visitors shunned London (Irish Republican Army attacks), central Europe (in the era of Germany's Bader-Meinhoff faction and other far-left terrorist groups) and parts of Spain (Basque separatist violence), as well as countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America when when wars, political unrest, assorted insurgencies and government policies made them unwelcoming. Consider that under Augusto Pinochet, Chile was not a desirable or safe tourist destination, now it is, while up north, not too many Americans visit Venezuela under Hugo Chavez or neighboring Colombia with its drug cartel-related violence. And US citizens have been forbidden or discouraged from visiting Cuba for nearly half-a-century, yet those who have visited report Cubans to be warm and welcoming -- and their visits to be incident-free.

The US State Department updates and issues travel advisories ranging from subtle warnings to outright recommendations to stay away from certain nations. When deciding on your risk-tolerance in light of these advisories, consider that the US government has also been telling air travelers in this country that the threat level is at "orange" just about since the color coding system was unveiled in 2002. That annoying Department of Homeland Security recording has played so incessantly since then that it has become just so much airport background noise -- and I don't think too many travelers pay much attention.

So it is with some skepticism that I share the State Department's definition of its country-specific evaluations for Americans contemplating travel abroad. These are updated on the department's website. Country-by-country evaluations are useful because they are not as simplistic as the "Department of Homeland Security's terror alert is orange" that we hear at airports.

• Travel Advisory - This is the general category of perceived threats that could affect Americans traveling to specific regions, countries or cities.
• Travel Alert - A threat that the State Department believes is of relatively short-term duration, including upcoming elections, hurricane or typhoon threat or other short-term situation.
• Travel Warning - Chronic violence, including such obvious destinations as Afghanistan and Iraq, where the situation so inflammatory and "potentially dangerous for Americans that we want them to know about that," Michelle Bernier-Toth, director of the Office of American Citizens Services and Crisis Management, recently told Gannett News Services. Well, duh!

Bernier-Toth also explained that assessing situations is a "very collaborative process between our embassy and consulate, between various bureaus and offices within the department. . . Sometimes we tell people to consider the risk of traveling, sometimes we say you should defer nonessential travel or all but essential travel and sometimes we just recommend you don't go. The best way to figure out what kind of danger you're facing is to read the specifics of the alert."

I am scheduled to visit Egypt with the Society of American Travel Writers in February, and have read the State Department's assessment, I'm willing to accept the risk

Luxury No Longer Means Security

Upscale hotels in unstable places and luxury cruise ships at sea are obvious targets for attacks
There isn't a day that goes by without press releases appearing in my inbox about yet another luxurious, deluxe, multi-star hotel or resort in some picturesque and/or exotic place. The recent attacks in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India, were just the latest high-profile targets that appeal to first-world travelers to developing nations. Reporter Keith Bradsher's New York Times feature called "Analysts Say It Will Be Difficult to Shield Luxury Hotels From Terrorist Attacks" began:

"For decades, luxury hotels have been oases for travelers in developing
countries, places to mingle with the local elite, enjoy a lavish meal or a dip
in the pool and sleep in a clean, safe room. But last week’s lethal attacks
on two of India’s most famous hotels — coming just two months after a huge truck
bomb devastated the Marriott in Islamabad, Pakistan — have underlined the extent
to which these hotels are becoming magnets for terrorists."

Left to my own devices, I'm more of a three-star traveler (OK, maybe four-star in third-world nations) than a five-star traveler. However, when I attend a Society of American Travel Writers convention or am on other tourism-related assignment or trip, I do find myself in unaccustomed luxury. A small part of me enjoys being treated like visiting nobility, but mostly, I am embarrassed by the ritzy glitz in places where so many people have so little. I know that tourism brings jobs (including jobs as security guards) and money into developing countries, but still, such opulence and extravagance are clearly an affront to many. When clashing political ideology or religious zeal are added to the volatile socio-economic mix, the result in these mean times is predictable violence. People die, property is destroyed and another door to international understanding and peace on the planet is slammed shut.

The Times piece discussed security precautions that hotels are taking, which should be of interest and some comfort to travelers heading for potentially dangerous places. Meanwhile, CNN reported that the 'Nautica,' an Oceania Cruises ship (left) en route from Rome to Singapore, outran pirates off the coast of Yemen over the weekend while in an area patrolled by anti-piracy craft. The cargo ships and oil tanker that have recently been seized by pirates were off the coast of Somalia. Smaller private yachts have also been seized.

"The 'Nautica' was in an area patrolled by international anti-piracy task forces when two small skiffs appeared to try to intercept it, Oceania spokesman Tim Rubacky said. The ship took evasive maneuvers and accelerated to its full speed of 23 knots or 27 mph. One of the smaller craft closed to within 300 yards and fired eight rifle shots at the cruise ship, he said, but the ship was able to pull away. . .'The 'Nautica' escaped without damage or injury to its 684 passengers and 400 crew, and arrived safely on schedule in Salalah, Oman early on Monday morning,' Rubacky said."

As disturbing as these reports are, personally, I don't want to stop traveling because "something" might happen. Last June, I visited Oklahoma City, the mid-America capital of Oklahoma where Timothy McVeigh, a US Army veteran and security guard, masterminded the massive explosion that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 2000. Also that month, my car was broadsided by a speeding motorcyclist on a rural highway in western Colorado. I just hope, in the interest of global sanity, that the attacks will stop and efforts to build a more peaceful, more tolerant world will recommence.

Oklahoma City Meets 9/11

Disgruntled Texan crashes private plane into Austin building housing government offices

While the TSA and Department of Homeland Security continue to hassle commercial flyers, anyone with a private plane can wreak 9/11-style havoc. The damage was less but the motivations similar to anti-government domestic terrorism asTimothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, their explosives-packed rental truck and the Murragh Building in Oklahoma City. According to a newsflash minutes ago on MSNBC.com, Texas software entrepreneur Josph Stack, who had long-running issues with the Internal Revenus Service, crashed his private plane into an office building housing that other other federal agencies.

Rockslide in Yosemite

Third natural "incident" in a National Park in just over two months

"A large slab of granite cracked loose from a cliff in Yosemite National Park early Wednesday [October 8] and crashed into the Curry Village resort with a thunderous roar, flattening tents and forcing hundreds of campers to run for their lives," reported Steve Rubenstein in a San Francisco Chronicle news story called "Rockslide Threatens Curry Village in Yosemite." The story includes photos and a map of the site.

He wrote about screaming schoolchildren, broken rock showering down, snapped trees, smashed cabin walls and a "plume of dust hundreds of feet in the air." The slide, in which the equivalent of 200 dump-truck loads of rock fell into Curry Village from more than half way up Glacier Point, occurred before 7:00 a.m. Glacier Point perches some 3,200 feet above the valley floor.

"Pandemonium" was the word used to describe the reactions of surprised and frightened park visitors, many awakened by the rocks thundering toward them. A smaller rockslide had occurred the previous day, and some cabins were evacuated then.

Wednesday's rockfall destroyed two of 180 the wooden cabins and five tent of the 427 tent cabins that, along with a hotel, comprise Curry Village. Three park visitors reportedly suffered cuts and other minor injuries. The Park Service ordered a complete evacuation of the area, and 1,005 people left the park.

"The falling rock in both slides came from the mountainside directly above Curry Village, about halfway up the granite wall between the valley floor and Glacier Point. Looking up from the valley floor Wednesday, one could see a large oblong patch of lighter granite where the chunk had broken loose. There was no word on when the rest of the camp would be reopened," Rubenstein continued.

He also quoted Gerald Wieczorek of the U.S. Geological Survey who said that rockslides "can occur as often as a dozen times a year," typically starting in fall. In July 1996, a 162,000-ton slab of granite broke off Glacier Point and fell about a mile east of Curry Village, where a resulting air blast downed over 500 trees, killed on man and injured four others, including one woman who became paralyzed.

I'm afraid I don't remember the 1996 calamity, but this one struck me because of recent incidents in two other national parks. On August 3, I posted an item about the overnight collapse of Wall Arch, the 12th-largest arch in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. Two weeks later, I wrote about the breaching of a dam in a side canyon in the Grand Canyon National Park after up to 8 inches of rain fell.

I'm not an essentially superstitious person, but I do see that things often come in threes. When two national parks had such high-profile incidents in such a short time, I expected a third sometime in October. It took another seven weeks before the Yosemite rockslide, and I'm hoping that with three out of the way, nature will be kind to our treasured national parks and leave them be for a while.

Obey the Seatbelt Light When It Goes On

Four unbuckled passengers and two flight attendants injured when plane hit turbulence

American Airlines Flight 908 was roughly half an hour out of Miami International Airport from Buenos Aires early this morning when it hit turbulence at 30,000 feet. Even though the seatbelt light was reportedly on, some people were not buckled up. According to reports, two flight attendants and four passengers were taken to the hospital with back and neck injuries, and paramedics treated eight other people on the scene.

At that altitude, flight attendants would still be in the galleys or aisles, but there is not much of an excuse for if the passengers were not to be stapped in, whether walking around the cabin or in their seats. WTVJ, the NBC affiliate, showed footage of passengers and flight attendants being taken to hospitals.

Obviously, the thousands of daily flights where no one is hurt don't make the news as does the single rare flight where there are several injuries. However, this incident is a good reminder to take the "fasten seatbelts" sign seriously and buckle up.

United Jet's Landing Gear Collapses

"They" say a picture is worth a thousand. Thee AP photo above shows a United Airbus 319 with a collapsed wheel and subscquent damaged wing at Newark Airport on Sunday evening. Click here for the MSNBC.com story.

Seeing this image after reading the online discussion on Elliott.org on the virtues and annoyances of flying. Chris Elliott wrote a post called "Flying Under the Influence of the TSA. What now?" that kicked off lively comments about flying versus other ways to travel. Landing gear collapse hadn't yet entered into. it, but now it could.

Fallout from Failed/Foiled 12/25 Airliner Attack

Privacy versus security in the air seem to be tilting toward full-body scan technology

More full-body scanners that "see" through clothing. Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, from which the would-be bomber departed for Detroit, reportedly immediately is beginning to use 15 L-3 Communications' booth-like ProVision scanners (right) that it previously purchased. These scanners are supposed to detect explosives and other non-metallic objects that a metal detector would miss. ProVision uses "active millimeter wave imaging technology" to penetrate clothing and packaging to reveal and pinpoint hidden weapons, explosives, drugs and other contraband. It has the potential over screening more than 400 people per hour.

Changes in attitude. Just last year, the European Parliament voted against using such anatomically explicit devices on privacy issues, but Europeans now seem to be leaning toward their use. Peter van Dalen, vice chairman of the Parliament's transport committee, said that newer technology does not appear to violate travelers' privacy and  urged the installation of the equipment across the 27-nation European Union.

Improved software technology. New devices rather than human screeners looking at the images as as passengers pass through the machines to detect suspicious objects while allaying invasion-of-privacy concerns. Interestingly, it was the left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union that initially objected to the scanners' "virtual strip search," but it is now a Republican Representative, Jason Chaffetz of Utah, who sponsored a successful measure prohibiting whole-body imaging for the primary screening. The bill now goes to the Senate, so as Europeans are poised to increase the use of these scanners, the US might not be following  -- even though aircraft from or bound for the US are thought to be at greater risk. Meanwhile, the ACLU's position advocates "effective security that respects privacy.

Boom times for Rapiscan. The Transportation Security Agency has purchased 150 of its scanners in addition to the 40 now in use at 19 US airports. The company's WaveScan 200 "is composed of a real-time Radiometric Scanner that images electromagnetic millimeter wave energy, an integrated full-motion video camera, on-board computer, and sophisticated, intelligent video detection engine." according to the company's website.Current TSA rules require that images are not visible in a public location, that TSA officers "assisting" passengers is unable to view images and officers who evaluate the images never see the passengers. Passengers may opt for a pat-down rather than a body scan. It depends on which option individuals consider less invasive. At most airports, the scanning machines are for secondary screenings after passengers have cleared pass through a metal detector, they are being used in place of of metal detectors at Albuquerque, Las Vegas; Miami; San Francisco; Salt Lake City; and Tulsa.

Super-sensitive "sniffers" coming. SpectraFluidics has developed sensors can detect minuscule traces of explosives by detecting molecules from a passenger or from luggage. In a test, Spectrafluidics' devices were able to detect PETN, RDX, TNT and ammonium nitrate. PETN has been confirmed as the explosive material involved in the attempted bombing of the Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day. the explosive This is a faster, more efficient alternative to the current swabbing. SpectraFluidics plans to release the system in 2010. It can be a handheld device or a portal like the current metal detectors. The company says that it will be able to retrofit Existing scanning and screening systems. ill balso plans units for retrofitting existing airport scanners and other screening hardware already installed in the market. The goal is real-time detection of trace amounts of explosives in either vapor or solid phase, with minimal user interaction.

Timing is Everything. The people behind Verified  Identity Pass Inc's Clear program, a pre-clearing process that charged customers for a faster approach to TSA security checkpoints, probably regret the timo,g of their enterprise. Clear was launched with great fanfare in 2005 and closed abruptly in June 2009, as I wrote about here. I'm guessing that the principals behind Clear wish that they could have held out until the end of the year, when increased security and longer delays would have provided a new market for their service.

Department of Homeland Security Subpoenas Travel Bloggers

First Ammendment rights versus security concerns

Chris Elliott of elliott.org and Steven Frischling of FlyingWithFish.com got hold of and published Transportation Security directives following the failed terrorist incident on a Detroit-bound plane. You know the story. I don't need to recap it here. The Department of Homeland Security wants to know how these two bloggers obtained these confidential documents and have subpoenaed them to find out. No one is diminishing the need for vigilence and security when it comes to air travel, but IMO, Homeland Security is barking up the wrong tree when their concern is with who leaked these documents rather than paying full attention to plugging the holes in the security system.

In the old world of traditional news, reporters, their editor bosses and their publisher bosses stood firm to protect their First Ammendment rights (that's the Freedom of the Press one). Think Watergate. Now independent bloggers in many cases have become watchdogs since the mainstream media is crumbling and/or becoming a vehicle for info-tainment and so-called "reality TV." For journalists, it doesn't get more real than the need to protect sources and maintain freedom to publish -- no less online than in print or broadcast. They don't have powerful corporations and squadrons of lawyers behind them. They should have all of us behind them. When they break news like this that affects us, they are on our side as travelers (and as travel journalists). Let's be on their side.

Read Chris Elliott's report of the subpoena here, Steve Frischling's here and travel writer/blogger (and until recently USA Today travel reporter) Chris Gray Faust's commentary here.

The Cow Is Gone.TSA Closes the Barn Door.

Thwarted terrorist attempt "inspires" new TSA regulations that border on the ridiculous

Scroll to the bottom of this post for update.
According to conventional wisdom, generals are always fighting the last war. A corollary might be that security officias are always responding to the last terrorist incident. After Robert Reid was arrested for trying to ignite explosives in his shoes, every airline passenger was required to remove his/her shoes, send them through the X-ray machine and shuffle through the metal detector. Now, following a thwarted terrorist attempt on a plane bound for Detroit, new security measures have been instituted -- perhaps at least partly as a tactic to divert public attention from the fact that the the government ignored alerts by the father of Abdul Mudallad, the 23-year-old Nigerian who tried to blow up the plane using leg bomb and a syringe, had warned. New regulations that we can all find logical reasons to debate:

•  US-bound passengers are being physically patted down during the boarding process in addition to passing through metal detectors, removing their shoes, discarding water and beverages and being restricted to 3-ounce or smaller containers of liquids in carry-ons.
•  US-bound passengers will be permitted only one carry-on and will not have access to it, either throughout the flight or during the last hour.
•  Passengers on international flights to the United States must remain in their seats for the last hour of a flight without any latptops or other personal items, blankets or pillows on their laps. (Anyone who has to use the lavatory must be escorted by a crew member.)
•  Airliner entertainment systems will no longer display real-time route maps that would indicate when the plane enters US airspace or where it is.

 The new regs remind me of parochial school (hands on your desks) or old college dorm rules when boys were permitted to visit girls' dorms (door open, all four feet on the floor). The net result of all this security zeal, in addition casing delays and ticking off passengers, is that people will be increasingly reluctant to fly. Business travelers unable to use their laptops? Parents who will not be able to hold a sleeping baby wrapped in a blanket? Cold-sensitive travelers or underdressed vacationers returning from tropical resorts who could become chilled in refrigerated aircraft cabins? There unlikely to be eager to fly again in the near future. I know I'm not, and I'm scheduled for two (domestic) trips in January.

Beyond personal inconvenience will be theimpact on the airline industry, already heard-hit by unpredictable fuel prices, the global recession and weathter-related delays.

Dec. 28 update: According to an Associated Press report called "Passengers again free to move about the cabin"on MSNBC.com, the TSA has relaxed some of the strict rules in the wake of the failed bomb attempt and given captains discretion about instituting some of them. "it was now up to captains on each flight to decide whether passengers can have blankets and other items on their laps or can move around during the final phase of flight," the report said. "Confused? So were scores of passengers who flew Monday on one of the busiest travel days of the year. On some flights, passengers were told to keep their hands visible and not to listen to iPods. Even babies were frisked. But on other planes, security appeared no tighter than usual.The Transportation Security Administration did little to explain the rules. And that inconsistency might well have been deliberate: What's confusing to passengers is also confusing to potential terrorists."

'Parade' Cites Flaws in Airport Security

Sunday supplement piece on America's wasteful and ineffective airport security system

When bloggers write, thousands read. When Parade, the Sunday supplement, publishes a story, it reaches millions. Today's issue contained a piece called "The Wrong Way Protect Airports?", with a title phrased as a rhetorical question to which many of us answered "yes" even before it was asked.

Writer Lyric Wallwork Winik compared Transportation Security procedures, which since the agency was established have involved an increasing amount of technology (X-rays, metal detectors, chemical sniffers, "puff portals" and such, with the Israeli system. She wrote:

"Israel, home to many of the world’s most devastating terror attacks, has a
different approach to security. Liquid sizes are restricted, but first-class
passengers are given steak knives. Travelers in Israel are interviewed by highly
trained security experts.

In the U.S., billions are spent instead on scanning machines and other
technology to detect weapons. 'The Israelis ask questions, and they profile the
situation, not the person,' explains Seth Cropsey, a former Defense Department
official. 'It’s often a much more thorough approach to
security.'”

The TSA, she writes, "is rolling out new procedures that it says will keep us safer when we fly... Some specifics? New shirts and headsets for checkpoint workers, plus two days of specialized training in how to keep passengers calm."

Winik reported that the agency stationed placed "more than 2,000 behavior-detection experts at airports across the country,' but critics say U.S. security strategy still focuses too much on finding bombs rather than bombers." Israel is certainly a far smaller country than the US and it has a small fraction of the total number of America's airports and airplanes, but it also has a far smaller popular from whom to draw security personnel and train them in "behavior detection" -- and I'm willing to bet that the training takes longer than two days or even the length of time US agents are trained in these skills.

TSA defenders claim that the near seven-year period between 9/11 and now proves that the agency's policies have been effective. Others of us would argue that international terrorism has gone after non-US targets to keep everyone guessing -- or that the US government, with the support of sensationalist mainstream media, has fomented such a climate of fear that no further attacks on "the homeland" are necessary.

Seth Cropsey, whom Winik identifies as "Seth Cropsey, a former Defense Department official," told her, that we really don’t know if “the massive amount of technology that we have thrown at the problem actually works or whether it has been intelligence and other methods overseas that have prevented another air attack. I hate to speculate on that answer, because I fly.”

Whatever the reality, I glad that a mass-market publication has introduced this topic to the general public. Is the public buying the TSA line? Perhaps not. Parade included a reader poll asking the question, "Does America have the right approach to airline security?" As of now, 94 percent of the respondents replied "no" with only 6 percent replying "yes."

Flooding in Grand Canyon Area Forces Evacuations

Havasupai community and visitors most impacted by up to 8 inches of rain and a breached dam

It's been a tough week for the natural wonders of the West. A few days ago, as reported here, the 12th-largest arch in Arches National Park collapsed. Today (August 17), rains caused floods that breached an earthen dam Sunday in a side canyon of the Grand Canyon -- but outside of the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park. Helicopters rescued scores of Supai village residents, visitors and campers. Up to eight inches of rain have fallen in the Grand Canyon area since Friday. The Supai village, traditional home to the Havasupai people, is located high in Havasu Canyon, a side canyon.

Gerry Blair, of the Coconino County Sheriff's Department, told Associated Press reporter Amanda Lee Myers that the breached dam was "only one factor in the flooding." The sheer volume of water itself caused flooding, and a flash flood warning has remained in effect. Blair said that search-and-rescue teams were staying in the village overnight, because not all of the 400 residents initially were evacuated. Helicopter operation had to stop when darkness fell.

AP also reported that Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge confirmed to Myers that some hiking trails were washed out, footbridges were damaged, and trees were uprooted. Among those airlifted out by helicopter were 16 people (Park Service photo, above right) who were rafting the Grand Canyon on a private permit. They were all uninjured but had been stranded on a ledge where Havasu Creek joins the Colorado River after flood waters washed their rafts downriver. Rescuers escorted visitors out of the Supai Campground, about 75 west of the Grand Canyon Village, the park's leading tourist area on the South Rim.