iBiome

Rockaway Beach surf

Cloudy but so what?  The ocean is a perfect holiday, and the stretch of coast south from Seaside, Oregon is spectacular. Rockaway Beach is a gem. We press on to Lincoln City today.

 

by the sea in Seaside

Seaside's dark and kitschy Aquarium never fails to please.  From feeding the clapping seals to the tired anemones in the touch tank, it's small and friendly and accessible.  Kids love it. So do I.

 

yep, just "like a walk on the ocean floor"

Oregon

I just got back from an Oregon trip with the family and I can echo what Sean said, including the outstanding beaches and parks. I would spend every hour of every day at a beach if I could, so the Oregon coast is in my sweet spot.  We spent most of the time in or around Seaside (35C temperatures drove us out of Portland the one day we attempted it).  The weather was perfect, sunny and the low 20s.  Oregon is definitely the place to go, particularly with young kids, for a summer holiday.  Among my daughters' favourites were the bonfire on the beach, bumper cars, and the vintage carousel. 

At left is Ecola State Park, my favourite stretch of sand.

Iran in photos

my brother in law just returned from a few weeks of holiday in Iran with an accumulation of beautiful images.  His flickr site is here.

I knew it!! The truth about cell phones on planes

Since I'm on the subject of travel, I never really bought the line that cell phones were a safety issue.  It didn't make sense that the fields generated by the phones would be any worse than laptops or iPods.  If they were dangerous, why are we allowed to carry them on while surrendering our nail clippers and shaving cream? Via Ezra Klein: Why cell phones are still grounded.

Phones are banned for two official reasons:

1. Cell phones "might" interfere with the avionics (aviation electronics) of some airplanes.
2. Cell phones aloft "might" cause problems with cell tower systems on the ground.

Both of these risks are easily tested, yet somehow neither the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) nor the Federal Communications Commission has been able to get a definitive answer in the past 20 years as to whether phone calls in flight cause these suspected problems. (The FAA is responsible for the flight safety portion of all this, and the FCC is responsible for the cell tower part.)

The government's dirty little secret is that it cultivates uncertainty about the effects of phones in airplanes as a way to maintain the existing ban without having to confront the expense and inconvenience to airlines and wireless carriers of allowing them.

Why airlines want the ban

The airlines fear "crowd control" problems if cell phones are allowed in flights. They believe cell phone calls might promote rude behavior and conflict between passengers, which flight attendants would have to deal with. The airlines also benefit in general from passengers remaining ignorant about what's happening on the ground during flights, including personal problems, terrorist attacks, plane crashes and other information that might upset passengers.

One way to deal with callers bothering noncallers would be to designate sections of each flight where calling is allowed -- like a "smoking section." But the ban is easier.

And this is just common sense:

Here's another problem with the government's abdication of responsibility on this question: Either phones and other gadgets can crash airplanes or they can't. If they can, then we've got a serious problem on our hands, and airplanes need to be upgraded to protect the public safety. What's to stop terrorists from testing various gadgets, finding the ones with the highest levels of interferences, then turning on dozens of them at some crucial phase of flight, such as during a landing in bad weather? If gadgets can't crash planes, then the ban is costing billions of hours per year of lost productivity by business people who want to work in flight.

Jetlag

I can never sleep on flights &  Sean O'Mahony has a post up about jetlag that's pretty useful. He's a veteran of overseas and local air travel, Europe, N America, Australia, and Asia, so I would take his views seriously.  I like that he distinguishes between eastward and westward travel, each of which hit me in different ways (east by far the worst).

Going East: On the flight eat the vegetarian food and avoid alcohol. You should avoid coffee as well. It's pretty easy on most flights as it's absolute crap anyway. If you arrive around lunchtime and if your schedule allows then take a short nap between 4pm and 6pm. This is the most important part. Under no circumstances let yourself sleep through. If you do you are toast for the next 4-5 days. Get up after 90 minutes or so and have a shower then leave the hotel and go and have dinner. Back to the room, cup of herb tea some melatonin and you'll get 6 hours of good sleep. From here it's a matter of getting through your days and progressively going to bed later and later but go to bed no earlier than 8pm.

That 4-6 nap is far too risky for me. I need to stay on my feet until 8 or 9 or else I zombify.  If the hotel has a pool I try to throw myself in, at least for a couple of laps, to fend off the moving floor feeling.  Not tried melatonin but I can second the advice about no alcohol and vegetarian meal. The tendency of the overseas flights to stuff you silly is deadly.   

Mosque on the Siak

  mosque on siak river Originally uploaded by Sick Coconut.

Another shot from the Siak River, Sumatra.  Stretches of the river were variously heavily peopled, industrialized, or just forest.And then you would catch a glimpse of a house, a boat, or in this case a mosque, at rest along the river's edge.

Bintan Palms

From last fall, a holiday on Bintan Island, Indonesia. Bintan is about 1 hr ferry ride from Singapore and a great weekend getaway. The resort area is isolated from 'real' Indonesia, but that's not a bad thing when travelling with kids. I love travelling in Indonesia, though my stomach for chaos, adventure, and near death minivan rides is more delicate when the girls are along.

 

Windy day too