Riding the (high-speed) rails at 430 km/hour...Shanghai museum

SHANGHAI - I never would’ve thought going 200 kilometers an hour would seem slow.

I had a chance to ride the magnetic levitation train in Shanghai on the weekend, as did a whole lot of other folks out for some entertainment on a rainy Sunday morning. I can't say as I understand quite how it works (I find electric can openers a marvel of science) but it was something else. 

The round-trip from the edge of town to Pudong Airport costs just about 8 dollars, but you get 20 per cent off if you show your airplane ticket. It takes a couple minutes to get to full speed, but once it hits cruising power this sucker speeds along at a ridiculous 430 km an hour.

Villages and ponds and billboards pass in a blur, and I’m sure I was grinning like an idiot when the train clicked over the 400 km/hour mark. They smartly post the speed in the train, and I bet it’s a rare occasion that there isn’t someone in the car fixing his or her camera lens on the display when it reaches the 430 km/hour mark. I know I couldn’t resist.

Although it’s certainly a time saver, it’s not so practical for some folks as there isn’t that much space to store your luggage on board. Still, it’s hugely impressive. When you “slow down” to 300 km/hour it almost seems disappointing. When it’s at 200 you think you’re at highway speed on the 401 (some of you probably are). 150 km/hour feels like a crawl. Amazing.

SHANGHAI MUSEUM

An even better deal – it’s free – is the Shanghai Museum; considered by many the finest in China. Okay, it’s 40 RMB (about $7) if you want to rent an audio guide. But it’s a great way to get a bit of a handle on the history of China’s development.

There are displays of ancient coins and Chinese calligraphy, as well as row upon row of porcelain vessels of one kind or another. I was most taken by the bronze age materials; huge vats for wine and for cooking and enormous bronze bells from well before the time of Christ.

I quite liked the display on Chinese minorities up on the top floor, with wildly colourful costumes from all over this vast country, as well as ornate opera masks, jewelry, leather armour and other artefacts. In one corner there were a couple of white, red and black canoes with big, pointed prows. I don’t know why, as I realize there’s plenty of water in China, but I never really thought about a Chinese canoe before. These are pretty cool ones; built by the Gaoshan people near Taiwan.

There’s a temporary display on now with dozens of paintings on loan from the Uffizi in Florence. But the Chinese artefacts are what you should come for.

OLD TOWN

Also had chance to look around the “Old Town” of Shanghai near Yu Garden. It’s got some cool architecture but I thought it was overrun with tacky souvenir shops, not to mention Dairy Queen outlets, Kentucky Fried Chicken stores and Starbucks. Sigh.

Anyway, the garden itself is quite cool to walk around, and you also can see some interesting street life, including a woman drumming up interest in the coming Expo 2010 extravaganza. Nine points for originality on the costume, ma’am.

One of the things folks love in Old Town is lining up for dumplings at the Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant. They make about 10,000 a day, I’m told, and you can stand and watch them assemble the dumplings behind glass. The folks who work there must get used to it, but I’d feel an awful lot like an animal in a very small zoo.

I didn’t eat at Nanxiang as my tour guide insisted we instead go to Din Tai Fung, just a few steps away. The shrimp dumplings were great, as were the pork ones with crab. You bite a small hole in the dumpling first, then suck out the juice or soup before wolfing down the dumpling itself. Yum.

They have outlets all over town and in Los Angeles, Tokyo, Sydney and other cities. None in Toronto. Yet.

CHINGLISH

Not that I can more than two words in Mandarin, but I still get amused by fractured English signs, such as the information booth at the train station that said “Desk of advising.”

When I was at the Shanghai urban planning museum the other day I spotted a sign that read, “Till 2010, Shanghai will establish a basic framework of eco-city.”
After 2010, who knows….

Biking in Shanghai - more enjoyable than you might think...Jim's Deals of Day

SHANGHAI – The orange colour kinda stood out. And the fact that the seat was maybe 14 inches off the ground. But I had a chance to take a bike ride through the French Concession district of this city of 20 million people on Friday, and it was a ton of fun.

Bikes are still hugely important in Shanghai. It’s not uncommon to see a mass of 60 or 80 bicycles and motorbikes pulled up at an intersection downtown, waiting for the light to turn green so they can venture out and avoid getting smacked by drivers who think “I guess I can turn here, the light was green for me eight or 10 seconds ago.”

Sounds a little scary but it actually was quite tame. You just have to take your time and look ahead – carefully – to make sure you’re not limiting your options and that you don’t swerve out into traffic at the wrong time. The good news is there are so many bikes here that drivers are constantly reminded of cyclists. It’s not like Toronto, where commuters on bikes are a bit of an afterthought.

It’s not up and running just yet, but the city is about to bring in a plan where visitors can rent the bright orange bikes at various kiosks and then drop them off later in other parts of the city.

The French Concession is a great spot for it as there are hundreds of  beautiful, old buildings from the 1920s and 1930s; solid mansions that have been turned into glorious restaurants, shops and museums. The building on the left is now a Teppanyaki restaurant with a beautiful garden that's popular for weddings.

It’s a wonderful part of town. I had a chance to visit the former home of Soong Ching Ling, the wife of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the “forerunner of China’s democratic revolution," and to have lunch at the Shanghai Old Station Restaurant, a former beauty in the Xujiahui region.

Soong’s house is a perfect treasure of Chinese political history, complete with some of her old records and a silver tray given her by former U.S. President Richard Nixon. There also are photos of her in the house with Chairman Mao, so it’s pretty cool. The Old Station serves some great Shanghai cuisine, including bamboo shoots on bok choy, braised fish, jellied pork, crunchy vegetable spring rolls and perfectly crispy fried duck.

THE BEAT GOES ON

This place is nuts. Friday night (it’s now Saturday morning here) I was out on the Bund checking out the new Peninsula Hotel and one of the nearby bars (just for future reference). It was around 7 p.m., and I couldn’t help but notice there were dozens of workers on the street laying out sections of pipe.
It’s now 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning and I’m typing away on my laptop, high on the 63rd floor of the Grand Hyatt in the Pudong district, and I can distinctly hear the clanging of construction equipment down below. New York is the city that never sleeps? I don’t think so.

They’ve gone construction mad in this town. Pudong was nothing but rice paddies and a few scattered homes 20 years ago. Now, it’s a dizzying display of skyscrapers; offices and hotel and condo towers that rise 500 meters or more in a huge cluster of “I’ll show you whose is bigger” machismo.

I can look out (well, not today because of the fog but yesterday) and see four or five massive towers in various stages of development. And that’s just Pudong. Over on the Bund the Fairmont Peace Hotel is about finished. The Peninsula just opened a few months ago. And there are dozens of new roads, transit lines, airport terminals and train lines opening up in a mad rush to get ready for Expo 2010’s arrival in less than 50 days.

The Grand Hyatt is a great spot, with the lobby on the 54th floor and nearly a dozen bars and restaurants, most with incredible views of the city. Had Italian food at Cucina on Friday, including a terrific Spaghetti di Frutti di Mare. The hotel atrium rises about 40 stories, I think, and it's quite something.

JIM'S DEALS OF THE DAY

US$79 - Hotel in Walt Disney World Resort, w/breakfast & Disney Days Bonus
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$325 - Toronto to Havana, Cuba, 1 week spring getaway ($535 w/tax)
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$14.99 per day - Weekend Special Car Rental Rate with Enterprise
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Shanghai rocks..Expo 2010..Spray toilets..Chinese censors..Jim's Deals of Day

SHANGHAI – It didn't take long to realize this is a very different city than Beijing. Coming in from the airport on the elevated highway, things didn’t look all that dissimilar. But a couple minutes later, as we cruised past narrow streets lined with plane trees and eager shoppers along Nanjing Rd., it was pretty obvious that Shanghai and Beijing are as different as Ottawa and Toronto.

Not that there’s anything wrong with Beijing or Ottawa, or that I mean to really compare vast Beijing with relatively puny Ottawa. They’re both fine spots in their own way. But Shanghai clearly pulses to a different beat than its northerly rival. It’s far more Western in style and attitude from what I’ve seen, and I haven’t had time yet to check either the Bund or the French Concession. Yet it’s still plenty Chinese, with its multitude of cyclists and narrow alleyways and temples and general sense of barely controlled frenzy.

My friendly and extremely helpful tour guide, Joshua, took the afternoon Wednesday to take me for a fine Szechuan lunch at the Chongqing Cygnet, then arranged a tour of the Expo 2010 site.
It’s still a bit – well, a lot – of a mess, with thousands upon thousands of workers breaking up rocks and planting trees and laying down landscaping and such. Some buildings look to be still under major construction, while other pavilions appear to have been finished for some time. Canada seems to be about average in terms of preparedness.

It’s a massive, massive site (5.28 square kilometers) and will take folks a good hour to walk from end to another; maybe more. And that’s only one side of the Hangpu River; there’s more on the other shore. I didn’t see any of the latest Expos, but the Chinese version, which starts May 1 and goes to the end of October, should return World’s Fairs to their formerly rightful place. If you think Beijing went big on the Olympics, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. The China pavilion (see photo with folks having their picture taken) is lovely. And the Holland pavilion is shaped like a giant yellow tulip, which seems perfect.

The Shanghai tourism folks put me up for the night at the Pei Mansion, the former home of legendary architect I.M. Pei. It’s a stunning boutique property with just 25 rooms, a block off Nanjing Rd. but a world away with its lovely garden (not quite finished) and luxurious rooms.

They’ve added all the mod cons, of course, including a toilet that I still haven’t figured out. There appears to be a spray device for just about all your nether regions, not to mention a seat warmer and a dryer. These are not uncommon in Japan but I’d never used one before. Notwithstanding the toilet seat is automatic and seems to go up every time I walk past the toilet, it’s pretty interesting.

Mind you, they're only in the soft opening phase and there are some glitches. Nobody answered the phone when I called the front desk the first three times this morning to get my Internet fixed, and they just delivered my breakfast from room service. I asked for western style and they brought a tuna sandwich and a cafe latte with chocolate. A nice looking sandwich but that ain't breakfast anywhere in the west, folks.

Anyway, I can go find a croissant or something nearby, so no harm. And the rooms are awesome; a combination of Chinese design with French brocaids and dark, polished furniture that looks to be from the 1920’s or 1930’s Very solid and very quiet considering it's right between Nanijing Rd. and Beijing Rd. in a very busy part of town.

They have an acrobatic show in the north part of the city called ERA, partly designed by a Canadian who used to work with Cirque du Soleil, that’s pretty damned good. It combines traditional Chinese acrobatic work with some razzle-dazzle lighting and other effects and features everything from a guy who can toss huge, ceramic pots in the air and have them land safely on the back of his neck or his head, a series of acrobats who jump and tumble en masse through moving figure eight symbols and, at the end, eight lighted motorbikes roaring upside down, sideways and in all directions inside a small, metallic globe.
Pretty damned good.

There are, of course, drawbacks to working in China. I thought it might just be my Blackberry, but I couldn't use it to get onto Twitter yesterday. And I see now that Twitter won't come up on my laptop either. I remember at the Beijing Olympics I had to go into my virtual private network at the Star to read some sites the Chinese government didn't want me to see, so I can only imagine that they've put the kybosh to Twitter, as well. I've tried by VPN at the office but we're going through a system change and I can't get it to work, so no Tweets for me for a few days.

I did, however, send a photo to twitpic so I'll try doing that again and hope it works.

Got work to do and breakfast to find, folks, so that's it for now. I will leave you with one parting thought. In case you've never seen just how fancy an Asian toilet can be, here's what I get to choose from in terms of "toilet treatments.

JIM'S DEALS OF THE DAY

$249 - Toronto to London, England, cheap return flight ($644 w/tax)
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$537 - Toronto to Puerto Plata, DR, 1 week 5* all-inclusive getaway ($858 w/tax)
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US$599 - 11 night 4* Maritimes & New England cruise from Quebec City
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Shanghai Expo 2010 coming soon; heading over to check things out...

ABOARD CATHAY PACIFIC 827 – “I wouldn’t want to be there.”

As I settled into my (thank you, Cathay Pacific) business class seat/pod and sipped on a (small) glass of sparkling wine around 12:01 a.m. Wednesday in Toronto, a group of teenagers strolled past. One smart-aleck, and I say that in the nicest way, looked at the fortunate few of us in the front of the plane and turned to his friend.

“Who wants to sleep in seat that folds into a bed,” he said with a laugh. “I’d rather sit in the back between two people I don’t even know for 14 hours.”

It makes you feel a little guilty when the airline gods smile upon you and treat you in a manner you don’t deserve, but I gotta say I enjoyed the biz class treatment. They offered a nice choice of prawns in kung po sauce with rice and veggies for dinner, as well as a beef tenderloin in a red wine demi glace; slightly better than a subway sandwich. There’s also a three-cheese platter and New York cheesecake and then pralines before bedtime, all of which I'm proud to say I passed on.

There were a half-dozen wines on tap, including a nice California Cabernet and Chardonnay and a French white Burgundy, as well as a leathery Bordeaux and a fruity Morgon. Okay, a couple of those I tried.

The seats fold down flat, which is just outstanding. They also give you a nice toiletry bag (most airlines do in business class) with socks, eyeshades, toothbrush and toothpaste, sunblock lotion, mouthwash (pretty large one; was I being told something?), ear plugs and more. I haven’t flown business class on Air Canada in some time, but I’d say the pods are pretty similar. Air Canada, as I recall, has a nice tray where you can slide your laptop and shoes out of the way, which the Cathay plane didn’t have.

I’d say the service was pretty similar to what I get on Air Canada; maybe a touch better but in the same ballpark. (Then again, I'm one of those folks who generally finds Air Canada to be a pretty good airline; far, far better than most American lines I've flown.) What I REALLY loved was the entertainment system. In addition to those little maps that show you precisely where you are, this one had a plane cam that showed the ground underneath the whole way. Mind you, it was dark the entire trip so all I could see were the odd bit of lights. Still, though, kinda cool.

There had to be more than a hundred movies, ranging from recent Hollywood flicks to classics and Asian movies. I settled in for Lost in Translation, and immediately remembered how sexy Scarlett Johansson was in that movie and how impossibly laconic and perfect a job Bill Murray did. I had completely forgotten about the “masseuse” sent to Murray’s room and how she ordered him to “rip my stockings,” as she wrestled him to the ground in pseudo-passion. Hilarious.

Tons of great music on the plane, as well, from Talking Heads (“Life During Wartime” is a great song to write a blog to, by the way) and Elvis Costello to the Stones and Barbra Streisand and Allison Kraus and Vivaldi and lord knows what else. Nice fruit and yogurt and cereal for breakfast, or an omelette or noodles or congee for hungrier folks, and then on into Hong Kong.

Of course, no sooner did I arrive then I tried to snap shut the handle on my carry-on bag and busted it in two. Thankfully I have a three-hour layover and plenty of time to shop. I have a sneaking suspicion the Hong Kong airport just might have a place or two to drop some cash....

On to Shanghai later today, so I'll post from there tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing how it measures up against Beijing and Hong Kong....

Atlanta tops survey of best "value" cities in U.S....I beg to differ....Jim's Deals

Got a release the other day from Hotwire.com, announcing the results of its fifth annual Hotwire Travel Value Index Study. It names Atlanta as it's top 2010 destination for vacation deals.

The good folks at Hotwire undoubtedly have solid methodology, and I don't doubt their findings that Atlanta is a better DOLLAR value in absolute terms than many American competitors. But you have to consider one thing. When you've booked your "value" trip you'll find yourself at the airport heading to...Atlanta.

This, in my humble opinion, is a major drawback.

I've been to the city on several occasions, although not recently, and I just don't get it. Every time I've stayed downtown I've been warned not to walk three blocks for fear of getting mugged, so I just don't understand the attraction. The downtown last time I was there was spotty as hell; a great hotel next to a parking lot next to a nice restaurant next to a fast-food chain next to another parking lot.

There's no THERE there, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein talking about my native, Oakland, California, which is less desirable than Atlanta I gotta admit.

There are zoos and Margaret Mitchell and the shrines to Martin Luther King Jr. and some nice shops and restaurants/bars in Buckhead, not to mention the Coca-Cola Museum and the CNN tour, which doesn't get me excited but is appealling to lots of folks, but it's all scattered about with no central core that I've been able to find. It doesn't even remotely compare to Miami or New York or San Francisco or Seattle or Portland or Los Angeles or Chicago.

So, sure, Atlanta is a good "value." But so what? Better in my mind to spend a bit more and have a lot more to show for it at the end of the day.

For the record, here's the full Hotwire list, with the overall travel value index rating.

1. Atlanta (100)

2. Orlando (99)

3. Phoenix (94)

4. Dallas-Fort Worth (93)

5. Denver (87)

6. Houston (84)

7. Los Angeles (83)

8. Raleigh, N.C. (82)

9. Chicago (81)

10. Miami (75)

JIM'S DEALS OF THE DAY

US$96/night - 11-night 5* Spain-Italy-France cruise (save over 75%)
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100 hotels for under $100: International, US and Canada hotels for less!
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$415 - Toronto to Varadero, 1 week all-inclusive holiday (+ exclusive discount)
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EMIRATES DEAL FROM TORONTO - TODAY/TOMORROW

Starting today, Emirates Airline is reducing its prices online for 48 hours to select worldwide destinations from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. Travelers who book online at emirates.com/ca on March 9 and 10 have the chance to obtain reduced flight fares on round-trip travel, with $1,500* off unrestricted Business Class fares and $50* off Economy Class tickets onboard Emirates’A380 – the world’s largest passenger aircraft.  Offered destinations include: Accra, Dubai, Lagos, Tehran and Sana’a.

Passengers can enjoy comfort, gourmet multi-course meals, complimentary fine wines and 1,200 channels of on-demand entertainment.

MARRIOTT MADNESS

Marriott International Inc plans to more than double the number of its properties in Europe in the next few years, with an announcement from the hotel company expected today, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The plan, if successful, would create 40,000 more hotel rooms on the Continent with Marriott brand names, the report said. The company now has 174 hotels in 24 countries in Europe that operate under the Marriott, Ritz Carlton and Renaissance brands, among others, it said.

THE QUEEN GOES DOWN UNDER

Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 will be based in Australia in 2012 for a historic circumnavigation which will see the ship visit five states and the Northern Territory.

Queen Mary 2’s “Royal Circumnavigation of Australia” is a first for Cunard Line.

The largest ship ever to visit Australia, Queen Mary 2 will call at eight Australian ports during its time Down Under including Sydney, Fremantle, Adelaide and the Whitsundays as well as maiden visits to Cairns (Yorkey’s Knob), Darwin, Melbourne and Brisbane. The circumnavigation will also include a call at Bali.

There will be three circumnavigation options: a 22-night voyage departing Sydney on February 14, 2012, a 20-night voyage departing Fremantle on February 8, 2012 and a 21-night voyage departing Adelaide on February 11, 2012.

In all, Queen Mary 2 will spend 28 nights in Australian waters, as it sails from Cape Town to Sydney via Fremantle and Adelaide, and then circumnavigates the country. The Australian deployment will be the longest Queen Mary 2 has been based in one country outside of its northern hemisphere homeports of Southampton and New York.

West Jet launches "frequent guest" program and new credit card...at last

After much discussion and a couple delays, WestJet today announced its two new programs to reward folks who fly with them on a regular basis.

"The WestJet Credit Card Program offered in partnership with RBC and MasterCard, and the WestJet Frequent Guest Program will offer guests the opportunity to earn and accumulate WestJet dollars," the company said in a press release. "Every WestJet dollar can be used as cash toward the purchase of any flight on any date to any destination — including seat sales. WestJet dollars can also be used towards WestJet Vacations packages (up to 500 WestJet dollars per person). There are no points, redemption grids, advance booking, blackouts or seat restrictions - just dollars off flights and vacation packages."

“These programs are designed to be simple, open and transparent,” said Lauri Feser, WestJet Vice-President of Marketing. “Canadians want to be able to understand the way their rewards are calculated, and they don’t want to worry about whether they have enough points to do what they want. For the frequent business traveller, our research indicates there is strong appeal for the rewards offered by this type of program. Most of all, they want to be able to use their rewards without blackout periods and other restrictions.”

In a story in today's Calgary Herald, a spokesman for a web site that keeps track of reward programs suggested the program has fewer perks than rival programs such as Aeroplan.

"You're losing out on business class upgrades, you don't have business class lounge access," said Patrick Sojka, head of RewardsCanada.ca,a Calgary-based website."Those people who get that with Aeroplan won't be making the move."

Sojka may be right, but it likely won't matter to the legions of WestJet fans out there who simply want a reward for frequent flights. The program might not be perfect but it still sounds like an improvement over no frequent flyer program at all.

WestJet said it also has joined with RBC and MasterCard to launch their new travel reward credit card program. RBC’s first MasterCard product offering in Canada includes two new cards: the WestJet RBC World MasterCard and the WestJet RBC MasterCard. With each, cardholders earn WestJet dollars on everyday purchases.

The WestJet RBC World MasterCard provides 1.5 per cent in WestJet dollars, plus a welcome bonus of 100 WestJet dollars. The card has an annual fee of $79, carries premium travel insurances and includes automatic membership to MasterCard World Experiences and Offers, which provides access to hotel discounts and upgrades, preferential golf and spa rates and other exclusive benefits.

With the WestJet RBC MasterCard, cardholders earn one per cent back in WestJet dollars on everyday credit card purchases, plus a welcome bonus of 25 WestJet dollars the first time the card is used. The card has an annual fee of $39.

Both cards provide a 0.5 per cent bonus in WestJet dollars for WestJet flights and WestJet Vacations packages purchased on the card.

JIM'S DEALS OF THE DAY

2 days left to get up to 50% off airfares across Canada with Air Canada

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Save up to 40% - Las Vegas hotels on sale: Luxor, MGM, Imperial Palace & more
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$798 - Toronto to Riviera Maya, 1 week 5* all-inclusive vacation ($1,073 w/tax)
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Canada escapes U.S. tourism charge...Paris goes green in May

Maybe it was our showing in Vancouver that made them take notice. Maybe not. But it's certainly good news that the U.S. will exempt Canadians from its new, $10 entry fee.

As the Star's Mitch Potter reported today, the money will help the U.S. travel industry provide $100 million to wage a global "Come To America" campaign. The $10 fee will be levied on foreign travellers from 35 countries that share visa-waiver status with America.

"It is just the way the puck bounced. Canadians alone will not pay the fee because of our special relationship. But it will apply to all other countries in the visa waiver program, including the United Kingdom, Australia, South Korea and much of western Europe," said Geoff Freeman, senior vice-president of the U.S. Travel Association.

In a report in USA Today on Friday, officials lauded the concept.

"This is an important moment in the industry that's integral to the U.S. economy," said Jonathan Tisch, CEO of Loews Hotels and Chairman Emeritus of the U.S. Travel Association. "The countries we are competing with for inbound travelers are spending hundreds of millions to attract people to their shores."

The number of international visitors to the U.S. is estimated to be down to 54.3 million last year from 58 million in 2008, according to the USTA.

According to USA Today, European countries have opposed the bill, saying that it could result in retaliatory fees for Americans and fewer tourists to the U.S. Freeman says other countries' opposition is less about the $10 fee and more about competition. "The U.S. has not competed for visitors. We're about to get in the game. That scares a lot of folks around the world."

Other countries also charge similar fees for inbound visitors, but their fees are often "buried" in airline tickets, Freeman says.

It's nice for Canadians to be exempt. The U.S. also, of course, knows what a hassle it would be at the border if it stopped all the Canucks flocking to U.S. outlet stores for $10 shirts and cheap socks and underwear.

I WAS A GREEN MAN IN PARIS

With apologies to Joni Mitchell fans for that headline, I like the idea of Paris turning the Champs-Elysees over to grass and trees in May.

The plan is to clear the road of traffic and blanket it with grass, flowers and trees from May 22-24, part of an attempt to increase public awareness of sustainable development and celebrate farmers' work. I can just imagine the great cheeses and charcuterie and veggies and such. But it also would be cool to walk barefoot down what might be the most famous road in the world.

Which got me to thinking; Yonge St. is the longest (well, kind of) street on the planet, and Wall St. and Fifth Avenue in New York have a lot of cache, but so does Broadway (of which there are so many variations around the world). There's also Lombard St. in San Francisco and, if you want to get into highways, the remainder of Route 66 in the U.S. Not to mention the Trans-Canada Highway. But I wonder what would be considered the most famous street in the world? There are lots of well-known streets in Rome and London but I bet none that are as identifiable around the world as the Champs-Elysees. One potential exception just occurs to me: Sunset Blvd.in L.A. might just do the trick.

If you have any thoughts on the subject, drop me a line at jbyers@thestar.ca. I might try to come up with a way to incorporate a story into the Travel section on this at a later date, just for fun. And it would give me a good excuse to check it out personally, all in the name of solid, journalistic research.

JIM'S DEALS OF THE DAY

$79 - Cheap return flight from Toronto to Orlando ($311 w/tax)
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$389 - Toronto to London, UK, return flight + 2 nights at 4* hotel w/breakfast ($784 w/tax)
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$495 - Toronto to Varadero, 1 week 4* all-inclusive getaway ($705 w/tax)
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ALSO:

From March 4 – 6 ONLY, Air Canada offers a Barbados seat sale

In celebration of Air Canada service to Barbados travelers can book their Barbados vacation exclusively on www.aircanada.com  from now until March 6, 2010 and SAVE with the seat sale of the season.  Travel to Barbados from Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, from $119 midweek and $139 weekend one-way.

Air Canada Two-Day Seat Sale

Valid on new bookings only, and valid only for bookings made from March 4^th to 6th. Valid for travel up to April 30^th, 2010.

http://www.aircanada.com/en/offers/air/bgi_mar10/bgi_mar10.html#YYZ-BGI-YYZBGI

 

 

Brian Williams (USA version) on Vancouver Olympics...Star Golf show tomorrow

NBC's Brian Williams - the younger but not as good looking one (hey, I gotta look after my old buddy BW of Canada) - had some nice things to say about his Vancouver Olympic experience, so I thought I'd give one last kick of the Vancouver 2010 can. Writing on his blog, American BW had this to say:

"Before we leave this thoroughly polite country, the polite thing to do is leave behind a thank-you note.

Thank you, Canada:

For being such good hosts.

For your unfailing courtesy.

For your (mostly) beautiful weather.

For scheduling no more than 60 percent of your float plane departures at
the exact moment when I was trying to say something on television.

For not seeming to mind the occasional (or constant) good-natured
mimicry of your accents.

For your unique TV commercials -- for companies like Tim Hortons --
which made us laugh and cry.

For securing this massive event without choking security, and without
publicly displaying a single automatic weapon.

For having the best garment design and logo-wear of the games -- you've
made wearing your name a cool thing to do.

For the sportsmanship we saw most of your athletes display.

For not honking your horns. I didn't hear one car horn in 15 days --
which also means none of my fellow New Yorkers rented cars while
visiting.

For making us aware of how many of you have been watching NBC all these
years.

For having the good taste to have an anchorman named Brian Williams on
your CTV network, who turns out to be such a nice guy.

For the body scans at the airport which make pat-downs and cavity
searches unnecessary.

For designing those really cool LED Olympic rings in the harbor, which
turned to gold when your athletes won one.

For always saying nice things about the United States...when you know
we're listening.

For sharing Joannie Rochette with us.

For reminding some of us we used to be a more civil society.

Mostly, for welcoming the world with such ease and making lasting
friends with all of us."

Ain't that grand? Nice guy.

I had a drink with my Vancouver cousin one night - the Olympic Torch flaming one we did a video on at the Four Seasons - and he was telling me how he didn't even recognize his city.

"I come downtown and it's like Montreal or Toronto," he said. "It's so cool but it doesn't feel like Vancouver."

It might never feel like Vancouver again. At least not the old one. Wonderful memories and a great job all around, folks. Some silliness, yes; the Olympic cauldron issue was a definite fumble and the idea that they'd get credit for environmentally friendly ice-cleaners was dumb. It's the Olympics, folks, and you gotta know that one breakdown of an ice cleaner in a country that has more of them per capita than it does fully functional Toyotas is going to be an embarrassment. At the Olympics, you get the best of everything.

But they certainly meant well, and they got deservedly high marks from the International Olympic Committee and MOST of the media. Including Brian Williams II.

MEANWHILE, BACK ON THE TRAVEL BEAT

Life goes on post-Olympics, and as much as I'm sad to have the Games come to an end I'm dead tired from organizing the Star's coverage out west. I hope you enjoyed what we offered in the paper and on our web site, and especially our Twitter feed, which I thought was quite something. Anyway, it's now back to a travel beat I dearly love, so here's some musings on the latest news to cross my desk...

Forecasters (insert your punch line here, folks) at The Weather Network are suggesting Ontario and Quebec will see fairly normal temperatures for spring, while things will be a touch warmer in British Columbia than normal. Things are expected to be normal on the Prairies for the most part and in the maritimes, but perhaps a little warmer than usual in Labrador and most of Newfoundland, and they deserve it.

Spring still seems a ways away here in Toronto, although I swear I felt just a little bit of warmth in the air this morning on my way down from Union Station to the Star building at 1 Yonge St; that little whiff of slightly spring-like temperatures that always causes my heart to soar. The Weather Network says it will begin spring programming on March 29th, including the lawn and garden report. So we know the end of winter is finally approaching.

TORONTO STAR GOLF SHOW

Another sure sign of spring? The Toronto Star Golf and Travel Show gets underway tomorrow (Friday the 5th). It's a great show; with travel booths and golf representatives from all over the GTA, North America and the world. There's also demonstrations, tons of new equipment to check out (we could all use the latest monster driver, right?), golf apparel, food and appearances by the likes of renowned instructor David Leadbetter.

Things get underway Friday at noon and go til 8 pm. Saturday hours are 10 to 6 and Sunday 10-5. As usual, the show is at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, 255 Front St. W., Toronto. For information, go to www.torontogolfshow.com.

JIM'S DEALS OF THE DAY

From $29 O/W - 50% off flights within Canada + savings to U.S. & Sun destinations
http://www.travelalerts.ca/ccount12/click.php?id=2640

 

$389 - Toronto to Las Vegas, 3 day getaway at the 4.5* Mandalay Bay ($518 w/tax)
http://www.travelalerts.ca/ccount12/click.php?id=2641

 

US$69/night - 15 night 4* Incan Empires Cruise: Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, & Nicaragua

http://www.travelalerts.ca/ccount12/click.php?id=2642

RELIEF FOR PASSENGERS ON THE WAY? NEW SHOE-SCREENERS COMING TO THE USA

Spotted an item on the USA Today travel web site today that said the Transportation Security Administration in the U.S. is planning to buy 100 shoe scanners by next year, which would allow folks to keep their shoes on (grateful for that, I am) while passing through security. I'm still waiting for civil libertarians to claim this is a violation of our rights and that secret foot fetishists lurking in the TSA will want to keep x-ray images of people's tootsies.

I haven't seen anything about similar devices for Canada.

RECOVERY SIGNS

Carriers in North America and Europe aren't having as much luck, but the International Air Transport Association says demand in some parts of the world is up substantially. In the Middle East, demand jumped 23.6 per cent in January vs. January of last year, while Latin American growth was 11 per cent.

The IATA said demand was up just 3.1 per cent in Europe, however, and 2.1 per cent in North America.

WestJet, meanwhile, says its traffic in February 2010 was nine per cent higher than the same month last year. Air Canada says its traffic increased 5.5 per cent from February 2009 to last month.

Where'd everybody go????...The afterglow/hangover of the Olympics

VANCOUVER - Wasn't THAT a party?

Not sure about you folks in Ontario, but there was some kind of craziness in downtown Vancouver Sunday   night after that hockey game. Man, horns blaring, kids leaning out of convertibles (it IS the west coast, you know), flags waving and strangers giving me high-fives. Tons of fun.

But the next day? Poof. I walked along Hastings St. and it was almost, but not quite, like nothing had happened. The barricades were gone that kept non-Olympic cars away from the Main Press Centre. The security to get into the press centre was virtually non-existent, and the giant room where hundreds or thousands of folks toiled every day for two and-a-half weeks was ghostly and empty.

Very strange. The folks at Canadian Press were bundling up computers and pens and paper and power cords, and Team Star was doing the same.

I finished a couple stories, then went for a walk up Burrard to Davie, past some fun neighborhood spots and down to English Bay, where I saw a kid playing with a hockey stick on the beach in the shadow of a palm tree the day after the Winter Olympics were finished. Kinda surreal.

Anyway, it was a blast. Kudos to my Star colleagues, and I hope you all enjoyed it. Back to "normal" blogs on Wednesday, then off to Shanghai soon for some Expo stuff, and Hong Kong, too.

Take care.