Monday, October 17, 2011

CNNGo.com

CNNGo.com


Mumbai airport's big face-lift: The story so far

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 02:30 AM PDT

Mumbai airport

Some time in 2002, after alighting from a flight at the Mumbai airport, the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Sharad Pawar made a disparaging remark that his state's airport reminded him of a State Transport bus stand.

Caustic as it was, the remark hit home.

Reactions among citizens ranged from indignation to anger, to outrage -- all the emotions that truth evokes -- and concurrently a large chunk of India's public sector was opened up to private entrepreneurs.

Allowing private players in the infrastructure sector has been good for India, and that includes public-private participation in the construction and operation of India's airports, too.

Take Mumbai airport, once the subject of Mr. Pawar's ire.

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Jimmy Quek, Singapore’s top tour guide

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 11:33 PM PDT

It's not every day you get invited to a wedding. And it's even more rare to be invited to the wedding of someone you hardly know.

But that's what happened to freelance tour guide Jimmy Quek (+65 9783 6033; qjimmy@gmail.com), when he went out of his way to help a tourist.

"An Indonesian customer of mine was in Singapore on holiday with her fiancé," said Quek. "She sprained her ankle one evening and I took her to the hospital, waited for her to be treated and then returned her to her hotel. The next day, she told me her ankle was still swollen, so I took her to a Chinese physician near my home."

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China's first Airbus A380 takes off

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 09:29 PM PDT

China Southern Airlines has been hogging Chinese aviation's center stage since the first of its five Airbus A380s touched down at Beijing Capital Airport on October 15.

The double-decker completed all the test runs required by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on October 16 and made its first official flight today.

The inaugural flight took off at 10 a.m. this morning from Beijing Capital Airport and landed at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport at 1 p.m.

Apart from journalists, the passengers included Chinese sports superstar, 2.29-meter Yao Ming.

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Australia's 11 'biggest' tourist traps

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 06:35 PM PDT

Big Ayers Rock

Cuddly koalas, slang and beer-belly culture are Australia's typical tourist attractions. But the land's conformist travel guide has plenty of other "big things."

The abstract planting of big, inanimate objects on a freeway might be Australia's attempt to be bigger and better, but the work of such visionaries seems to have an odd, magnetic appeal.

You might question the functionality of a big sheep or banana on the side of the road. They're usually places to refuel, eat or go to the dunny.

In reality, these big attractions in rural Australian are anything but.

They are places to avoid. Here are 11 Australian tourist traps that -- if you're not careful -- could well lure you from the road.

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World's 50 best beaches

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 03:00 PM PDT

Beaches are the Valium of the travel world. They soothe, they relax, they make you realize that "real life" occasionally needs escaping. 

Most of all, these slivers of sand against the ocean are a reminder that the world can be quite beautiful. 

Of course, we'd be fools to think we've captured every great beach out there. If you think we've missed a few, let us know: what's your favorite beach? Comment below.  

Or vote now on our world's best beach Facebook poll.

 

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What's it like inside Shanghai's 'Marriage Market'?

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 02:57 PM PDT


"I've been coming here every weekend for two years, but here is a low rate of success," says a desperate mother, shaking her head. "Some people come for four or five years but never find someone."

"My daughter went to England for study for seven years," she continues. "When she came back, it was already too late for her to find a boyfriend … she thinks that her time in England was worth it, but to me nothing is more important than starting a family."

The People's Square "Marriage Market," or the "matchmaking corner" as the locals call it, is a Shanghai institution.

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Best cycling in Seoul

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 02:57 PM PDT

han river

September 22, 2008 was a ground-shaking date for Korea: that day, Lee Myung-bak, the be-suited -- and rather nervous-looking -- president of the republic wobbled to work on a bicycle. Ground shaking? 

In a metropolis in which the big, black, chauffeur-driven gas-guzzler is de rigeur for the rich, the powerful and all aspirants to riches and power, bicycles have never quite cut it. For decades, Seoul's cycles were mostly clunky machines used as delivery vehicles by market traders unable to afford motorcycles. 

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