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- Margaret Thatcher museum: Good way to spend $23 million?
- 10 tips for getting the most from your golf holiday
- Where's all the Emirati cuisine?
- Meet the strangest startup in travel: CorruptTour
| Margaret Thatcher museum: Good way to spend $23 million? Posted: 16 Apr 2013 03:00 AM PDT
One of her legacies, a pressure group she set up in 1991, hopes she'll continue to do so well after her death. Conservative Way Forward has unveiled plans for a Margaret Thatcher library and museum that will feature her signature blue Aquascutum suits and handbags, as well as a number of donated and loaned items. "By May 2009, it had become clear to me that we needed something to protect the legacy of Margaret Thatcher and to teach future generations about her life, values and achievements," said Donal Blaney, chief executive of Conservative Way Forward, on the Conservative Home blog. He revealed that the inspiration for the tribute came from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California. Most of the comments on the blog so far are supportive of the idea. The project's backers are aiming to raise £15 million ($23 million) in private funding, with several large donations already pledged according to reports in London's Metro newspaper, which will enable "conferences, lectures and workshops" to be delivered. Thatcher was said to be aware of the plans for the museum, and has left a number of letters to be exhibited. There have also been various calls for an airport to be named after the late Baroness Thatcher. Thatcher passed away following a stroke at The Ritz Hotel in London on April 8. A ceremonial funeral will be held on Wednesday, April 17 at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.      |
| 10 tips for getting the most from your golf holiday Posted: 15 Apr 2013 11:00 PM PDT Adam Scott's victory last weekend in the golfing world's premium event -- the Masters -- will no doubt lead to a surge in the popularity of the game back in his home country of Australia. But it's happening elsewhere, too, with or without big names winning trophies. Golf holiday sales were up more than 9% in 2012 compared to the previous year, according to the International Association of Golf Tour Operators. If you're a traveling golfer, here are some tips that will at least keep the travel part of the equation as pleasant as possible. You're on your own once you hit the tees. Got your own golf travel tips? Tell us about it in the comments section below. 1. Leave your clubs behindSome airlines charge up to US$100 each way for carrying a golf bag. Others let you take your clubs for free -- at the time of writing these included Aegean Airlines, Emirates, Malaysia Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. You can also check your destination for companies like Paul McGinley's Clubs To Hire, which rents full sets of new clubs from the likes of Callaway and TaylorMade for as little as €35 (US$46) a week in many European countries.
2. Choose all-inclusive golf destinationsGreen fees can hike the cost of your trip significantly. However, many resorts offer stay-and-play packages, which allow you unlimited golf on their courses, or at least a certain number of rounds included in the package price. Costa Navarino in Greece offers an Experience Golf package that includes seven nights accommodation and five rounds of golf on either of its two great courses. Golf Asian offers stay-and-play packages all over Asia. Pinehurst in the United States offers a Donald Ross package that includes two nights accommodation with breakfast and dinner, plus three rounds on any of its eight courses. 3. Pick new resorts and coursesNothing ruins a golf holiday more than playing on a rutted cow pasture. The best way to ensure a quality golfing experience, aside from selecting championship venues like Kiawah Island in South Carolina, is to pick a new venue. Because new clubs need to establish a reputation among many thousands of competitors, they're less likely to cut corners. If you're dead set on a particular course, phone or email in advance and ask what condition their courses will be in when you visit. You'd be surprised at how many honest answers you get. 4. Choose famous courses/destinations early in the seasonSt. Andrews, Pebble Beach, Mission Hills, Dubai -- they all have a lot of great, famous golf courses that will give you bragging rights later on. And, yes, bragging rights are surprisingly important at golf clubs -- telling an opponent on the first tee that you just played the Old Course at St. Andrews or the Emirates Golf Club (where Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Ernie Els and the late Seve Ballestros have all won the Dubai Desert Classic) can put you one or two up before a stroke has been played. The easiest way to get a tee time on a famed course is to play early in the season.
5. Budget travelers, choose an emerging golf destinationGolf will usually be much cheaper in emerging golf destinations desperate to establish a reputation. Accommodation and dining may also be significantly cheaper in the resorts in these areas. Some great courses have recently opened at resorts in emerging golf countries such as Bulgaria, Cambodia, Greece, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey and Vietnam. Try also China and India. 6. Use a sturdy golf flight bagIf you do travel with your own clubs, choose a good golf flight bag. You'd be amazed at how many golfers check in their golf bags without a sturdy flight bag cover. This frequently results in broken or missing clubs. Reliable golf flight bag covers include the Bag Boy T-2000, Nike NG141 and Ogio Monster. Flight bag covers are usually roomy and you can put extra bits of luggage inside that won't fit into your suitcase.
7. Use a TSA-approved lockA few years back I retrieved my suitcase from the baggage carousel in the United States to find the brand new lock had vanished. Inside was a notice from U.S. Customs saying they'd had to check for dangerous materials. No compensation was offered. Better known as the TSA, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration has wide-ranging powers when it comes to ensuring the safety of travel in the United States. Use a TSA-approved locks for your suitcases and golf flight bags. These can be opened with a special tool by all customs officers around the world and then relocked. They're also extraordinarily difficult for bag snatchers to open. 8. Check if the course allows buggiesNot all courses have or allow buggies ("carts" in the United States). One of the world's most highly regarded golf resorts, Bandon Dunes in Oregon, is one. This is fine if you're young and fit enough to walk 18 or 36 holes every day, but for older or less fit golfers, buggies are an important, enjoyable part of holiday golf. So check before you book that your chosen course allows them.
9. Treat yourself to a caddyMany golfers can't afford a caddy every time they hit the links -- they're expensive if you're playing golf in Ireland, the United Kingdom or the United States. But in many countries, especially the emerging golf destinations mentioned above, caddies are cheap, frequently costing between US$5-10 a round, cheaper than a buggy. Caddies are often good players themselves and can be particularly helpful at reading putts on strange greens. And they're usually positive about your game no matter how bad you play. 10. Watch a tournament, then playThere's nothing better than watching the game's greats play a major tournament and then playing the same course a couple of days later. At this year's Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes you could have watched Ernie Els win the tournament on Sunday and played the same course the following Tuesday. Amazing. This isn't possible at Augusta, nor at most U.S. Open or U.S. PGA Championship courses. But you can do it every year at the Open in Britain and you can do it at most other tournament courses. Just call the course far ahead of your chosen tournament, book a tee time for as soon after the tournament finishes as possible and have the golf experience of a lifetime.    |
| Where's all the Emirati cuisine? Posted: 15 Apr 2013 07:00 PM PDT In the cultural and culinary melting pot of the United Arab Emirates, travelers can chow on everything from French to Japanese, kimchi to ceviche. But despite the UAE's deserved reputation as a culinary capital, one thing is lacking -- Emirati food. Blame all those expats. They now account for more than 75% of the country's population, even outnumbering locals 11 to 1 by some estimates. Those numbers are reflected in restaurants in UAE cities –- from Zuma to Hakkasan, trendy gastronomic brands dominate, as do celebrity chef places from the likes of Gary Rhodes, Pierre Gagnaire and Nobu. Add to the mix great backstreet eateries serving the best Indian food this side of Madras and you can eat from the tables of almost every continent. More on CNN: 7 of the best Emirati restaurants in Dubai "Emirati restaurants being so scarce did strike me as odd at one time," says British expat John Thatcher, a UAE resident for nine years.
Still, what few realize is the UAE has a cuisine all its own, one that dates back thousands of years. Even if it's not easy to find, I want a taste of it: harees, madhroobah, mahshi (this is where the sheep comes in), the kind of food Bedouin tribes ate back when the Burj Khalifa was still a mirage. The kind of food that today remains largely locked up in Emirati homes. No Emirati chefs means no Emirati restaurantsMy best shot at tasting the real thing is to find an Emirati chef. I sift through the handful of advertised restaurants and find just one: Ali Ebdowa, or "Chef Ali" as he's best known. He's a man of legend –- no one I speak to has actually seen him. Beneath the gargantuan gold dome of Abu Dhabi's Emirates Palace, I walk into Mezlai -- billed as "the first Emirati restaurant in the UAE" -- and am ushered into a hot kitchen by Chef Ali himself. Like a riveting episode of "Hell's Kitchen," there are lots of men in chef whites shouting what sound like Arabic insults at each other. A bit stocky, with short hair, glasses and a welcoming smile, Chef Ali is friendly and talkative. "You are Emirati?" I ask Chef Ali. "Absolutely," he nods, hoisting a whole lamb onto the steel counter beside me by way of proving the point. "Why are there so few Emirati restaurants in Dubai and Abu Dhabi?" I ask. "There are no Emirati restaurants because there are no Emirati chefs," Chef Ali replies, adding that the lack of local chefs comes down to culture. While the Western world may obsess over the latest creations of their top chefs, Emiratis -- men especially –- are reluctant to follow cooking on a professional level.
"Some men I know, they cook at home but will say to me, 'No, I don't cook.' I say, 'I'm challenging you.' He says, 'No I don't cook, even an egg I don't do.' He thinks this is good, he thinks it's to be proud of … some people they feel shame, they say 'Even tea I don't do.'" More on CNN: Ultimate Dubai stopover guide Hotels would not take the localRather than be annoyed at this, Ali is amused. He learned to cook in the military, so few consider his talent a point of emasculation. "I am an army man, and I like the food I learned from my mother," he tells me, eyes on the lamb carcass. Still, Emirati stereotypes have been a hurdle for Ali. "I feel I have something, but so many hotels would not (employ) 'the local,'" he says. "They think I want a big salary, that I would not work … It was difficult." Ali toughed out the job search and landed posts at Jumeirah Emirates Towers and the Burj Al Arab. "I was the only Emirati in the whole of Jumeirah," he says. "I worked with 95 nationalities." The real thingSo what is true Emirati food? "The food is the food," says Ali. "Machbous is machbous [spiced meat with rice], mahshi is mahshi [stuffed cabbage] with meats, rice, chicken and spices ... spices are very, very important. Ours are like Indian spices, but everyone has his own style." The rice is sunflower yellow (dyed with orange saffron milk), shark meat is bathed in blood-red sauce (tomato braised), UAE chicken is yellow-tinged (more spice) and sides include "camel milk mash." Everything is hearty. Ali shows me how he's revived an Emirati cooking tradition and sends a lamb shoulder, wrapped in banana leaves, to be slow-cooked in an earthen hole -- or, in this case, a special oven masquerading as a hole. Ali says another reason Emirati cuisine been sidelined in favor of foreign cuisine is the Emirati family tradition of sometimes eating with the hands, with many plates, all together at one time. As for the future, though a wave of young Emirati chefs seems unlikely, it's worth noting that Ali has seven children of his own. When asked if there's a budding chef among them, he smiles. "One," Chef Ali replies. For now, that's enough to keep a tradition alive. Gallery: World's largest natural flower garden opens in Dubai Where to eat Emirati cuisine in the UAEAl Fanar Restaurant, Dubai Festival City Mall, Dubai; +971 4 232 9966; www.alfanarrestaurant.com Al Hadheerah, Bab Al Shams Desert & Spa Resort, Dubailand; +971 4 809 6194; meydanhotels.com/babalshams Al Makan, Souk Madinat, Jumeirah, Dubai; +971 4 368 6593; www.jumeirah.com Local House, Bur Dubai, Dubai; +971 4 354 0705; www.localhousedubai.com Mezlai, Emirates Palace, West Corniche Road, Abu Dhabi; +971 2 690 7999; www.kempinski.com Do you have a favorite Emirati dish? Share your comments in the box below.    |
| Meet the strangest startup in travel: CorruptTour Posted: 15 Apr 2013 03:00 PM PDT We've covered a lot of startups in our careers, but this one takes the prize for our favorite travel startup ever, for the simple reason that it is the strangest ever: CorruptTour. The Prague-based startup travel agency has a particular speciality as its name suggests: history tours of corrupt areas and cities, focused for now in its home country of Czech Republic. The company is listed, of all places, on AngelList, presumably with an eye to raise some early money to expand, though not surprisingly, not many takers yet. It describes itself as such: "Corrupt Tour is the first corruption specialist tour company in the world, offering walking tours and bus tours of sites of interest in Prague, Usti nad Labem and Calsbad. Corruption is a worldwide phenomenon but most people do not know what it looks like. We look at the brighter side of sleaze, and take our customers behind the scenes. Corruption is mankind's cultural heritage after all! Enjoy the Best of the Worst!" Since it started in Prague over a year ago, it has evolved its offerings to offer different kinds of tours. "The Prague Crony Safari" is a "safari of the habitats of cronies in the wild" and "Hospitals on the Edge of Low" is a medical corruption tour of "Three Prague hospitals notorious for graft and sleaze."
This video from Radio Free Europe gives a taste of its tours. And if you're interested in the actual business ambitions of CorruptTour, watch this hilariously serious presentation by one of the founders. Besides the novelty value and the biting parody of it all, it surely has the potential of being a cult hit everywhere, even in United States where we would love a tour of the former environs of Lehman Brothers and its ilk in lower Manhattan. We're rooting for it to hit big. From Skift Other Skift stories:    |
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