LIANE HANSEN, host:
Even without the specter of volcanic ash, air travelers to London's Heathrow experience the most delays of any major European airport. For that, Doug Lansky has given it what he calls a Titanic Award. He also bestows quite a few others: scariest airport, rudest flight attendants, and narrowest seat.
Air travel is not his only target. He takes on souvenirs, hotels and restaurants in his new book "The Titanic Awards." When we spoke earlier this week, Lansky explained why he wanted to celebrate the worst of travel.
Mr. DOUG LANSKY (Travel Writer): The narrative in the travel industry largely is this narrative of escapism - that you're supposed to go and have this incredible holiday, and you're supposed to kind of discover yourself and lay on the beach and drink coconut milk and all these, you know, lovely things. And a lot of the people who are gathering this information are getting VIP treatment - the travel writers - and the travel industry itself is getting bolstered by the travel industry. I mean, all these ads in there are for these resorts and for these airlines.
And so, I kept having chunks of my story, which I thought were the most interesting bits, where things went wrong, cut out for lack of space or - and that sort of all reinforced this narrative. And if we're with a bunch of travel writers sitting in a bar, the stories we tell are the things that went wrong -these little juicy nuggets of when you were trapped on this island and the ferry stopped working, or this toilet from hell, or all these kinds of things. These were the stories we wanted to share. And I thought, like, why doesnt this stuff make it into print more often?
HANSEN: And so you decided to do it for us.
(Soundbite of laughter)
HANSEN: Tell the story - now, this is not many people would ever have the chance to go to China and fly on Shandong Airlines. But you tell a story about what happened to passengers on that 20-ton plane.
Mr. LANSKY: Well, it seems what had happened was when the plane landed and they were taxiing to the airport, the airplane died somehow on the way there.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. LANSKY: It managed to land but it couldnt get all the way to the airport, so they brought the airport personnel out and the aircraft crew to help push this 20-ton plane to the gate. And they couldnt quite get it there, so they actually went over the P.A. system and invited the passengers to come out and give it a push, as well.
(Soundbite of laughter)
HANSEN: And they did, huh?
Mr. LANSKY: And they did.
Vocabulary: match the word with the definition
| Specter Bestows Narrative Escapism Bolstered Nuggets |
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Discussion
Think about these question:
1. What are some of your best/worst travel experiences?
2. What do you hate most/love the most about travel and why?
3. Who are the best/friendliest tourists in your country?
4. Who are the worst tourists in your country?
5. What are some important things to remember about traveling in other countries?
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