TBB Mission: To Entertain, Educate and Inspire. Aim to at least do one well!
If you like what you see here, please let others know by passing them a link to my blog, thank you!
TRAVEL
Hua Shan, Cliffside Plank Path. By Twisted Sifter. You got to see this, looks quite scary!
Top 15 Converted Hotels. By Seriously for Real? Let’s see: several jails, palace, lighthouse, water tower, monastery and more!
Forgotten Settlement on Deception Island, Antarctica. By Landlopers. Love this picture!
Stunning Death Valley Dreamlapse. Turn off the lights, make it fullscreen, sit back and press Play and go waooaaooaaooaaoaaaoaaaaaaa. First seen at Vagabondish
DEATH VALLEY DREAMLAPSE from Sunchaser Pictures on Vimeo.
What’s up with them Germans lately? They have sure made a mess of it building the Berlin airport!
TSA Pre to expand to another 60 additional airports. Hooray!
Rapid Travel Chai with yet another installment of his trip to North Korea. Smart move not to number them 😉 North Koreans can dance and party actually. His pic with all of them is a classic. Thanks man! I would like to find out what you thought of Wandering Earl’s posts and his experience. Looks like things may be loosening up a little over there lately. What a bizarro country this is!
If you want to make it on TBB, it is super easy! Go to North Korea lol.
MILES/POINTS
I thought about some more the IHG Rewards Win Big promotion. Not gonna do it. 6 nights for 82k IF I hit them all right and wife 4 nights for 50k. Yes, we can get more IHG Rewards points but it IS cash out of our pockets and the effort to track AND we have plenty of hotel points. I have a reservation in St. Louis next month for the blogger conference and thought about mattress running it. But, like I said, the points “hit” is just not enough to make me do this, add car rentals, parking etc. So, I just take a shuttle and hang out at the Hyatt for 3 nights for the conference rate of $119 plus tax (tax deductible). Aiming for some Hyatt points for Maui if I can pull it off!
In case you missed it, the AMEX Small Business Saturday promo date has been announced: November 30. Get them Amex cards ready! I can’t bear to contemplate the linking orgy when we closer!
American Airlines now shows Royal Jordanian Air in its award booking engine. Delta execs go: pfft!
I have a feeling a major Hyatt devaluation is coming. Just instict. Absolutely no insider info! And that free award night at Club Carlon just can’t last to see 2015 imho.
Please do not get a mortgage for the miles. I just can not imagine it will make sense…
Burned another 13,500 Avios points and $7.50 for three award tickets on AA for Mrs. TBB and kids returning from NYC to Detroit after the Christmas holiday. Always never failed to find seats. May wait a day but they always show up. At 4,500 Avios points one way is one of the best redemptions for US in this hobby!
ON MY MIND
I am trying to be even more efficient with my time to keep this baby going. I am SO SO close to a major number that I never thought my site would hit. It is an Alexa ranking number (yes I know this number can be manipulated with its bars and other methods but I don’t have time to find how those work lol). Just checked: World Ranking 196,869 (under $200k). Just me blogging. No techie and WordPress skills (I mean, look at it!). I have been receiving more press releases, offers to guest blog and always those darn infographs marketing companies want me to add pollute my site with!
I am back to exercising every day. Gym was closed for two weeks for some major maintenance work. I still have no time to do any extra posts, trip reports, add to the Blogroll or call up this gal to talk about affiliate links (have her number since early 2013!). Let me see how this new client rolls on and what I learn in the conference. No rush…obviously!
ODDZ & ENDZ
The Women of the Afghanistan War. By the Atlantic. Absolutely stunning pictures! Some are graphic—->Warning.
“What 12 of The World’s Biggest Websites Looked Like at the Beginning“. ByBored Panda. Wow, these have come a long way since then!
BLOG BUZZ
Very Good Points had a pretty good post “My Opinion is Better Than Your Opinion“. I generally agree with the basic message. One of the things I try to avoid (it is REALLY hard in this hobby!) is getting into arguments about how to properly “burn” your miles/points. We are all different people with different goals, tastes and certainly opinions 🙂 And I especially agree with commenter Adam (and TBB reader!) who said this: “While I generally agree with this post, many of the blogs referenced aren’t really “personal” blogs. They are for-profit endeavors where the opinion expressed isn’t personal, but rather an attempt to sell a product. I.e., the top 25 credit cards out there“. In other news, burn away, devaluations will keep coming, the end is near!!!
The question Mommy Points chose to answer about how to get points for Amazon purchases is what you call a layup for the Ink Plus card (hmm, why not the Bold too?) in this business 🙂
Deals We Like has also become a credit card selling machine lately, join the club!
Amazing to me to see how many posts about AA and almost none on how to get 50k AA miles. But bloggers almost NEVER miss the opportunity to do posts with mega number of affiliate links embedded in them! Come on!
And I will leave you with this…
FIIIRST
Twoth.
I agree with Paul on this 1,2,3 nonsense. TBB is a serious site for serious, inquisitive and enlightened readers, much like myself, to go to exchange meaningful serious dialogue. May I submit the following serious observation.
JEFFSETTER (9/4/13) has made an official announcement that there will no longer be TOILET BOWL PICTURES on his website. You are to be applauded young man for your bravery to buck the trend. WELL PLAYED SIR, WELL PLAYED. Sign me up for your newsletter. C.R.
I am flush with envy about pulling the plug on pictures of toilet bowls. Someone should have put a lid on it from the very beginning. Tanks.
Looks like a movement is on! Not Occupy Toilet Bowl Pics or something like that lol
And here I had just restrained myself from applauding that Jeff is back in his appropriate place! I’ve missed him…
Full flush?
George, you are slipping, no controversy today… Just a lame 50k AA and jab at Mommy points. I guess I have to read Leeham new instead.
Yeah, I am starting to get numb on all the sales pitches lately I must admit. And getting a little bit tired of it all, don’t think I am making an impact 🙂 And I just wanted to do a layup on MP so she can show everybody the way to respond to comments. Part of the Educate part of the TBB Mission you know;-)
A shout out on TBB… happy Jewish New Year to me!
Yes, Happy Jewish New Year to you, my present 🙂
That comment was right on and so TBB worthy indeed!
the “jumping the shark” moment for blogs is coming. You better get before Ralph Malph…not much time left. Seriously–implosion approaching…
Please elaborate!
lets reminiscence
On 7/15/13 FTG himself wrote this acticle, I Witnessed an Attempted Senior Rip Off
Read more at: I Witnessed an Attempted Senior Rip Off | Frugal Travel Guy “http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/2013/07/i-witnessed-an-attempted-senior-rip-off-of-me.htmlI
indubitably all it was is that he got 2 price quotes to remodel part of his bathroom, one from someone who wanted his business the other who didn’t need it. Thus 2 different prices.
Why isn’t he as concerned for his readers not getting the best credit card offer out there from his own website. That’s a Rip Off in my mind.
To be fair…Good Stuff though from the Ghostwriter Drew today on FTG though, he is good and indubitably might be the next Noobtraveler (ok just kiddin, ) if he keeps this up. The rest of the staff, what do they do all week, make lists, indubitably not much, where’s the beef?
If anyone out there needs a laugh or is not familiar with the old MMS on the basics on how to cheat/lie your way thru the airport security faster. Read the comments to that MMS post. Very funny stuff indubitably. see below
How to Enter Shorter Airport Security Lines Without Elite Status, Flying in First Class or Credit Cards! http://millionmilesecrets.com/2012/11/29/how-to-skip-airport-security-lines/
You taught me a new word: Indubitably
Most people forget English is my Second language, still learning!
Yeah, getting so so tired ripping that crappy US Air card offer down. Can anyone write an epic rip on it that will make bloggers think twice before pushing the card again. Obviously, my own rants here are not bearing any fruit!
Yeah, Drew stands out there. He should raise his fees immediately! Wonder if this was the reason Bryce left?
I remember that MMS post. I wish he didn’t post stuff like that.
http://boardingarea.com/thewanderingaramean/2013/09/united-upgrade-process-global-services/
“last year when I was lucky enough to have GS status I did have the agents force a GPU into P a couple time”
Talk about lack of transparency! WA has never written about the circumstances under which United gifted him Global Services.
I remember he blogged about how he got it…frankly, can’t remember!
Where did all the comments go?
No idea. Some days are like this…
Too busy traveling to comment as much!! 🙂
I hesitate doing so many posts about North Korea and normally would not about any trip or destination, however the experiences I had being there for a major holiday, and had different access than the mainstream media (they got the full parade, I got the beach), have helped me feel justified in sharing more about a place known so little to the outside world.
I am a regular reader of Wandering Earl and like his North Korea pieces, particularly the ethics one. The ‘What it’s like to travel in North Korea” piece gave a good overview of what tourists can expect, if I have to quibble I think he pushes his moments of independence a little more than what they really are. I won’t get into the debate on comped trips, many travel bloggers rely on them or seek them and it has been debated elsewhere.
For my 2010 trip I contacted Koryo Tours and now-defunt Asia Live. Koryo offered essentially the same thing for a significantly higher price and I found the person I dealt with to be quite arrogant and uninterested in working me with on what I wanted. For this trip I tried Uri Tours with no request of sponsorship or mention of my blog, paid full price, and was quite satisfied with the willingness to work with me last minute and accommodate my requests. Koryo’s standard tours are quite large group so if going with them I would recommend some of their more unique and premium tours with smaller groups, if you have the money, because they are good at offering innovate programs and are deeply engaged with North Korea on various cultural exchange projects.
Great info, thanks for the feedback. I would enjoy you doing 246 part trips to North Korea…it’s an exception to the TBB rule lol
@TravelBloggerBuzz – interesting about the travel blogs (as opposed to miles and point blogs), in the prominent ones, like Wandering Earl, every post is greeted throwaway comment after comment from other travel bloggers sticking in their links. It is hard to find a non-blogger comment at times. Very tedious for a reader. This is much less prevalent in miles and points, hopefully it stays that way.
Yeah, you are right, I noticed that & hope so too.