A First Hand Account of Typhoon Jang Mi in Taiwan

Ramsey Qubein is Travelin' Light's on-the-road correspondent; he also experience the terrors of Jang Mi first hand. Here's his account.

You’ve never really experienced a destination (I mean, truly experience the culture) until you’ve undergone a national crisis with the people. During my recent explorations of Taiwan for Northstar Travel Media as a hotel correspondent for StarServiceOnline.com, I became trapped in Taipei during Typhoon Jangmi. For North American readers, the rest of the world calls a hurricane a typhoon, and Jangmi was a big mama.

It became clear a few days into my trip that the storm would be barreling down on the city, but I never expected it would reach such an intense magnitude. Initially, I had thought I would escape it altogether so I never even thought of canceling my trip, but as the storm changed speed, I soon realized I was in for another fate.

Hatchened up in my plush quarters at the Shangri-La Taipei, I naively asked (as they were boarding up the windows) why were they not evacuating people as they would have in the United States. The cordial reply from the perfected staff came in a distinct and overly simple way. “We have nowhere to go; we’re an island,” she said.

Well, why didn’t I think of that! What is the government going to do; evacuate the whole country? So I hunkered down with the best of them. As the windows bellowed back and forth (yes, the glass was literally bending), and the building swayed (yes, we could feel it moving to the point of nausea), I sat in anticipation of what was to happen. But, the feeling was misplaced.

The Taiwanese gathered in the lobby for drinks; others laughed merrily in the cigar lounge. Tourists hobknobbed with employees in the concierge lounge amid the window and ceiling leaks and the constant gusts that could move a cow. I soon felt a feeling of calm; almost a serene camaraderie with the locals as we endured this natural disaster together. And while the building in Taipei was safe, thousands farther south in the shantytowns lost their homes and belongings.

A friend of mine was actually in Mumbai on the day of the recent terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008. He said that the media did a good job of keeping people informed, but it was his cell phone that allowed him to connect with facebook and email where he shared his whereabouts with concerned family and friends. His impression of the event was shaped by the reaction and genuine concern of locals.

The way our world communicates is evolving so quickly. Experiencing a mass event like a hurricane or even a terrorist bombing like the Mumbai attacks can be some of the finest opportunities to truly understand a culture and how they react to adverse circumstances.

All of a sudden, the art of travel is no longer about visiting tourist sites from a check list, but more about connecting on a personal level with a culture’s human emotions. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if all travelers could seek this same type of experience? I just wish it wouldn’t take a national news headline to make that happen.

London Was Colder Than Antarctica Yesterday; Global Warming = Obvious Myth

London this time of year is, well, London. It's cold. It's rainy. There may or may not be some fog and mist involved. So, yeah, if you were traveling there yesterday, you probably had reasonably low expectations regarding the weather. But not Antarctica-level-temperatures low, right?

Well, as it turns out, London was colder than Antarctica yesterday.

At Antarctica's Jubany Scientific Station, which is home to 60 people, 16,000 penguins and 650 sea lions, a relatively balmy high of 41F (5C) was recorded.

MeteoGroup UK said that on Sunday night temperatures reached 18F (-8C) in northern Scotland and 21F (-6C) in parts of England and Wales.

So pretty clearly, global warming = totally fake. Yet that's not even remotely the best part of the Telegraph's article. This is:

The lowest temperature ever recorded in England was -15F (-26.1C) on Jan 10, 1982 in Shropshire.

Bookmakers William Hill cut the odds of a record cold temperature being reached in 2009 from 20/1 to 16/1.

Yes, that's right. The British bet on the weather. The freaking weather, man. Of course, if we didn't have the NFL playoffs and college football's playoffs fail BCS, I'd probably lay $50 on whether or not the sun was going to shine today. Oh, right, and again: something ain't stirring the Kool-Aid on the weather when this is happening.

Snow in New Orleans Provides Rare Weather for South

Snow in the South is a funny thing -- sometimes it shows up on Christmas (rarely) and other times it shows up on the baseball field in April while your Little League team is warming up. The latter, of course, is just bizarre.

Much like snow in New Orleans. And, yeah, that happened today.

A rare snowfall blanketed south Louisiana and parts of Mississippi Thursday, closing schools, government offices and bridges, triggering crashes on major highways and leaving thousands of people without power.

[...]A heavy band of snow coated windshields and grassy areas in New Orleans, where the National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning.

Office workers stepped out of high-rises to catch a snowflake, snap pictures with cell-phone cameras and swap snow stories.

Look, if you live in the North, you don't understand -- Southerners totally freak out about snow. When a few flakes hit North Carolina, the entire area starts scrambling for tire chains, snow plows, bags of salt and budgetary clearance for these items ... since they got cut the previous year because no flakes hit the ground.