MY husband and I hate haggling. In markets in Istanbul or Jerusalem or Florence, where arguing over price is a high art — and after we have given it our best shot — we always feel we have walked away paying twice as much as the seller expected.
And that they are secretly, or not so secretly, laughing at us.
In this country where you are expected to negotiate over cars and houses, we manage quite well, but do not find it fun or exciting. We just want it to be over.
But I have friends who always seem able to strike a great deal in unexpected areas. My friend Lou negotiates a lower price on the oil delivered to his house. On his credit card rates. On hotel rooms. At the gym.
“People are afraid to ask, afraid they’ll be embarrassed or afraid they won’t get the right answer,” he said. “Seventy-five percent of the time, I get the right answer.”
Lou and other successful hagglers are not worried about appearing cheap, as I am, or being turned down, because they start with a different attitude.
Category: Travel
Free LAX Shuttle to In-N-Out Burgers
Stuck at LAX for a few hours on a layover and hankering for one of the best burgers in all of California? Well, you’re in luck.
There’s an In-N-Out Burger just around the corner from the airport, and Gadling knows a little trick to get you there for free.
An In-N-Out is located on nearby Sepulveda Boulevard right next to the Parking Spot–a parking structure that conveniently provides free shuttle service. All you have to do is wait under the red “Hotel and Courtesy Shuttle” sign outside of any airport terminal, and when the yellow and black polka-dotted Parking Spot shuttle swings by, jump on board. It will take you literally next door to In-N-Out. Follow your nose through the back door, across the parking lot, and right inside where you need to order a double-double and fries to enjoy the best layover of your life.
There are a few things to be very careful about, however.
In-n-out is, in some ways, the Culvers of California.
A Visit to Iran
I went because: Iran has been on my list for some time, but it never seemed the “right time.” I decided to finally just go and see what was happening there for myself.
Don’t miss: Iman Square, Isfahan. Secret Parties, Tehran. The wonderful people, all over the country. Fabulous fabrics from many counties on the silk road.
Parc de la Chute-Montmorency
An impressive waterfall, particularly in Winter with ice climbers scaling the heights. Clusty search.
Bonjour Quebec:
The Montmorency Falls, cascading 83 metres down to the river below (30 metres more than Niagara Falls), are situated on a historical site of natural beauty in the Montmorency Falls Park. A cable car runs up to the Manoir Montmorency, where a restaurant, reception rooms and boutiques await the visitor.
Be wary about Midwest’s takeover by Northwest
I believe within four years, Midwest Airlines will cease to exist as an independent entity. Northwest Airlines did the math and found it was cheaper to buy a small competitor than to risk the entry of AirTran Airways as a low-cost carrier smack in the middle of its so-called Heartland market area.
In this case, Northwest is strategically incapable of being a passive investor with TPG Capital. The experience at Duluth, Minn., may highlight why passivity is already a myth.
Midwest announced new flights to Duluth early in its takeover battle. The service was designed to connect Duluth with the Midwest network. Northwest had a lock on daily service prior to Midwest’s three daily round trips. One other airline served Duluth, and it only operated flights on Wednesdays and Saturdays to Las Vegas.
Midwest began the Duluth service on March 4, 2007. The takeover involving Northwest was revealed on Aug. 12. On Oct. 19, Midwest announced it would drop Duluth. The city’s business newspaper didn’t mince words: “Northwest ownership likely affected Midwest decision to exit Duluth.”
The following describes snippets of dialogue that could occur in Northwest’s boardroom during the next four years:
New Years Eve 2008 Panoramic Scenes
Hans Nyberg has compiled a great set of New Year’s Eve 2008 Panoramas, including one I shot in Quebec City. Thanks much to Hans for a great site and for rendering my scene.
Quebec City celebrated the beginning of their 400th anniversary celebrations that evening. Learn more, here. 2008 is the 400th anniversary of Champlain’s landing in Quebec.
An Interview with Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly
Southwest Airlines Co. chief executive Gary Kelly doesn’t have any offers out to buy another airline, but he expects Southwest to jump in when the consolidation fun begins.
“At some point, I think we’ll probably acquire somebody,” Mr. Kelly said in a recent discussion with Dallas Morning News business editors and reporters. “There’s bound to be a scenario that we would say, ‘That scenario out of these 10, yep, that one would work for us.’ We’d want to be prepared for that opportunity that presents itself.”
Southwest’s investment in bankrupt ATA Airlines Inc. in 2004 offers a good example of being ready, he said. Of course, the airline is well aware of the pitfalls of acquiring another carrier, a strategy it followed in 1993 when it acquired Morris Air and in 1986 when it bought Muse Air.
Perhaps, one day, Madison will be fortunate to have Southwest air service.
An Extraordinary VR Journey – The Latest VRMAG
Editorial Director Marco Trezzini, via email:
Since I believe we have created the best issue of VRMAG ever, I’m writing you with the hope you will accept to dedicate 5 minutes of your time to explore our online magazine dedicated to photographic virtual reality exploration of people, places and events around the world. Almost forgot to mention, VRMAG is a no profit publication, with no ads.
This issue features the closed zone of Chernobyl, Wired NextFest in Los Angeles, Cuba’s capital city La Habana, Red square in Moscow, the Palaces where European Royalties lives, New York’s Tribute in light, the island of Cyprus’s Aphrodite beach, Valentino’s exhibit Ara Pacis museum in Rome, the Mayan ruins Chinkultic and Tenam Puente in Mexico, Vienna, the Copenhagen Opera House, Seattle, RedBull AirRace Abu Dhabi ….
For VRMAG showing panoramas of the physical world is not enough,
so we’ll take you to Second Life in order to visit Anshe Chung’s Picture Gallery Dresden, and to DanCoyote’s Full Immersion Hyperformalism and get behind the scenes on the creation of next generation interactive screenshots for the gaming industry, take a visit to an “wellenkreis” an art installation of an endless sine curve in real space …
You will experience the view a sleeping pill has from it’s medicine bottle,
watch the world as a coca cola would do, transport you into a washing machine and feel like your sock. Be a fish and be intrigued by a guy ironing underwater,
enter the head of Hermann’s sculpture, chat with Jonathan livingston, experience a bubble party, feel the thrill of extreme canyoning, and much more …
Visit www.vrmag.org now.
“The” way vs “a” way (Japan v China dept)
James Fallows offers up an interesting contrast between Japan and China.
Icy Rescue as Seas Claim a Cruise Ship
Graham Bowley & Andrew Revkin:
They were modern adventure travelers, following the doomed route of Sir Ernest Shackleton to the frozen ends of the earth. They paid $7,000 to $16,000 to cruise on a ship that had proudly plowed the Antarctic for 40 years.
But sometime early yesterday, the Explorer, fondly known in the maritime world as “the little red ship,” quietly struck ice.
There were the alarms, then the captain’s voice on the public address system calling the 100 passengers and the crew of about 50 to the lecture hall, according to passengers’ accounts on the radio and others relayed from rescuers and the tour operator.
In the lecture hall, they were told that water was creeping in through a fist-size hole punched into the ship’s starboard. As it flooded the grinding engine room, the power failed. The ship ceased responding.
“We all got a little nervous when the ship began to list sharply, and the lifeboats still hadn’t been lowered,” John Cartwright, a Canadian, told CBC radio.