Once, when I was staying on an island on the Great Barrier Reef, there was a sudden bustle of activity. Staff were running around looking distracted, boats were racing off from the dock, there were whispers of planes and helicopters.
Turns out a couple of divers had been left behind on a scuba diving trip – it was all deeply and unsettlingly ‘Open Water’.
The good news is, they were soon found. Agog, I quizzed one of the stranded divers the next day – a Canadian - and he was super chilled about it (of course – Canadian). “There were tiger sharks circling but we just kept an eye on them,” he said with mindblowing sangfroid.
This tale reinserted itself into my memory when I read the story of this bloke who fell off a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico this week…and was found. Alive. Seventeen hours later. "The fact that he was able to keep himself afloat and above the surface of the water for such an extended period of time, (is) certainly something that'll stick with me forever,” said one of the rescuers, and I’m fairly sure it will find a place in my nightmare bank too.
Meanwhile, Tim Jordan, the CEO of impending budget airline Bonza has said that anyone buying a flight that takes around an hour ‘shouldn’t be paying more than about $50”. I am excited to check back with Mr Jordan on how he feels about this statement when Bonza finally launches sometime in the in the increasingly inflationary future.
And Melbourne was named the friendliest city in the world. Look, I see your Melbourne but I’ll raise you Adelaide. The SA capital (and one of my secretly favourite Australian cities – sssshh I’m not meant to have favourites) has more cheer than churches per capita, in my view. And it has a lot of churches.
P.S. How good does the new AGNSW Sydney Modern Project look? I’ll let fashion guru (and my former colleague) Glynis Traill-Nash’s face do the talking:
Three Things I’m Loving
1. I look at a lot of hotel pics for my job but sometimes I get so bewitched by one that it makes me want to redecorate my whole house immediately. The lush, tomato red Villa Palladio in Jaipur, India, designed by Dutch fashion designer Marie-Anne Oudejans is exactly that. The hotel’s motto is ‘Take rest, a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop’ but who would ever waste time sleeping if they were staying in this pattern pop of perfection. Obsessed. Villa Palladio Jaipur - rates from around $AUD550 per night.
2. Here I am telling you all that I’m a travel writer – and sure, I am – but I’m currently one who doesn’t travel. I’m out of order thanks to a buggered back (you can read about me shaking my fist at the sky – specifically economy airline seats – on this matter in one of my recent Escape columns here).
Once I’m back on planes again, I’m thinking of investing in one of those TURTL neck pillows. I haven’t tried one but I’ve noticed them taking over from the usual poufy neck pillows that always push your head too far forward. Anything that will stop my back having its annual Christmas meltdown is good by me.* Has anyone given one a go? Do you think they’re worth the dollars? Let me know in the comments below. Turtl Travel Pillow, on sale for $62.42
*note to self: consider starting a Substack called SUBBACK, aimed at people who have sub-par backs? Mmmm. Something to think about.
3. 2023 is to be the year of me not carrying heavy luggage (my physio J.T. just popped a champagne cork. Actually, no he didn’t because he’ll believe it when he sees it...) and I think a good start would involve committing to decanting my toiletries into smaller, lighter bottles. Problem is, most of them look gross and don’t dispense properly. But I’m rather taken with these pretty babies from US brand RIES, which apparently pump perfectly, a perpetual problem for travel bottles (that was a lot of ‘p’s but I regret nothing). The ‘Weekender’ holds about 50g and they come labelled: Shampoo, Conditioner, Face, SPF etc. Good news for my plane-parched skin and my plane-mangled back. Ries Travel bottles, from $USD15
Thanks for reading, all. And a huge thanks to the hundreds of of you who signed up on my launch day yesterday - I guess I’m really doing this now!? We’ll have a lot of inside-baseball travel industry chat stuff coming up so if you’re into what I’m doing here, please share this post with friends or colleagues, or subscribe below.
And I hope you’re going somewhere nice this weekend.
Alex
Oh no, your back! Could SO relate to that story. Bloody economy seats are one reason I’ve broken up with Bali. Fell asleep on that o/night flight — silly circadian rhythms — my head fell back and I got off the plane with something called occipital neuralgia, basically eight days of being stabbed in the head. NEVER again. Hope you’re on your feet again soon x