Travel is news and the news never stops.
So when traveling to exotic destinations like Hawaii’s Big Island, Peter also takes time to talk about the latest news stories with journalists from around the world.
Check out his conversation with Jane Engle, assistant travel editor for The Los Angeles Times.
Jane Engle: Peter, I heard what you were saying recently about short flight connections, and it’s amazing. Often, when you do a search for flights, the first flights that are going to come up are those flights with a short connecting time. That’s something you really have to watch when you book travel online.
Peter Greenberg: Even though it’s a “legal connection,” does not mean it isn’t suicidal. If you have to go from Terminal B or C in Miami to Terminal E, you’re talking at least a half an hour of running, so take that into account. But speaking of running, Jane, I was recently talking about the embarrassment we have in this country of having no high-speed trains. I guess it takes a major event like the World Cup or the Olympics for destinations to get their act together when it comes to mass transportation. Now South Africa has inaugurated a high-speed train.
Avoid difficult airports like Miami’s with America’s Best Alternate Airports.
JE: Yes, they have. This is not something you would necessarily expect to find in Africa, but they just opened up the Gautrain this month. They opened up the first short link between the Johannesburg Airport, and a community called Sandton.
PG: I’ve been to Sandton and I could bike ride that distance! It’s just a little suburb outside of Johannesburg.
JE: Yes, it is a short, short way. So this is really a first baby step and the grand plan is to build a $4 billion high-speed train that’s going to link Pretoria, Sandton, Johannesburg, the airport. It’s going to have 10 stations, and that is going to be fantastic as you know from having driven around there and fighting your way to the Johannesburg Airport.
Get some Tips for Traveling South Africa By Car.
PG: Oh yes. The traffic is terrible.
JE: In theory, it is a 45-minute drive to get between Pretoria and Johannesburg. But it can be a couple hours or more, especially with all the construction they’ve been doing.
PG: By the way if you can get to Pretoria, there is a train that leaves Pretoria and goes all the way up to Victoria Falls. It’s one of the most amazing trains I’ve ever seen in the world, and it’s not The Blue Train, it’s not Orient Express. It is called Rovos Rail, and Rohan Vos is the guy who started it. He found these old rail-cars on a siding that hadn’t been used in years. He got South African Railways to let him put these old steam engines on their tracks. I mean this is Out of Africa, Part 2, starring you.
JE: Boy, that sounds like an amazing train. That sounds like one to put on the list.
Find more great experiences in our Train Travel section.
PG: In my book it makes the Orient Express look like ding-dong school. Let’s shift gears for a second and talk about what is going on with the dress code at Disney. This is a new one.
JE: Disney has been famous for its buttoned-up look, literally. But they’ve really begun to change things up, and they’ve just announced that women who work for Disney theme parks … no longer have to wear pantyhose!
PG: Thank you so much, you made my week. But they haven’t relaxed one rule: Mickey still won’t talk to you.
JE: It is very interesting, but they do have plans to allow Mickey to talk to you, but that’s been kind of under wraps. They’ve been experimenting it with it on the new show. There are lots of new things going on at Disney. As you may have read, Michelle Obama and the kids were just out at the California Adventure last week checking out the new World of Color Water Show, which is supposed to be quite fantastic.
For helpful tips and ideas, visit our Theme Parks section.
PG: I remember when they had the 25th anniversary of Walt Disney World in Florida, I went down with a camera crew to do a story on it. A publicist for Disney actually came to me and said, “If you’d like to have a private moment with Mickey you can go to his house.” So I walk in, and there’s Mickey with two huge Samoan body guards with earplugs in their ears. We roll tape, and then I remembered, he doesn’t talk! Finally when we stopped tape, I said to the person inside the Mickey outfit, “You can tell me: Are you a man or a woman in there?” All of a sudden this guard said, “Mickey is the man, Minnie is the woman.” And I said, “I know that, but who is inside this outfit?” He said, “Sir, step away from the mouse.” Now, here we are in the year 2010. We can’t cure cancer, but we are experimenting with whether Mickey will be allowed to talk.
Get more of Peter’s thoughts in his Travel Detective Blog.
JE: Yes, it looks like it will happen in the future, and if you search around on YouTube you may even find a video.
PG: You know what the first words Mickey is going to say are? “Get me out of this uniform; I’m sick.”
JE: Speaking of which, although the female employees will no longer have to wear pantyhose at Disney World, that doesn’t count if that legwear is part of your character costume such as Tinkerbell or Alice from Alice in Wonderland. Then you’re stuck.
PG: Oh boy. OK, let’s talk about Mexico tourism for a minute.
Listen to the entire interview on Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio.
JE: The President of Mexico just announced a whole new campaign to try to repair their image there. The bottom line there is yes, there is tons of drug violence and it is very offensive, but it is not aimed at tourists.
PG: You know what the one country is that has the highest murder rate in the world? You’re never going to guess. It is Thailand. But Americans never get murdered there. It is Thai versus Thai. You know what number two is? It’s Jamaica: Jamaicans versus Jamaicans. So Mr. and Mrs. Schmidlap on the beach in the Riviera Maya, they’re just fine!
By Peter Greenberg for Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio.
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