A New Blog; A Belly Laugh

Vero Beach
No LL

My friend Rich tipped me off to a new blog. SV Pelican is crewed by a family from upstate NY, not far from where we lived. They have only one toe in the cruising-life water, so to speak. It will be interesting to follow their evolution and growth as cruisers. I'll add a link to their blog in the side bar at the right.

I have to share something with you. While waiting for the Library to open this morning, I picked up a copy of The Economist. I read a letter to the editor there that gave me the best belly laugh I've had in a long time. You can find it under the title Travel Advice. The text is below.

Travel advice

SIR,
In reference to your article ("From treks to sex", January 26th) we would like to clarify that the "Wild Stag Weekends" advertised on the Nepal Tourism Board's website are part of a destination-branding exercise that was launched two years ago. We sorted tourists into different categories and targeted short-haul markets with weekend breaks for a variety of holidays tailored for families, young people, women, pilgrims, etc. You can find these in our brochure.

Our intention when branding "Wild Stag Weekends" was not to promote sex tourism in Kathmandu but to encourage holidaymakers to enjoy traditional Nepalese dancing, where they could mingle freely with the dancers. Apparently this has been misunderstood by your newspaper.

Sarad Pradhan
Media consultant
Nepal Tourism Board
Kathmandu