BLOG IN YOUR POCKET

Flying is part of the job here at In Your Pocket. Indeed, thinking about it, the last calendar year has seen the Pocket Blogger take off and land at least 100 times. And yet, and yet, we hate flying. God we hate it. Taking off, landing, every bump, every wobble. And every time we get on a plane it gets worse. Irrational, I know, but at the same time perhaps understandable.

At least that was the case until last Tuesday, when Pocket Blogger got to ride in the cockpit of an Airbus A320 flying from ***** to ********** on a ******* flight.

We have had to delete any details to protect the identity of the pilot, a friend of ours, who would almost certainly be fired if the powers that be found out he was carrying his mates in the cockpit (one of whom was sitting on the dashboard as there were no seats).

Having seen first hand how very little pilots actually do (in a flight of just over an hour they were ‘at the wheel’ as it were for less than ten minutes) and how relaxed pilots are, flying now holds no fear for us. Every bump that used to make us shudder with fear is now ignored, safe in the knowledge that far from struggling to keep it all together up there in the cockpit the pilot is in fact sitting with his feet up drinking copious amounts of coffee.

To anyone who may be scared of flying, I implore you to find yourself a pilot willing to take you in the cockpit. Your fear will evaporate in an instant.

Money back guaranteed.

No, not a guide to the naughtier side of Pyongyang nightlife, instead a cracking 14 part guide to getting in to, getting around and simply being blown away by the weirdness of the living hell that is North Korea.

You really ought to watch this…

The Vice Guide to North Korea

The Guardian places Romania’s Transfagarasan at No. 3:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/mar/24/europe.top10motorbikerides.

There’s more on this great road here.

‘End of a way of life’ says the reporter. Damn right, a poverty-stricken one.

It is astonishing that all those who bemoan the disappearance of this ‘way of life’ don’t actually live that life.

I think you will find most people, given the choice, would take car over horse and cart any day.

Claudia Ciobanu doesn’t live in a mud hut. I mean, I do not know that for a fact, as aside from the fact that she writes for Inter Press Service (IPS), a mouthpiece for various environmental groups and their supporters, I know nothing about Miss Ciobanu. I would imagine, however, that like most Romanians she does not live in a mud hut, despite her latest article which puts forward the case for mud huts as a solution to Romania’s housing crisis and to climate change. I would also guess that she doesn’t want to ever actually live in a mud hut either.

So quite why she feels able to suggest that Romanian peasants start building mud huts en bloc is beyond me. I mean, if a mud hut is not good enough for her, why should it be good enough for anyone else?

I visit the Romanian countryside a lot. And yet in all my travels I have yet to come across a single peasant who actually wants to give up his or her wooden/brick house and exchange it for a mud hut. In fact, even those who do are pretty keen on moving into something a bit more modern, with heating, air conditioning, running water and reliable electricity.

As Rob Harris put it so well late last year on Spiked, let’s ditch this nostalgia for mud.

But can anyone identify them all?

News yesterday that Britain will be introducing baggage checks at railway stations as part of tough new anti-terror legislation should strike fear into the heart of every rail traveler. For while some are abandoning air travel in a misguided attempts to embrace environmentalism, others are abandoning the air because of the increasing amount of inconvenience air travel involves. Tighter security at airports all over Europe has made air travel (always stressful) a genuine pain in the rear. Asked to check-in earlier and earlier to ensure that we make it through security in time for our planes, many people are looking for hassle-free alternatives, and in some cases the train can provide one.

If the same nuisances that make air travel living hell however suddenly become an unwanted feature of train travel, then there will be no alternative other than jumping in the car and driving.

Or staying at home and going nowhere: The green lobby will be delighted.

London	Vilnius

A pedal-powered beer bar as now plying the streets of London and, we suspect, it may have been inspired by a similar contraption that does the rounds in Vilnius each summer. The Evening Standard of London spills the beans on the Pub Crawler, including the fact that it was introduced to London by Luke Robertson after he saw a similar contraption “in the Baltics”.

We suspect that Luke may have seen the Cycle-Beer Bar in Vilnius (and covered in Vilnius In Your Pocket some years ago). Top marks for ripping-off a top idea, Luke. Even more points for getting it through the maze of red tape that London City and British authorities must have tossed about. And, most of all, we hope you don’t get any visits from Lithuanian heavies wishing to protect their intelekshul property.