Rapid Travel Chai

This was due to post on Sunday, and then I started researching add-ons to a business trip to Spain in March. It is Monday at midnight and an intricate plan has taken shape. Meanwhile, I have an unglamorous United flight to McAllen, TX via Houston scheduled for 5 am tomorrow.

Travel:

• 11 Cool Things From the Consumer Electronics Show That Will Make Travel Better (Wendy Perrin). I was at CES and never made it out of client meetings to get to the show floor.
• Google Translate App Just Got Even Better (Wendy Perrin, again), more offline languages and integration of Word Lens.
• A family holiday in Bamiyan valley, Afghanistan (FT), William Dalrymple is always a delight to read, and the piece is one of the places I most want to visit. Maybe next time I head that way.
• Lessons Learned from a Week in Italy (The Free-Quent Flyer). In which I learn that Rome’s airport has an even worse experience at Terminal 5.
• How to Save (and Not Save) Money in the Virgin Islands (Nomadic Matt). My question about the USVI is how come the US ended up with the islands infested by mosquitoes?
• How to do Anguilla on a budget (USA Today). Not a budget destination, and not much outside the resorts.
• Mlife website glitch, see everything that can be booked for you! (Andy’s Travel Blog). So transactional, where’s the romance?
• Air Austral founder eyes new Réunion-based longhaul LCC (ch-Aviation). The world of French airlines fascinates me.

News:

• Putin Meets Russia’s New Terminator-Style Robot Warrior (Moscow Times).
• U.S. Outpost in Cuba to Step Out of the Shadows (NYT).
• In Egypt, Sowing Seeds of Gender Equality (NYT).
• Meet the honor brigade, an organized campaign to silence debate on Islam (Washington Post), Say It Like It Is (Thomas Friedman, NYT) and Of Course It Is Islam (Rich Lowery, Politico).
• A Germaphobe’s Guide to Buying a Metrocard (Next City).
• Tutankhamun’s botched beard: conservation chief demoted to royal vehicles role (The Guardian).
• Inside Transnistria, the breakaway nation loyal to Russia (The Guardian).
• Cost of Vomiting in a Seoul Cab: $140 (WSJ Korea Real Time).
• Sucking up to the Saudis (The Conversation).
• Out of steppe: the $28bn plan to modernise Mongolia’s Ulan Bator (FT).