Lake placid
Features
I'm lying in bed in a tent perched on boulder on the edge of an island in the middle of Lake Malawi. Soaking wet. I forgot to zip up the tent flaps and the rain, at first a gentle, soporific patter, is now pouring in through mosquito nets in the wildest tropical storm. I stay under the covers waiting for the tempest to calm but it grows stronger and heavier until I'm convinced the tent is going to be blown clear off its perch into the dark choppy waters below. Eventually, I get up to batten down the hatches - too late. I spend the rest of the night lying in soggy sheets listening to the slap of wind on canvas.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: May 17, 2008
BA to raise prices and slash flights to protect profits
Features
British Airways will raise ticket prices and slash flights as it fights to protect its profits in the light of soaring fuel costs, analysts warned today.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: May 16, 2008
Ease back on the throttle, cash-strapped airlines tell pilots
Features
Airlines are ordering pilots to slow down in a bid to cut fuel bills and reduce emissions. The cost of jet fuel has soared by more than 70 per cent in the past year, prompting airlines to investigate every possible way of reducing their bills.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: May 11, 2008
If they build it, you will come
Features
When I was editor of this magazine I used to fantasise sometimes about receiving a phone call from a representative of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum in Dubai. The caller would invite me to live and work in the desert state, preferably in charge of a new global sports magazine, located in a tall air-conditioned tower, with the view of the Persian Gulf and the Palm Islands construction site from one window of my office and huge cranes and a 10-lane freeway from the other. The call never came, of course, but I have since become an occasional visitor to Dubai, attracted there by its superabundance and vitality, preposterous ambition, sports facilities and complete uninterest in the past.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: May 04, 2008
Come together
Features
We were sitting on the floor of a house in Ja Bor in north west Thailand, a three-hour drive from Chang Mai on a road of endless hairpin bends, talking to village women about their traditional black coats. A supper of wild eggplant, pumpkin, pork, chilli paste, rice, omelette and sweet tea had been cleared away and these mountain people of the Lahu tribal group were explaining about the coloured stripes on their coat sleeves. The colours, they said, were based on what we had eaten: red for the sharp-faced pigs which rootled around underneath stilted wooden homes; yellow for tea; white for rice and blue for vegetables. The women asked if I would like to try on one of these home-crafted, open-fronted garments, edged in white with elegant slits up the side. The coat felt cosy in the cool night air but it must be stifling during the heat of the day. "Yes, its hot," they said. "We wear our black trousers all the time but not the coat."
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: May 03, 2008
Silverjet close to flying off with $100m rescue package
Features
Silverjet, the business class carrier, is close to being rescued by a Middle East investor amid dire financial conditions for the airline industry that left more UK passengers stranded today.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 30, 2008
Ryanair hikes bag and check-in charges
Features
Ryanair today raised the cost of putting bags in the hold and checking in at airports as the high cost of oil forced airlines to scrabble for extra revenues.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 28, 2008
