For years, tourists have been planning their travels around tales of otherworldly creatures, hoping to confirm with their own eyes what they’ve only heard about in rumors and urban legends:

Bigfoot in various mountain regions around the world, the Loch Ness monster in Scotland, UFOs in Roswell…

and now, the Montauk Monster.

Yes, that hideous looking creature in the photo above allegedly washed up earlier this week on the shores of Montauk, part of the ritzy Hamptons, Long Island summer retreat flocked to by New Yorkers.

There’s been all the usual speculation and controversy: Is the image photo-shopped? Is the photo part of a clever viral marketing campaign? Is the creature a lab experiment gone wrong?

My own opinion? Tourism everywhere is down and no one likes a crazy story more than New Yorkers. The Montauk Monster just might end up clogging the Long Island Expressway with gawking Hamptons-goers like the good old days.

That’s the theory put forward in this provocative opinion piece by Globe and Mail columnist Judith Timson.

“Let’s face it,” she writes, “less-affluent kids simply can’t afford to have that global do-gooding experience, let alone drop it strategically onto their résumés for key impact in grad school or job applications.”

But there’s another side to it. These trips, organized by student volunteer agencies across North America and in Europe, are filled with the potential to not only offer helping hands in needy communities, but to change a young person’s direction in life.

At their most emotionally porous, open-hearted and idealistic, university students may well discover their calling abroad, or even develop a much-needed global vision. So if there was ever a time to, say, plop them in an HIV clinic in Kumasi, it’s now.

Her point?

Sure, the efficiency and efficacy of voluntourism (in terms of results for the recipient societies) may be up for debate, but there’s no arguing its impact on the volunteers. And that, Timson decides in the end, is a good thing.

Looking for a life-changing volunteering experience of your own?

Check out Brave New Traveler’s Complete Guide to Volunteer Tourism, and then swing over to Matador’s volunteering blog to find the opportunity that’s right for you.

Photo by Dave Bezaire and Susi Havens-Bezaire
(Creative Commons)

Barack Obama recently made headlines with his eight-day tour of Europe and the Middle East.

Many analysts here and abroad agree it was a smart political move for the U.S. presidential nominee, but some argue it was just a drop in a substantial bucket of goodwill needed to improve international relations with America.

As President George W. Bush nears the end of a mostly disastrous eight-year term, he too should be given credit for public appearances overseas.

Traveling by air — er, compressed air, that is — and landing on everything from brick walls to telephone poles to the doors of trash chutes, Bush boasts a presence in just about every last nook in the world.

Curitiba, Brazil

Unlike Bush’s approval rating, attendance at Disney theme parks doesn’t seem to have taken a hit in America’s worsening economy.

Photo by mlbor

Granada, Spain

Bush’s Starbucks-colored tank creeps toward a McDonald’s logo.

Photo by juanti

Lisbon, Portugal

Photo by Graffiti Land

Continue reading this post >>

With just 100 days left in what’s easily been the most exciting presidential race in my lifetime, voters are beginning to ask:

Who will McCain and Obama select as their vice-presidential running mates?

Hillary Clinton has clearly indicated her interest in the vacant position, and other former presidential hopefuls who were left in the dust on the campaign trail are also angling to be their party’s VP nominee. But possible veeps you may have never heard of are also waiting in the wings.

On the Democratic side, there’s a handful of governors, including Tim Kaine of Virginia, Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas.

On the Republican ticket, possible running mates whose names have been mentioned are Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, Senator Lindsay Graham (R), from my own home state of South Carolina, and even Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard.

The press has not shied away from detailing a list of attributes each candidate should seek in a VP: someone with extensive foreign policy and military experience for Obama; someone with youth and charisma for McCain.

Who do YOU think would make good VP running mates? Be a political pundit and share your suggestions below!

Photo: wallyg

U.S legislation that would require kayaking schools to increase their training for beginners has passed the House.

Under the new law, schools would have to teach new kayakers how to exit from an overturned kayak before heading into open water. The rule would apply only to kayaks equipped with spray skirts, and stems from the death of novice kayaker Robert Beauvais in 2001.

Judging by the comments below the article, most readers think the kayak safety bill is unnecessary, and a waste of time that could have been spent on more pressing issues.

What do you think? Is this a case of micro-management, a refusal to acknowledge that sometimes, accidents happen? Or is it just good sense?

Community Connection:

Several community members have extensive whitewater experience, including Matador member Porter, and our own Matador Travel editor, David Miller.

Interested in hitting the waves yourself? Try one of our Top 10 French Schools for Waves, Wilderness and Bons Temps, or check out the Green Guides to Ottawa and Atlanta, both good spots to try the sport out.

My own hometown of Ottawa is a bit of a whitewater hotspot. Here’s a quick clip of the Ottawa River’s infamous Bus Eater:

That’s right, if you want to “do as the French do” on your next trip to Paris or Provence, better put down that bottle of Evian and grab a glass of cold stuff straight from the faucet.

Though France was formerly one of the world’s bottled water hotspots, according to the Guardian the number of tap-water-drinking Francais is up, and sales of the plastic are down.

That’s good news for the environment, since – as we’ve noted before on Pulse – the harm done by our obsession with bottled water goes well beyond just the piles of plastic in our landfills.

Photo by jillclardy (Creative Commons)

Barack Obama has had a busy week, jetting through the Middle East and Europe to take the pulse of the world’s attitude towards America and to engage in a series of visits and talks with world leaders.

It’s a trip that should make America proud (particularly given the geographic and diplomatic gaps in the current president’s consciousness), but Americans’ response to Obama’s trip has been curiously tepid.

Despite an anticipated drop in the polls, Obama said he felt the trip was important. Rather than detracting attention from Americans’ concerns about the economy, Obama argued that:

…”many issues that we face at home are not going to be solved as effectively unless we have strong partners abroad….”

What do you think about Obama’s trip? And do you think that Americans’ negative reaction to his trip says something about Americans’ attitude about travel? Sound off below!

Photo: Llima

Anyone else remember the Animaniacs?

Yakko, Wakko and Dot were three of my favourite cartoon characters growing up. But were they educational as well as entertaining? I don’t remember being edified, but it seems the show’s creators snuck bits of knowledge in.

Here’s Yakko’s comprehensive, singing tour of global political geography – it’s dated (Yugoslavia, anyone?) and puts rhyme ahead of strict geographical fact, but it’s still a lot of fun.

See if you can keep up:

[Via Metacafe]

Of all the travel destinations that are uniquely American, perhaps none are more cherished than the system of national parks.

From Assateague National Seashore in Maryland, where wild horses roam the beaches, to Alaska’s Glacier National Park, Americans can be assured that some of the nation’s most compelling landscapes and important historical sites are preserved for perpetuity.

Yet it’s precisely because the parks are so American that they are also frequently the sites of conflict and controversy. In recent years, passionate debates have arisen between advocates and opponents of oil drilling in the nation’s western parks, off-road vehicle access, and–just this week– the right to pack heat while on a national parks vacation.

This latest debate, which has stirred up the ire of gun-rights activists, has gone beyond petty bickering and has been keeping Congress busy as they consider an NRA-lobbied bill which would:

ease the ban on loaded weapons within some of the 58 national parks and 333 other sites managed by the U.S. National Park Service. [The] proposed rule change… would allow visitors with concealed weapons permits to carry their firearms in national parks, as long as doing so also would be legal under state law. Rifles and shotguns and “open carry” of loaded handguns would remain illegal in the parks.

Are you a national parks afficionado? What’s your stance on the guns-in-parks debate? Share your thoughts below!

Photo: Travis S

A wage increase goes into effect today for American workers who get paid the hourly minimum.

Up 70 cents to $6.55, the two percent of Americans who earn minimum wage will find that the increase hasn’t moved them too far up in the ranks of the world’s working poor.

While they wouldn’t likely want to trade places with someone in Burundi, where the minimum wage is 160 Burundian francs (average annual income on minimum wage: $111 USD), or Georgia, where the minimum wage will, if you save it all, add up to $287 USD a year), American wage laborers still fall far short (to the tune of about $6,000) of other developed countries.

In Australia, a minimum wage worker can earn around $19,053 a year, in Luxembourg around $19,856, and in the Netherlands just around $18,267.

But even in these countries, when you factor in the cost of living there’s not a whole lot left over for travel or any other “disposable” items or experiences.

What do you think about the US minimum wage? Do you support the fair or living wage movements? Share your thoughts below!

Photo: ScooterFlix