Gapitan World: October 2011

Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween...

Happy Halloween to everyone!

Many people are surprised to know there is a Turkish film version of the Dracula story called "Drakula Istanbul'da" (Dracula in Istanbul). The 1953 film is actually based on a novel called "Vlad the Impaler" by the Turkish novelist Ali Riza Seyfi
(1879-1958).

Atif Kaptan (1908-1977) played the Bela Lugosi role, and according to a book I read by cult film authority Pete Tombs, smoke scenes were devised when the film's director Mehmet Muhtar (1925-1995) told crew members to smoke lots and lots of cigarettes!

In his later years, Kaptan appeared in several action movies with the Turkish cinematic icon Cuneyt Arkin.

New GPS Apps Guide Travelers to Points of Interest

USA Today: Amber waves of grain and purple mountains are great, but long road trips along U.S. interstate highways inevitably leave you hankering for junk food, safe rest stops and familiar hotel brands.

Several GPS-based apps have hit the market, aiming to make the expansive terra of American highways a little less incognita. Using the phone's GPS, they know where you are on the highway and tell you what's coming up in real time as you drive through exits. You can pre-select some favorites to get alerts (say, Holiday Inn hotels or Five Guys Burgers).

Some, like the I-95 Exit Guide, specialize in only one major highway. There are apps just for finding rest stops. I tested three of the more general highway apps — iExit, RoadNinja and Road Tip — on a 30-mile stretch of I-66 near Washington, D.C., and found their mission intriguing, though their execution still leaves a lot to be desired.

Plenty of popular "help-me-find-spots-near-me" apps exist, but they point to places in front of, behind and left and right of you. The highway apps, on the other hand, are wooing users who literally are looking farther down the road.

Many travelers are familiar with the experience of finding a decent Italian restaurant on Yelp or Urbanspoon, only to find that they just missed the exit to get to the restaurant. There are more than a handful of highway travelers who crave a particular dish (say, tacos), but settle for a nearby McDonald's burger — only to find a Taco Bell three exits farther along. These highway guide apps exist to solve such problems.

While the apps mostly worked as they were intended, their shortcomings were quickly obvious. Nearly all entries are shops and restaurants that are part of large national chains, which is fine for some but not for curious and intrepid travelers looking for local favorites. Near an exit at a busy Washington suburb known for many good ethnic restaurants, the apps gave me a tiresome list of only McDonald's, Denny's, Fuddruckers and the like.

Their content was limited in other ways. Although RoadNinja claims to show attractions, it missed some key ones — Civil War battlefields and water parks — along the way. IExit and RoadNinja promise coupons and deals, but I didn't find any in the 30-mile test.

Despite such shortcomings, I am still likely to use them on trips, particularly iExit. They are certainly better than highway road signs, well intentioned though they may be, that are infrequent and limited in scope. And that alone is a good start.

Here's a closer look:

iExit

Overview: Highway guide app that shows up to 50 closest exits. $1.99 and available for Android and iPhone.

Pros: Select favorites and receive alerts. Content is more comprehensive than the other two. Shows nearby deals/coupons, if available. One-tap calling. Has comprehensive categories not found in competitors, including type of gas (unleaded vs. biofuel) and independent hotels.

Cons: Exit-by-exit content not available unless you're on the highway. Sometimes fails to recognize that you're on the highway. Few deals or coupons available. Doesn't change directions (you can only see exits in front of you).

Takeaway: Best of group.

RoadNinja

Overview: Highway guide app affiliated with Foursquare. Has over 30,000 exits and shows places of interest within 3 miles of upcoming exits. Free and available for iPhone.

Pros: Offers promotions and coupons, if available. Works even when not on the highway. Has user reviews (though number is small and many aren't useful). One-click calling. Allows search of exits behind you or just passed.

Cons: Content is more limited than others. Despite Foursquare affiliation, no promotions and deals found on trial in busy D.C. suburb. Fewer categories of places than others.

Takeaway: Not as good as iExit, but it's free.

Road Tip

Overview: Minimal highway guide app for finding just gas, food and lodging. Filter results by exits or by type of service. $2.99 and $4.99 yearly subscription required after three months. Available for iPhone.

Pros: Ability to filter by favorites. May appeal to minimalists who just want simple lists of three important categories.

Cons: Slow to recognize GPS location. Even slower — or often won't work at all — if you're not moving or not on the highway. Needs more content. Doesn't change directions (you can only see exits in front of you). No link to phone number or address. Requires yearly subscription.

Takeaway: Not worth the price.

World Travel Trends for 2012

News.com.au: Escape asked several travel experts what they thought would be tops in destinations and trends for 2012.

FEDERICO Folcia and Jia En Teo are the founders and chief executives of Roomorama (www.roomorama.com), the website that offers comfortable yet affordable short-term accommodation in urban areas across the globe, with more than 250,000 properties in 450 destinations.

What destinations will be popular in 2012?

Europe will be hugely popular because of the London Olympics. There will be an estimated 500,000 new visitors each day to London for the Games and many will take the opportunity to travel to close destinations like Paris, Rome, Amsterdam and Berlin. South-East Asia will continue to be popular because of the strong Aussie dollar and the affordability of travelling in the region.

What experiences will define travel in 2012?

Travellers want to live like locals. They're not just looking to check off the typical tourist spots but to experience a place and leave with stories to tell. Short-term or vacation rentals will prove to be popular, especially since the peer-to-peer accommodation concept is catching on with many travellers as an alternative to hotel rooms.

What will be the best destinations to get off the beaten track in 2012?

Manila is a fast-growing metropolis and while people usually head straight to the beaches when they go to the Philippines, and skip the capital, it's a city with many hidden gems and even the malls have plenty of local boutiques and businesses rather than large chains. Sri Lanka is another great destination because it's still untouched by tourism and quite underrated with balmy weather, great local food, art and history, and it's still very affordable.

What will be the unusual destinations everyone is talking about in 2012?

Ukraine and the cities of Kiev, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Lviv, because of the UEFA Euro 2012 football finals, and Odessa, which is a beautiful city on the Black Sea.

If you could rent an apartment anywhere in the world, and stay there for a month, where would it be?

It would be Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam because it's historic, the cost of living is very affordable and it's possible to rent a fairly decent room for $10 a night, or a completely private apartment for $25 a night.

If time and money were no object, where would you like to spend your next holiday?

We would love to travel to Brazil and take a boat down the Amazon there's so much to see there that you would need a lot of time.

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Serena Williams an American Tennis Player

Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American professional tennis player and a former World No. 1. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her World No. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She became the World No. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002 and regained this ranking for the fifth time on November 2, 2009. She is considered to be one of the greatest women's tennis players of all time, despite a career hampered by numerous injuries.

Her 27 Grand Slam titles places her ninth on the all-time list: 13 in singles, 12 in women's doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. She is the most recent player, male or female, to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously and only the fifth woman in history to do so. She was also the first woman to hold all four Grand Slam doubles titles simultaneously since Martina Hingis did so in 1998 (with sister Venus Williams).

Her 13 Grand Slam singles titles is sixth on the all-time list. Williams ranks fourth in Grand Slam women's singles titles won during the open era, behind Steffi Graf (22 titles) and Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (18 titles each). She has won more Grand Slam titles in singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles than any other active female player.

Williams has won two Olympic gold medals in women's doubles. She has won more career prize money than any other female athlete in history. Serena has played older sister Venus in 23 professional matches since 1998, with Serena winning 13 of these matches. They have met in eight Grand Slam finals, with Serena winning six times. Beginning with the 2002 French Open, they played each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, which was the first time in the open era that the same two players had contested four consecutive Grand Slam finals. The pair have won 12 Grand Slam doubles titles together.

Serena Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan, to Richard Williams and Oracene Price. She is of African American heritage and is the youngest of Price's five daughters: half-sisters Yetunde (1972–2003), Lyndrea and Isha Price, and full sister Venus. When the children were young, the family moved to the city of Compton in Los Angeles county, where Serena started playing tennis at the age of five. Her father home-schooled Serena and her sister Venus and to this day, Serena Williams was and remains coached by both her parents.

Williams's first professional event was in September 1995, at the age of 13, at the Bell Challenge in Quebec City. She lost in the first round of qualifying to World No. 149 Annie Miller in less than an hour of play and earned US$240 in prize money.

Williams did not play a tournament in 1996. The following year, she lost in the qualifying rounds of three tournaments before winning her first main-draw match in November at the Ameritech Cup Chicago. Ranked World No. 304, she upset World No. 7 Mary Pierce and World No. 4 Monica Seles, recording her first career wins over Top 10 players and becoming the lowest-ranked player in the open era to defeat two Top 10 opponents in one tournament. She ultimately lost in the semifinals to World No. 5 Lindsay Davenport. She finished 1997 ranked World No. 99.

At the Australian Open, Williams was the defending champion in both singles and doubles (with sister Venus). She reached the singles quarterfinals without losing a service game or a set, where she eliminated Victoria Azarenka 4–6, 7–6, 6–2 after trailing 4–0 in the second set. In the semifinals, Williams defeated 16th seeded Li Na 7–6, 7–6 on her fifth match point to reach her fifth final in Melbourne and her fifteenth Grand Slam singles final.

She then defeated 2004 champion Justine Henin 6–4, 3–6, 6–2 for her twelfth Grand Slam singles title. This was the first time that Henin and Williams had played each other in a Grand Slam tournament final. Williams is the first female player to win consecutive Australian Open singles titles since Jennifer Capriati in 2001–02. In doubles, Serena and Venus successfully defended their title by defeating the top ranked team of Cara Black and Liezel Huber in the final 6–4, 6–3.

Because of her continuing rehabilitation for her foot injury, Serena withdrew from the 2011 Hopman Cup and the 2011 Australian Open. As a result, she dropped to world no. 12 in the WTA rankings, her lowest ranking since March 2007. However, she stayed in the top 20, despite not having played for 11 months. On March 2, 2011, she confirmed that she had suffered a hematoma and a pulmonary embolism.

She made her first appearance on the WTA tour in almost a year at the 2011 AEGON International, in Eastbourne, winning her first match since Wimbledon, against Tsvetana Pironkova, 1–6, 6–3, 6–4, but lost to top-seeded world no. 3 Vera Zvonareva in the second round 6–3, 6–7, 5–7 in a match that lasted over three hours.

Her next tournament was Wimbledon where she was the defending champion. Despite being ranked 26th, she was seeded 7th. In her first round match, she faced French No. 2, Aravane Rezai and won 6–3, 3–6, 6–1. Serena cried tears of joy after winning her match. With this victory, at the Majors she currently holds a 44–0 record in first round matches. She then won her second round match against Simona Halep 3–6, 6–2, 6–1 and her third round against Maria Kirilenko 6–3, 6–2. She lost to the number 9 seed, Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli, in the round of 16: 3–6, 6–7. Bartoli described beating Williams as the greatest win of her life. As a result of this loss, Williams' ranking dropped to world no. 175.

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