Climbing Everest is grosser than before, plus four other strange travel stories from the last week.
Taylor Swift made it to Vegas for the Super Bowl. FinnAir started weighing passengers. The world celebrated the Lunar New Year. But that’s not all that happened last week. Scroll down to read the five most surprising, peculiar, and eyebrow-raising travel stories that made headlines in the last week—it includes flamingo eggs, a dog, and a man flying without a passport or ticket.
CLIMBERS NEED TO BRING BACK POOP FROM EVEREST
The world’s tallest mountain is stinking. Now climbers who attempt to scale Everest will have to take poop bags with them and bring back their waste to Base Camp for disposal.
The Base Camp is at the bottom of the mountain, which has camps for toilets. But higher up, mountaineers dig holes and as there are places with very little snow, the mountain has become an open toilet. Chhiring Sherpa, Chief Executive Officer of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), told the BBC that there may be as much as three tons of human excrement between camp one and camp four.
Recommended Fodor’s Video
So, this March when the climbing season begins, poop bags will become another essential that climbers hike with.
DOG POOPED ON UNITED FLIGHT
In other poop-related news, a chihuahua pooped on seats during a United flight from Denver to Portland. The dog-mom had been flying all day and she had taken her pawtner from her crate and the dog chose that exact moment to relieve herself. Fellow passengers were aggrieved, not by the incident but by the laxity of response by the flight crew. It took them a while to address the issue while passengers had to bear with the stink. In the end, it was cleaned up and those seated around were offered vouchers of $50-75.
FLIGHT ATTENDANT SAVED FLAMINGO EGGS
On an Alaska Airline flight in August last year, a zookeeper was bringing home six flamingo eggs to the Woodland Zoo when the incubator stopped working. The rare Chilean flamingo eggs were being kept warm in the incubator in the five-hour flight. The zookeeper alerted the flight attendant, Amber May, and she came to the rescue by filling rubber gloves with warm water to make a temporary nest; she continued replacing the water when it got cold. Nearby passengers offered coats and scarves, the zoo said in a statement.
The efforts saved the eggs, which have now hatched into flamingos. These are the first flamingo hatchings in the zoo since 2016 and you can now meet Magdalena, Amaya, Rosales, Gonzo, Bernardo, and Sunny at the zoo.
Sunny was named after May’s granddaughter and the zoo invited May for an exclusive visit. Alaska Airlines shared the pictures of baby Sunny meeting baby flamingo Sunny, still growing up and waiting for their color pink.
BRITISH PASSENGER FLEW TO NEW YORK WITHOUT PASSPORT OR TICKET
A crazy thing happened last year in December. A man traveled from London’s Heathrow to New York’s JFK without a passport or ticket. He tailgated other passengers and cleared security to board a British Airways plane. The flight was supposed to be fully booked, but many missed their connections, so the stowaway enjoyed his time with free food and drinks. It was only when he landed and was asked to provide identification that warning bells rang. He was arrested and sent back to London, where he was handed over to the authorities.
But to add insult to injury, he was reported missing by the hospital where he had been undergoing treatment. He skipped his court hearing and the police sent a missing person’s appeal. He was re-arrested on February 12, a Met spokesperson said.
In this era of tightened airport measures, this security breach has been embarrassing for both border forces and the airline, and it has raised concerns on how easy it could have been for someone with nefarious intentions to do this.
JAMAICA DISAGREES WITH U.S. ADVISORY
Last month, the U.S. Department of State issued a Level 3: Reconsider Travel warning for Jamaica due to crime. Jamaica has responded to the warning, saying that it has made progress in recent years to tackle crime. The Jamaica Tourism Board told NPR, “The island consistently ranks among the top destinations for international travel, welcoming 4.1 million visitors in 2023, with approximately 3 million from the United States. Visitors can continue to come with confidence to enjoy all that Jamaica has to offer.”
The country insists that Jamaica is safe for tourists with an overall crime rate against visitors extremely low.
$50-$75 as a recompensation for the "pleasure" of getting in contact with someone's pet's "residues" is by far not enough!