What do backpackers and South Beach have in common? Easy. They both love thongs. (Not bad, considering I am only on my first cup of coffee today, eh?)

There many many places that come to mind when a visualize a "backpacker destination." South Beach, Florida would not be on that list. Apparently, I am wrong.

This AP article talks about South Beach becoming increasingly more backpacker-friendly, offering affordable hostel accommodation right in the center of it all: "Anywhere between three to 14 travelers are cramped in one room at a hostel, sleeping on bunk beds. A room with 12 beds can run for US$18 a night per person; an eight-bed room is $18; $30-$40 for smaller rooms."

That, interestingly enough, is cheaper than the last Strawberry Daiquiri I ordered in South Beach. I remember paying $16 (and that's way back when the dollar was actually worth something) and they gave it to me in a small plastic cup. Maybe that's why I could never picture South Beach as a backpacker-friendly place...

[via canoe.ca]

Oh, my beloved Australia scores again!

An Australian has been fined after buckling in a case of beer with a seat belt but leaving a 5-year-old child to sit on the car's floor, NY Times reports. Police said they were ''shocked and appalled'' when he pulled over the unregistered car Friday in the central Australian town of Alice Springs and saw a 30-can beer case was strapped in between two adults sitting in the back seat of the car. The child was also in back, but on the car's floor. The driver was fined 750 Australian dollars ($710).

''This is the first time that the beer has taken priority over a child,'' said the police officer in charge.

I hate to break it to them, but I am quite certain this is--sadly enough--not the first nor the last time beer has taken priority over a child.

You know that feeling: the one where the contents in your stomach churn and before you can say "I think I ate something bad," you are already running for the bathroom. Fun, right?

Every time you get on the plane, bus or (in our case) in the car and travel to another country you expose yourself to the likelihood of coming down with some sort of stomach illness. Call it what you like (and we all know there are some pretty descriptive names out there) but the experience is the same and it flat out stinks.

Last week I was unlucky enough to eat something disagreeable (I believe a locally made tamale was the culprit) and spent a rather uncomfortable and feverish 24 hours trying to recover. I have been pretty lucky in the past to avoid food poisoning but I knew I was in for a rough time as I was with Tom when he succumbed to food poisoning in India a few years ago. And it really did live up to it's horrible nature.

Generally my rules to avoid food poisoning/unhappy stomach are as follows:

Answer: Grilled over hot charcoals, basted with special sauce and served over a bed of white rice.

This month marks the start of the unagi (うなぎ) season in Japan, namely the time of the year when freshwater eels are fat, fresh and ready for feasting. Now, I know the idea of eating something as slick and slimy as an eel might not exactly be the most appealing thing for Western pallets. But, I can assure you that freshwater eels, if prepared properly, are just as delicious as they are nutritious.

Freshwater eels are extremely high in protein, vitamin A and calcium, yet they sit light enough in the stomach to be enjoyed on a hot summer day in Tokyo. And, while a meal of unagi costs less than a bottle of Viagra, it is believed to increase your virility (ie make you a champ in the sack!).

Not surprisingly, unagi shops across the country are getting ready for their annual rush of suit-clad salarymen, who line up for unadon (鰻丼, literally eel bowl), a bowl of sticky rice topped with grilled eel filets that are coated with a sweet and tangy sauce.

Getting hungry? Keep on reading to find out more.

The luxury restaurant market in the Czech Republic is apparently looking for new, creative ways to cater to their clients and be "distinguishable from others."

The strategy? Putting insects as an item on luxury restaurants menus, the Prague Daily Monitor reports. The Brno restaurant manager Martin Kobylka says: "We want to shock people. A lobster, a crab or a crawfish are offered everywhere, but a cricket in caramel or a chocolate cake with a cockroach are unavailable in this country for now." (I love that the name Kobylka actually means grasshopper in Czech. It is about the coolest name for a guy who wants to market mainstream insect-eating.)

Chocolate cake with a cockroach sounds like a delightful way to end a first date. Especially if you are really not that into her.

It is possible that from this summer, all alcohol serving establishments in France will have breathalysers so people can take breath tests before they leave clubs. 350 bars/clubs around the country have already had trial runs.

In France, the legal drinking age is 16 and you can get a driver's license when you are 18. For years, the country has seen people killed on the road because of drunk driving and this decree is particularly to reduce the number of people driving when over the limit.

Solving the problem by focussing on keeping the roads safer as opposed to controlling alcohol consumption seems more practical, keeping in mind that France has one of the highest rates of road fatalities in Europe.

In principle the idea is great, but how can you force people to take breath tests before leaving? When youngsters drink and drive, they know what they are doing and their over-confidence that "nothing is going to happen" is what lets them drive home instead of taking public transport. So what will make them take a breath test? Will they put someone at the door who makes them do it before they leave? Will it be free to use?

A bar in Boston has taken a similar initiative into their own hands by selling a device called "Breath Scan" in their vending machines -- two for US$7. It looks like they are selling, which is at least reassuring.

But once they've taken the test, what's to say that they will still not drive home?

In Dubai (where the population is 70% Westerners from Europe and the US), drink driving is a huge problem -- even though the limit is zero and the punishment is a month of jail plus a fine! Such rigid rules haven't discouraged people from drink-driving, so although France's initiative is great, I'm not sure how effective it will be.

Fitting in with the local culture is often the most difficult of tasks when traveling. But if you're a young adult headed to Europe this summer, acting like a European might only entail living up to frat party standards. According to a study published in BMC Public Health, young adults in Europe deliberately booze it up to increase their chances of scoring.

According to the BBC, the study was done with 1,341 people from 9 different cities across Europe. A third of the men, and 23 % of the women -- who were all between the ages of 16 and 35 -- said they drank to improve their chances of having sex. The researchers concluded that the fun-loving youngsters were "strategically" binge drinking or taking drugs to improve their sex lives.

All jokes aside, drinking and sexing is a health concern; especially since the rate of unprotected sex goes up. However, now that we know what the European strategy is, it looks like we no longer need a "How to Score a European Fling" post.

In a country so proud of its culinary heritage, it's hard to imagine any foreign versions of local specialties ever being sold. I'm talking about France, the country where the capital city organizes the Baguette Grand Prix, just to determine which boulangerie makes the best one (it even makes the French national news). Surprisingly enough, even in a place with such high bread expectations, somehow British baguettes managed to make their way onto the trains of the French railway.

The Guardian reports that Fosters of Barnsley, a Yorkshire bakery, has started exporting truck loads of baguettes across the Channel to be sold on trains. The move has made baker John Foster deemed the "most hated man in France," according to French media.

With a well-known background of Franco-Anglo tension regarding food, the fact that British baguettes are being sold to French railway passengers is rather humorous. Maybe Sarkozy will see it as an attack on his country's culinary heritage, or maybe the French will just start exporting fish and chips.

Now there is a progressive plan coming out of London.

London's brand new mayor, Boris "the Eccentric" Johnson, unveiled the timeline for bringing in the new alcohol ban. The ban, starting on June 1, on the Tube (subway), buses, trams and Docklands Light Railway is one of his election pledges. According to the BBC, the ban is part of Mr Johnson's wider strategy to tackle "anti-social behavior" and he also believes driving out so-called minor crime will be the first step before getting a "firm grip on more serious crime".

But the Rail Maritime and Transport Union said the policy appeared "not to have been thought through very well" and could make matters worse.

Worse? As in people will drink more just for the excitement of doing something illegal?

Traveling with food allergies must be hard.

Even in many countries in Europe, menus simply don't list all the ingredients used in meals. My Canadian friend went into an allergic shock in Prague because of his nuts allergy. He figured eating a sandwich would be safe. Of course, they didn't mention the sandwich had pesto in it. And pesto contains pine nuts...

And that's Prague, which is now fairly Westernized. Imagine what it must be like to travel in Asia, where not only do they use peanuts a lot more but it is much harder to read the menus and find people who speak English well enough.

This ABC article talks about traveling with allergies. It is about the challenges of a traveler with serious food allergies, who presents a card to the waiter noting his allergies to peanuts and peas, written in the native tongue. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. Some waiters even say that they have "never heard of such allergies."

I found it really interesting to read, although I don't have any allergies. How do you deal with food allergies when traveling?