One of the best things a person can do before traveling to a new country is to find out cultural norms in order to know how to be polite. It's a great way to make friends, get the best prices when bargaining, and to not create a situation where someone is mad at you because you've made a faux pas without realizing it.

Jim Wells at behospitable traveler.com of the Hilton Hotels hooked us into travel tips to help Americans (or anyone else for that matter) know how to behave when heading to China for the Olympic games.

This is part of the Hilton Hotels' campaign to help people be the stellar travelers we love to love. Hilton Hotels is one of the sponsors of the games and have been getting involved big time. (No, I'm not being paid to say that, it's just an observation.)

Whether you're one of the athletes or a couch potato, follow these tips and you'll leave China happy and the Chinese will be happy to have had you as a visitor.

The tips are presented by athletes in videos and print form. These are a good read whether you are going to China or not since they offer a glimpse into the Chinese value system. From this link, click on the hospitableTraveler: A call to Act box. This will lead you the tips. Click on the learn more tabs to "Thoughtfulness," "Character" and "Awareness." If you have problems accessing that link, try this one. Under the heading "Dining," you'll even find rules for using chopstick rules.

There is also a link to helpful Mandarin phrases like "Where is the bathroom?" When I was in Beijing, I used the bathroom at McDonald's several times. I bet that by the time the Olympics start, Beijing will be flush in Western style toilets.

Even if you manage to do more than a staycation this summer, vacations just aren't what they used to be. Along with paying to check baggage and incredibly high gas prices comes a whole new level of social responsibility; seems like we can't even take a simple American road trip without considering all the environmental costs involved.

For those of you that are concerned with just how green your summer travels are, the Sierra Club has two easy quizzes to figure out where your vacation ranks on the green scale. The How Green is My Destination quiz looks at the environmental impact of where you are going and the How Green is my Getaway quiz analyzes just how your mode of travel -- bike, bus, airplane, etc. -- changes the greeness of your upcoming vacay.

To take the quizzes click here.

When Aaron asked in his post for "Words English needs but doesn't have," I thought of a Wolof word to add to the list, but I don't know how to spell it. enday san? n'day san?

The word is used for expressing sympathy, but much more than an "I'm sorry." It's like a combination between "I'm sorry," "I feel for you," and "That's too bad."

It's a good for tossing around if someone stubs his or her toe or loses his or her life's fortune.

I don't know how to spell it because when I was learning Wolof as a Peace Corps volunteer in The Gambia, Wolof was mostly an oral language and not widely written. Therefore, the two Wolof language trainers had their own versions of spelling and kept harping at those of us learning Wolof to listen instead of whining, "We're Americans. We're visual learners. Write it on the board."

I still know what the word listen is in Wolof, but I don't know how to spell that either.

Most of the Wolof I know, I never saw in a written format. I added vocabulary and phrasing over my two years of service by asking questions, writing words the way I thought they sounded and paying attention to context clues.

As a health education volunteer, I mostly learned health related conversations. I can whip out the "road to good health" talk on cue, but as for writing it down correctly, forget about it.

When Aaron asked for the word list, I did a Google search to see if I'd find some answers. Although I didn't find n'day san, or whatever it is, I did find this online course for learning Wolof.

Wolof, spoken in The Gambia, Senegal and Mauritania, is grammatically easy and flexible. There's one section of the Web site with audio samples. If you can pick up a few words, you'll so delight vendors that you'll be able to bargain like a champ.

What is one of the most important words to learn? Jërejëf "Thank-you." That is the correct spelling. I learned it from the Web site. Click on the word to hear how it sounds.

For those of you who find books handy, the one in the picture is one I came across in my search. Here's the link with the description.

Got any travel plans for the Fourth of July weekend? Most people do. Want some free wireless internet? Most people would like that too.

Well, you're in luck. Boingo, one of the nations largest pay-for-wireless providers, is running a promotion this weekend where you can get a free day pass on their ubiquitous network.

All that you have to do is sign up for their GoBoingo software that alerts you any time you're within a Boingo signal and you'll get a free day pass. Not a bad deal if you just want to check your email or Skype someone on the road and I suppose you can always get rid of the software once you're finished with it.

Don't get roped into one of the subscription plans if you don't want to -- Boingo has a habit of sucking you in. If you decide to go down that path through, it's not a bad service. I hear that out resident pilot Kent Wein uses it all over the world successfully.

Check out the Boingo promo website for more details.

[Via Jen, at the LA Times Travel Blog. Have a good weekend!]

If you've read the The Alchemist and want to be a subject of a virtual art exhibition hosted by the man himself -- Paolo Coelho -- the process couldn't be easier. Send a picture of you reading the book, and voila, you will forever be part of virtual art history!

The exhibition is to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Alchemist, that has till date sold a 100 million copies. Holy gonzoly. So far, 38 people have sent in some cool photos of them reading the book; the photos will be uploaded for the rest of the year.

Coelho is quite the tech-savvy writer dude. He keeps a regular blog, and has the occasional vlog. Obviously, he understands the importance of connecting with his readers, and enjoys the process too.

So take that picture and send it in to: paulocoelhocovers[at]gmail.com, perhaps you will be displayed in a gallery somewhere someday! If you don't have the Alchemist on hand, any of his books will do. Coelho wants to see your face, so be careful not to cover it with his book, and don't stress about quality.

(In the image, I'm holding his book Eleven Minutes, one I enjoyed way more than The Alchemist. I haven't read any others. Urrr...yup, I'm going to send it in.Cheap thrills.)

Discussing how Americans are viewed abroad is a popular travel topic. But what about how Americans are viewed by their fellow compatriots? This map gives us the Californian view regarding the rest of the US. Reminds me of the Absolut Vodka map controversy...

Living in the Northwest, I am going to have to agree with the "coffee" statement. But some might find the map offensive because of the clear stereotypes; then again generalizing does provide for a fair amount of humor.

Know of any other humorous maps like the one above?

Want to exercise that inner restaurant critic in you? There's a new site out there called BooRah that is looking to tap into a lot of reader-generated content about the restaurant scene in your community.

BooRah is a restaurant aggregator that culls the best restaurant reviews from across the Web and puts them in a easy-to-search database, each entry described in terms of boos and rahs. You can search major metropolitan areas or you can search for a specific town. This site seems to be pretty deep in terms of picking up obscure communities. For a test, I searched Old Hickory, Tennessee (where my father grew up) and came up with reviews of Dairy Queen, Subway, Hardees and Sonic.

O.K., hardly great. That is kind of my problem with a lot of user-generated restaurant sites. I'm all for hearing what you have to say about a new Village eatery or the best place for Sushi in San Fran, but do we really need reviews of McDonald's and Taco Bell? Also, sometimes these "reviews" can be frustratingly general, of the "I had a great steak here!" variety.

Still, I like this site, mostly because it seems pretty comprehensive and BooRah is growing and adding new cities regularly. I searched the Boston suburb I called home for five years and found one of my favorites -- a little Italian gem called Tullios in Quincy -- prominently listed, along with several other good local bets.

The site says it has 1.2 million restaurant reviews, 250,000 restaurants profiled, and 150,000 menus uploaded. Not bad.

Foodies might not find everything they want here, nor those acutely tuned in to their local dining scene (you'll know the best places to go). But I can see BooRah being very helpful to the business traveler or road tripper who likes to eat well, even in Topeka or Spokane.

Anyway, check the site out and see what you can contribute.

Years back we posted on Google's new technology that lets you google simple questions to the search engine via the text message function on your phone. If you question is easily answerable, the service will return your query with a short answer in a text message.

This, my friends, is a powerful, powerful tool, that I believe many people under utilize. So to demonstrate a good example of how Google text has saved my ass multiple times on the road, I'll give one example of a trip I recently took.

I have yet to indulge in the Blackberry or handheld wireless internet market for two reasons: the data fees that AT&T charges are completely unacceptable and I don't want to devote my life to the internet attached to my hip. I'll probably break down at some point, but for now I'm still resisting. What I do have, however, like most other people who own mobile phones, is a text message function (or SMS, as the Europeans often call it) that I occasionally use to keep in touch with friends or send dirty messages during meetings at work.

A few months back I was headed out to my weekly pilgrimage to Detroit's Metro Airport (DTW) for another one of my typical weekend trips. I usually park off site because the shuttles seem faster and they issue online coupons for free days, so took the red Qwikpark shuttle from my car straight into McNamara terminal. As usual, I was cutting it close, so by the time we rolled into the terminal I was hot to get through security. Ignoring the departure and arrival monitors, I burst through the security checkpoint and headed up for the the internal train that runs the length of the terminal.

As I crossed the large span towards the terminal, I pulled out my boarding pass, checked my flight (say, Northwest 266) then plugged it into my text box as NW266 and sent it to GOOGL, or 46645. Five steps later I received a text message saying that my flight was on time, departing from gate A6 and had the number for customer service just in case of problems. Now I knew to get on the northbound train.

Immediately when I got on the tram, I felt that something was wrong.

If you're a person who likes a free breakfast when you go to a hotel--the donuts and Fruit Loops call out your name the moment you open your eyes in the morning, you might be missing out.

According to a survey conducted for the American Hotel and Lodging Association, of the 10,000 hotels out of 45,000 that participated, they're providing wireless Internet more often, but cutting out the free breakfast. You can get the free breakfast at many-- but don't assume.

Here is a summary of the survey findings to help you compare what you'll be getting for your dollars before you make that reservation.

• 91% offer Internet (15% hotels charge for it, and of those, 75% to 91% of them fit into the luxury to up upscale category)
• 75% have a computer in the lobby for guest use
• 47% have indoor swimming pools.
• 58% have outdoor swimming pools
• 82% have refrigerator in the room
• 40% have only non-smoking rooms
• 25% have allergy-free rooms
• 67% have weekend specials
• 56% allow pets, and of those, 67% charge extra for your four-legged family member.
• 43% have flat-screen TVs
• 48% offer vegan meals
• 66% offer healthy meals
• 70% offer a free newspaper

And about that free breakfast? 59% offer it, but that's down 9% from two years ago, the last time the survey was conducted.

For more details, read the MSNBC article. You'll notice how the changes reflect societal trends and habits.

I have mixed feelings about guidebooks, partially because I hate going to a super lovely secret destination and finding 300 other people there with the same guidebook, but have to admit, I am kind of fond of the Not For Tourists (NFT) guides that have been around for the past few years.

These guidebooks are a library of information, containing extremely detailed maps, overlaid with points of interest, restaurant and other juicy city tidbits -- which is really where they get their name. Not every tourist wants to waste space on the details of the PetCo on the corner of 92nd and Broadway -- they would rather learn about that awesome bistro in SoHo that Ed Norton was seen in once.

To each his or her own.

Fortunately, NFT recently started posting their guidebooks on their website free to download in PDF form. Now, you snark the articles and maps that you want, print them out and build your own frankenbook to take along on your journey.

So how do they make their money? Well, I guess they hope that you'll like the online guides well enough to purchase one of their books. At least give the online version a try and see what you think.