Martin – You should listen to me (bring all your wine) and only me. Always. I am the one and only (over to my condo) true oracle in travel media. I speak the truth and (and leave it outside the door) nothing but the truth. Plus, my fact checking (thank you for your cooperation) is beyond reproach.

AWT – Well said. And I’ll avoid the Virgin Islands at all costs. Effing criminals.

Mary – With your permission, I’m stealing that line and will from this day forward refer to myself as the Romanian Britney Spears. Talk about street cred…

Virgil – I think the word you’re looking for is ‘peons’

Anne Marie – You’re preaching to the choir my friend. I’m so hilarious that my wife left me after less than two years of marriage.

You think you were misinterpreted? How about Thierry Henry, who recently got attacked by Hotnews because he said about the romanian football players that they are ” full of vices” (not that this would be a wrong statemant by itself; but in fact, Hotnews did not correctly understand the meaning of the word ‘vicieux’, which has a completely different meaning and is not what they assumed – in a football context, it means “an execution that surprises the oponent”). So, rest assured, you aren’t the first and won’y be the last victim of this kind of ‘jurnalism’… just ignore them, as most (non-jurnalist) romanians do :)

You’ll have three out of three!

Alpha Hack sounds like a real hack. I’m glad the rest of the trip went alright, though!

People hear what they want to hear.

A number of years ago I was sailing in the Virgin Islands and we stopped in Charlotte Amalie on the island of Saint Thomas. As a major port-of-call for cruise ships they had their share of crime, enough so to make one of those big-time American TV news shows, like 60 Minutes (can’t remember which).

It pissed off the locals to the point where we were told by a shopkeeper one evening to avoid walking on the side streets after dark as the news story was turning into a self-fulfilling prophecy for the ill-willed.

I guess the point is that hacks hack to sensationalize an otherwise legitimate story and someone who gets mad because they are told they are always mad does little to ameliorate the situation.

In today’s Wikipedia world of truthiness, we need honest voices like yours to guide us wannabe world travelers.

And please don’t let off the humor gas pedal too much. But you might consider a fake mustache when hailing cabs or eating out.