360 Degrees Longitude (53 page)

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Most mystifying postal service: Sweden, where there
are
no post offices

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Worst postal system: Czech Republic

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Most illiterate taxi drivers: China

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Most repulsive toilets: China, with (dis)honorable mention going to the “hotel” in Laguna Colorado, Bolivia

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Most elaborate toilets: Japan

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Best roller coaster: Thunder Dolphin, Tokyo

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Most shoe shine boys per square km: La Paz

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Most Internet cafés per square km: Tie, between Thailand and Bolivia

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Fewest Internet cafés per square km: England

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Best Internet cafés: Japan—wicked fast upload speeds!

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Most littered plastic bags per square foot: Tanzania

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Most Rolex dealers per square km: Zermatt, Switzerland

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Best water park: Wild Wadi in Dubai

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Most aggressive beggars and touts: Arusha, Tanzania

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Most bang for buck: Thailand

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Most stunning scenery: Switzerland, although Machu Picchu and the Lake District near San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina are also fabulous

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Best chocolate: Forget Switzerland. San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. Go for the chocolate and stay for the scenery.

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Most appalling gutters: Dar es Salaam

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Most colorful hair on old ladies: Japan

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Most aggressive carpet salesmen: Turkey

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Most helpful people: England

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Most friendly people: France—surprised? Of course, we found friendly people everywhere we went.

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Best children's parks above the tree line: Switzerland

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Best public swimming facilities: Germany

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Prettiest big city: Stockholm

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Most dazzling big city: Hong Kong

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Hardest to travel in: China, as the language barrier is huge

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Most pickpocket attempts per hour: Rome

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Most obnoxious coins: Sweden and Costa Rica (tie); forget stuffing them in your pocket. You need a wheelbarrow to cart them around they are so huge.

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Most on-time trains: Tie between Switzerland and Japan

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Hardest place to lunch: Dubai during Ramadan

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Coolest over-the-counter fireworks: Mauritius

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Most complicated bathing ritual: Japan

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Most blatant product counterfeiting: China, although Bolivia is a very close second

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Noisiest country: Tie between United Arab Emirates and China

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Noisiest city: Panama City with their freaking buses

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Nicest subway: Hong Kong

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Most confusing subway: Paris

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Most elaborate subway: London

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Mean time for solicitation in Bangkok: Twenty minutes

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Worst traffic: Phnom Penh, Cambodia

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Worst drivers: Istanbul

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Most perplexing economy: Thailand. How can things be so cheap?

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Strangest question asked at a restaurant: “Do you want gas or no gas?”

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Worst pencils: Tanzania—the lead breaks if you dare write anything

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Most dangerous thing we did: cross the street

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Most traveled citizens: Dutch. They are everywhere. Twenty-year-old Israelis are a close second.

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Worst Fanta flavor: Belize. We think it is aspirin flavor.

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The most enduring U.S. personality worldwide: Monica Lewinsky

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Most bizarre law: Kids under eighteen can't use the Internet in China

G
oogle Earth is the perfect backdrop for telling the story of
360 Degrees Longitude
. This book has a Google Earth companion on the Web that will enhance the story as it unfolds. Google Earth is free, but it does require a broadband Internet connection to run properly.

Verify that you have a computer, with any modern Internet browser.

Check that you have a broadband Internet connection. This usually means a cable modem or DSL. Sorry, but a dial-up connection will result in little more than frustration. Google Earth is made up of terabytes of data, and while you don't need to access all of that data at once, you will need to process a couple of megabytes per second to enjoy all there is to offer.

Download Google Earth, at
http://earth.google.com

Get the
360 Degrees Longitude
Google Earth companion file at
http://www.360degreeslongitude.com/concept3d/360degreeslongitude.kmz
and save it.

Throughout the book you will see the Google Earth logo
when there is more information for you to find online. Want to visit the pampas where Katrina and Jordan fed piranha to Plastico the pet alligator? Fire up Google Earth, spin the digital globe to Bolivia, and drill down to Rurrenabaque and click the icon. That will pull up additional information about Rurrenabaque, along with photos and video taken in the area.

If you are unfamiliar with Google Earth, here are a few basic steps that will help you get started.

Google Earth comes with several “layers” that you can turn on and off. There is a layer for international borders, a layer for populated places, a layer for bus stops, one for ATMs, and so on. The
360 Degrees Longitude
companion file is simply another layer.

If you turn on all the layers simultaneously, the digital globe can quickly become overwhelmed, so explore the different layers that come with Google Earth to familiarize yourself with what's available so you can turn them on and off as you see fit. One of my favorite layers is the terrain layer. With the terrain layer enabled you can see the texture of the surface of the earth when you zoom in and tilt the horizon.

Once you have the feel for how Google Earth behaves, download the layer for
360 Degrees Longitude
. After the download is complete, Google Earth will automatically open and you should see something like this:

Clicking on one of the “Chapters” menu buttons (see above) opens a list of all the links from the book. Clicking on one of the links will open a dialogue box with photos, video, and text that describe events in that part of the world. For example, clicking on Chapters 0–4, then “Pingvellir” under
Chapter 1
will open the dialogue box shown in below.