There are a number of cultural and social things to see in New York City. New York City boast a population of more than eight and a half million-not including, dogs, cats, and yellow cabs. In 2006, New York was dubbed one of the safest states in America. In fact, New York City has the lowest crime rate of any large city in the United States, which makes the Big Apple ideal for checking out the top sights to be seen with a limited risk of a purse snatching.

Loved Samuel L. Jackson in “Snakes on a Plane?” Enjoyed Julia Roberts’ stirring performance in “Mona Lisa Smile?” Meet all of the celebs in wax at Madame Tussuad’s Wax Museum. A long-running contender for the title of “One of the Must-Things to See in New York City,” Madame Tussuad’s Wax Museum, also featuring a locations in London, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, and Las Vegas, is situated just a stone’s throw from Manhattan’s famed Times Square. The self-proclaimed “Top Tourist Attraction in New York” plays host to a number of life-like wax figures, including Whoopi Goldberg, Beyonce Knowles, Britney Spears, and pop music icon, Madonna. New York City is the home of a variety of different museums.

Popular museums housed in America’s largest city include:

Alice Austen House Museum and Garden: Tucked securely in the Staten Island borough of New York City, the Alice Austen House Museum and Garden serves as a Staten Island Historical Society owned tribute to the photographer for which the establishment was named. Featuring a restored large glass cottage and expressive gardens, the Alice Austen House Museum and Garden captures a majestic view of the nearby New York Harbor. The museum is open March through December.

The Brooklyn Children’s Museum: Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood is the home of the world’s first museum designed especially for children. The Brooklyn Children Museum, which opened it’s doors in 1899, is characterized by exploration exhibits in arts, science, and environment. Multicultural performances, workshop, programs, and on-contact exhibits are some of the key features of a day at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, recommended for children ages five and older.

The Museum of Modern Art: Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art began it’s visionary journey with a gift that included eight prints and a drawing. Today, the Museum of Modern Art, housing more than one hundred thousand drawings, sculptures, and photographs, is one of the things to see in New York City. In addition to visionary art, the Museum of Modern Art boast a library including fourteen thousand films and approximately four million film stills.

Theater and sporting attractions are tops on the list of attractive things to see in New York City. New York’s theater community offers theater-goers the distinction to see every Broadway play with just pennies on the dollar. Discounted standing room only tickets can be purchased for productions on Broadway, as well as operas, symphonies, New York Yankee’s and Met’s games. New York City is one American city that serves as the hometown to two fiercely competitive Major League Baseball teams. The New York Yankees, fronted by heart-throb Derek Jeter, is based in the northernmost of New York City’s five boroughs-the Bronx. The New York Mets, who host home games at legendary Shea Stadium, represent Queens, New York-the most ethnically diverse county in the United States.

New York City has the largest Chinatown in the United States, and it’s cuisine of culturally conscious eats earn Chinatown the honor of one of the things to see in New York City. Fine dining, like Tavern On The Green, and big name chain restaurants like Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood are other huge attractions in the Big Apple.

Burton Jones is with TravelYeti.com – get daily travelyeti.com/travel-tips travel tips.

Packing light does not fit the needs of everyone, and certainly not for every kind of travel. Cruises always require more, although even there, one can economize on the luggage. Deluxe tours where you stay in four star hotels and eat in Michelin’s best recommended restaurants requires a much fuller wardrobe than a six day bus tour through the Benelux.

My way of packing light comes from personal experience coupled with what I’ve picked up in guide books and from fellow travelers. Some of it you might consider carrying it to extremes, but one thing I’ve come to realize is that how you pack and what you pack is about personal choices. I’ve read articles in magazines and books and half the stuff I’d throw out. On the other hand I would add just as much that I thought absolutely necessary. So with that in mind, here’s how I do it.

My travel is constrained by finances for the most part. So I travel on the cheap. When travelling alone I stay in Bed and Breakfast establishments (B & B’s) when I can find a clean one handy to where I want to be, and that’s most of the time. Otherwise I’ll stay in cheap but clean hotels. Here I find guide books indispensable, but even then you have to watch your step. Areas and districts change, usually not for the better. When in Paris I have always liked to stay in the Quartier Latin. Last time I stayed at different hotel than usual, one recommended in a guide book. In the morning I came strolling out the front door with visions of a café au lait on my mind and with my backpack slung over one shoulder. Next thing I know, somebody is seriously tugging on my pack. Fortunately, a stiff palm thrust to his nose dissuaded him from continuing and we both went on our separate ways. I’ve been overnighting in the Quartier Latin since 1959, that’s the first time anything happened. Indeed, it’s the first actual violence I’ve encountered in Europe in twenty odd years, and that time too, it was because I was unaware of my surroundings. My first bit of advice – no matter how safe you may think it is, keep your wits about you at all times. You’re a foreigner in a foreign land and considered fair game to the unenlightened.

To pack light is to not pack for the worst scenario. Travelling in Europe in the summer time, you don’t need a heavy coat. My personal choice is a quality dressy dark windbreaker that can shed rain, it’s an item I can wear most anywhere, and I don’t need to pack it – it’s on my back. Spring or fall, I will pack a lightweight dark cardigan to wear under the windbreaker when the temperature drops.

I take only one pair of pants, the ones I wear on the plane. I favor one brand, Tilleys, but not the ones that can be unzippered into shorts, they scream “Tourist” which is “Sucker” in any European language. There’s numerous brands, on the internet and elsewhere. They should be washable, have some zippered pockets and be comfortable. If you need headgear, seriously consider a Tilley hat. Look inside one and you’ll understand why.

One pair of shoes, the ones I’m wearing. I favor a sturdy pair of Hush Puppies or Rockports, equally as good and as comfortable. Three or four short sleeved shirts in the summer, long sleeved the rest of the year. Again hand washable, again dark colors preferred. One dark matching tie, material that won’t have wrinkles when it’s unrolled. The trick with dark colors is simply that if they get dirty, so what, they were dark to start with! If a shirt gets seriously stained, then I throw it out, buy a new one. I’m not going to pack a dirty shirt all over Europe just so I can wash it when I get home!

Plan on doing some hand laundry every two nights or so if possible. That way you’ve always got clean shorts (three pairs), socks (three pairs) and shirts. A small squeezeable bottle of liquid soap is always a good idea. Get one of those spring loaded reels with a twenty foot thin rope that you can use to hang your wash on to dry over night. Consider packing a light plastic or nylon raincoat (the kind with a hood) if you’re going to the UK, they can be folded up to about the size of a deck of cards. Don’t carry two months worth of toiletries for a two or thee week trip. Drop into a store in whatever country you’re in and pick up what you need. You never know what you’ll find. I picked up a tube of toothpaste in Cagliari years ago with the wierdest taste I’ve ever encountered, not unpleasant, just different from anything I ever tasted before or since.

Being of the male persuasion, I need to shave, at least every two days. Anything electric can quickly add weight and bulk to your pack what with voltage transformers, an assortment of wall plugs, etc. I used to use dispensable razors, and still do at home, but one day while walking in Geneva, I came across a shop that specialized in electric razors. I got a battery driven razor that lasts unbelievably long (three weeks easily) on four AA batteries, not much bigger than a king-sized pack of cigarettes. I’ve never seen them anywhere in North America and I only use it on trips.

I wear a moneybelt for the obvious reasons, plus a plastic document pouch that hangs inside my shirt from a clear thin strap around my neck. I also stash photocopies of all documents, including any reservations in a ziplock bag stowed in my backpack. The Euro is always taken, sometimes preferred, but I like a few hundred US dollars in my moneybelt, it is always a good fallback. Otherwise, an ATM card and one credit card, I like to take an American Express card, though others prefer Visa.

Some like to have a day pack but I find them a nuisance. However I keep a small rollup nylon carryall in my backpack for emergencies. Speaking of emergencies, always carry a small sewing kit in your gear. If you have medicines, bring a copy of the prescriptions, and try to have enough in their original pharmacy bottles on hand for the duration of the trip. One last thing, put all bottles inside a ziplock bag in case they start to leak, especially aboard aircraft.

And there you have it. While I appreciate my list is for men, it should also be a handy guide for women. Well, except for the bit about razors, of course!

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to travel-guided.com/ Travel

This is part two of a two-part review of Aviation from its beginnings to the present day. It is a subjective look at a few of the highlights in the development of Aviation over the centuries.

Glenn Hammond Curtiss who was well known in the aviation field by 1908, won the first American award, the Scientific American Trophy, for an airplane flight when he flew the ‘June Bug’ 5090 ft (1552m) in 1 min 42.5 sec on July 4, 1908. Curtiss also went on to win the first international speed event, at about 47mph (75.6 km/h), on August 28, 1910. He also became the first American to develop and fly a seaplane — the first successful seaplane flight having been done by Henri Fabre of France on March 28, 1910.

Before World War I, airplane design greatly improved. Pusher biplanes (two-winged airplanes with the engine and propeller behind the wing) were succeeded by tractor biplanes (two-winged airplanes with the engine and propeller in front of the wing). Monoplane designs were rare and when World War I began, huge biplane bombers with two to four engines were developed. Airmail was also started, although it only lasted a week. The first airmail officially approved by the U.S. Post Office Department began on September 23, 1911 and the pilot (Earle Ovington) carried the mail on his legs and tossed the bag overboard when he reached his destination. Also in 1911, the first transcontinental flight across the U.S. was completed by Calbraith P. Rodgers. His flight from New York to California took 3 days, 10 hours and 14 minutes and was by a Wright aircraft.

During WWI Aviation made great leaps forward in the fields of design and manufacture of aircraft. Equally important was the experience gained by the pilots flying the early fighter craft through the aerial maneouvers required in dog fights. Von Richthofen, Rickenbacker and numerous others were so successful because they had learned to master their aircraft.

Some amazing progress in record breaking for aviation took place between 1919 and 1926. Captain E. F. White made a nonstop flight from Chicago to New York (727 mi – 1170km) in 1919 and Lieutenant Oakley Kelly and Lieutenant John A. Macready made the first nonstop transcontinental flight from May 2 to May 3, 1923. This flight was made from Roosevelt Field, Long Island to Rockwell Field, San Diego; and the first round the world flight was made from April 6 to September 28, 1924. Also in 1919, the first nonstop transatlantic flight was made by John William Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown on June 14 to June 15. It took a little over 16 hours to complete and they won the “London Daily Mail” prize of $50,000.

Mail delivery also took a major turn during these years. In 1925, Congress passed the Kelly Air Mail act which authorized the Post Office Department to contract with air-transport operators. This made it possible to transport U.S. mail by air; after this, 14 domestic airmail companies were created in 1926.

On May 20, 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh took off in The Spirit of St. Louis from Roosevelt Field near New York City landing in Paris in 33 1/2 hours later.

The largest operator of all the international airlines in operation prior to WWII was Pan American Airways. Pan American served 46 countries and colonies linking all continents and nearly all oceans. Its huge seaplanes were known worldwide as the Flying Clippers.

Pan American World Airways began life in 1927 with some single engine aircraft and a single route from Key West, Florida, to Havana. From this beginning came the airline that would literally open the world to Aviation. Pan Am launched more new aircraft development than any other airline in history. It pioneered routes across the world’s oceans and continents, eventually operating daily flights circling the globe.

During World War II, aircraft became a decisive factor in warfare and Aviation generally took giant steps forward. Small aircraft production increased significantly. Before World War II only about 193,000 people were employed in the aviation industry and during 1941 the number increased to 450,000; also, around 3,375,000 passengers were transported by 18 U.S. airlines at this time, around 1 million more than in 1940. Airmail and express cargo would also increase by around 30 percent. But by the end of World War II, a new frontier of flight would take shape, jet and rocket propelled aircraft.

After World War II and by 1947 all the basic technology needed for Aviation had been developed; jet propulsion, aerodynamics, radar, etc. Civilian aircraft orders drastically increased from 6,844 in 1941 to 40,000 by the end of 1945. One of the minor military contractors was the Boeing Company who later became the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world. With all the new technologies developed by this time, airliners were larger, faster and featured pressurized cabins. New aerodynamic designs, metals and power plants would result in high-speed turbojet airplanes. These planes would later be able to fly supersonically and make transoceanic flights regularly.

One of the more famous record breaking flights in Aviation around this time was the Voyager, developed by Burt Rutan. The flight, maintaining an average speed of 115.8 mph (186.3 km/h), lasted 9 days, 3 minutes, 44 seconds and covered 25,012 miles (40254 km) and was completed in December 1986.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to

Banking

Australia has a diverse range of regional, city, state and international banks and financial institutions. The four major Australian banks are as follows: the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the Australian and New Zealand banking group (ANZ), the National Australia Bank (NAB) and Westpac. Investment banks such as Maquarie Bank cater to the serious investor. As well community banks such as St. George are growing in popularity because of their flexibility and innovation. Industry based Credit Unions offer another alternative to the major banks, and you do not necessarily have to be a member of the industry to join.

Electronic banking is very popular in Australia and all banks have online banking facilities where you can access all of your account information, transfer money, pay bills and more. Credit unions tend to have less sophisticated and less established electronic banking facilities.

Banks are often keen to attract new immigrants as their customers, so they offer a range of special services for newcomers. AMR also offers expert third party assistance to help you with issues like, tax, asset protection and estate planning.

It is also possible to open a bank account in Australia before you arrive, by going to a branch of the bank in the country where you live, and providing 100 points of ID

Driving

if you are in Australia on a temporary visa, you can drive in all states on your overseas licence (provided it is current) for the period of your stay. This is provided your overseas license is in English (or you have an English translation).

If your overseas license is in a language other than English we recommend that you apply for an International Driving Permit, and do so before leaving your country.

When in Australia on a permanent visa, you can drive on your overseas licence for only three months, from the date you entered Australia or from the time a permanent visa was issued to you. If you wish to continue driving in Australia after that time, you must apply for a drivers licence in the state that you are residing in. Once applying you will be required to pass a knowledge test, a practical test and an eyesight test.
Road rules and licensing regulations in Australia differ slightly from state to state, and it is best to enquire with the local state authority regarding the local rules of the road prior to commencing to drive.

Generally, drivers in Sydney are seen as the fastest and most aggressive, and drivers in Victoria the most polite and likely to say “thanks” for giving way. However, this article is written by a Victorian, so this may be biased, please decide for yourself!

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