Ripley’s newest tome in its multimillion bestselling series, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Seeing Is Believing, has just been released to bookstores.
Seeing Is Believing is an all-new compendium of incredible and bizarre facts, stories, interviews and features – all presented in a stunning new design. This year’s book offers access to Ripley’s new fully-integrated website featuring astounding video clips and pictures to enhance the Ripley experience.
Here are a few of the travel-related stories packed into this latest in Ripley’s book series.
Lost Property
More than 32,000 books, 27,000 handbags and 25,000 items of clothing are left behind on London’s transport system every year. Other items turned in include a pair of breast implants, a stuffed puffer fish, a case full of human teeth, a weheelcair, a life-size toy gorilla, a prosthetic arm and a coffin.
Plane Push
While passengers on a plane in China may not have been expecting first-class treatment, they probably didn’t think they would have to get out and push! However, when their plane broke down after landing on the runway in Zhengzhou in September 2008, airport staff failed to budge the stricken jet, and eventually it took two hours for the combined efforts of crew and passengers to move the plane half a mile to safety.
Advance Ticketing
In 1973, Gopal Dey of Howrah, West Bengal, India, purchased a train ticket for June 28, 2073, which he intends to will to his grandson.
Nude Flight
A German travel agency has recently started bookings for a small flight from Erfut, Germany, to a Baltic Sea resort-on which the passengers of the 55-seat plane can travel totally nude. However, the passengers have to be clothed until they board the aircraft and they also have to be clothed again when they disembark.
Fancy a Dip?
A swimming pool at a resort in Algarrobo, near Santiago, Chile is so huge that small boats often sail in it. The pool, which took five years to build, measures 3,323 ft long, covers 20 acres and holds 66 million gallons of water-and the water is so clear you can see the bottom, even at the 115-ft deep end.
11 Days by Helicopter
Starting and finishing in New York, U.S. pilots Scott Kasprowicz and Steve Sheik flew a helicopter on a 23,000-mi round-the-world trip in 11 days 7 hours in 2008.
Gum Wall
Watch out for the alleyway entirely covered in chewed bubblegum next time you are in San Luis Obispo, California. The gum plastered to the brickwork in Bubblegum Alley was been spreading since the late 1950s. Additions have built up over the years and visitors are welcome to add to the collection and some even sample some of the secondhand gum on offer.
Junk Voyage
Marcus Eriksen and Joel Paschal completed a three-month, 2,600-mile voyage from Long Beach, California, to Hawaii in 2008 on a raft made of plastic bottles. Their 30-ft junk vessel had a deck of salvaged sailboat masts, six pontoons filled with 15,000 plastic bottles and a cabin made from the fuselage of a Cessna airplane.
Cardboard Bike
University student Phil Bridge from Stockport, England, has come up with the ultimate in recycling — a cardboard bike. He says the cardboard components would be replaced every six months free of charge. His invention, which can bear a weight of a 168-lb adult, is also waterpoof to withstand rainy days.
Viking Replica
On July 1, 2007, a crew of 65 pepole set out on a 1,000-mile voyage from Roskidle, Denmark, in a historically accurate replica of a Viking Ship and arrived in Dublin, Ireland, 45 days later.
The 256-page, oversized hard cover book (ISBN-13: 9781893951457; $28.95) has more than 500 photos and nearly 2,500 Believe It or Nots! A special 8-page gatefold section showcases a three-legged footballer and other performers from the glory days of the circus sideshow. An eye-catching foil cover with a blinking lenticular eye makes this one of the most appealing bookstore shelves today.
Find it at your local bookstore and online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
