What We’re Reading: It’s Raining Men!

This week, we’re reading about a stowaway cat, an incompetent cruise ship captain, and a whole bunch of, ahem, unclothed men. Get the scoop on the most interesting travel stories of late.

Cat Travels to Orlando Inside Suitcase

I imagine this nightmare scenario every time my cat sits in my suitcase (read: every time I open my suitcase in front of my cat.) Overhead Bin reports that a cat named Bob-bob got into his owner’s suitcase and popped out hours later after she had arrived in Orlando. Sounds scary, but to Bob-bob it was all in good fun, apparently. “The cat was a little shaken but still purring,” reports Overhead Bin.

Score: Bob-bob 1, TSA 0.

Concordia Black Box Reveals Captain’s Incompetence

Cruise ships have black boxes just as airplanes do, which is bad news for Captain Schettino, the man once in command of Costa Concordia. Our sister site Cruise Critic reports that black box recordings have brought Schettino’s frightening incompetence to light. After asking engine room staff, “So are we really going down?” Schettino turned around and told passengers that the ship had only lost power.

So while Schettino was talking passengers into staying onboard, Concordia was taking on water. This is the same guy, mind you, who “fled the ship before all the passengers had been evacuated, claiming he had ‘tripped’ into a life boat,” reports Cruise Critic.

Naked Man Festival Is for Real

Bootsnall is amping up our arsenal of random facts with its fascinating story on unusual religious rituals around the world. For example, did you know that the Shinto Naked Festival in Japan, at which more than 9,000 men gather annually, has been taking place since the year 767? That’s more than 1,000 years of loin cloths, body hair, and, to use Bootsnall’s language, “traditional macho entertainment.”

But here’s the fun part: At each festival, one man is selected to be the “naked man.” He gets to shave his entire body and then run around in his birthday suit as everyone else at the festival chases after him. This sounds shockingly similar to my first day of work at SmarterTravel.

According to Bootsnall, “Although it is a high honor to be named Naked Man, it can also be extremely dangerous, as devotees overcome with excitement, emotion, and copious amounts of sake have been known to shove, kick, and seriously injure the chosen one in the competitive scramble to touch him.”

(Photo: Man: Holding Umbrella, Indoors via Shutterstock)