Tourism Queensland calls it the Best Job in the World, and since January this year they were taking applications for one lucky finalist to become their island’s caretaker for six months starting July (here’s the job description).

In exchange for becoming Queensland’s answer to the late Steve Irwin (a.k.a. Crocodile Hunter) benefits include a resort-style villa called the Blue Pearl which overlooks the Coral Sea and a salary of AUD$150,000. Oh, and then there are lots of stress-inducing perks like snorkeling, frolicking with sea turtles, and endless white sand beaches. (Find out who lost inside…)

For a rainy day like today, waterfalls and bikinis seem so far away. Maybe next weekend? Everland Resort’s Caribbean Bay, located in Yongin-si, has an English version website if you’re interested in joining the festivities.

[photos: Chosun]

This is really an exercise in fantasy. You can’t really afford to spend a night at one the 10 most expensive super-luxury hotels in the world, but considering you’ve taught for a year and saved enough money to pay off your $20,000 student loans, you can dream can’t you? (comments wanted…)

Here’s a North Korea exclusive that managed to escape the censors, covered by alternative journalists who during their day jobs usually mix tongue-in-cheek fashion commentary with interviews with pornstars or brain surgeons. From the guys who brought you Vice Magazine, funded by MTV, and art directed by Spike Jonze, we found this fourteen part report on North Korea to be a kitchy* look at how weird it can be to travel to North Korea. *by saying kitchy, we mean, entirely accurate. (watch more…)

[VBS.tv]

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It’s the kind of spa August Gloop could fall in love with, and it’s creating a whole new kind of worry when it comes to kids in the water. The Japanese have begun a new trend in spa therapy called the “chocolate spa” where visitors, such as lovebirds who don’t mind sharing a cramped whirlpool of chocolate syrup with about a dozen others, can both waft in the pleasures of cocoa essence and experience a romantic treatment that melts not in your mouth but all over your hand. (photo…)

From the Korea Times, a 42,000 sq. meter wetland made in Yanggu County, Gangwon Province, on Tuesday.

This must give passing pilots quite the scare.

Just last week, while staring out the window of my stationary taxi on the eastbound Gangbyeon Parking Lot (”highway” only in name), I spotted a pair of white boats whizzing by the bridges of the Hangang River. They were moving urgently off to some important destination, and in my imagination, its passengers were a jet-set couple in tuxedo and gown sipping champagne on their way to the opening of an art show while mocking the moribund and wheelbound.

But wait! It turns out those waterborne limos are actually water taxis and are part of a growing fleet in Seoul’s newest public transporation! Short of helicopters appearing on the horizon this is nothing short of a miracle.

The worst of your travel downtime can be felt at the very end of your trip at the Immigration lines. It’s a throng of people which resembles a hodgepodge of French-Korean speaking caucasian dads and their kids, and enough Africans, Chinese, South Asians, Korean-Americans, Australians, and Canadians to start your own NGO at the UN.