The great thing about running a communist state is that you can dream up and enforce any crazy rule you want -- and the people can't do anything about it.

China, scrambling to clean up its image as the Olympics draw closer, has been making changes to the landscape left and right -- beautifying Beijing, planting flowers and cleaning up the streets.

This week, in an effort to clean up the chronically bad air conditions, the government decided to cut down on vehicle pollution by forcing half of the population to take public transportation. Odd and even ending license plates are now supposed to alternate days that they're able to drive in the city -- and violators are faced with a stiff fine.

As a result, half of the population that formerly commuted by automobile and motorcycle is now trying to cram into the city's public transportation system. The resulting load on the subway system was recently so great that authorities had to shut down several lines to prevent the suffocating crowds -- passengers were only allowed get off of the trains for a while. Perhaps the volumes are a bit larger than the Chinese had predicted.

What would happen to you if you were suddenly forced to take public transportation to work or class? Could you walk far enough to reach the bus or train stop and make it to your morning appointments? Would you let your government prevent you from driving every other day of the week?

With summer in full swing it, finding good outdoor spaces to have a drink is the thing to do. Nothing says summer more than a couple of friends sitting on an outdoor terrace sharing a pitcher. But even better than your average terrace or patio has to be a rooftop.

Stopping for an evening drink is an excellent activity, but if you can find a bar on top of a tall building with an excellent view of your host city, even better. While in Vietnam last fall, my hostel in Hanoi had a rooftop bar and it seemed none of us ever wanted to leave. Our friends over at Matador Nights -- part of the Matador Network -- think along the same lines and have graced us with an article on The World's 10 Best Rooftop Bars. It's the insider's guide to finding the best rooftop nightlife, from the ultra cool to the ultra sexy.

Here are the top five:

1. Sirocco, Bangkok, Thailand
2. The Penthouse, Madrid, Spain
3. Luna Bar, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
4. Rooftop Bar, Melbourne, Australia
5. Gravity, Dublin, Ireland

For the rest of the list and descriptions to all of the bars, read the Matador Nights article here. Do you have a favorite rooftop bar?

Anybody who's a frequent reader of Matthew Firestone's Big in Japan blog here at Gadling knows that there are some mighty strange things to be found in Japan.

"How strange?" I hear you ask.

Well, with Big in Japan on vacation in Africa, of all places, I'll throw out these 10 wacky consumer products that are available in Japan, as compiled by Oddee.

Next time you're in Japan, try to get your hands on:

• A pillow in the shape of a woman's lap
• A cold bottle of "bilk" (milk + beer)
• Special pills to enhance your gaming abilities
• Diet water ("half the calories" of regular water)
• Horse meat ice cream
• Lollipops that taste like flavored condoms, designed to make you horny
• Breast milk available by the carton (called "Mother's Milk")
  
• Chewing gum meant to increase breast size
• A rather phallic-looking swan balloon that "rapidly expands"
• A fresh air mask you hook up to any household plant

I'm not making any of these up. Check them out yourself here.

The other night we were sitting with a friend enjoying a few Pacificos when he asked if he could turn the fan on to keep the mosquitoes away. As one who always get bitten by these bloodsucking irritants, I was more than happy for the fan to keep me bite-free. As he clicked the fan on, our friend casually mentioned that with the rainy season comes dengue fever, which is not too dangerous,"unless you get Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF)..."

Excuse me? The what?

Before we left on this trip we went to the travel clinic to get the necessary shots as well as the medications we might need. As we will be traveling through high-risk malaria areas we stocked up on anti-malarials and brought along a good supply of bug spray. I figured malaria, not dengue fever, would be our biggest health risk. Truth be told, I have never been too concerned with dengue. I know that it can make you quite ill, I know there are no drugs to treat it but what I didn't realize was that you can potentially die from it.

It's that time of year when Travel + Leisure unveils its much hyped "world's best" list of cities, hotels, islands, cruise lines and more.

The poll, in its 13th year, is generated by T+L readers worldwide, who vote online for their favorites.

The big news in this year's survey is that Bangkok edged out last year's winner for world's best city, Florence, which dropped down to No. 5.

T+L's 10 best cities in the world are:

1. Bangkok
2. Buenos Aires
3. Cape Town
4. Sydney
5. Florence
6. Cuzco (Peru)
7. Rome
8. New York
9. Istanbul
10. San Francisco

Other highlights from T+L's world's best survey, as summarized by Reuters, include:

• Best hotel: Singita Sabi Sand, South Africa
• Best island: Galapagos
• Best large cruise line: Crystal Cruises
• Best small cruise line: Silversea Cruises
• Best international airline: Singapore Airlines
• Best domestic airline: Virgin America
• Best rental car agency: Hertz

Check out all the world's best here.

Location: Mr. Bourdain kicked off a new round of episodes last night with Laos. As one of the last "untouched" destinations of Southeast Asia, Laos sits nestled along the Mekong River, a mountainous country filled with mist-shrouded hilltops, orange-robed monks and a fascinating history both recent and ancient.

Episode Rating: Four bloody meat cleavers (out of five) in honor of Chef Bourdain.

Summary: Laos is one of those mysterious destinations romanticized by 21st century travelers. Still scarred by violent memories of the Vietnam War, it is a country largely untouched by the typical tourist trail of Southeast Asia but ripe with beautiful places to visit and delicious new foods to taste. In other words, it's one of those places that Anthony Bourdain just knows how to do best - seeking out the remote, the fascinating and the cringe-inducing for our viewing pleasure.

Tony kicks off the episode by briefly stopping in the capital city of Vientiane before heading out for his "obligatory Asian noodle breakfast" in the small city of Phong Savan. Much like its Vietnamese cousin Pho, the spicy Lao soup he tastes is filled with a combination of noodles and meat, typically either chicken, duck or pork. Give Bourdain his bowl of noodles and he's generally a pretty happy customer.

Back in April, Catherine posted about Denmark being ranked the world's happiest country by the University of Leicester in England, which published its so-called Map of World Happiness.

Well, just in case you doubted that institution's findings, another study, this one released last week by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, has also ranked Danes No. 1 in terms of happiness and life satisfaction.

The Michigan study's overall conclusion: Happiness is on the rise worldwide.

It's perhaps no surprise that Denmark tops the list, since it is a perennial favorite in any survey of this ilk. There is just something about life in that Scandinavian country that is apparently better than anywhere else. But a few other countries in the top 10 do surprise...at least me: Puerto Rico. Colombia. Northern Ireland.

The 10 happiest countries in the world:

1. Denmark
2. Puerto Rico
3. Colombia
4. Iceland
5. N. Ireland
6. Ireland
7. Switzerland
8. Netherlands
9. Canada
10. Austria

The U.S. comes in 16th on the list, not too shabby given the sad recent years we've lived through.

This is the 26th edition of the U of M study, which annually surveys around 350,000 people worldwide, asking them, well, just how happy they feel.

The 10 unhappiest countries in the world:

1. Zimbabwe
2. Armenia
3. Moldova
4. Belarus
5. Ukraine
6. Albania
7. Iraq
8. Bulgaria
9. Georgia
10. Russia

Not many surprises there.

Check out the complete U of M rankings here.

Cambodia has only one passenger train that still runs, and I'm on it right now.

Calling it a passenger train is a bit of a misnomer, though. Most of the few seats still attached to the floor are piled high with exotic fruits: durians, pineapples, and several others that I've eaten before but can't name. I think one's a jackfruit, and another might be a soursop.

Half of the back car is full of lumber which I helped load a few stops ago. I almost crushed my foot.

The train is slow, probably the slowest train in the world. The fastest I clocked it with my GPS was 17kph. That's fast enough that if you want to take a jog you can just hop out the back and run along.

The journey from Battambang, a city reasonably close to the Thai border, to Phnom Penh takes four hours by air conditioned bus. I've been on the train for 17 hours now and there's been no word on when we'll finally arrive. The official timetable claimed it would be 5 hours ago.

Looks like the "Pope-mobile" is changing from a Mercedes Benz to an Indian rickshaw!

An auto-rickshaw, a black and yellow 3-wheeler that can seat no more than 3 people, is India's most used form of private transport. The Pope has just received a personalized, completely white one with special insignia, that he will be using for public appearances as he commutes around the Vatican.

The Times Of India has hyped this piece of news as a symbolic step in marking India's connection with the spiritual leader.

Definitely unique news and a novel marketing gimmick by Piaggio Ape Calessino, the rickshaw manufacturing company, but not worthy of front page status.

In my opinion, the Pope making use this mode of transport from a developing country is a feather in the cap for India's awesome transportation system, but other than that, no big deal.

Beautifully cropped! A shot of a hot air balloon in Istanbul by smallscreen. This is what they call big sky in Turkey, I guess.

I realize I am a little late with this Photo of the day, but it's still June 30 here on the West Coast.

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