In celebration of the new season of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations on the travel channel, Gadling is giving away a free, autographed poster of Mr. Bourdain to one lucky winner.

Have you been following along this year? We're now three episodes deep into the season and blogger Jeremy has been following the unfolding debauchery closely. Take a look at his recaps if you'd like to catch up.

Think that poster would go great above your headboard? Just leave an entry telling us where you would like to see Tony travel next in the comments below and we'll draw a lucky winner by this Friday, July 25th.

Good luck!

• To enter, simply leave a comment below telling us where you think Anthony Bourdain should travel next.
  
• The comment must be left before Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 5PM Eastern Time.
• You may enter only once.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
• One Grand Prize Winner will receive a free, original autographed poster of Anthony Bourdain
  
• Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
• Poster is valued at $20.
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

Two months ago I went rappelling in the Hocking Hills State Forest with Earth, Water, Rock Adventures Ltd.

I was pretty proud of myself that all I ended up with was a scrape on my calf when I slipped on some moss on my first time down the rock face.I could have scrapped a lot more if I had followed the thrill of nude rock climbing.

There is a trend where people cast off their clothes to experience nature from high places in the buff. The trend seems to have started in California, but has been transported to Great Britain as well.

The friend who sent me the article to the naked Barbie on the dash board story sent me this article about nude rock climbing. All I could think of when I read this story was that Jerry Seinfeld episode where he had a girl friend who insisted on being nude as much as possible. Jerry wasn't too thrilled, particularly when she attempted to open a pickle jar.

Nude rock climbing would probably really set Jerry on edge. It certainly brings being naked to a higher level.

Dean Fidelman, a rock-climber and the guy who took this picture has made a calendar dedicated to this endeavor. The project is called Stone Nudes.

His work reminds me a bit of Spencer Tunick's, another artist who sees the human form as one that lends itself well to being photographed sans clothes in nature. There is a simplicity that is very alluring.

Check out this amazing photo. Two times a year in the late spring and late autumn, up to 10,000 Cownose stingrays make their way between their feeding grounds in western Florida and the Yucatan Peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico. This amazing shot of the migration was taken by amateur photographer Sandra Critelli.

As soon as I saw Sandra's image, I immediately wanted to know where it was taken. According to some quick research, she apparently encountered this awesome phenomenon while on a Whale Shark expedition off the coast of a small Mexican island in the Yucatan called Holbox. As intrigued as I am by her photo, my interest was instantly piqued by the mention of whale sharks - huge, plankton-feeding fish that can grow up to 40 feet in length. Holbox is apparently whale shark paradise, hosting numerous opportunities to dive with huge creatures.

Between huge schools of stingrays, giant whale sharks and plenty of other sea life at diving hotspots like Cozumel, the Yucatan peninsula is a diver's dream.

What a New York City shot! At first, I thought, where is this place? And then, "Aha!"

Taken from a distance by Damon Green, this view of people waiting by a train track is an every day New York experience that is often lost in the busy shuffle of life there.

It's great to have time to see how these three men are sitting on this bench waiting. This reminds me a bit of the Edward Hopper painting "Nighthawks." It's the voyeuristic quality perhaps.

The lines and color tones of this shot are also exquisite. Well, done.

If you have shots that capture an experience where you are, please send our way at Gadling photo pool. It may be picked as Photo of the Day.

You've thought about going to Venice. Come on, admit it. Don't deny it. Of course you immediately talked yourself out of it, considering you absolutely detest crowds and tourist traps. Yet Venice, you must admit, does look magical, like the kind of tourist trap you should see at least once in your life. But the problem is you can't stand crowds and tourist traps. And that's a problem. A very big problem.

For me, too!

When a flight attendant takes a vacation, the flight attendant will do everything possible to avoid anything that resembles a layover. Layovers equate to work. Yeah, I know, work ain't so bad when you're laying over someplace nice, but at the same time, laying over somewhere nice usually means you're at a chain hotel surrounded by chain restaurants, not too far from the airport. Of course, life could be worse, I know. But when you've been doing the layover-chain-thing for thirteen years, it doesn't matter where you are - New York, Paris, Rome - it all starts to look the same. Which is why a flight attendant looks for something different, someplace unusual, somewhere special, when it comes to a vacation - wherever that vacation may be.

The Middle East is proving to be the mad-architect's dream come true. Saudi Arabia has announced the launch of a new cultural center, and this is what it's going to look like:



Just out of this world. It will have a library, museum, theater and cinema. When a country has an unimaginable amount of money to spend, anything is possible. This project is being sponsored by Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company.

In the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait -- the money is ample, the vision is extraordinary, but the reality is hollow. I suppose, as an increasingly higher caliber of people get recruited from all over the world to execute the Middle East's vision, the reality will soon be seen.

If you are on the way to Essaouria, Morocco and you need to find a toilet, no problem. Could this sign be any more travel friendly? This shot by mce323 interests me for other reasons as well. See the man and the child in the background? Plus, there's the coffee cup painted on the wall. What's that about?

If you notice, the pink building has a crack in it. There are so many details that catch my eye. I'm also drawn in by the multiple textures. Don't you know exactly how that wall would feel if you could reach in and touch it?

If you have an image of what you've seen in your travels, send it our way at Gadling's Flickr photo pool. It might be chosen as Photo of the Day.

The post about the eight abandoned hotels reminded me of the glory days gone by hotel where I worked one summer during college. Wildmere was a wondrous expansive wooden hotel that first opened in 1887.

Perched on the top of the limestone cliffs of Lake Minnewaska in upstate New York near New Paltz, it was a regal testament to monied folk.

When it was in its prime, the hotel gleamed white from fresh paint. When I worked there, it was at the tail end of fading. As with the hotels in the abandoned hotel post at ProTraveller, as the economy shifts, keeping up with beauty is not easy.

Paint flaked. Dripping pipes in the basement created puddles one had to gingerly step through on the way to the laundry room.

Over at ProTraveler, there is a read worth noting about eight abandoned hotels in various parts of the world. They once had glory days, but didn't hold onto it for financial woes or pestilence.

These are the places that chronicle shifts of time. Hot destinations that don't stay hot or where the owners made bad decisions. You've probably come across examples of these types of places in your own travels.

"What was this place?" you might say to your traveling companions. You wonder if anyone important stayed here or what the building looked like when it was brand spanking new.

One example is this picture of the Palace Hotel in Jerusalem. I love this shot. The hotel reminds me of John Everett Millais's painting of Ophelia still clutching flowers, dead, floating face-up in a pond.

The photos are haunting, I think. Chairs with no one sitting in them, debris scattered across the floor, and an old sign that once flashed its neon. These are reminders that nothing gold can stay, but if lucky, can be resurrected into a new life.

For example, the Palace Hotel is to be reopened as a Waldorf-Astoria luxury hotel in a few years. The Diplomat Hotel in the Philippines may be turned into a museum. The folks who are going to do the project better hurry while there is still a building worth saving. It's thought to be haunted, so hopefully, the ghosts will be happy with the change.

I've seen many a digital camera die a slow and painful death while on the road. Sand that got caught in the lens mechanism. LCD screens cracked by bumper-car-joyrides. Accidental drops on unforgiving pavement. Not to mention those of us who abuse our cameras in adverse situations involving water, dust and extremes of temperature.

For anyone who's ever risked their digital to get a great shot but lost a nice camera in the process, I recommend checking out the Olympus Stylus 1030SW. According to the reviews I've found at Travel Gear Blog, as well as on CNET, the 1030W is one of the sturdiest cameras on the market. In addition to being waterproof and dustproof, the Olympus is also shockproof, crushproof and freezeproof down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit.

How durable is that exactly? According to specs, you can drop it from up to 6.6 feet and crush it with up to 220 pounds of pressure. While the 1030 SW can't match the optics of some of the top-of-the-line point-and-shoots out there, it does offer a solid 10.1 megapixels and the standard digital camera features like panorama stitching and image stabilization we've come to expect from most consumer point-and-shoots these days.

All you skiiers, snorkelers and adventure-travelers take note. Although there are better cameras on the market for image quality, this Olympus packs some great features into a highly durable package. Sometimes avoiding the aggravation of a ruined camera is worth that small sacrifice in functionality.