Wacky world - weekly offbeat travel roundup

(AFP PHOTO/STR)

A roundup of this week's offbeat travel stories.

Rocking around the airplane cabin

Fans of Cebu Pacific's 'dancing flight crew' PR win will be delighted with the news that its highly trained team of cabin crew/dancers will be returning on select flights over the holiday season. If you're that keen to book, check out the list here.

One hotel with deep pockets

Never a fan of doing things by halves, Abu Dhabi's Emirates Palace Hotel inaugurated the world's most expensive Christmas tree this week, costing more than $11 million. The 13 meter evergreen is decorated with diamonds, pearls, emeralds and sapphires and the hotel's management expect it to enter the Guinness Book of Records. In case you're wondering whether this is the same hotel which opened the world's first gold vending machine earlier this year - yes, that's the one.

Unsavory color choice

Red faces all round at French automaker Bugatti this week after eagle-eyed AOL noticed an unpleasant color option for the Veyron super car on its website - "rape yellow". The mistranslation was rapidly corrected, but not before screenshots of the offending hue were posted around the internet. Hopefully it won't do too much damage to the brand, which sells its cars for an eyewatering €1.4 million apiece.

Santa Claus - an airborne crash risk?

Any driver will tell you that driving all night and stopping for sherry at every available opportunity is a bad idea, but Santa does it every year nonetheless. This year, two academics have warned that Santa's long-haul nighttime trip present a crash risk - "lack of sleep will make him drowsy, his vigilance will fade and his ability to think and remember will diminish," said the pair on December 14.

Don't I recognize you?

If a male billionaire in stockings sounds like fun, AirAsia X is the airline for you. The company's boss Tony Fernandes announced this week that his friend and rival Richard Branson will don a stewardess' uniform to serve passengers on a flight between London and Kuala Lumpur on February 21, 2011 as a result of losing a bet. Seats are expected to be auctioned off.