« April 2009 | Main | June 2009 »
Situated at the base of 3,000 meter (9,800 foot) mountains which rise to its north, this city is capital to an ancient land of as many as 80 different languages and dialects.
Can you name the city? The country? The answer is after the jump.
A good weekend to all from Common Sense and Whiskey & EarthPhotos.com.
(Photo from EarthPhotos.com.)
We're chomping at the bit for our trip to: Chengdu, China, the 22 July total solar eclipse atop Emei Shan, Szechuan province, China, Urumqi and Kashgar, China, a week in Kyrgyzstan, Almaty, Kazakhstan and Tokyo, Japan.
The photography kit, updated:
- Nikon D200 & D700 cameras & battery packs
- Nikkor 24 - 70 f2.8 FX, 70 - 200 f2.8 FX & 18 - 200 DX lenses
- B + W UV & polarizing filters
- Sandisk 4 & 8 Gig cards
- Two LaCie portable hard drives
all packed in Think Tank carrying cases, with a Gitzo G2135 tripod.
Put this one on your list: Namibia may be better known as a desert destination than for game viewing. But up in the north the Etosha Pan and the Etosha National Park rival, and compete with, Botswana's Okavango Delta.
Top of the line up there, far as we can see, is the Ongava Lodge's Little Ongava, with a rack rate of N$8990/US$1116.96 (today's rate) "Per person per day fully inclusive of all accommodation, meals, activities, guided tours to Etosha and on Ongava" based on a double room.
Sure looks nice, though.
See the Namibian desert in the Namibia Gallery, and the Okavango delta in the Botswana Gallery at EarthPhotos.com. See also Namibia's Top Safari Lodges.
(Ongava banner from the Ongava website.)
Just reading the Sharing Experiences blog entry titled Beer. It's timely because earlier this week The New York Times published a long article on one particular beer on a mission, Beer Lao.
There's even one place where recently we've been able to find it here in rural northeast Georgia, of all places. It's great to see it popping up (albeit only occasionally, so far) hereabouts.
The article reports that, "In Hong Kong’s central district, it (Beer Lao) sells for 44 Hong Kong dollars, or about $6, a bottle — about the same price as Carlsberg, Stella Artois or Heineken.
Not so on our first encounter with Beer Lao. On an impossibly hot, dripping-humid afternoon, we sat in full sun at an insubstantial little formica table that comprised half the terrace at a no-name restaurant directly above the Mekong River in Luang Prabang.
We'd just arrived by boat from the northern tip of Thailand, it was so, so bloody hot and well, gee, we were mighty thirsty.
One U.S. dollar first produced two tall, icy bottles (one of which is pictured). A few moments later the barefoot, maybe pre-teen girl returned with a brilliant smile - and a handful of change.
Herewith I submit photographic evidence of our painstaking research into Beer Lao: It's my beautiful wife Mirja hard by the banks of the River Mekong in Luang Prabang, Laos in June, 2000.
Reuters: "In December, the World Health Organization said that 60,000 people would be infected with the diarrheal disease in its "worst-case scenario" for Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak."
A scant five months later comes the news, Red Cross: Zimbabwe cholera cases to top 100,000.
And with South Africa in recession and its new government off to an uncertain start, the outlook for improvement is not good.
This Wales-shaped toast on Strange Maps is a reminder of Wales' silly side.
As you study the toast, above, note the protrusion in the top left. There, in Anglesey not far from the ferry to Dublin at Holyhead, is part of Wales' claim to fame: the place with the longest place name in the world. It's called:
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
As Wikipedia puts it, without irony, it's "short form" is Llanfairpwllgwyngyll. It's said to mean "The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave" in Welsh.
(Top photo from Strange Maps, bottom photo of the sign announcing the town of
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch from EarthPhotos.com. Click for a larger photo.)
The Old Jazz Band will play again at a newly renovated Peace Hotel in Shanghai.
In Restoring Peace to Heart of Old Shanghai, the Financial Times writes "The hotel's pedigree is impeccable: brainchild and plaything of Victor Sassoon, the British-Iraqi trader of opium, guns and Shanghai property, it opened as the Cathay Hotel in 1929 and was the most luxurious hotel in Asia."
We stayed at the Peace Hotel on our first visit to China in 1995 and as I look back, I find that "the Old Jazz Band was in full swing when we got back home, five old Chinese men playing swing. What did they do during the Cultural Revolution? Whatever it was, it wasn't this.
Some of the tunes, "Sing Sing Sing" in particular, sounded like they were playing their five parts in an arrangement for 20 pieces. Still, it was fun. The crowd loved it."
The FT article notes that in 2007, "Its signature Old Jazz Band was still playing pre-war favourites, with some of the original octogenarian musicians." By the reopening, though, I'm guessing it'll be the new Old Jazz Band, like the eighth-iteration of the Tams that visits your summer concert series.
(Photo from the China Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)
This photo, of a junk in Hong Kong harbor, is today's contribution from the Top Fifty Prints collection at EarthPhotos.com. Get top-notch professional 8x12 Glossy & Matte prints of any of the Top Fifty Prints for just $11.50 at EarthPhotos.com.
The monument in the photo on the left is good, because it gives the monument in the photo on the right a little competition as the most notable tourist draw in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Russia!, which is known to be just a wee bit um... sarcastic from time to time, runs a story called Paul McCartney, come to Yekaterinburg already!, about the monument at left, and how it "took six years to produce and coordinate with the local government."
Compare with the monument at right, commemorating an event arguably of a wee bit more historical import, the murder of the Romanov clan, the event for which Yekaterinburg is primarily known.
Read a story about our short visit to Yekaterinburg after the jump.
(Left photo via Russia! blog, right photo from the Russia Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)
Continue reading "Okay, so Maybe not THAT Much Happens in the Urals." »
You're right. It's not Congo. Not Libya either. Another good guess!
On the night of 23 January 1904 fire swept this town, then built largely of wood. A gale aided the flames, which destroyed most of the town, and resulted in its remarkably consistent architecture today, as it was rebuilt largely as we see it today during the following three years.
Can you name the city? The country? The answer is after the jump.
A good weekend to all from Common Sense and Whiskey & EarthPhotos.com.
(Photo from EarthPhotos.com.)
As 22 July draws nearer, interest in that day’s total solar eclipse is growing. The New York Times travel section weighed in on Sunday. Even the flight tracking service FareCompare.com recently mentioned it.
Xinhua modestly headlines, Scientists: China the best place to observe longest solar eclipse in 2,000 years. In terms of easy-to-reach destinations, they’re surely right; The biggest world city near totality’s path is Shanghai, with a blizzard of buses likely to head a short ride south to the center line. We’ve posted samples of the various travel packages on offer here, but by now, most of those tours will be filling up.
We’ll be on hand for our third total solar eclipse (1999 in Hungary, 2006 in Cappadocia), but we’ll travel to Mt. Emei, or Emei Shan, in Szechuan province south of Chengdu. On the one hand, totality is slightly shorter than to the east on the coast. On the other, at Emei Shan’s 10,167 foot peak (3,099 meters), we have a fair shot at escaping fog, mist & ground haze.
With a maximum totality off the coast of Japan of 6:39, this eclipse is nearly as long as they get, and by far the longest in any of our remaining lifetimes. The science is a little daunting, but according to the textbook Astronomy Today, “Because the (moon’s) shadow sweeps across Earth’s surface at over 1700 kilometers per hour, the duration of a total eclipse at any given point on our planet can never exceed 7.5 minutes.”
The book Totality elaborates on the rarity of the event:
- “… only a tiny fraction of people, about one in 10,000, have witnessed a total solar eclipse.” And
- “On the average, your house will be visited by a total eclipse of the Sun only once in about 375 years.”
See how soon your house can expect a visit with this map.
(Eclipse photo from the 1999 total solar eclipse as seen at Lake Balaton, Hungary. See more in the Hungary Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)
Here's a new series featuring destinations where the only word that applies is fabulous. Put this one on your list: Next time you're anywhere near Adelaide, check out Kangaroo Island's Southern Ocean Lodge.
Pricey? Sure. At today's exchange rate, according to xe.com, the rack rate for two nights for two people in the Osprey Pavilion is US$5577.99. Cheapest room, the Flinders Suite, is half that, or a mere $697.25 per person per night.
But what a fabulous place.
Explore the Southern Ocean Lodge's website.
what do YOU think?
The BBC has a report this morning about the newly rebuilt Grozny under its 32 year old, Kremlin-backed President Ramzan Kadyrov. As we've noted here before, the pictures look just a wee bit too good to be true, especially in light of books that exposed the brutality of the conflict there, books, to name three, like:
A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya by the late Anna Politkovskaya,
Chienne de Guerre: A Woman Reporter Behind the Lines of the War in Chechnya by Anne Nivat, and
The Man Who Tried to Save the World: The Dangerous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of an American Hero by Scott Anderson
Whatever unpleasantness doubtless still lurks, the transformation really has been remarkable. Check this photo of a rebuilt Grozny, from a 2007 New York Times story:
Today's BBC report says the new Grozny mosque, patterned after Istanbul's Blue Mosque, holds 10,000 worshippers. Note the similarity. Here they are side by side, the Grozny Mosque on the left:
(Photo credits: top, New York Times, lower left, BBC, lower right, EarthPhotos.com. See similar photos in the Worship Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)
Note: Grozny is about 250 miles east of Sochi, home of the 2014 winter Olympic Games. Check our occasional feature, Sochi Olympics Watch.
The words in the headline are a quote from NightWatch.
The momentous events in Sri Lanka give reason to reflect on the gentle humanity of the people we met there. Two quick stories:
*****
In the pre-dawn gray, the fishing fleet already trolled off the Negombo shore. One last tardy catamaran, sail full-billowed, chugged out to join the rest.
Sheldon had already been out and back. A slight fellow, just chest high, with a broad smile under a clipped mustache, Sheldon showed me his catch, in a crate, a few gross of five or six inch mackerels.
He took me to meet all the other guys and see their catches, stepping over nets they were busy untangling and setting right for the afternoon. He led me to his house, just alongside and between a couple of beach hotels, shoreside from the road. It was in a community of a dozen thatch huts.
He’d built it himself and he took me inside, immensely proud, to show me how he had arranged two hundred woven palm-frond panels on top of one another to build the roof. He told me “two hundred” several times. A thatch wall divided Sheldon’s house into two rooms. The only furniture was a rough wooden bed with no linens.
Sheldon’s wife, a very young woman dressed in a long blue smock with her hair pulled back, rose to smile and greet me, and his precocious four and six year old daughters danced around us all. He took his son, just one year old, into his lap as we talked.
We all sat together near a crack in the wall where sunlight came through so they could look at postcards of where I was from. They served sweet tea. I drank it fearing I’d be dying of local water later that day.
Sheldon walked me back toward Hotel Royal Oceanic, two hundred meters and several worlds apart. On the way, he explained to me that he was 31, his brother was “41, 42 sometimes. Lives nearby, mama too. Papa no.”
- Sheldon and his family lived a scant hundred yards from the ocean, before the tsunami of December 2004. I have no idea of their fate that day.
Continue reading "The Colombo government is the first this century to defeat an insurgency" »
This photo, of Constantine's Arch and the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, is today's contribution from the Top Fifty Prints collection at EarthPhotos.com. Get top-notch professional 8x12 Glossy & Matte prints of any of the Top Fifty Prints for just $11.50 at EarthPhotos.com.
When I was younger, the book The Worst Journey in the World, the story of an ill-fated expedition to the South Pole almost a hundred years ago, made a big impression. Now comes a modern day equivalent, as told in the BBC story:
Relief as Arctic quest concludes
In the words of the modern day expedition leader expedition leader Pen Hadow,
"We've learned a lot about what's possible and what's not possible."
So far we've made it to all the continents except Antarctica, and we've yet to make it to the North Pole. But we have made it as close as Disko Bay in Greenland. Here's a story, and there are photos in the Greenland Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.
Things with Wings tells the story of Mexico's Volaris Airlines, and its efforts to confront passengers' fear of flying at the beginning of the flu outbreak. Volaris "will not even hand out
food on flights but instead give customers the snacks in plastic bags
at flight’s end."
*****
In their ongoing efforts to improve every traveler's flying experience, the TSA's blog relates that, "Starting May 15, when passengers purchase airline tickets, they will be required to provide their name as it appears on the government-issued ID that they plan to use when traveling." For your safety and convenience.
Further, "After August 15, domestic airlines will be required to collect (and passengers will be required to provide) date of birth and gender in addition to name (as it appears on the government ID)."
It just keeps getting better.
*****
Finally, there's this headline:
Tommy & Gail Sheridan pay £870 excess baggage charge on £30 flight
The article invites you to be disgusted with Ryanair's predatory pricing, and Ryanair is easy to be disgusted by, but consider: This was a flight to Tenerife. What could you possibly need to bring along that weighs that much? Did poor Tommy and Gail really need to haul 128 pounds - over the Ryanair allowance - on a beach holiday?
(Photo from Things with Wings.)
Founded on a river bank in 789, the city in this week's quiz is believed to have been the largest in the world around the year 1170. It was the capital city several times, most recently ending in 1912. A UNESCO World Heritage site since 1981, it has been a renowned center of Islamic learning for over a thousand years. The photo above is the Medina, or old city, gate.
Can you name the city? The country? The answer is after the jump.
A good weekend to all from Common Sense and Whiskey & EarthPhotos.com.
(Photo from EarthPhotos.com.)
Common Sense and Whiskey is the companion to EarthPhotos.com, where you can see and buy professional photo prints from 105 countries and territories around the world, and the blog for Common Sense and Whiskey - the book. It's Intelligent discussion about the world out there.
The Photos:
