February 23, 2008
Will Travel For Money
Things That David Horvitz Will do for Money. (From Cynical-C)
The Deadly Huashan Hiking Trail, one of the most dangerous Tourist Hiking Trail in the world.
The Cave of Swallows in Mexico
The Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden
Do Australians count as whites? Correspondence with the Ku Klux Klan. Many more Meaningless Hoaxes, if you scroll down
Helping China learn to read: Zhou Youguang is the inventor of Pinyin, a Romanization of the Chinese lexicon used by millions to learn the language
Minnesotans for global warming
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February 23, 2008 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 17, 2008
Trains of Zurich
Trains of Zurich in real time
The forgotten women of Slyozi, a small village in western Russia - one of 34,000 across the country that have fewer than 10 residents, mostly old women
Swimming at the edge of Victoria Falls
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February 17, 2008 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 02, 2008
A Dutch Yellow Brick Road
Lost World - Satoru Toma’s photos from a theme park gone to seed. (From your monkey called)
A yellow street in the city of Schiedam
The Commissioners’ Plan of 1811 was a proposal by the New York State Legislature adopted in 1811 for the orderly development and sale of the land of Manhattan between 14th Street and Washington Heights. The plan is arguably the most famous use of the grid plan and is considered by most historians to have been far-reaching and visionary
"Panda kindergarten" at the Pandas of Wolong
An angry letter to Gordon Brown from Mr. BaliHai
Where else can you find images like these? Only in Russia
Windows of the world - a miniature world amusement park in Shenzhen, China
A Day At The Beach In South Korea
(Graphic above from Tess Contest)
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February 2, 2008 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 04, 2008
Go before it's too late
International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators
Antarctica - Go before it's too late. (From Kilroy Travel)
Icelandic Faces by Stuck in customs
Cumil the construction worker peeking out of a manhole in Bratislava. (Another one in Stockholm. Thank you, Marilyn)
1 more Reason to love New York (Watch it happen)
What's on your travel itinerary in the new year? NYT list of 53 Places To Go In 2008
"I don't even know what street Canada is on", (Al Capone) and other Quotes About Canada
(Click on pix above to biggify)
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January 4, 2008 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 06, 2007
Château de Versailles from the air
Château de Versailles from the air
The annual Christmas Fair in Piazza Navona
What are some "little known" countries that are worth visiting?
Tony Wheeler, founder of Lonely Planet interviewed by Rick Steves, comparing notes on their early seventies travels along the hippie trail
Re-post: Painted traffic signal boxes in Brisbane, Australia and utility boxes in Israel
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December 6, 2007 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 09, 2007
City of Broken Dreams
Murals of Belfast. Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland, has been home to some of the worst violence Ireland has endured. The Troubles, between the late 1960’s and 1998, divided the nation, mainly between Nationalist Catholics and Unionist Protestants. The Agreement on Good Friday (April 10th, 1998) brought an end to 30 years of suffering and bitter feuding between these communities. Throughout The Troubles both sides painted large murals on buildings, particularly in residential areas on houses at the end of terraced rows
Kadykchan. The City of Broken Dreams. This city has become useless after the collapse of the USSR, like many other Soviet industrial settlements
Panoramic view from The World Trade Center Twin Towers
Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg – the longest place name in the US
A very Simplified map of London
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November 9, 2007 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 27, 2007
Mountain Life
The Arkansas Tuberculosis Sanatorium occupies a hilly spread of land in Booneville, Arkansas, a town of barely more than 4,000. It admitted its first patient in 1910 and discharged its last in 1973. (Thank you, Traci)
Where you wish the streets have no names
Riding home-made wooden bikes. The Cordilleras of northern Philippine preserve their rich culture and traditions amid strong influences from the “outside” world. (From Flutterby)
A Spa at the Pfister Hotel Milwaukee
Mountain cave hotel Beckham Creek Cave Haven near Eureka Springs, Arkansas
In the mid-19th century, one Mrs Favell Mortimer set forth to write a definitive travel guide to the world. There was just one problem: she had never set foot outside her native Shropshire. The rudest travel book ever written
Generate a custom packing list for any journey with the Universal Packing List
Not related: Illusions on Worth1000
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October 27, 2007 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 24, 2007
Galapagos, Galapagos, Galapagos….
My cousin Sammy, had been sailing his boat for the last 3-4 years and is now somewhere around equador. I am very jealous of him. Here is a letter I received from him -
There’s certainly more than meets the eye there and after one week on a diving cruise there, I can only say that I have barely seen its magic. Some take a three week cruise and they too don’t get to see all of beauty and glory of these enchanted islands.
In fact there is no one good time to visit. The islands’ weather is influenced sea currents. The cold season July through September is dominated but southern current bringing lots of plankton and thus abundant sea life. But it is also a dry season, so the islands are arid and the land animals are have a harder time surviving and there are fewer of them. And of course, it’s cold diving and the visibility is poor because of all the plankton. A particular cold year, La Nina, would even be better for under water life.
On the other hand, the warm season, December through February, is also the raining season. During these months it can rain cats and dogs all day and so the islands turn green. The land animals flourish. The warm water is lacking plankton, the migrating creatures are gone, and the local die out in numbers. So for land tours, one must deal with the rain and the over cast skies (not great for photography.) El Nino phenomenon would bring particularly more rain and thus more abundant life on land.
The islands are much bigger and farther apart (120 nautical miles) than what imagined. In some places, those that you probably never see on nature documentaries, they are plain ugly. There are four larger urban towns. They are really ugly and poor. Typical unfinished buildings scared visibly with the grey of unpainted building blocks. Streets lined up with stores selling the same T-Shirt and chatchkes fare to tourists. A population of about 30,000 survives on tourism and fishing.
Fishing is good but greed is depleting the fish stock. The Japanese and Chinese fleets skirt the reserve’s boundary and the lack of enforcement for lack of funds; violate these boundaries on a regular basis. Corruption and bribes are certainly not helping. The enforcing officers apparently earn few hundred dollars a months. So for such a little extra, they will willingly turn a blind eye.
Recently a ex-pat, turned Ecuadorian, by marriage, mistaken for a foreigner, was put in jail because he documented and reported this. The new and so loved president of Ecuador just approved a new law allowing the ‘accidental’ taking of sharks. The belief is that now that reporting is required, there will be more control. But in fact, it will just increase the number of sharks taken accidentally. The Chinese with their new found riches are driving up the price of shark fin soup. And so the population of shark is expected to dwindle to critical level in a few short decades.
As for my trip, 7 nights on a trimaran with two days near Darwin and Wolf islands. These are the northern and most remote islands with the best diving. Trimarans like catamarans are not the most cruise friendly vessel while making way. Yes they don’t heel and they have large living spaces. But the waves ‘bump’ into their suspended bellies. I am not sure one can really get used to all this banging and shaking. We were blessed with relatively calm seas, so it wasn’t much of a problem. The crew real efficient and friendly provided a very pleasant stay. The food was tasty too and the chef, the most important person on board, certainly earned his wage. Too bad the outdoor buffet style serving was the reason we often ate our meal cold. I was the only American aboard. Out of 16 divers, 7 were French, 2 Russians, 1 (other) Israeli, 2 Brits, 1 Spaniard, 1 Ecuadorian and 1 Pole.
The beauty of the underwater world was slow uncovering but we were very lucky. Once we reached Darwin, the dive master had us do a back roll practically on top of a whale shark. We swam with it for most of our dive. The next 2 dives we kept bumping into it, even seeing two crossing paths feet from each other. This was the highlight of the diving. We did see plenty of Galapagos sharks, hammerheads, turtles and eels. And even on lucky beautiful orange frog fish. Our last dive was a short and shallow where we had a chance to dance with sea lions. It did not take long for them to twist and turn around us, to tug at our fins and bump against our cameras. Fortunately, underwater, one can not smell them, as they truly stink on land. On land we saw them again basking in the sun, sea and land iguanas, giant turtles and lonesome George. We saw a variety of birds but too few species out of the many variety inhabiting these islands. Fourteen species of finches have evolved on the island. We saw only 2 of them.
During land trips we saw the sad abundance of introduces land species. Cows and donkeys dot the farm land. Yes, they have farms and banana plantations. Introduced timber and grass, ugly looking, grass, are spreading and endangering the native plants.
Overall it was a one of a kind magical trip. But I also discovered the sad side of the islands. During the trip I read Darwin for dummies and selected chapters of his Origin of the species. Nature dictates that isolated species will die out. Either because some ´fast´´ drastic change in the environment causes them to no longer fit or inbreeding makes them susceptible to diseases. Lonesome George, the last of his species will not mate with another species of giant turtle. On each island a different species of giant turtle evolved. Two other have been extinct no thanks to man. The flightless Cormorant is also endangered because of inbreeding. His inability to ´move on´ will doom it with the declining population of fish.
See the attached photos for some of the beauty of these islands.
Sam
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October 24, 2007 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack
October 07, 2007
Images of Atlantis
Vision of Atlantis
From the 1940s through the 1960s, every tourist trap had a rack of postcards. Every postcard rack displayed views of the local attractions and a selection of comic cards. Some of those comic cards seem to have come from another world. Comic Postcard Pages. (From Tom Mcmahon)
Dear Sir:
Is there a way to fold a large map that enables the user to view a conveniently small section of it, but also to view adjacent sections of the map with minor manipulations? The Miura map fold, invented by Professor Koryo Miura, can be opened and closed easily merely by separating two opposite corners
Rich B.’s 100-day cross country Great America Roadtrip on Neatorama
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October 7, 2007 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
September 09, 2007
Matt Harding Outtakes
Here's some clips that didn't make it into the last video of Where the Hell is Matt? (YT)
QT panoramic of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles by Laurent Thion. (From Coudal)
Satellite view of the Colosseum
The lions of St. Petersburg. Similar street art projects, previously mentioned
People need more maps, especially in South Africa and The Iraq
10 Signs you've spent all summer in Amsterdam
Tianducheng, a residential area on the outskirts of Hangzhou - Little Paris in China
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September 9, 2007 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 16, 2007
Naked in China
Naked in China by Olen Sanders
Welcome to Caracas, Venezuela - can you spot the divide?
You Can Get Arrested for That!? 2 Englishmen on a crime spree break American laws
Bush Flying in Alaska (by Shaun Lunt)
One of the great things about living in Paris are all the different markets; from food to flowers, or books to stamps, there’s sure to be a market in Paris selling just what you’re looking for. 10 Street Markets in Paris
Re-post from 2003: Heathrow Airport Announcement Pranks
I saw an interesting building while visiting Bratislava last year, and would like to know more about it
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August 16, 2007 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 10, 2007
Boring postcards
The Catherine Palace in is the summer residence of the Russian tsars, located in Tsarskoye Selo, 25 km south-east of St. Petersburg. (From Szanalmas)
Analyses of the City of Toronto’s coat of arms
Boring postcards. (From Advancing gingerly)
Top 10 Things Not To Do in London
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August 10, 2007 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack
July 20, 2007
The Inns North Amaulik hotel in Sanikiluaq
New York at night by Arnold Pouteau
Police Cars from Around the World
Images Of Ceylon. (From Dublog)
Driving from Argentina to Alaska to Asia
Our First Amsterdam Sight: A bald man laser-eyeing a sheep
A Time to Eat: A portfolio by Paul County
Experience Arctic hospitality
(Homer graphic above by HappyToast at b3ta. Background here)
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July 20, 2007 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 24, 2007
Production and consumption
“For every building that rises from the ground, there is a corresponding hole somewhere else where the raw materials have been mined for the construction”. Last week I saw the gripping movie Manufactured Landscapes. It follows Canadian Edward Burtynsky, as he travels to China, Pennsylvania & Bangladesh and documents how nature is being transformed by industry. I highly recommend it. Here is an interview with the director Jennifer Baichwal
44 photos of Chechnya’s rural schools. (From Sargasso)
Betelnut girls are a unique part of Taiwan culture. They sit in brightly-decorated glass booths wearing skimpy outfits, and sell cigarettes, drinks and betelnut to passing drivers
Pint of beer –€4.50. 50 liters of fresh water – €1.50
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June 24, 2007 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 06, 2007
Sidney 360º
Photo tourism is a system for browsing large collections of photographs in 3D. Our approach takes as input large collections of images from either personal photo collections or Internet photo sharing sites, and automatically computes each photo's viewpoint and a sparse 3D model of the scene. Our photo explorer interface enables the viewer to interactively move about the 3D space by seamlessly transitioning between photographs, based on user control
Sydney Harbour Bridge panoramic
Located in Canada's Northwest Territories, the arctic highway from Tibbitt to Contwoyto is considered one of the most dangerous routes in the world
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June 6, 2007 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack