June 1st, 2010
The Philippines is the lone Christian country in Southeast Asia. The majority of their 75 provinces swiftly caved into Jesus when Spain embarked on a short–lived Asian experiment in the 1650’s. In spite of that, six of those provinces — within a secluded mountain–range jungle in northern Luzon — fiercely resisted Spain’s take on God. The semi–tropical Cordillera is the country’s most rugged and least populated region and is still a thorny place to plot a route and get a haircut. Native Ifugao, Igorot and other pagan tribes remained warring headhunters until the 1950’s.
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Tags: access, affluence, age, Alas, alphabet, ancient ways, angle, archetypal, background, backpack, barber, barefoot, basketball, beginning, betel, birth, block, Blue, Boose, booty, bread, breather, buddy, business, camp, cement, Chase, chest, chicken, choice, colonial, community planning, cone, Continuously, Cordillera, country, couple, crime, cum, customer, cynicism, dawn, day, decade, decree, department, destination, Detention, detour, devotee, dilemma, distance, divide, dog, Drift, driver, dueling, DVD, DVDs, electricity, elevation, end, English, familial, family, flung, forehead, frenzy, friend, front, fuel, full time job, garden weed, Grandma, granola, ground, Haircut, hairdo, hillside, hip, history, hitchhike, hook, hoop, hour, house, husband, Hygee, Ifugao, ifugao tradition, import, irrigation technology, jungle, kid, leftover, length, Lessons, life, log, look, machete, man, Marching, Mario, mayan pyramid, Meliza, message, meth, mile, Modernity, monkey, Mother, motorcycle sidecar, mullet, needle, night, none, norm, northern luzon, nose, number, nut, onality, overtook, pagan tribes, pause, performance women, pile, point, population, pound, Practical, province, Pula, punishment, purse, quarter, reconfirm, redirect, resolve, rest, retaining walls, rice, rice paddies, rice paddy, rice terrace, rock, room, rope, runner, rustle, saddle, School, schoolhouse, Seemingly, Semi, side, skull, something, sound, state, steep mountainsides, stereo, stone, stone staircase, stream, stripmall, suggestion, Tapping, teacher, terrain, thievery, time, town, Traditional, trail, tree, trend, trickshooter, trouble, turf, Uncomfortable, vertical garden, village, waist, walk, warning, wave, way, whimsy, whitewater, wood, Woodstock, WWII, year, zone
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June 1st, 2010
“You have to put up with a lot to get up onto the “rooftop of the world” – bureaucracy & permits, distance & flights, unpaved roads & long drives, poverty & filth, altitude sickness, headaches, nose bleeds, and dust… lots of dust. “But make it to Tibet and you will be rewarded with a surfeit of sensory experiences. A Tibet tour will delight and challenge your senses with smells, tastes and colors you have never experienced before. Good or bad, you’ll discover the fetid odor of yak butter and incense that smacks of hashish. You’ll taste rich, savory stews of spicy yak, crisp Asian pears, and sweet local melons …”
Mystical, magical, incomprehensible Tibet offers an overload on the senses: the gaspingly thin air; the overwhelming beauty of the world’s highest mountains; the haunting images of Buddhas, deities and demons; the intricate patterns of the colourful Tibetan art; the poignant devotion of the pilgrims circumambulating sacred images; the improbability of the ancient architectural wonders clinging to perilous hillsides; the tumultuous history of inaccessibility, mystery, struggles, determination and resilience. This is a country of extremes with one of the most adventurous, scenically stunning and physically demanding road trips in the world, as we followed the path from Tibet’s capital Lhasa, through gruelling conditions, past vast landscapes and glittering peaks, remote high altitude deserts, densely forested precipitous gorges and virtually unpopulated high altitude moor-land to the end of its borders and further towards the fabled city of Kathmandu. It was a journey of scenic and religious discovery!
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Tags: air, altitude, altitude sickness, architectural wonders, architecture, art, asian pears, beauty, beauty of the world, Buddhas, bureaucracy, butter, capital, childhood, Chinese, city, coaster, contrast, country, course, day, determination, devotion, discomfort, discovery, distance, dust, ego, end, experience, fabled city, fetid, fetid odor, filth, food, grin, hashish, haunting images, helluva, high altitude, highest mountains, history, improbability, inaccessibility, incense, incomprehensible, influence, intricate patterns, journey, label, lack, Laughter, lifetime, lot, majority, matter, meaning, mix, month, mystery, Mystical, nose, nose bleeds, odor, overload, overwhelming beauty, path, person, place, pleasure, poverty, reincarnation, resilience, road, roller, rooftop, sacred images, savory, savory stews, sensory experiences, sickness, smile, spicy, spiritual, spirituality, surfeit, thing, tibet tour, Tibetan, tibetan art, Tibetans, tour, trip, trip of a lifetime, tumultuous history, unpaved roads, verge, World, yak
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June 1st, 2010
I am flat on my back in a Buddhist temple in Bangkok, Thailand. My body is just one of many on a sea of cots that resembles the operating ward in “M*A*S*H.” My masseuse, who speaks no English, straddles my leg, pressing hard on my inner thigh. Though I speak no Thai, she has no trouble understanding my groan. In her saffron-colored smock she smiles at me with friendly eyes, pushes more, and slowly releases her hands. I feel heat emanating from the spot she has just released. She smiles again and turns to my other thigh. I am mid-way through the best massage I’ve ever had.
Recognizing the value of massage in healing the body, a turn-of-the-century Thai ruler (at that time the country was known as Siam) established the Traditional Thai Massage School at Wat Po temple (sometimes referred to as Wat Pho) so that his subjects could afford to enjoy the blessings of a good massage. My one-hour massage cost just $5.
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Tags: admission, antidote, anything, baht, bangkok thailand, bargain, blockages, body, book, Buddha, Buddhist, buddhist temple, camera, Cat, chain, classroom, client, clothing, cost, cot, country, course, day, decorate, designer, designer handbag, encampment, end, energy, energy imbalances, energy lines, English, enhancement, equivalent, Everyone, exchange, experience, fact, fee, fence, field, flat on my back, football, friend, gecko, gift, groan, guinea, half, handbag, harmony, heat, hour, idea, information, inner thigh, invisible energy, japanese woman, Japanese-national, leg, leverage, link, Loaner, manipulation, marble, massage, massage experience, massage school, masseur, masseuse, material, mid way, miracle, Movements, noise, notice, Oil, Open, pantsuit, Part-way, pavilion, person, pig, pillow, pop, portion, pressure, pressure points, rate, reality, Reclining, Recognizing, refugee, Reminiscent, Reservations, result, return, ruler, School, sea, shop, Siam, site, smock, spot, state, street, street clothes, stress, suitcase, take, temple, Thai, thigh, time, tip, Tipping, Traditional, traditional thai massage, Travel, treatment, trouble, value, viewfinder, visit, wall, ward, wat pho, water, way, west, woman, year
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June 1st, 2010
You can lose the crowds at stunning My Son Sanctuary and Bach Ma National Park.
Just ask last year’s nearly 3 million international visitors: Vietnam is hardly a best-kept secret. And the traffic is increasing. Since they were introduced in December, United Airlines’ direct flights to Ho Chi Minh City — the first American flights to the country from the U.S. since 1975 — have been virtually sold out. Vietnam Airlines plans on jumping aboard with direct flights of its own later this year.
Feel like you missed your window? Don’t worry. Getting off the beaten path is remarkably easy in Vietnam. Most visitors stick to the two poles of this narrow, 1,000-mile-long land: Hanoi in the north and Ho Chi Minh City in the south. National airlines offer dirt-cheap, two-hour flights between the two cities. But travel by train is still the more affordable option and allows for detours along the way. At least a quarter of all Vietnam tourists make Hoi An one of those stops.
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Tags: 18th century architecture, american bombs, champa kingdom, chi minh city, direct flights, ho chi minh, ho chi minh city, lush valley, national airlines, popularity surge, president nixon, royal burial, silk dress, son sanctuary, temple grounds, tooth mountain, travel by train, united airlines, vietnam airlines, world heritage site
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June 1st, 2010
Having spent over two-and-a-half straight years in the Chinese mainland without leave, it was with both anticipation and apprehension that I recently crossed the southern border into Asia’s wealthiest city.
Despite its one-stop-shopping popularity with Mainland expats needing new clothes and a new visa, I truly had no idea what to expect in the former crown colony that supposedly makes even rich men feel poor. Rather terrified of exacting reverse culture shock, I saved English-speaking Hong Kong and its “One Country, Two Systems” self for the tail end of my journey across the 32 Chinese provinces.
And it is here that all my preconceptions and fears about Hong Kong were – true. To quote the under-appreciated American writer, Thomas A. Carter (me!), upon his brief sojourn in the legendary Chinese city, “I’ve never felt more poor than when I was in Hong Kong. I’ve never felt more ugly than when I was in Hong Kong.”
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Tags: advice, afternoon, american writer, anticipation, apprehension, Arrive, asian girls, awe, Awoken, backpacker, bag, Bank, beard, blanket, Blinded, block, border, boy, break, Brits, cable, capitalism, cast, cell, Central, Chase, chatter, chinese city, chinese mainland, chinese provinces, city, colony, concrete block, country, Cross, crown, crown colony, crush, culture, Dafnit, date, day, department, descend, designer, dorm, dorm room, end, English, evening, excitement, facade, fantasy, fashion, Ferry, Fieldtrip, Filipino, flock, fun, girl, glimpse, gonna, Group, hair, half, head, hentai, Hey, hippest, idea, immaculate, indian women, information, introduction, jor, journey, KCR, klick, kogal, Kok, Kowloon, land, leave, LOOOVE, Louhu, luck, Lunch, mainland, Mansion, massage, miasma, microcosm, migrant, migrant worker, Mirador, mirador mansion, Mong, morning, name, narrative, nathan road, neon, neon lights, night, nobody, outfits, parlor, Pat, Peak, Peering, peninsula, photograph, place, pollution, popularity, preconceptions, price, railway, resplendent, reverse, reverse culture shock, rich men, ride, road, Rolls, romps, room, sand, saris, self, Sha, Shek, Shenzhen, shock, side, skyline, smoke, sojourn, southern border, southern peninsula, spitting, Star, sun, Sunday, tail, tongue, tower, tram, Tsim, TST, Tsui, underground, visa, vista, weekend, worker, writer
Posted in China, Travel | Comments Off
The Philippines is the lone Christian country in Southeast Asia. The majority of their 75 provinces swiftly caved into Jesus when Spain embarked on a short–lived Asian experiment in the 1650’s. In spite of that, six of those provinces — within a secluded mountain–range jungle in northern Luzon — fiercely resisted Spain’s take on God. The semi–tropical Cordillera is the country’s most rugged and least populated region and is still a thorny place to plot a route and get a haircut. Native Ifugao, Igorot and other pagan tribes remained warring headhunters until the 1950’s.
“You have to put up with a lot to get up onto the “rooftop of the world” – bureaucracy & permits, distance & flights, unpaved roads & long drives, poverty & filth, altitude sickness, headaches, nose bleeds, and dust… lots of dust. “But make it to Tibet and you will be rewarded with a surfeit of sensory experiences. A Tibet tour will delight and challenge your senses with smells, tastes and colors you have never experienced before. Good or bad, you’ll discover the fetid odor of yak butter and incense that smacks of hashish. You’ll taste rich, savory stews of spicy yak, crisp Asian pears, and sweet local melons …” 
I am flat on my back in a Buddhist temple in Bangkok, Thailand. My body is just one of many on a sea of cots that resembles the operating ward in “M*A*S*H.” My masseuse, who speaks no English, straddles my leg, pressing hard on my inner thigh. Though I speak no Thai, she has no trouble understanding my groan. In her saffron-colored smock she smiles at me with friendly eyes, pushes more, and slowly releases her hands. I feel heat emanating from the spot she has just released. She smiles again and turns to my other thigh. I am mid-way through the best massage I’ve ever had.
You can lose the crowds at stunning My Son Sanctuary and Bach Ma National Park.