Posts Tagged ‘country’
Tuesday, 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
Posted in Philippine, Travel | Comments Off
Tuesday, 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
Posted in Tibet, Travel | Comments Off
Tuesday, 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
Posted in Thailand, Travel | Comments Off
Tuesday, 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
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
In Sinhala, the name Sri Lanka translates literally as “Sacred Land”. Known to Arab traders as Serendib, the island has been revered since ancient times as a place of unsurpassable beauty. European explorers likened the island to a pearl hanging in the sea, or a teardrop hanging from India. Whichever descriptors you prefer, Sri Lanka is a land of alluring contrasts. A day’s journey can bring you from gleaming towers of newly minted glass in Colombo to the crumbling remains of the ancient ruler’s red-brick stupas of Anuradhapura, or if you are more charmed by Mother Nature’s accomplishments, from the steaming, coconut palm beaches of the southern coast to the mist covered hills of tea country.
Adam’s Peak
The most fitting and quintessential landmark of this holy land is Adam’s Peak, a 2,243-meter mountain located in the southcentral region of the country. Known in Sinhala as Sri Pada, “Sacred Footprint”, the peak is a pilgrimage destination for followers of the world’s main religions who contend that the footprint belongs to their respective individual. For Buddhists, the mark is Buddha’s left footprint said to have been left as a relic for veneration after flying from India to give a sermon. For Hindus, it is Shiva’s who, they believe, ascended the mountain to shed light on mankind. Muslims think Adam stood here on one foot for 200 years after his expulsion from paradise as a penance to Allah. Christians have, since colonial times, claimed the impression to be left by St. Thomas the Doubter before his ascension to heaven, although this explanation has not been held in serious consideration.
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Tags: Allah, amalgamation, Anuradhapura, arab traders, ascension, banana, beauty, bell, body, breakfast, Buddha, Buddhist, Buddhists, burst, climb, coast, coconut, coconut palm, cold, colonial, colonial times, consideration, country, crowd, dart, day, December, deity, destination, dharma, distance, Doubter, due, English, european explorers, explanation, expulsion, foot, Footprint, full moon day, glass, hardship, heaven, hike, Hindus, hover, impression, incense, individual, island, journey, land, landmark, landscape, laundry, mankind, mark, May, meter, mind, Mingling, mist, Monkeys, moon, morning, Mother, mountain, mountaintop, name, nature, night, number, occurence, offering, pagan, palm, palm beaches, paradise, Peak, pearl, penance, Phenomenon, pidgin, piety, pilgrimage, pilgrimage destination, Pilgrims, place, pleasing, poya, red brick, region, reminder, revelation, ruler, Sacred, sacred land, scenery, sea, search, season, Serendib, series, sermon, Shadow, shape, Shiva, Sinhala, site, size, sky, sleep, something, southcentral, southcentral region, speaker, sri lankans, sri pada, Srilangka, stupas, Summit, sun, sunrise, tea, tea country, teardrop, test, top, town, trail, trailhead, triangular, trinity, veneration, way, west, Whichever, winter, winter season, witness, World
Posted in Srilangka, 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.
In Sinhala, the name Sri Lanka translates literally as “Sacred Land”. Known to Arab traders as Serendib, the island has been revered since ancient times as a place of unsurpassable beauty. European explorers likened the island to a pearl hanging in the sea, or a teardrop hanging from India. Whichever descriptors you prefer, Sri Lanka is a land of alluring contrasts. A day’s journey can bring you from gleaming towers of newly minted glass in Colombo to the crumbling remains of the ancient ruler’s red-brick stupas of Anuradhapura, or if you are more charmed by Mother Nature’s accomplishments, from the steaming, coconut palm beaches of the southern coast to the mist covered hills of tea country.