Travel through Asia by country:
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Russian Federation, Singapore, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam
Travel through Asia by popular city:
Bangkok, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo
Travel through Asia by popular things to do:
Travel through Asia with our writers:
Infiltrating North Korea, Keyhole Into Burma, Band on the Run ... in China, Chinese Buffet, A Canadian in Beijing, Volunteer Vacation: Tajikistan
Just a few days ago, I wrote about some tips to use colour to enhance your photographs — and then just today, I come across this amazing example. Mick62 creates this amazing image of a temple in Tokyo by totally pumping up the color and light, resulting in this stunning shot. Beautiful work, mick62 — thanks so much for sharing!
If you’ve got some great travel shots you’d love to share, be sure to upload them to the Gadling pool on Flickr. We might just pick one as our Photo of the Day.
With all teams on the same flight from Jaipur, India to Phuket, Thailand on this episode of the Amazing Race 14, the competition didn’t heat up until teams dashed out of the airport to find a taxi. Their goal? To find the statue of a bigger than life-size gorilla without knowing its location. All they had was a photo of it as the clue to lead the way.
Showing the photo to anyone who would look at it eventually proved to be fruitful for five of the teams. Mark & Mel’s driver, unfortunately, led them on a goose chase to Patong Beach about the time the other teams found the gorilla at the Phuket Zoo for their picture taking with Esso the tiger and being part of an elephant show.
In a typical Thai elephant show, among other feats, elephants tap on people’s butts, or fake sit on them after audience members volunteer to lie face down on the ground.
The unusual aspect of this segment is that if you were at the Phuket Zoo, you could do exactly what the teams did. They’re normal zoo offerings. The tiger handler’s empty sleeve where an arm should be didn’t exactly promote confidence in the teams, particularly when the handler positioned them next to the tiger, their arms across it.
After the zoo, teams were sent to the oldest herb shop in Phuket. Nguan Choon Tong Herb Shop was an interesting destination because it captured the flavor of more traditional forms of medicine. The next clues were in the 99 drawers, one clue for each team. To find a clue, teams had to guess drawers. The shop owner kept opening the drawers until clues were found.
Cara & Jaime didn’t have much luck as other teams breezed past them. Frankly, I was happy to have them do badly with this since they spent time dissing Mark & Mike’s size. Mark & Mike, as far as I can tell, are nice, interesting men. Who cares if they don’t clear five feet? Are the two women middle schoolers in disguise?
The next task involved two choices–working like a Thai fisherman or operating a rickshaw. Jen & Kisha and Mel & Mike, once they finally found the gorilla, loaded up a fishing boat with 53 barrels and filled 47 other barrels with water while the other teams played rickshaw.
Rickshaw driving meant one team member playing driver and the other playing passenger until the driver couldn’t take the heat anymore and the pair switched rolls. Rickshaws had to be taken two miles to King Rama IX Park without a taxi leading them there.
After dropping off their rickshaws at the park, the teams headed by taxi to Wat Thep Nimit Temple the location of the Pit Stop and some of Buddha’s remains.
Mark & Mike who had blazed to first place made two mistakes. One, they piled the bike pumps back into a box so the other teams would have a harder time with the task, and two, they let a taxi driver help them. When they reached the Pit Stop first, they had to wait for one hour because of two thirty-minute penalties.
This allowed Tammy & Victor to win, yet again. This time they are going to Oahu. Jaime and Cara pulled up second which made Mark & Mike 3rd. To Mark & Mike’s credit, they didn’t get after each other for their breaking the rules missteps. Margie & Luke came in fourth.
Soon after stepping on the mat, Margie collapsed from the heat which is the best illustration of the importance of drinking plenty of water when running through the streets while pulling a rickshaw in a tropical climate. She recovered, but people looked worried for a few minutes there. It was one of the few times you could see the people who are behind the scenes since one of them also came to her rescue to help her to shade. Luke, naturally, was freaking out. Something happens to her and there goes his interpreter. He’d be able to get along, but it would have been harder.
Unfortunately Mel & Mike’s side trip to the beach cost them the race. Although disappointed, they’re so thrilled to have been in the race in the first place, winning would have just been gravy. I need to take whatever they’re taking because the two of them have the greatest attitudes.
Hopefully, they’ll liven up the Elimination Station in Koh Samui. The teams who are already there are depressing to watch.
Central Europe, with the two brewing powerhouses of the Czech Republic and Germany, is heaven for beer drinkers, not only for the pleasure of pubs but for the loads of beer festivals that take place each year. Having been to my fair share, I thought I knew what a beer festival sounded and looked like.
Safe to say, not like this video from the Qingdao International Beer Festival in China I just stumbled on.
But that’s not my real issue. My real issue is the dancing guy acting like he’s at some rave, selling meat on a stick. Would you buy meat on a stick from this guy? (Perhaps, only at a beer festival could you even justify it…)
There is no doubt that we are fascinated with wildlife. We love to watch diverse and interesting animals, preferably in their natural habitats, and we’re often willing to travel to remote places, sometimes at great expense, to see them. If you enjoy the kind of travel that allows for these kinds of animal encounters, they you’ll want to check out BootsnAll’s list of the Seven Endangered Species You Can Find Outside a Zoo.
The article not only lists the creatures, it also gives us the best locations to go and see them for ourselves, including some brief insights into what to expect out of the journey. For instance, if you want to see polar bears in the wild, you can expect a long flight, or 40-hour train ride, to Churchill, Canada, on the famed Hudson Bay, where every October and November, the bears gather, waiting for the bay to freeze so they can continue on northward. The other creatures, and locations that can be found, include: sea turtles in Barbados, tigers in India, rhinos in Tanzania, elephants in South Africa, pandas in China, and gray whales in Mexico.
As the article points out, in the era of ecotourism, these trips to see these rare animals can be a force for good. Conservation efforts can receive funding from our visits and an increased awareness about the plight of the animals helps to prevent poaching and protect natural habitats as well. Just be sure to travel with a reputable guide service and make sure you pack out everything you pack in.
So did they leave anything off the list? I was a bit surprised to not see the mountain gorillas that we wrote about last week, on there. They’d certainly make my top list. What’s on yours?
Yesterday we mentioned that Kathmandu has become a very busy place this week as climbers and trekkers heading to the Himalaya arrive in the city before setting out on their various adventures in the more mountainous regions of Nepal. Amongst those making the journey once again this year is Ed Viesturs, who many consider to be America’s premiere mountaineer.
Viesutrs has a long, and storied career climbing mountains, and has topped out on some of the most famous peaks in the world, including Rainier, Denali, and of course Everest, which he’s successfully summitted six times. Back in 2005, on his third attempt at the mountain, Viesturs added Annapurna to his resume, completing his Endeavour 8000 project, which was a decade long mission to reach the summit of the world’s 14 8000 meter peaks. Not only did Ed finish this task, becoming the first, and to date only, American to do so, he topped out on each of the mountains without the use of supplemental oxygen.
After finishing the Endeavour 8000 project, Ed vowed to retire from climbing the big peaks, saying that he had accomplished everything that he had ever hoped to do on those mountains, and for a time, his attention was drawn to other adventures. But the lure of the Himalaya is strong, and Viesturs is once again in Kathmandu, planning to make an attempt on Everest, and claim his seventh summit on the world’s tallest mountain.
For this attempt, Ed is part of an all-star team of climbers, that includes Dave Hahn, who has 10 Everest summits to his credit already, and Peter Whittacker, son of legendary climber Lou Whittaker and nephew to Jim Whittaker. The team was put together by gear manufacturer Eddie Bauer, who are launching a new line of outdoor gear uner the First Ascent label.
There will be few teams on Everest with as much experience as this one. But they’ll have to still go through the same process if they hope to successfully reach the top of the mountain. Over the next few weeks they’ll be acclimatizing, establishing their high camps, and preparing to make their summit bid. With any luck, Viesturs will soon be adding another chapter to his already substantial legend, standing at the Roof of the World for the seventh time.