I don’t like to think of myself as a bleeding heart, but something just doesn’t sit right with me about killing whales. It’s seems like an excruciatingly anachronistic practice that has little reason to continue other than culture. Where countries like Japan are concerned, there does not appear to be a broader necessity to hunt whales. And so it’s a bit of a disappointment to learn that last Wednesday, a fleet of six Japanese whaling ships left the southern port of Shimonoseki to begin their annual Antarctic whale hunt.
The group plans to hunt 850 minke whales and ten fin whales. As reported by the BBC, Japan says the catches are small and the populations of these whale species are relatively plentiful in the Antarctic. Of course, someone will out there protesting (and good for them). Captain Paul Watson, founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an activist organization determined to protect the whale species, plans to intervene and prevent the hunt. Again, some outdated cultural practices are probably tolerable, but IMHO whaling is not one of them.
Asia
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
Learn How to be a Traveling Webmaster
Roadjunky Guides really work hard at trying to help you work a little less. Not that they’re lazy vagabonds or anything of the sort, but if they can help find ways for you to assume the position as one then so be it. No, but seriously we’ve all thought about throwing in the towel on our place of employment to replace it with a lighter work load that even allows one to travel. Don’t try lying to say that you haven’t because I’ll never believe you. What I believe doesn’t matter. It’s about what I know and I tell you this, their step-by-step info on how to be a traveling webmaster could be your tutorial and ticket to Tonga, Thailand or Tanzania. I’ve always thought with a little extra time and dedication I could tighten up some of my own web design and related skills and each day I try though my progress is still too slow to ditch all my real gigs for life on the easy road. Should you have some time to spare and have considered delving into the world of web design, but haven’t a clue where to start, I’m telling you to start here. They’re going to put you to more sources to help you out, but they break it down to the basics much like About.com with some extra added flair!
Word for the Travel Wise (11/16/06)
Don’t know how long ago this happened, but it looks as if the Bangla Bazar found on Virtual Bangladesh has teamed up with Amazon to help interested patrons with a desire to hear music from the country purchase it right from their site. This news might be centuries old to some folks out there, but seeing how I don’t frequent Virtual Bangladesh too often it is all new news to me. Anyhow, picking up a CD or two might help in learning the language. This method has assisted me many times in the past in learning a handful of new words. If you’re really interested in knowing what all the lyrics mean right away, you’ll need someone to translate them for you. In that event let them know you’d like their help and toss out this word.
Today’s word is a Bangla (Bengali) word used in Bangladesh:
ohnubad – translate
Web resources for Bangla are few, but you can pick up quite a few words reading (not skimming) through the Wiki and from this Bangalinet site which has a small tutorial on how to write in the script. Beyond those two I’m sure there are others, but as I mentioned above it was like pulling teeth to get this word. With that being said class is dismissed.
Mr. Hu: Do NOT Tear That Wall Down!
Interesting news keeps flowing out of China, so we’ll keep relaying it. It turns out that a private contractor was building a new road, which destroyed a section of the Great Wall of China, as well as a large beacon tower.
The fine on the contractor, from the Cultural Relics Bureau of Inner Mongolia, was a tiny 500,000 yuan ($63,000 USD), for the destruction.
This took place in the Inner Mongolian village of Longsheng, near Fengzhen, north-west of Beijing.
I guess they figured they still have 4500 more miles of the Wall left.
Couch Surfing Travel
Many many moons ago, I traveled to Europe with a program called Servas that essentially set yo up with people in other countries and allowed you to stay with them for a few days. A quick Google effort reveals that, indeed, the organization is still around. This was pre-widespread-Internet days, and so what the group did was give you a stack of books with people’s names and numbers, and you had to arrange the stay via the telephone and a archaic system of communicating whereby word were written on paper and actually sent in an”envelope” to another person, thus conveying a message. Anyway, Servas was cool, and offered me, a fresh-faced kid right out of college, the opportunity to meet and stay with other people who I am sure I would never have met otherwise. It got me out of the hostel system, too, which can be both hectic, over-crowded and annoying.
Well, in the modern age we have the Internet and we have enterprising people eager to make these types of connections easier. And we have a new program called the Couch Surfing Project, a Web site that lets travelers and adventurers get a unique taste of local life. The project is the brainchild of Casey Fenton, who got hold of a university list serve and e-mailed hundreds of local students asking for a place to crash. Rather soon after, he received scads of e-mails from students offering their couches and their friendship him. Very nice. And so for now, Couch Surfing is a free, nonprofit service with more than 60,000 members. Some seven continents are represented (although we haven’t confirmed this and wonder where in Antarctica one can find a couch….and close to 200 countries.
Could be a very cool opportunity not just to reduce the cost of travel, but to get in with the locals.