Word for the Travel Wise (03/15/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the
wall may be the tune in the minds of those eager to participate in St. Patrick’s festivities this coming Friday, but
the buzzword in Baco, Mindoro Oriental,
Philippines is banana’s and lots of them. This weekend, March 18-19, 2006 the area will celebrate the abundance of
banana by cooking loads of it and by hosting banana (saba) inspired street dancing competitions. Now that’s something
I’d like to see.

Today’s word is a Tagalog word used in
the Philippines:

kalye – street

Golets meaning let’s go and take it to the kalye or street for some banana eats. If you’re a
real jet-setter hit Ireland for a beer guzzling good time and then the Philippines for banana’s only if your tummy can
handle such excessive consumption of both in one three-day period.

Tagalog is one of the major languages in
Central Philippines and part of the Austronesian language family. For some reason I was surprised by the number of free
GOOD resources available to prospective Tagalog student. Wikipedia
has great background info on the lingo as well as related languages, Bikol, Hiligaynon, Waray-Waray, and Cebuano. Mongabay pretty much covers
all the really good, up and running links to sites that help teach Tagalog, after checking out a few I’ll do the favor
of pointing the best out. The first is an interactive
language and Filipino culture resource site tools are provided for both teachers and students. A pretty intense
breakdown on local slang and how it is derived can
be found here. Travel Lang has word and phrase
generator that spits out all the basic words you’d use while visiting.

Past Tagalog words: taon

Reversible Destiny Digs

by Adrienne Wilson on

Call me a spoil-sport or
one lacking little imagination, but these colorful, wacky apartments found in the Tokyo suburb of Mitaka are awful.
Okay, maybe not awful, but a bit too eccentric even for my tastes and something like a mixture between Alice in
Wonderland, Ronald McDonald’s Playland and scenes from Being John
Malkovic. So maybe they’re sorta cool to gawk at on a trip to the city, but surely not for everyday living.

While the $750,000 price tag might seem like the icing on the cake it is the purposely designed, built-in
discomfort of the oddly shaped geometric Reversible Destiny
dig’s interior that throws things overboard. Shusaku Arakawa (artist) and Madeline Gins (poet), creators of the complex
believe people shouldn’t relax. They shouldn’t
decline. Especially those in their golden years. To give you an idea of the interior think electric light switches
located in strange places so you’ll have to paw at the wall for the right one, a grainy, surfaced floor that slopes
erratically, a sunken kitchen and glass doors in the veranda so small you have to crawl out. My question – why on Earth
would anyone wish to crawl out their doors for $750,000?

via Gridskipper

GADLING'S TAKE FIVE: Week of March 5

by Adrienne Wilson on

My goodness! The time has come once again to reflect and/or catch
up on some of Gadling’s finer moments this past week. Without further delay let’s jump right into things with this
week’s list:

5. Spring Break
Travel Safety:
The last thing on any Spring Breaker’s mind is the word safety, but I strongly encourage all
you in pursuit of booze, beach, babes and boys to check out this fine piece from Community Dispatch online. At the very
least you could even print the article and give it to your worrisome loved ones to show them you are thinking not only
about parties, but your well-being as well. They’ll love you for it.

4. Horseback Riding in Mongolia:
With
Neil covering the lesser exlpored parts of the globe in his daily Red Corner series once-upon-a-time remote areas have
come alive again. Earlier this week he pointed out the best way to see Mongolia which happens to be by horseback. You
see Mongolia and horseback riding are synonymous, it is the horse lover’s paradise and the only way to experience the
vast untouched land. If Mongolia is anywhere on your radar, go now, saddle up, giddy up, do whatever and check this one
out.

3. Eat More Goat:
Having gobbled
down on some good ole’ mouth-watering goat roti a number of times during my present travels I was real excited to
discover this piece on eating more of the animal here in America. Erik does an excellent job pointing us to this piece
from the LA Times which suggests adding more goat to your diet. Yummy!  While many American’s may have started
ordering goat on a regular basis there are several folks ever faithful to their chicken and beef missing out on all the
culinary splendors goat brings to the taste buds.

2. Traveling Book Clubs:
Bookworms have
often been regarded as hermits who only dream of seeing the world by way of the recycled paperback books they hide
behind with their coke-bottled glasses, but tis’ is far from true. In fact there are outfitters in the world that cater
to literature loving clients by sending them to locales where the book takes place. Ever dream of the Italy depicted in
the works of Hemingway, Henry James or Lord Byron? Then take a pause from your reading and step out onto the very
streets that caused such inspiration.

1. Urban Explorer at Explorer’s Club:
People often marvel at men who go great lengths to walk the Sahara or summit some outrageous and dangerous mountain
peak and while that makes pretty exciting dinner conversation, I can’t deny my admiration for the men and women who are
equally in tune with their own city’s secrets. Urban Explorers is what they go by and they have a club of their own. If
the concept of spending little cash and hitting the boulevards around your own town seems like a boring and less than
thrilling idea to you, perhaps it’s time you freshened your approach or try reading the fascinating links Erik provides
us with this week.

Word for the Travel Wise (03/08/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

One visit to Singapore and you’ll instantly
discover a destination within destinations, a land swirling with different languages and one of Asia’s most unique
tourist friendly countries so it seems. According to the CIA World Factbook 35% of the country speaks
Mandarin, 23% English, 14.1% Malay, 11.4% Hokkien and so on. Keeping these valuable numbers in mind or not make sure
you visit the Ethnic Quarters. Made up by Little India, Chinatown, and the two Malay communities of Kampong Gelam and
Geylang Serai there is an abundance for any culture seeker or adventure minded traveler to find, but don’t take my word
for it – visit this
page on the country’s Ethnic Quarters. In the meantime let’s practice what 35% of the natives are speaking.

Today’s word is a Mandarin word used in
Singapore:

mu di
di – destination

That’s right! If your final destination in the near future happens to be
Singapore plan on knowing a little Mandarin though the close running 23% of the English speaking population should make
travels a tad bit easier. At least I imagine so.

Mandarin is the most widely spoken of the Chinese language
and can be a bit difficult to learn, but there are many sites online that can help get you started. The best will
probably cost a small amount of money and the links are many so for sources pointing to additional sources check out About and Mandarin Tools. Mandarin tools is good if you’d like to add pinyin tools and
other Chinese text files to your computer. Zap
Chinese is free and has small dictionaries of common words with audio. Mei Wah
is an awesome and funny site on becoming more aware as an eater and learning Chinese by way of menus and restaurant
signs. China Language online is another excellent site I recently stumbled
upon providing info on Mandarin, Cantonese and Hakka. In addition to these past recommendations check out the Hong Kong Language Learning Center (HKLLC) for study abroad in Hong Kong or Beijing.
Qi Journal has a
section dedicated to Chinese culture and language study.

Past Mandarin words: zhu ni hao yun, quo nian hao

Word for the Travel Wise (03/01/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

After listening to pop-singer, Gwen Stefani croon tunes about the wicked fashion sense of Tokyo’s Harajuku girls all last year any fashion oriented person would have booked a first-class round trip flight to the area to check out all the hype. Aside from Gwen’s own ode to the area, Tyra Banks has done a great job exposing the extreme clothing style of the Japanese teenage culture in her show America’s Next Top Model. I’m sure you all follow Gwen and Tyra in depth, but in the event that you’ve found more productive ways to spend your primetime television watching hours and listen to sounds aside from the bubbly lyrics of Ms. Stefani you can check out more on Japan’s Harajuku Station and Takeshita Dori by clicking here. If you plan on meeting a friendly local in the area at some point in time you may wish to know this little jewel of information.

Today’s word is a Japanese phrase used in Japan:

Dewa mata – see you later

Spoken Japanese comes smoothly for those who practice or submit themselves to hours of Japanese pop music, but either way one can learn this language in through several avenues. Japanese Online is a VERY good FREE site to start learning. They have audio and a great conversation lessons. The lessons get more in-depth as you become a registered user which is still free of charge. Takese.com has a list of over 2000 words worth checking out. Those on the road already may want to pick up the LP Japanese phrasebook or check into a school for a few weeks of learning. Study Abroad has a list of school located all over the country. If you’re seeking help with written Japanese best of luck to you!

Past Japanese words: hajimemashite