The World’s Biggest Ferris Wheel (For a While at Least…)

by Brett Atkinson on

I was a bit scared of ferris wheels when I was a kid, and actually didn’t go on one until I went to Vienna when I was in my early 20’s. Sad, I know, but since then I’ve made up for lost time by going on mega-wheels like the London Eye.

Now Singapore has announced plans for the world’s biggest ferris wheel. Opening in March 2008 it will be 165 metres high, slightly taller than the 160-metre high Star of Nanchang in Jiangxi, China, and considerably bigger than the 130-metre high London Eye.

Don’t count on the Singapore Flyer being the biggest for long though, because the same developers are looking at opening a 208-metre high circular attraction in time for the Beijing Olympics in August 2008.

I’m actually kind of glad the first ferris wheel I went on was at Vienna ‘s Prater amusement park. The 65-metre wheel played a starring role in one of my favourite movies, the terrific Before Sunrise starring Ethan Hawke and the luminous Julie Delpy.

Thanks to arjuna_zybcho on Flickr for the pic of the Prater.

Dangerous Roads: The Ones Where You Wreck

by Jamie Rhein on

In an article published this past April on the Web site now public: crowd-powered media, John Carrey presents startling facts about China’s roads and the number of people who wreck when navigating them. One statistic he cites is that 45,000 people are hurt every year. India’s traffic accidents are not as numerous as China’s, but the numbers are increasing.

As more and more people get disposable income, I can see how the statistics might get worse before they get better. Sure, curvey roads that hug the side of mountains are horrific (see post) but driving where more and more people have quickly acquired motorbikes, motorcycles and cars because more people can afford them, adds to the mayhem.

The first time we went to Vietnam, Hanoi was a fairly relaxed place for meandering. Taking cyclos was common. This was back in 1994. When we returned in 1998 and again in 2001, motorcycles buzzed everywhere, including the narrow streets of the Old Quarter where people jockeyed for room to walk. Then by December 2003, when we were there again, I noticed how the number of cars had increased. On one hand, this shows that the economy is perhaps looking up. On the other, this is a place where many people didn’t grow up with cars or motorcyles being part of their daily life so there isn’t as much practice with rules of the road. (See description of Vietnam’s transportation situation.)

Likewise, India is also getting more busy with motorized traffic. You can be driving along any road, and then there’s a cow. Once, while going home after a New Delhi outing, my husband grazed the side of one at the outskirts of the city. The cow wasn’t hurt, but after it took out the driver’s side mirror with its backside, my husband did say, “He must have been in a reflective mood.” At night once, we almost drove into an elephant–and that was in the city.

To increase our odds at traveling on roads safely, we’ve tended to hire drivers since a seasoned driver knows what to look for. The one time we decided to forgo the driver for our trip to Bharatupur Bird Sanctuary, a tractor crossed the highway and we hit it. There wasn’t any indication there was an intersection coming up. After that big bang, enough to make the car undrivable, we decided it was better to hire a driver since seasoned drivers tended to know the roads and are much better at predicting where road hazards might appear. Here’s a Web site for a car rental company in India that also has drivers for hire. This is just to give an idea of what is available. Shop around.

The photo by Michal Zacharzewski is posted on stock.xchng.

Drivers Beware: The Most Dangerous Roads in the World

by Martha Edwards on

Living near the Rocky Mountains, I thought I had some experience with dangerous roads. The ones I frequent twist and in turn around, over and under the huge, jagged mountains, through avalanche plains, with only a guardrail protecting your car from plummeting off a cliff’s edge. It wasn’t until I started travelling that I realized that the most dangerous road that I’ve encountered in Canada would be considered a smooth, luxurious ride in other countries.

So if our roads aren’t dangerous, where are the dangerous ones? I did a bit of research and here are the most dangerous roads in the world according to USA Today (click here for the full list):

  1. Bolivia’s The Old Yungus Road, from La Paz to Coroico
  2. Brazil’s Interstate 116
  3. China’s Sichuan-Tibet Highway
  4. Costa Rica’s Pan-American Highway
  5. Croatia’s coastal roads (any of ’em)

Judging by this article on the Old Yungus Road, I think I’ll pass on taking a trip on it anytime soon.

Chinese Tattoos: Funky Translations

by Jamie Rhein on

Chinese lettering is so art-like, so lovely. I bought a scroll of a Chinese poem when we were living in Taiwan and it now hangs on our wall. The translation in English was written on a piece of paper and paper clipped to the scroll. I assume that the translation is accurate. As lovely as the writing looks, however, beware when heading to a tattoo parlor. Make sure that what gets inked in your skin says what you want it to say–or thereabouts. The problem is that Chinese doesn’t translate to English word for word all that well. For example, since we couldn’t read the local movie listings when we lived in Taiwan, the only way we could ever figure out what was playing was if we described what the movie was about to our Chinese friends and they could let us know what movie title came close to what we described.

As Chris Mitchell points out in “Tattoos Gone Bad: Engrish in Reverse,” Chinese characters, when used as a direct translation from English, can make missives worthy of a laugh. One of his favorites is “Inferior goods.” Since the tattoo is over someone’s backside, the joke is even more poignant. Mitchell cites the blog, Hanzi Smatter, dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters, as one of his favorites for Chinese language butchering. The photo is from the last entry on this blog. According to Tian, the blogger, one of the characters doesn’t exist, and one is upside down.

Eating Bee Larvae in China

by Neil Woodburn on

They eat strange things in China.

When I’m in China, I like to eat strange things too.

Sometimes.

I suppose it depends on just how strange it is. Michael, an interpret blogger for WeirdMeat.com, recently traveled to the Yunnan Province in China where he indulged in a very strange delicacy indeed: Bee Larvae.

First, however, he made sure to visit the very wild, very surreal Stone Forest near Kunming before stopping by a local restaurant that served “crickets and grasshoppers and caterpillars, and some weird wormy maggot bug.” Mmm….

Then it was on to the bee larvae. Michael describes the deep fried delicacy as looking a bit like meal worms. He never really explains the taste, but does mention that they were “crispy, crunchy” and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Frankly, he could have been a bit more descriptive in his culinary adventure as I’m still not too sure what the little buggers tasted like. His photos, however, are well worth a visit to the website–unless, of course, you’re the squeamish type.

(photo via WeirdMeat.com)