It’s not every day that I find myself liking promotional videos, but this video seems to be an exception. Sponsored by Bhutan‘s board of tourism, this video pairs dramatic music and beautiful Bhutan footage. The end result is a gorgeous video featuring hiking, rafting and wildlife that makes me want to look into flights to Bhutan immediately. If you’ve been to Bhutan, tell us about your experience in the comments. Be sure to point us in the direction of any fantastic photos or videos while you’re at it.
The concept of riding a unicycle down the street makes me nervous, so I am fully incapable of understanding how the three men in this video managed to live after unicycling down a mountain in Liechtenstein. David Weichenberger, Marco Schmidt and Lutz Eichholz impressively rode their one-wheel bikes down the Gaflei Trail in Liechtenstein. There’s some beautiful footage of the hills in this video, but more inspiring is the act itself. Have any of you ever tried this? Would you?
You can board a plane and fly to any city on this planet. No matter where you go, you’ll find familiarity amid the unfamiliarity. Paved and braided highway systems weave through cities and carry pairs of headlights through the dark night, one after another. Pedestrians congregate on street corners and wait for the opportunity to cross and then do so together as a herd. The buildings get taller; the cars get smaller; the chaos appears to increase, but within it there is a machine that is moving through its commands and that machine knows no barriers. In this video made by Lam Ho Tak, a student at the University of Hong Kong, that machine is documented at work in cities across the globe. Already the winner of several awards, this video is an entertaining short mix and matching color tones, subdued lighting, motion, and other elements of city life that act as a common denominator for cities everywhere.
For those who haven’t heard of Tori, she is Satwa Taru Jurug Zoo‘s famous smoking orangutan. While many people may believe the primate’s habit stemmed from workers in this Indonesian animal park becoming bored or looking for publicity, the truth is it’s the tourists that are the enablers.
Fifteen-year-old Tori has been smoking for over 10 years. She learned the habit by watching visitors who would smoke, then toss lit cigarettes into her cage. It also doesn’t help that everyone cheers Tori on as she puffs away. To help Tori kick her smoking habit, workers are moving her to a different zoo, away from cigarettes and those who may give them to her.
This isn’t the first time Indonesian zoos have had trouble with misbehaving visitors. In March, for example, a giraffe died at Surabaya Zoo after ingesting 40 pounds worth of plastic that had been throw into its enclosure. Moreover, Indonesia is one of the only countries in the world where there are few limits on tobacco selling and marketing. It’s no surprise one-third of the country’s population are smokers. This still, however, doesn’t excuse the act of pushing bad habits onto animals.
To see the smoking primate in action, check out the video above. Hopefully, she will be able to quit completely.
Elephants are beautiful, intelligent animals that are simply amazing to watch – provided it’s from a safe distance. The driver in the video below would probably be happy if he never encountered another pachyderm as long as he lives, however, and after watching the video you’ll understand why.
The YouTube description says that this video was shot in southern India, although the animal in question certainly looks more like an African elephant. I had a very similar experience to this one on the road in Kruger National Park in South Africa and I can tell you that passengers in our van screamed like school girls as we barely managed to avoid our pursuer. I have a feeling that there were a few similar screams in this van as well.