Photo of the Day (6/03/08)

by Jamie Rhein on

There are some items you can look at and pinpoint exactly where the picture was taken. JasonBechtel snapped this in Sante Fe, New Mexico, capturing one item for sale in the Southwest that gives a nod to the desert/ranch scene and a little Georgia O’Keefe. I found a cow skull once when I was hiking in New Mexico and thought my brother might like it. Since there was still some grizzle on it, (it wasn’t as gross at it sounds,) I soaked it in bleach for a mighty, mighty, mighty long time.

If you click here, you’ll see another one of Jason’s shots that captures another aspect of New Mexico. Oh, how I miss those sunsets.

If you have a photo that captures somewhere you’ve been, add it to the Gadling Flickr photo pool.

Christopher Columbus: Travels the New World, spreads syphilis

by Neil Woodburn on

Since the dawn of commercial flight, there has been a growing concern among health officials that modern travel is responsible for the rapid spread of dangerous, contagious diseases.

In the past, a random disease could infect an isolated tribe and kill them all off before the virus spread beyond their borders. Today, a backpacker could pick up a contagious disease in Papua New Guinea and be back home in Chicago coughing on people three days later.

Take SARS, for example. Acute Respiratory Syndrome first appeared in Asia in February 2003. Just a few months later the disease–which can only be transmitted by close, personal contact–had spread across the globe infecting people in more than 25 countries.

Such a rapid epidemic was only possible because of the massive proliferation of international flights crisscrossing the globe. One infected person in a single airplane landing at Heathrow could spread a disease like SARS around the globe within a day. This is scary stuff, folks!But hold on a minute. Diseases have piggybacked their way around the globe long before planes took to the sky–it just took a lot longer in those days.

In fact, a controversial report published last Monday seeks to finalize the debate that that it was none other than Christopher Columbus and his crew who were responsible for spreading syphilis around the globe. Researchers believe that members of the crew contacted the disease (probably a variation of tropical yaws) in South America and then returned home to spread it throughout Europe in 1495 and ultimately, the world.

Although the evidence is not yet conclusive, it does lend credence an old, popular saying: Columbus, did in fact, sail the ocean blue.

Har, har, har…

Send More Crap Back Home with Panda Poop Souvenirs

by Justin Glow on

A while back, Gadling covered a story about postcards in China made from recycled panda poop. The feces were gathered, presumably cleaned, and compressed into flat sheets of “paper” to be sold to tourists. The Chinese have stepped it up a bit and begun making souvenirs out of the cuddly bear’s dung. Fortunately, the pandas are herbivores, which keeps the little statues odor-free. Gosh, they’re awfully cute, I guess, but it’s still something that made its way through an animal’s digestive tract, and there’s something very wrong about that. Even so, it’s the perfect gift to give to someone who either has an unhealthy obsession with panda bears, or you don’t like very much.

One animals poop is another person’s Chinese keepsake. [via]

A Canadian in Beijing: My Last Day in China

by Ember Swift on

What did I do on my last day in China?

I bought chopsticks.

What can you do in the face of reality? The reality was that I was leaving and the response was to soothe the pain of that reality with retail therapy. And, sad as it sounds, it worked. What’s more, I took home gifts for my loved ones and that felt good. It felt like a bridge between Beijing and Canada somehow.

I guess you could say that I relented and loosened my grip on my desire to be “a local” and promised that desire that I’d revisit it in the future.

Many different markets had been tested in advance of their arrival. I went to The Pearl Markets, the Silk Markets (each offering much more than pearls and silk), the YaXiu Markets and, of course, to the Wudaokou Markets (several times) in search of the cheapest options and best environment for them. . .
My friend Rui suggested the Wholesale Clothing Markets by the Zoo. I had never been there and so we all decided that a new experience for everyone was due. They are geared to Chinese shoppers as opposed to tourists and we were the only foreign faces that I noticed there. With our translating skills, my family was alright, but without any Chinese knowledge these markets would be extremely difficult for a foreign traveller. While they proved to be super cheap, the sizes were also limited, especially for my sister’s fiancé, Steve, who wears size 12 shoe and is over six-feet tall. They also closed early (and I found out that they open at six a.m.!) and so we piled into a cab and headed for more shopping options.

I suggested against the Silk Markets, which I had found to be far too pricey. Even the sign that showed a happy white family turned me off. I mean, how better to tell the tourists that they’re about to get ripped off than to show them smiling pictures of white people pretending they don’t know any better!

The presence of credit card stickers above stalls also proved that these prices were out of control; if they’re willing to accept international credit cards within the stalls themselves, then they had definitely inflated their prices. In fact, I found a shirt there that I had bought at the Wudaokou Market for 30 kuai that was listed at 280 kuai. Just ridiculous. The exact same shirt!

These kinds of “foreigner price inflations” are insulting. In fact, I think “indignant” would be the word I’d use to describe my response. I just couldn’t imagine bringing them there and luckily they were fine with that.

We headed then to Wudaokou first where they found a few things but weren’t quite satisfied. There was still the issue of an impossible task in finding shoes to fit Steve’s feet. Many vendors actually laughed when we told them we were looking for a size 49 or 50 (in Chinese sizes.)

So, we hit the Pearl Markets, this proving to be the most successful location for my sister and Steve. Not only were they able to get the souvenirs they wanted, but also several people could speak to them in English and they were able to operate without me as their sidekick the whole time. They found clothes that fit and had already become quite skilled at bargaining by this point. They came away smiling and laden with clothes and gifts and shoes and knickknacks. It was a successful mission.

The Pearl Markets were probably the best choice for lots of reasons. Not only were the prices better and less insulting, but the environment just outside of the markets was very western with a café (that looked suspiciously like a Starbucks knockoff) equipped with outdoor seating and tables with sun umbrellas. It’s the kind of décor that I rarely see in China and see everywhere in North America.

My sister and Steve wanted to hang out here for awhile and I can see why: it’s familiar. So, for the first time in three months I had an afternoon beer in the hot sun while shaded by the patio umbrellas. I could easily have been in Toronto in that activity. The rest of the seats were all sat in by non-Chinese shoppers. Whoever had thought of this café here was thinking about the tourists, that’s for sure.

Besides, it was good to rest now that the list had been (mostly) crossed off. Everyone was smiling.

I have to admit, though, that I was also peaking about leaving. Smiling on the outside and crying on the inside. Sound dramatic? Yeah, that’s me. Hidden drama at the best of times.

We headed back to the hotel then to get ready for dinner. I put them up (and also stayed) at the Beijing Friendship Hotel. This hotel is one of the oldest in Beijing and used to be the only place where foreigners were allowed to stay in Beijing. Since then, this has changed, but this hotel still holds its grandeur and scope. It is a huge site with several different buildings.

Staying in a hotel at the end of my trip really did solidify the feeling of being a tourist once again. I know that China is not my home, but it had begun to feel that way before I moved into the hotel for four nights. I really hope to regain that feeling in the future – that feeling of China being home – but it wasn’t meant to last this time around.

When we headed for the airport the next day, the drop in my gut seemed like an endless black hole. I kept gulping back tears and nausea and just tried to keep breathing the reality of my leaving in, as though it was a necessary medicine and that I would recover. Recover from the pain of separating from this amazing country, yes, and also recover from the intensity of this tourist marathon.

I’m still working on both recoveries.

I know that I will return to China. I will go back sooner than later, I believe. I just can’t stay away. My language skills were just starting to feel smooth, just starting to whisper the potential of future fluency.

I will definitely return.

Wo ken ding zai lai 我肯定再来。

China, I miss you already.

Haiti Part 4: Art & Souvenirs

by Adrienne Wilson on


Art is everywhere in Haiti. Evidence of such can easily be seen long before arriving in the so-called arts epicenter of Jacmel. Within moments of hitting the bustling Port-au-Prince streets I found myself googly-eyed, head turning left and right just trying to zone in on all the details found on a passing tap-tap. Tap-Taps are small pick-up trucks that are transformed into magnificent, colorful vehicles of public transportation. The painted pick-ups often times tell a story, some have scriptures from the Bible and many have the faces of popular music artists going from front to back. Discussing the artwork found on tap-taps could make up their own individual post and photo gallery, so allow me to proceed to other areas of art found in the country.

I’ll begin by suggesting a visit to the Foundation Sant D’A Jakmel (FOSAJ) in Jacmel. FOSAJ is a non-profit institution with a mission to empower the Haitian people through art and cultural initiatives. By visiting their art gallery I could see their mission in action.


There are a number of interesting and vivid paintings in addition to mixed media pieces worth spending a few gazing moments. I would have loved to have taken many back home, including a large vibrant piece that had just been painted by one of the local artists hanging around the gallery. Unfortunately, I had some other souvenir purchases that had to be made before acquiring any paintings and now I could kick myself for not taking it off his hands.

At the very least I knew I would have a few photos and some memories to keep me going until the next trip in to explore more about Haitian art and the artists behind the brush.

The items I was holding out for more than anything were the voodoo flags. It was a D.C. based photographer that put me onto them long before taking off and with the way he described their beauty I knew it would be a souvenir I would like to have and give to family and friends.

Finding them was not always easy. There were a few art and gift shops selling beaded mermaids, but I was more interested in the flags with sequins – one-of-kind pieces. My first attempt to find a flag led me and my fellow travel companions to an area of Jacmel supposedly known as the red-light district of the town. We didn’t know it at the time. We waited in a small home while someone went to find the voodoo priestess who made the flags. Our wait was not a long one as a woman with a stern face came wondering in and then out looking for the key to unlock where ever it was the flags were kept. She returned with a very large, beautiful sequined piece of what I regarded as art and she regarded as something much more. The flag was done in black, white and red sequins. The material behind it was a light lavender color and the picture was of a knife pointing to a bowl of blood with the word ‘KRIMINAL’ beneath the bowl. She took all this very serious and it was the only flag she would allow me to see without being baptized in the religion. I passed on purchasing the flag because I wanted something a bit brighter and smaller. I did not beg to see others and she didn’t seem as though she were playing hard to get in not revealing the others. The search here was over.

The rain had started to come down in buckets as we pulled up to a second home where I was told there would be flags for sale. Again, I saw only large flags. Large wouldn’t be so bad if I were into the stuff for religious purposes or had a huge place back in the states waiting for my new world trinkets, but neither particularly applies to myself – at least for the time being. Though the two flags I was shown didn’t have the sequins or beads I was told the symbol found on them represented all voodoo symbols. Still, it was not what I was hoping for and so I held off once again. There was only one last hope in the area and we would not be able to get to it that day as the rental car could not cross the river where this last woman lived. I paid the man who had become our assistant in finding the flags to have the woman bring her flags to me when it stopped raining.

The next morning she arrived by motor-bike to my hotel with only three flags. Two were identical with the exception being in size and the other was only partially covered in sequins. I decided to purchase one of the larger fully sequined flags for all the trouble she had gone through. The flag had the word ‘Ba Ron’ at the top which she said meant cemetery. It seemed like a dark moody flag, but it was still quite beautiful. She said she had other colorful ones of the voodoo heart, but no further transactions were made that day as the other flags she brought back only got larger and larger in size.

It was on my last day in Port-au-Prince that I found a man who had obviously somewhat embraced the art of making flags for many people to include tourists. Buying five flags was never my initial intention, but he had a variety that were right size, price and he was also able to provide me with the story behind the spirits seen on each flag. He told me ‘carrefour’ which meant intersection was the gateway for all spirits to pass. The peach colored one (I cannot remember the name of that spirit) is the one that opens up ‘carrefour.’ La Sirene’ is the mermaid spirit and a very popular good spirit.

My lessons in voodoo spirits, flags and artwork in Haiti had to end there that day. I had a flight to catch, but I was pleased. I had successfully gotten souvenirs from Haiti that I would probably never find on any other Caribbean island.

Yesterday: Hotel Cyvadier & Other Jacmel Hotels
Tomorrow: Festival Mizik Jakmel Update