I don’t know about you, but it’s been a long, terrible week for me, one of those extra heavy ones that threatens to ruin the weekend ahead of it.
Lest any of you out there are headed towards the same fate, take Dent May and his Magnificent Ukulele with you on your way out the door. In addition to cheering you up, it should hopefully bring back some good memories of your travels in Paris. And what better to take with you on your cold commute home?
Have a great weekend, everyone. <3 Gadling
Browsing through YouTube last night (taking advantage of it before it gets blocked here in Dubai, just like Flickr is), I came across this astounding video that some lucky travelers at Kruger National Park in South Africa were eye witnesses to. It has been viewed over 39 million times and has almost 43,000 comments.
They have managed to get live footage of a baby water buffalo being caught by a group of 6 lions, and then of over a 100 buffaloes being summoned to come save the baby and fight off the lions. Amazing. It’s a wonderful demonstration of how “animal-families” stick together to help each other survive in the wilderness. It’s about 8 1/2 minutes long, but well worth the watch. From the 4:40 mark onwards, it’s gold. You will find yourself cheering for the buffaloes as they make the lion kings look like scared and meek deers. There is an attack scene of a few seconds, but it’s not gory, so don’t worry about seeing anything hard on the eyes. A must, must watch.
A good friend of mine sent along this great song by Julieta Venegas, a rising songstress from Mexico, called “Oleada” a few months back that I loved initially for superficial reasons: I love the melody, and he said the song/video reminded him of me. The melody is fantastic, but I was too lazy to translate the Spanish; and I assumed the video reminded him of me because it has a pug in it that looks just like mine.
Now, several months later, I’ve given this song and video some fresh and deserved attention. Now, I understand why my friend sent it along to me.It has a lot to do with the loneliness that I wrote about earlier, but much more than this, this song really encapsulates the combination of fear and excitement that every solo traveler feels when entering the “mundo abierto.”
For those of you who can’t understand Spanish, I’ve translated the “Oleada” lyrics into English below.
And no one will know me
And I’ll recognize no one
But I’m not afraid
I don’t want to get off
This big wave I’m riding
CHORUS:
And everything I’ve already lived
I’ll continue carrying
I carry it deep inside of me
I have never forgotten it
I feel it so close to me
I carry it deep inside of me
I’m going to look for a place
In this open world
Where I can stay
And begin anew
And no one will know me
And I’ll recognize no one
But I’m not afraid
I don’t want to get off
This big wave I’m riding
REPEAT CHORUS X 2
Since Wednesdays are always long, thought I’d post this video of one of the longest footbridges in the world. Trust me, as someone who had to cross too many of these things mucking around in the Himalayans a couple months ago, I know these bridges are quite scary up close–especially when there’s a strong wind and a pack of mules behind you waiting to cross.
When Lam Sai-Wing’s Hong Kong-based jewelry business, 3D Gold, took off more than a decade ago, he made a rather unusual investment. He built the “Hall of Gold” in one of his showrooms. This unusual and extremely expensive structure was made of six tons of gold. The furnishings included a fully working solid gold toilet.
As gold prices rose, Lam began dismantling the hall, melting down the gold and selling it to finance his company’s expansion into mainland China. He never parted with the toilet, which is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most expensive toilet. Here’s what it looked like:
But, visitors to Hong Kong won’t be seeing it any time soon. Lam died unexpected earlier this year and his company has become engulfed in scandal after five executives, including his own widow, were accused of stealing nearly $23 million worth of gold bars from the company vault. Public trading of the company has stopped and what remains of the Hall of Gold has been closed to the public indefinitely.
[Via Time’s China Blog]