Archive for December, 2012

on…Halong Bay

Posted: 31/12/2012 in Asia, Nature, Travel, Wellbeing
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Halong Bay is in Northern Vietnam and translates as Descending Dragon. I suppose the numerous limestone Karsts could look like a dragon’s spine, but then so does everything else in Asia.

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I’m usually a penny-pinching backpacker but when all my research suggested that when you visit Halong you should try to get a ‘Luxury’ deal. I was really impressed with the standard of food on my boat and every meal felt like a special occasion. By complete chance I picked one of the boats that was not a Karaoke boat, that would have spoilt my trip. Halong is one of the most beautiful locations on planet Earth so why do you need ‘entertainment’? I spent my evenings sitting on the roof of the boat, drinking beer and looking at the huge Karsts. You can also see the squid vessels bobbing up and down with their bright lights. One evening I did some fishing but only caught a jellyfish. I think the boat can make all the difference on this trip. I have included a link at the bottom for the company I used. I hope the standards are still the same.

Unfortunately I got some moisture into my lens on this trip so some of the pictures are overexposed. I hope they can still tell the story of an amazing place.

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The best way to see Halong is from Hanoi, it takes about 4 hours by bus. Vietnam is full of well practised rip off schemes, floods, delays, traffic jams etc. What I’m saying is, it’s not Delaware. With all the variables I recommend doing the following to avoid being hassled:

Take a hotel or hostel in Hanoi which offers the specific tour/cruise you want to do. Otherwise they will hassle you every day. Once you express your interest and book a tour they will treat you very well, as do most Vietnamese people in my experience.

Don’t do a one day tour! It’s too far to travel and you won’t see the best bits of the bay. I wouldn’t even do a one night tour. I chose two nights and had time to relax properly. In my two night tour there was time to see the caves, go kayaking, sit on a secluded beach, and visit the Floating Village. The Floating Village is the highlight of the trip.

If you don’t like seafood and shellfish make sure you take some of your own food because most of the food is freshly caught. If you like shellfish ( I love it) then the food will be like landing in paradise. Vietnamese food is exceptionally good with the vibrant flavours of Asia and the gastronomic refinement of France.

Pick your add ons before you go. Some of the add ons can cost so you should include them in your price. I recommend the Kayaking but the trip to the Pearl Farm wasn’t so amazing. The Floating Village is also special.

Be ready to jump ship. Due to the logistical complications of people staying varying lengths of time and choosing different options, you may have to use different vessels for several parts of your journey. On my second day only two of us joined another boat to go to a beach. When we returned to the big boat the guests were entirely new.

Check the weather forecast carefully. I went in June because it was cheaper, but it was also typhoon season. The roads were flooded on the way there but we made it with a small delay. I was lucky enough to have beautiful sunshine for my two night trip.

I used the following company:

http://www.orientalsails.com/

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on…Santa Catalina, Arequipa

Posted: 31/12/2012 in Americas, Architecture, History, Religion, Travel
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Arequipa, Peru is a beautiful place with old colonial squares and those traditional Spanish era churches. The main reason I visited Arequipa was to see Juanita the ‘ice mummy’, however, I also stumbled upon the serene and beautiful Santa Catalina Monastery. This monastery is a monastery of nuns of the Dominican Order. I always thought convents were for nuns and monasteries were for monks,  but what do I know? It was founded by Maria de Guzman  and built in 1579, it was enlarged in following century. The rather large monastery takes up a sizeable part of the older part of Arequipa and there are still some nuns living in the closed off part; tourists can visit the rest.peru032

This city is no sprawling metropolis compared to Santiago de Chile or Buenos Aires, but it’s busy enough in that typically Latin way with taxis beeping their horns and people squabbling loudly. The mildly chaotic atmosphere outside is hard to detect once you get inside the peaceful cloisters of Santa Catalina. There are some interesting exhibits on life in yesteryear, but by far the best thing to do is wander around the peaceful maze and get lost among the painted walls and flowers. I even found some guinea pigs nibbling on salad in one of the quieter chambers. If you know anything about Peru then you can imagine what will happen to those little creatures.

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Santa Catalina is built in the Mudejar style. This is the style adopted by the Moors who remained in Iberia after the Christians took it back. It’s not as obviously Moorish as some of the buildings you would find in Andalusia, but there is more than an echo to the styles of the Al-Andalus Moors. The tiles, brightly painted walls, and vaulted ceilings would seem familiar to anyone who has seen the old Moorish buildings. This particular building is very simple and sits perfectly into the surrounding streets of Arequipa. It reminds me of the places you would see on Spaghetti Westerns with peaceful locals being harangued by angry gunmen.

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I find that most of the colonial Spanish, or Iberian architecture I have seen in South America fits seamlessly into its surroundings. I think this is a combination of parts of Iberia having similar light and climate, and because the buildings have had time to age. Looking at the history of European exploration, the Spanish and Portuguese have been in America a long time. The reason I talk about this is because I have often found Anglo-Saxon colonial styles to be completely out-of-place, especially in hotter climes.

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on…The Perito Moreno Glacier

Posted: 30/12/2012 in Americas, Nature, Travel
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The Perito Moreno Glacier is in the Los Glaciares National Parkin the south west of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. I took a tour there from El Calafate and went on a boat to get close to the 60m+ high terminus which is 5 kilometres wide.  The glacier is advancing from its 30 km length. The ice cliffs sometimes collapse into the lake which creates a pretty impressive noise and an even more impressive splash. When I think of glaciers I just imagine a world of ice. The reality here is that it juts past the green forest clad hills. These evergreen hills contrast sharply against the blue ice of the glacier.

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on…Parque Nacional Torres del Paine

Posted: 30/12/2012 in Americas, Nature, Photography, Travel, Wellbeing
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Torres del Paine National Park is in the southern Chilean part of Patagonia. The Cordiella del Paine is the most impressive part of the park with the hugely impressive ‘towers’ or ‘Torres’. These three needles which you will see in my pictures are around 2,500m altitude. It’s possible to spend a lot of time hiking and climbing in the park but I really went to see the three towers.

I arrived from the south because I was staying in Puerto Natales which is about 1h30 or 112km from the park. Unlike most of the tourists I wasn’t staying in the park, I found it rather expensive for basic cabins, this was why I did an extremely fast ascent to get the view of the three towers. My bus to return to Puerto Natales didn’t give me much time to hike so I ran as often as I could and made a scramble over the last thirty minutes to get to the viewing point.

All experience is subjective and it was an extraordinary sequence of events that coloured my experience. I hadn’t read too much about the place before arriving in Southern Chile, it didn’t seem to be on a par with the other bucket list places in South America. I was pretty tired after jogging or at least marching to the lake from where you can see the towers. When I eventually got to the top it was…awesome.

People (mostly Americans and Australians) use the word awesome to describe many things. After seeing the Torres del Paine I don’t think I can use the word any longer. I was literally struck with awe and wonder. When I saw the view of the impossibly large granite monoliths I reeled off so many swearwords I felt like I had got a kind of condensed turrets syndrome. My feet were rooted to the ground and I felt paralysed. As I got my senses together I realised there were three people behind me who were taking some food whilst leaning against a rock. There was no confusion, they weren’t fazed and I wasn’t embarrassed by my outburst. They simply looked and listened and basically said ‘we had the same ideas’. A scene like this couldn’t even be imagined, the most impressive lands of Tolkien’s Middle Earth couldn’t compare with this site. By this stage in my ye ar long trip I had seen many things and many places. I will maintain that New Zealand is the most scenic place I have visited. However, as a single site and a single experience, the three Torres of Torres del Paine have remained the benchmark for all my experiences before and since.

I regret to describe this in such superlative language because I fear it may raise expectations before others visit, but I have to be honest, it’s the best thing I have done whilst wandering. I was also very lucky to have a clear crisp day, I have been told that the weather in Patagonia is pretty fickle. I leave you to look at the pictures, I hope they give a sense of how impressive this place really is. I don’t like having my picture taken in front of places but I include one on this occasion because I felt a real sense of achievement and I hope you can tell by my expression the wonder I felt. The picture was taken by the people on the rock shortly after my turrets outburst.

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on…Hahoe Mask Museum (하회동 탈 박물관)

Posted: 19/12/2012 in Asia, Culture, Design, Korea, Uncategorized
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on…Hahoe Mask Museum (하회동 탈 박물관)

Hahoe Mask Museum is just before the entrance to the  UNESCO World Heritage Hahoe Village. I have never had an interest in masks, I actually find them very creepy. However, when you have to wait 45 minutes for a bus back to Andong, you may as well go in a mask museum. This museum displays the famous Hahoe masks and other masks from all over the world. despite my poor attitude, I actually enjoyed looking at the different masks and the various uses. I was both impressed and amused that someone went to the trouble of making a ‘Monk with scabies’ mask. Many of the masks were used for exorcism and funerals prior to the more conservative and Confucian Joseon dynasty.

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If you are interested in the process the picture above shows the various stages of makeing an Andong or Hahoe mask. As I know absolutely nothing about masks, I have included a name for each mask based on what (or who) they remind me of.

Tony Adams Frankenstein

Tony Adams Frankenstein

Confused Hindu

Confused Hindu

Mating caterpillar eyebrows

Mating caterpillar eyebrows

No title necessary

No title necessary

Bearded Mexican freakshow

Bearded Mexican freakshow

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Bruce Forsythe's shipwrecked ego.

Bruce Forsythe’s shipwrecked ego.

De Niro eating a grapefruit

De Niro eating a grapefruit

Indonesian bulldog

Indonesian bulldog

Eyes Wide Shut souvenir

Eyes Wide Shut souvenir

Gandolf in rehab.

Gandolf in rehab.

Yoda's creepy uncle

Yoda’s creepy uncle

Rod Stewart's homeless brother.

Rod Stewart’s homeless brother.

Zombie Neil from the Young Ones

Zombie Neil from the Young Ones

 

Getting there:

From Andong Bus Terminal or Andong Station,
Take Bus 46 bound for Hahoe Village (하회마을) and get off at the museum. This museum is a bit further back from the entrance to Hahoe near the restaurants.

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