Everyday Tokyo - Japan Through My Eyes part 2

post from Eye in the Sky on 28 February 2010 11:28:00 PM. © Eye in the Sky

Read The Full Article:
http://eye-in-the-blue-sky.blogspot.com/2010/03/everyday-tokyo-japan-through-my-e
yes.html

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

More Shots of the Peruvian Catacombs

post from Streets of Lima on 28 February 2010 08:11:00 PM. © Streets of Lima

[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://streetsofperu.blogspot.com/2010/03/more-shots-of-peruvian-catacombs.html

Digg this

Spencer Tunick Base at Sydney Opera House

post from Our Little Jaunt on 28 February 2010 06:55:47 PM. © Our Little Jaunt

Oh my god, just back from doing the Spencer Tunick Base photograph at the Sydney Opera House.What an amazing experience. Apparently over 5000 took part.Apart from being blooming FREEZING and quite windy, it didn’t rain and I have to say it was a hoot!Everyone was really friendly, fun, respectful and were there for the right [...]Related posts:

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OurLittleJaunt/~3/2dSBFvUIja0/

Digg this

The Perfect Leura Day

post from Leura Blue Mountains Guide on 28 February 2010 05:27:14 PM. © Leura Blue Mountains Guide

Saturday (27Feb) was a Leura day one longs for — moderate temperatures, a deep blue sky with a few fluffy white clouds high above and absolute calm brought out visitors and locals alike. We arrived at Post Cafe & Bar a bit early, before lunch was fully in the shoppers’ minds. The veggie quiche was quite tasty, though the [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.leurabluemountainsguide.com/blog/wordpress/?p=44

Digg this

Japanese cram schools

post from Japan Probe on 28 February 2010 05:14:42 PM. © Japan Probe

A juku chain makes weird and amusing commercials in an attempt to trick children into thinking that cramming for entrance exams can be fun:—Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JapanProbe/~3/acn5HDoQipM/

Digg this

Spotted dog is not a dalmatian

post from Japan Probe on 28 February 2010 05:14:30 PM. © Japan Probe

“Pochi Tama” introduces Anko, a French bulldog in Japan that has dalmatian-like spots:When Anko was a puppy, she was mostly white. As she got older, she gradually came to look like she does today.—Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JapanProbe/~3/I5k-zv1RX4M/

Digg this

Media in Iceland not to be trusted

post from Iceland banking crisis news and more on 28 February 2010 02:39:00 PM. © Iceland banking crisis news and more

Are Icelandic press to be trusted ?
Icelandic reproters are all working for some political party.
Morgunbladid, the oldest newspaper in Iceland,is controlled by the former,Prime minister,CEO of the central bank and chairman of the Independence party,mr. David Oddson.
Frettabladid, the free newspaper,is controlled by the former editor of the Morgunbladid.
Frettabladid owners are the big CEO´s of Baugur group,Jon Asgeir Johannesson and others.
Channel 2 news is also owned by owners of Baugur group.
The state tv news ,is controlled by the Education minister,who is a member of the Left green movement.
Now the discussion is, did the reporters accept travel gifts and more from the CEO´s ,responsable for the Banking crash ?
Can Icelandic media be trusted ?
So you must always remember ,when reading the news, who owns this newspaper/tv/radio/webnews.

Read The Full Article:
http://iceland-dori.blogspot.com/2010/02/media-in-iceland-not-to-be-trusted.html

Digg this

District museum Samphanthawong

The district museum of Samphanthawong district, which basically is Chinatown, was originally located within Wat Traimit, the famous golden Buddha temple. It was however removed there in 2006 in order to make space for the massive rebuilding of Wat Traimit, which now has been fully opened. Within the temple it now has a new local museum on the history of Chinatown, the Yaowarat Heritage Centre, a museum I will try to visit in my next trip to Thailand.

The original district museum was however not completely abandoned, it was moved into the Pathum Kongka temple school, only one block away from its original location. To visit it, one however really has to know where to search, as there is no sign at the school entrance nor at the school building which houses the museum. When I went there, the school entrance was blocked by a goal net, as the students played soccer in the inner courtyard, so I had to ask me way through. I was guided to the office building to the right, the upper floor now houses the museum.
The main exhibit in the museum is a row of Chinese shop houses, one with traditional Chinese medicine, a rice trader and a general store. In the larger room it mostly has posters showing reproductions of historic photos with explanation, both in English and Thai, giving an overview of the Chinese community.

Given the much bigger, more elaborate and better located new museum, and even more the total lack of promotion by the Bangkok tourist office (who told Eric from the Tour Bangkok Legacies website that the museum is still in Wat Traimit even after he noticed it being gone) as well as the total lack of signs towards to museum, I doubt it will attract any reasonable number of visitors except those who were able to find the sparse information on it. Though the Song Wat road, at which the museum is located, has far less tourists walking by than on Yaowarat road, one or two English sign would increase the visitor numbers already a lot.

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MyUnseenThailand/~3/Mr_CJdWVMJY/district-museum-sa
mphanthawong.html

Digg this

The Great American Road Trip, its all thats left

A few months ago, after an exhausting flight, we finally landed in the USA, the last part of our RTW trip. Originally we thought of driving cross-country from LA to NY but have been advised not to waste our time speeding along the epic route 66, through too vast empty spaces, too boring. So we decided to focus our energy and budget on two coastal routes, along The Pacific Coast and the Atlantic Coast, and on a tour across the wilderness of some of the best known Californian and Arizona National Parks.

Over the past months we were busy sorting out our travel, sitting behind the wheel for long hours, finding a motel for the night, eating fast food. As result leaving little energy and time for blogging.

This is because America is undoubtedly huge and its size makes even the most intrepid travellers dizzy to get around it. There isn?t really an extensive and efficient transport system that could get you everywhere with no hassle. USA isn?t either a backpacker budget destination, so we couldn?t really waste precious time and money to rest on our laurels and had to keep gaining ground.

Plus, if you consider that when Chris and I are tired we could barely think straight in Italian imagining it in English, you know... we are only two Wops who love travel around the world but far from being travel writers (even if we give always our best shot).

Maybe we should have followed the ?Strategies for keeping up with your blog once you start travelling? by David or Anil?s advices on ?Quick things to post on your travel blog when you are travelling too much to write?, aren?t they great?

Anyway, what we are trying to say is that we are now going to catch up with all our travel tales from our USA road trip, where the journey itself, rather than the destination, was the real protagonist and the nitty-gritty is that we managed to enjoy yet many sunshine days.

Chris living the American Easy Rider dream (only for a second before he got caught playing with someone else, big boy, toy)

Read The Full Article:
http://www.atravelaroundtheworld.com/2010/02/great-american-road-trip-its-all-tha
ts.html

Digg this

Istanbul - Sultanahmet

Yeahy. We're here at last. Now, the idea was that I would take a photo of our bus in the otogar in Fethiye, showing that it said Istanbul on it. However, we went to Buffalo for a pide (very nice) for our tea and a pretty big flash storm came. We ended staying in there till the last minute - the road in front and some of the kebab shops opposite were badly flooded. Luckily, there was a break in the weather and we made a dash for it. By the time we reached the otogar, we just jumped on the bus and we were off.

And so here we are. Not a lot has changed since we were last here. The metal work (no idea which metal it is) on top of the mosques has been very noticeably polished up, probably for the European Capital of Culture stuff and a few of the döner kebab stalls in Eminönü have been replaced by mackerel sandwich stalls. Nothing too desperate. We can still eat on a shoestring and our mackerel half-bread was absolutely lovely.

Our service bus dropped us off in Taksim so we walked from there, down the lovely Istiklal Caddesi, through Tünel and across the Galata Bridge to our hostel in Sultanahmet. We could have got the tram or a taxi but we wanted to see everything again. Sultanahmet is where all the classic Istanbul 'must sees' are and it's very touristy but it's also cheap for us to stay here (always a winner for us) and central for the people we need to see while we're here. Got to say, if you're planning on coming to Istanbul for European Capital of Culture year, book your accommodation. It's busy busy busy round here and that's on a cold, dull February day. Our hostel is fully booked.

Okay, so we're off to Kad?köy on the Asian side now. Getting the ferry across. It's all go. There's a restaurant that I really want to go to. We've got a rough idea where it is but if we don't find it, I'm sure somewhere else will suffice. Photos are the first couple I took today. A very cloudy and damp day today so I loved all these flower stalls in Taksim Square...and Galata Bridge, well, it's Galata Bridge isn't it. Perfect. Hoping for a bit of sun tomorrow.

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/mBMu/~3/es0afUtosMA/istanbul-sultanahmet.
html