Posted by Jackie Hewett on Sun 27th May 2007 at 09:53 AM, Filed in January
It is in the nearly unpronounceable town of Thiruvananthapuram (oitherwise known as Trivandrum) that the highlight of the annual ‘Great March of India’ takes place in January. An indeterminate number of Elephants (between 15 and 100) are walked by their Mahouts for days across the surrounding area to get to Thiruvananthapuram. The elephants are bedecked with jewels and ornamental metal plates and are paraded around the town. The mahouts riding on each elephant hold a brightly coloured silk umbrella that indicates the temple to which the elephant belongs.
Like many things in India it all seems to happen in slow motion, we weren’t even sure if we were in the right place. It all seems rather disorganised and there is quite a bit of ‘mooching about’, waiting and wondering what is going on and when it is going to ‘start’, but there did seem to be quite a buzz about the gathering crowd. Finally we spotted a couple of elephants heading towards us down the road, and after a few minutes a couple more, and so on. The elephants and mahouts gathered in a line along the side of the road. On the occasion I went there were around 50 elephants of varying sizes. We were able to get as close as we wanted to the elephants and there were many great photo opportunities. Later on there is a display of the local ‘flavour’ of martial arts, Keralan dancing and fireworks.
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Many people stop at Monterey Bay to visit the wonderful aquarium, as did we, and its well worth a visit. As we entered the aquarium we were ‘confronted’ by a striking display of orange jellyfish set off by a deep blue background. They were mesmerisingly beautiful – I could have stood there for hours, in fact I probably did! Other highlights of the aquarium for me were the rest of the jelly fish (so many shapes and sizes), a fabulous display of seahorses (I learnt a few facts) and of course the wonderful kelp forest. We sat and watched the kelp swaying hypnotically for a good 30 minutes with the dappled sunlight coming through. Wonderful and peaceful!
There are quite a few other things to do in Monterey besides the world renowned aquarium. The walk down to the aquarium along Cannery Row has a few fabulous galleries and shops. One sells some of the best wildlife photographs and prints I’ve ever seen – I wanted to buy them all but my walls are just not big enough! There is also a gallery specialising in Ansel Adams photographs and a wonderful jewellery shop. Cannery row was originally famous for canning sardines but is now known as a local hot-spot’ with many restaurants, bars and pubs in easy walking distance.
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Posted by Jill Bowen on Mon 14th May 2007 at 03:00 AM, Filed in November
Roll out the barrel…lets have a barrel of fun…. this old song has a special connotation for the folk who live in the Devonshire town of Ottery St Mary. Each year a strange tradition takes place. Not content with such mundane things as fireworks (or just drinking the contents of the barrels) the spectacular festival of the Burning Barrels occurs.
This event evolved in the 17th century allegedly to rid the streets of evil spirits, and is now revived annually as children, then women, followed by the men take turns to run through the roads with the burning barrels on their shoulders!
Each pub in Ottery sponsors a single barrel (their contents having been previously drunk)! In the weeks prior to the event the barrels are soaked with tar. The barrels are then graded by weight as the weight determines who will carry them, and lit (in turn) outside of each of the pubs. When each barrel is alight with flames pouring out it is hoisted onto to a local’s shoulders or back.
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If you are a frequent traveller, or even traveller who likes to feel home from home and bring all your gadgets and gizmos with you? Do you need a gadget to keep your gadgets charged? Well, here are a few solutions to your charging dilemma’s…..
Power Monkey
This highly portable device weighs in at only 10g (but with the transformer it’s 454g). The power monkey is billed as being up to 10 times more powerful than a conventional battery with up to one year’s standby charge. It can be used for charging iPods (giving up to 40 hours use), PSP’s, PDA’s, many Nokia phones, Motorola Razr, Blackberry’s (up to 96 hours on phones), and Bluetooth headsets. It can be used in 150 countries and whilst RRP is £35 you can pick one up through Amazon marketplace from £16.50.
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Posted by Jill Bowen on Fri 11th May 2007 at 05:46 PM, Filed in Naturism
A few years ago I visited Tenerife with my significant other, and for me it was too commercial. Fuerteventura sounded a good option after my younger sister (who’s not a naturist) had visited and mentioned that the beach at her hotel the ‘Sol Elite Gorriones’ might suit us, as she’d noticed people ‘in the nuddie’ on the few occasions she had used it.
The majority of visitors to Fuerteventura come for the beaches, over 50 km of glorious clean white and golden sands, small bays and sweeping stretches to tempt sunbathers. The landscape is filled with ridges and crests of sand (like golden mountains) that sweep down to the bright blue sea. It’s a windsurfers paradise. The wind that seems to come out of nowhere …sometimes threatening the pleasures to be had on the beach! The island is not as commercialised as many others in the Canaries, people tend to come for the beaches and the relative peace and quiet….or the super fit for the joy of wave sailing.
It’s an extraordinary stark island, but totally unique with it’s own special grandeur. Wonderful evening skies that send patterns of mauve and cerise across the mountains.
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