Travel Guides

Most westerners look upon Asian food, traditions and culture as taboo or exotic. Though some of the strange stories are true, many of the horror stories told are merely exaggerations. While some Chinese fare may be strange or even unappetizing to a Western palette, with a little courage and an open mind, some of these exotic ingredients just might become one of your favorite foods.

Popular foods in Asia such as Beef Tendon, Bird’s Nest soup, and Shark fin can be almost shocking to westerners. Making soup out of nests scraped off of caves in the middle of the woods? Although dishes such as Bird’s nest soup may seem unpalatable by western standards, it is one of the most expensive dishes in Asia, revered for its complex flavor and legendary medical qualities. One must remember that in Rural china, most people have never even heard of foods like burgers and fries, and the idea of expensive caviar or meat pate’s may seem just as disgusting to them.

In our ever expanding society increasing pollution, torn down forests, and changing terrain are causing serious problems with the environment. But it isn’t just out Ozone that is suffering, and as the years pass more and more animals are being put on the endangered species list, just a few hundred (and sometimes less) away from being completely extinct.

But what about those animals that were rare to begin with? Do they have a chance? Will out children even know what they are? Do we ever know now? Here is a list of the top 10 rarest animals in the world, and some of them you may have never heard of.

You can still travel a lot in September, with the big advantage of small prices. The peak season is off, and during the transition season ( autumn in the northern hemisphere, and spring in the southern) you can save a lot of money. So, I will recommend you some wonderful destinations.

1. The Greek islands. The prices are much lower, the water still good for bathing, and you are next to the Gods.You have a big choice of smaller or bigger islands ( Corfu, Santorini etc )

2. Mallorca, Spain. Wonderful Mediterranean island with beaches, mountains, olives plantations and even windmills. Usually overcrowded and expensive in summer, is now much cheaper.

3. Paris. La Ville lumiere is magnetic as ever, and will host by the end of september an important auto exhibition. Book in advance, and do not expect something cheap in Paris.

Istanbul, former Constantinopole, Tsarigrad has a lot of attractions and attractive corners for his visitors.

This city is a holly city of Islam, and I noticed for you the following most attractive spots:

1. Topkapi Palace, where you can find the personal belonging of Mohammed and the first caliphs. A huge museum with many craft and art masterpieces and a special wing for the harem! In his peak years, Topkapi was a city in the city indeed, hosting 5000 people.

2. Hagia Sofia, or Aya Sofia for the Istanbulites, was first a church, than a mosque and now is a very interesting museum. It is huge, but nevertheless harmonic, and has been for a millennium world’s biggest cathedral.

3.Blue Mosque, also named the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, has wonderful blue tiles

Istanbul is a megacity like no other, an unique megacity: it lies on two continents.

It is Europe’s most poulous city, and is ranked worldwide on the 3rd place, with its 12 000 000 inhabitants. The european side is named Thrace, and the asian Anatolia. 30 % of the population lives on the asian side, which is newer and has a better infrastructure.

Istanbul has a long, glorious, turbulent history. It was founded by the roman emperor Constantin, with the intention to become the capital of the Roman Empire. That is why it was long time called Constantinopole, and was really the capital of the Roman Eastern Empire. In 1432 it was conquered by the osman turks, becoming the capital of the Othoman Empire. When proclaming Republic of Turkey in 1922, Mustafa kemal Ataturk moved the capital to Ankara, but Istanbul continued to florish up today! In the last 50 years it tripled its population.

You must have your favorites among the cities you have visited, among islands, among hotels. I also have my favorites in all these fields.

Allow me to start with the cities I love, nevertheless I have not reported (yet) about all. I can recommend them to you, and I will go in details in other posts, if I did not do up to now. New cities, old cities, active megacities or deserted ruins. Maybe I cannot explain exactly my choices, is a matter of fact and affect!

1. Istanbul, Turkey

2.San Francisco, U.S.A.

3.Rome, Italy

4.Cuzco, Peru

5.Florence, Italy

6.Sidney, Australia

7. New York

8. Cape Town, South Africa

9. Buenos Aires, Argentina

10. Bangkok, Thailand

London, Paris, Moscow, Petra are waiting. But I should choice only 10 cities.

Visiting a very old deserted city can seem meaningless to some of you, waste of time for others. But for a few fans of archaeology, history and related tourism it is a big challenge and a wonderful occasion to think!

Visiting Petra, the magic city, is such a wonderful chalenge you must to take on. Petra is a new world wonder and an UNESCO heritage site. Nowadays it is completely deserted, only ruins. But what fantastic ruins!

Petra has been lived for many millennium, starting from the nineth millenium B.C. All what you can still see in Petra was built by Nabateans in the first Millenium B.C. They took a good profit from the location of Petra on the Silkroad, in a natural forteress. They were exquisite hydraulic engineers, pottery masterstraders and . The Nabateans spoke aramaic, a byble language.

I think that gambling tourism is a specific way of tourism. I also mentioned this way of tourism in one of my prior posts.

This way of making tourism is not very old ( 200 years I would say)  and its major targets are Macau and Las Vegas.

Gambling in Las Vegas is a legend, which also made Las Vegas becoming a legend. This amazing city is very young ( founded in 1902 as railway station). In 1936 not far from Vegas was build the Boulder Dam, which boosted the tourism in the area.

In 1946 the first casino was opened in Las Vegas, and after that followed many others. Today this city already counts 2 000 000 inhabitants, being one of the most dynamic american cities.

But what makes actually this wonderful city so special ? It is a kind of magic, after all! It has the highest rate of suicides and divorces in the U.S. and is maybe the most lightened city on Earth.