A reverence to nature is expressed best during your Japan vacation. What is your inspiration to travel?
At Asia Transpacific Journeys, we are passionate about travel to Asia. This month we are asking our fellow world explorers why they travel to Asia. Here is what people had to share:
- “To learn about other cultures so that I can better understand them as I try to be a better steward of our planet.”
- “To experience the world.”
- “Want to go everywhere, see and experience the world and its people and learn.”
- “Our curiosity and empathy for the diverse and interesting cultures of our fellow human beings across the world. The opportunity for our minds to travel to times gone by and our passion for astonishing discoveries and the stunning aesthetics across the face of the earth.”
- “I have no choice. I was raised this way and only feel like I go “home” when I’m traveling…”
- “For perspective. For understanding.”
- “To step out of one’s everyday life; it makes me come alive! new sights new smells new adventures new challenges. Respecting and involving yourself in the different cultures you encounter. Learning, always learning, studying before you go, delving in depth once you are there. Appreciating the differences and at the same time the alikeness of people around the world.There is so much to see, to feel and to think about. The wonder of it all.”
- “To learn, to grow and to hopefully begin to understand life in the world beyond our own.” read more…
The New York Times featured an article on Australia’s transcontinental train, The Ghan, as reported by Iver Peterson.
The Ghan, part cruise train, part the working train that it started as, 90 years ago, is Australia’s transcontinental north-south line — a private railroad now running for 1,900 miles with just four stops through the vast interior of the country (and 1,900 miles back) twice each week. Northbound, it rolls from Adelaide on the temperate southern coast, through low desert plateau at Alice Springs, and on to the tropical lushness of the Top End, as Aussies call their northern coast, at Darwin on the Timor Sea.
The train was originally called the Afghan, after the camels that provided earlier transportation into the Australian interior; it has since been shortened to the Ghan, and a camel with its rider is the train’s ubiquitous trademark.
The entire trip from Adelaide to Darwin lasts 48 hours.
To read the complete article, visit NYTimes.com
Visit our site for information on group travel to Australia or creating a custom private trip to Australia, to include a ride on The Ghan, for just you and your family or friends.
TO learn about Tokyo, you sometimes have to leave it. The capital has been rebuilt so many times that those wanting a glimpse of what it looked like years ago head to places like the Museum Meiji-Mura, more than two hours away.
But the city of Kawagoe, right in Tokyo’s backyard, is a more practical alternative. Less than 45 minutes by train, the center of Kawagoe is filled with a well-preserved collection of century-old kura, or warehouses, that still double as stores, workshops and homes.
Many kura are clustered around an even older wooden clock tower and a jumble of buildings from the Taisho and early Showa eras that create the feel of a small town with a charm missing in many Japanese cities. A former castle town, Kawagoe does such a good job evoking the Tokyo of yore that it is affectionately called Little Edo, a reference to the ancient name for Tokyo.
To read the entire article on travel to Japan and see a slide show visit NYTimes.com
Visit our site for information on creating a custom private trip to Japan, to include a visit to the ancient city of Kawagoe, for just you and your family or friends.
The New York Times featured an exhibition review on the Silk Road at the American Museum of Natural History, as reported by Edward Rothstein.
“You are about to make an unusual journey,” a wall label proclaims at the beginning of an exhibition that opens on Saturday at the American Museum of Natural History. Normally that promise would provide reason enough to be wary. But this is something different.
You are welcomed by life-size camels laden with worn canvas sacks, their bodies framed by sand dunes stretching into the distance. A while later, near a 17-foot-long wooden Chinese loom, you find bowls filled with mulberry leaves on which scores of white worms are gnawing. You see, too, what kind of cocoons they soon will weave, and how these sacs might then be boiled and unwound into silk threads. And later still, you seem to arrive in an outdoor market in evening as the sounds of footfalls and animal cries mix with the murmur of voices; stalls are piled with produce, furs and spices, including a leopard skin, a yak tail, pheasant feathers, lapis lazuli and barrels whose smell suggests that they are filled with rose petals, jasmine oil and patchouli.
To read the entire article and view a slideshow, visit NYTimes.com
To learn more about travel to China, including following the Silk Road route, see a full itinerary on our site of ‘Silk Road: History’s Great Thoroughfare’ China Trip.
On Sunsets and temples
By Steve Merchant, Asia Transpacific Journeys Tour Leader who regularly leads our Burma: Land of the Golden Pagoda Small Group Trip
On Sunsets and Temples, Myanmar (Burma)
Arriving in Mandalay mid-morning it was obvious that a heavy rainstorm had occurred during the night. The air was clean and crisp and there was a vividness about the colors that follow sudden downpours. Our small group of travelers were in good mood after 5 days in Burma (now called Myanmar) and despite frequent thunderstorms were enjoying mixing with the locals in the street markets and observing their reverence as they prostrated themselves before Buddha in the incensed fumed temples. Careful to observe the rituals we had also bought perfume scented flowers from the street sellers and carefully hung them from the alter in the hope of improving our karma while the last of the rainy season storms filled the ricefields and we dodged under cover to continue our sightseeing.
Much to our surprise we were informed that the famous Mandalay road is in fact its river, the Ayerwaddy, which we were due to get a glimpse of when we ascended Mandalay hill for the “glorious sunset”, as promised in our literature. But first we visited the Golden Palace Monastery and the “Largest book in the World” pagoda which consists of 729 marble tablets carved with the Buddhist sacred writings and then broke for lunch. Due to its geographical positioning between two of the world’s great culinary countries, India and China, Burmese food surprises visitors with its subtleness and variety and so far none of our group had succeeded in losing any of the pounds they’d hoped for on leaving home. With the heat back in renewed force we retreated to our rooms to coolly contemplate the chances of seeing a sunset instead of the aerial pyrotechnics witnessed the previous night. read more…
Asia travel photography contest judged by National Geographic Traveler photographer Bob Krist
Our travelers crossed time zones, date lines, and oceans to experience an Asia tour or South Pacific Asia vacation— where they may have found a fabulous photo opportunity around every corner. We asked previous travelers with Asia Transpacific Journeys to submit photos of their travels with us. We started with 109 beautiful entries, our staff narrowed it down to 20 semi-finalists, and then we asked National Geographic Traveler photographer Bob Krist to select the winners.
He noted that “Great color, story telling, and strong compositions made it very hard for me to pick only three. Obviously, your travelers are exploring their destinations with an appreciative eye and a knack for going beyond the postcard views.”
Here are the winning entries and Bob’s commentary on the photos. Congratulations to our winners and thank you to all who participated. These photos truly define a journey beyond the ordinary™.
1st place, boy riding camel at sunset in Pushkar, India (© Annie Katz )
“This is a wonderful moment, and very carefully composed. Notice that the low angle the photographer chose fully silhouettes the camel and rider against the sky. The moment is captured perfectly, and the position of the camel and rider is just right. The setting sun behind this great silhouette just adds that extra sense of ‘moment’ to an already strong photograph.”
2nd place, women on a wall in India (© Susan I. Cohen)
“Another great job of ‘seeing.’ The repeating patterns of the women sitting in a row, plus the great light and color, makes this a very strong graphic and story-telling picture. It’s carefully composed—there are no distracting backgrounds. The photographer has done an excellent job of eliminating all extraneous elements, and distilling the composition to a powerful, simple graphic.”
3rd place, two boys watch a ceremony in Bhutan (© Scott Carroll)
“A wonderful ‘storytelling’ shot. The photographer looked beyond the obvious shot (that of the ceremony, whatever it was) and looked around the “edges” of the event to see how it was affecting the onlookers. Beautiful light, two very different expressions, and subjects who are totally into the moment. A great moment and a careful composition.”
Today, Oct 2nd, is Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, a day that is celebrated as a national holiday in India.
In the 20th century—so marked by violence, war, fascism, totalitarianism and oppression—Mahatma Gandhi proved that the spirit of peace could prevail against the forces of violence. The small, thin, unassuming man in the homespun loincloth developed the principle of satyagraha (literally “the force from which truth and love are born”). In practice this took the form of non-violent civil resistance that would force the end of British colonialism. It also laid the philosophical groundwork for the American Civil Rights Movement. Leaders from Martin Luther King Jr. to Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi have adopted Gandhi’s ingenious methods, whereby one’s opponents are not vanquished but rather converted—to truth and love.
TIME magazine, in naming Gandhi runner-up to Albert Einstein as the most important person of the 20th century said, “The Mahatma, the Great Soul, endures in the best part of our minds, where our ideals are kept: the embodiment of human rights and the creed of nonviolence.”
We wish you Happy Birthday, Mahatma.
Bollywood by the Beach
Notes from South India from Marilyn Downing Staff, Asia Transpacific Journeys’ Founder and President
Bollywood, South India
It doesn’t take much to draw a crowd in India, and when a gathering occurs, like a moth to a flame, I too am drawn. Some of my best moments during my travels in India have come from joining in. What ever has captured their interest, usually captures mine as well. So I found the crowd gathered on the beach at Pondicherry irresistible. I was rewarded by a full Bollywood shoot. A camera boom with full crew were filming male dancers, dressed in black in the sweltering midday tropical heat. They were going through a dance routine with full athletic rigor, as only Bollywood can. The non-dancing star, who they surrounded, was a portly middle aged man with a pouf-do that required constant attention from his stylist. Music, action, cut. Music, action, cut. Time and again they filmed the scene. Time and again they ‘cut’ and shot again to achieve utter perfection in the dance moves. The crowd grew and before long there were a coterie of vendors making the most of the opportunity – ice cream, snacks, toys for the children-a spontaneous happening that made our day.
Pondicherry, the old French colonial capital, is about 120 miles south of Chennai, India. Learn more about travel in South India.
Temple of the Sky
Notes from South India from Marilyn Downing Staff, Asia Transpacific Journeys’ Founder and President
Travel to South India
Chedambaram Temple at sunset is like no other. Devotees of the Hindu god Shiva scurry barefoot through the gates, children in tow, colorfully clad in their best saris and dhoti. They approach the alter for a sunset glimpse of this most sacred bronze figure of Shiva in his Nataraj phase, doing the cosmic dance of life. Shiva, the great god of destruction, is also the embodiment of creation and thus must be paid his due to keep the universe in balance. The object of their devotion, the bronze Nataraj image, circled with a flaming ring, has Shiva’s four arms aloft, each carrying a symbolic item or gesture, his right leg subduing the demon of ignorance and his left lifted high in a graceful, powerful pose, is a familiar Hindu icon. When understood, the sculpture offers the beholder an illustrated reminder for life – power, grace, compassion, enlightenment – ideal human qualities. Seen anywhere it evokes emotion, but seen at Chedambaram it carries its full sacred impact. As the smoke from hundreds of oil lamps illuminate the 2,000 year old exquisitely carved granite pillars, the bare-chested Braham priests, clad in their flowing white dhotis, top-knotted hair cuts and white forehead paint, rush forward toward the image carrying torches of cleansing fire. Devotees press closer to get a glimpse of the image being purified, as to lay eyes on such a moment is to purify the beholder. When finished, the priests, spent and drenched with sweat from the intense heat, move away, leaving the devotees to pray and ponder the spiritual moment.
Chedambaram is one of the five ancient Dravidian temples in South India. Each one dedicated to one of the five elements, this one is symbolic of the sky. Located in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, about 50 miles south of Pondicherry, the old French colonial capital, it can be easily reached by car.
I recommend that anyone who has an opportunity to travel to India, makes an effort to visit the Temple of the Sky.
Photo by Annie Katz, Asia Transpacific Journeys client | Indian boy rides his camel home after a day of festivities at the Pushkar Camel Festival in Pushkar, India.
We are travelers, we must explore. And we love to capture images of the places we’ve been.
Our clients have some amazing images from their Asia Transpacific Journeys travels, which are on display now.
