Expressive hand gestures

Italian language is reach on expressive hand gestures, they are different from region to region and the most popular is this way of communication in Naples, I think. First of all, because historical origins of this language is different as in other parts of Italy. For different centuries kings of the region had roots in Catalonia, so the dialect of Naples is more easily comprehensive for Catalonians as for Italians -and the gestures dialect too.

The best example is "yes".
What do you do, when you say "yes"? Probably you bend your head forward down-up.
If you are Bulgarian, you rock it left-right.
Neapolitan click with the tongue and bend the head up-back.

Nothing terrible, if you don't understand it.

Sometimes gestures language is not so innocent as we think about it. When you plan a trip in a place that you did not visit before, you have to control the most popular and offensive gestures common for that place. To understand where they've sent you, at least.

An other popular gesture is "ok"
Something like in this photo.
Very well -if you are American or Russian
Great job -the hand moves from right to left "closing a zip" -in Italy

but......
it has indecent sense in Brazil
offensive -you are zero -if you show it to a person in France or Germany
money -in Japan
I'll kill you -in Tunisia
Go to devil -in Siria

Do you understand? Take your hands well bended, when you travel!

Different sources. Maybe not very attendible (my opinion). Correct me, if you find errors.

Salerno. Italy. Medieval Monuments Always Open

This is the splendid look of Salerno this morning. (See A sunny day in Salerno too)
All the world is speaking about refuse emergency in province of Naples and nobody knows about this pearl that exists in the same region.
I sincerely adore this city. Because it's so little, beautiful and clean. Because is full of historical memories form the beginning of the time. With special point on early Middle Ages.
In the last 12 years, the period that I live here, Salerno changed greatly. From a repugnant place till this real pearl today. And these changes are not finished else.

Today I wanted to assist press conference in the municipality of the city where was presented new plan to open medieval monuments of the old town all days of the year and not only Sunday and Saturday as it was before. All these monuments (about 10 now) are open thanks to volunteers of different groups, like our Archaeological Group of Salerno.

Old town of Salerno is situated over 10 meters of history and this history begins from 197 BC. with Roman veterans that became this place as salary for 25 years of military service. It was too far from Rome, yes, but it was on the whole not so bad... And they created a block on the only way from sud to Rome.

There was created the first Medical School in Europe here, did you know it? And there were women-physicians at that time. Did you know, that the Church don't likes women only from XIII century?

Посмотреть на Яндекс.Фотках

But some years ago there were not official tourist guides in Salerno else. Nobody thought about tourismus here. What do you want, there were not supermarkets and great shops some years ago.
Today, everybody understands that tourismus is the only possibility to give job to the population.
5-star hotel was finished in 2007 in the center. There are many places to sleep in the town now, too. And they think about other hotels and low cost solutions for everybody.
Tourists will have the possibilty to visit Amalfitan Coast with boats.
Finally, all the monuments will have free entrance.

After this press conference I passed some time with my friends, and because I had about half an hour till the bus, went to walk on the seafront. It was a really happy morning.

Free entry to museums

Photo BBC.co.uk

Today I read about an interesting theme: free entry to museums.

Why is it so interesting, will you ask me?
Sometimes people begin to laugh, when I write or speak about free stuff.
I think in this way: why have I pay (or pay too much) what I can have for free/for less? I really don't understand it. ;(((

From other side, if you pay 16 euro every museum you want to visit (in province of Naples for example), and you have to pay the bus/train/car to reach the place/places (from 6-15 euros/one way/person) and you have to do it for several days... Than, remember all sorts of souvenirs that look at you with irresistible attraction... And you have to eat too (that means at least 10 euros/person because you will go in the first restaurant/fast food you see) you will arrive very easily to important numbers.

By the way. I know persons, that travel round the world all their life. They have not very rich look and I was surprised: how is it possible for them? One friend said me: they turn home (in Europe), work hard maybe for a year to accumulate a sum they need and than -travel and travel and travel.

Now, about the free entry.
There are different cities, where museums are free. For example all the museums in Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland, have free entry. There is a free museum in other Scottish city, Edinburgh (National Museum of Scotland)
Quantity of free entrance museums in England is growing from year to year.

An extra 2.7 million people have been to a museum in the first seven months of the scheme...London has seen the highest rise in visitor numbers with a 157% increase. (source BBC)

In China many biggest cities offer this possibility too ( Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou)

In Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Naples you enter some museums for free if you buy an ArtCard (maybe the name is different in different countries)

Some museums in different countries offer free ammission on some special days or hours (Admission is free for all visitors during Target Free Friday Nights -in Museum of Modern Art/NY. In Italy there are free entry 2-3 days in national museums once/twice a year.)

I'll be very glad if you add some more plases to this my list.

Valley of the Death in Tibet

«гора Кайлаш (Кайлас)» на Яндекс.Фотках

I passed different hours to look for the description of this valley in non-Russian Internet and did not find too much about it. To be more precise, I did not find practically anything. I wanted to have a sort of independent point of view on this place, but... I have to tell you what I could find.

If you look for "Valley of Death" or "Death Valley" in search engines, you'll find National Park in California, US ( an arid desert basin of eastern California and western Nevada)

Now I tell you about an other Death Valley, in Tibet, near the Mount Kailash (-s).

This Valley of the Death is on the North-West of the Mount Kailash, 5680 m over sea level. It's about 3 km long and finishes with a half-round wall of the glacier. 2 red great stones guard the entrance in the valley. The entrance is near the mount Titapuri. This name is translated "home of hungry spirit" and they say it can be bound with the name "Tibet".

So, what is interesting in this that seems to be a naked place?
They say, yogis go there to die, somebody tells the soil is covered with human bones there (others deny it).
Because thin energies help to reach Enlightening there, many persons wanted to visit this valley. But if somebody had an empty life, he can finish his way suddenly. You have to follow only the official path if you enter it.
They say, 4 relatively young persons come out destroyed from there a year or 2 ago, become old in little time and were dead shortly. So if you want to go there you have to be very brave.
An other story says, you can sit between those 2 "guard dogs" (red stones) and will feel something special.

These are all fables about this place. As said, I could not find neither conferms no any additional information. There wasn't even any map to add to my post. So it would be very interesting if you add something to this story.

Sources (all in Russian, but there are numerous photos ecc)
http://ufolog.nm.ru/tibet.htm if you have the possibility to translate, read it. Amazing. But there are many persons that say Muldashev invented all this.
http://prometheus.al.ru/ufo/tibet1.htm the same more or less
http://www.kp.ru/daily/23789.3/58468/ (photo on the right is from this page) here there are many photos and maps -contrary point of view (from the first link)
2 part Kailash and kora http://www.kp.ru/daily/23781.3/57940/
3 part monastery Garugem and Lama Tenzin Wandra http://www.kp.ru/daily/23793.3/58795/
4 part Lhoku http://www.kp.ru/daily/23820.3/60498/

Well, after a week of intense research, I present to you my findings!
I thought it was strange that an area like this in such a famous region of Tibet should be unfindable, and so I searched around on a detailed map for anything related.
It turns out, the Mount Titapuri mentioned in the article is actually Tithapuri, wich means "Village of the dead", a small town near mount Kailash famous for it's hotsprings. It's also famous for being right next door to a certain "Garuda Valley", within which lie mysterious caves which have never been fully explored. Garuda's are nothing like Hungry Ghosts, but perhaps the comparison or mistranslation could have been drawn from this description of Garudas: "It symbolizes freedom from hopes and fears, the vast mind without reference point." The free mind, without a reference point, could be alot like death. Also, Muldashev is a notorious liar (I also found), so he could have just been making it sound more romantic.
Aparrantly a large town at the time of Guge Kingdom lived in the valley, but archaeologists can't believe how this was possible as there would have been no way for them to cultivate the land and no water source. Also, the mysterious caves they supposedly lived in are carpeted with bones...
That is all the reliable sources I have found, and all the ones on Muldashev point to him being a very unreliable character. He also claimed that Atlantis, and Atlanteans, live beneath the Tibetan plateau.

I hope this has helped at all, it is everything I could find, and I even asked my lecturer who is an expert on Tibet.

Yours,
Ten

Here are some sources:
buddhism.kalachakranet.org
drsethufoundation.org/
redicecreations.com
Also the Lonely Planet Guide to Tibet.

I asked help by different bloggers that have blogs related to this thematic. Some of them were so kind to dedicate their precious time to look at this post and to answer me. Here I add their blogs.
Thank you, Friends!
Yak Butter Tea,
Himalman’s Weblog
Nepalese and Tibetan Arts Blog
Gesar's Footprint
Yak's Diary

The Kangaroo is an Australian Icon

Berry Sudirno from Jakarta/Indonesia, author of these interesting blogs: howtoboostyourwealth, journeytomakemoney, sweetjourneyinmylife .
You know him in my blogs from his articles Endagered Species -Orangutans, that many of you found interesting, Batu Caves Hindu's Shrines that I posted in my "Vacation and Travel Talk" some days ago and Meity and Bimo the Shar Pei. This is his new article.

Kangaroo are found in Australia continents, Tasmania and surrounding islands including Papua and New Guinea.

The Kangaroo is an Australian Icon it is featured on the Australian coat of arms, on currency and is used by many Australian’s Organization including Qantas, the National flag carrier.

A Kangaroo is a marcupial from the family Marcopodidae. The largest species from this family are the red kangaroo, the antilopine kangaroo, eastern and western grey kangaroo. On average kangaroo live in the wild has a life span between six to eight years.

Kangaroo are endemic to the continent of Australia, they are not farmed, but wild kangaroo are shot for meat, the meat has been exported to other countries including Indonesia and easily found at the freezer box at the supermarket and their skin are use for handbag, wallet, hat, wrist ban.

The Tasmanian forester kangaroo is listed as endangered under the US Endangered Species Act.

­­(Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo, http://www.kidsplanet.org)

If you are interested that I publish your article/post or your photo with MY post (I can host and retouch your photos) in one of my blogs you can write me a mail (my address you can find on the right side of the page) with very clear object (that I do not cancel your mail as spam). In change I ask you to post my blog's addresses in one of your permanent posts -like this (you can copy it):

My friend's blogs:
Diary,
Animals as Friends,
Lazy Yogi,
Vacation and Travel Talk

Flood in S.Petersburg

This map is from the site waytorussia.net

«Санкт Петербург.Наводнение 2006» на Яндекс.Фотках

St. Petersburg is a splendid city, specially if you want to visit it from June to August. I like it more in that period. If you want to be there in autumn or winter, you have to think about floods too. Because it's a part of the life of this city.

And today began the first flood of 2008. The 306-th in it's history and it's the 8-th time that the flood begins in February. Today water is 188 cm higher as normally. Highest water in February was in 1822 and arrived till 2,5 m over the normal measure. 2 times in the history the water was higher then 3 m and once it arrived till 4 m 10 cm. (news.mail.ru)

Floods take place in this area because it's very low-lying, the downtown is only some cm over sea-level. "Long waves" come from the Gulf of Finland and enter in Neva-river and than western winds block the normal flow of the water.

They spoke about a construction of a Flood Protection Barrier for some years (2002-2003) but that project was abandoned.

Sources:
Saint-Petersburg.com
St Petersburg Flood Protection Barrier

Map from the site Escape Travel

"Taspo" -personal tobacco card in Japan

After Hookah, the waterpipe I write once more about problems for smokers. If you want to go in Japan and you are a smoker, you have to know:
1/ It's forbidden to smoke in Japan till 20 years.
2/ To assure that the law is for everybody and young persons can't trick their age, the new experiment begins in Japan.

Smokers have to buy tobacco card, named "taspo", a personal passport to buy cigarettes. Now they have experimental period for this card. From 1 July you can buy your cigarettes ONLY with your tobacco card in Japan. Who will buy or sell cigarettes without it can get great penalty.

All the information you can find here