These are the things that make me feel grateful for the life I live every day.
This pictures have been taken in Cambodia and this is pretty much what people must resort to in order to survive – searching through trash all day long. Just imagine having to live there, let alone having to raise your beloved children in that kind of an environment. This is just as bad as the sea of garbage, only it’s happening dry land.
If you think that being a bar is the only fascinating thing about this tree, you’re dead wrong!
This amazing tree is located in Limpopo, South Africa and it was transformed into a bar to keep the thirsty locals happy. But now more than 7000 tourists visit this place every year. The bar is inside a 155feet circumference baobab tree, with its own cellar and natural ventilation system. It takes about 40 people with their arms stretched to grasp the whole thing and the owner says one time he threw a party and managed to fit 54 people inside, although he doesn’t think he’ll ever do that again.
But the most impressing thing about this baobab is that, according to scientists, it’s about 6.000 years old, older than most of the pyramids in Egypt. It actually makes this tree-bar the oldest living organism on the planet! That’s just fascinating!
Some people are just too lucky! Lucky enough to receive a whole island in an exotic paradise, as a gift.
Which brings us to Michael Schummacher, the best Formula 1 pilot that ever lived, who retired at the end of 2006 and received a $7 million gift, an island in “The World” from Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai. Scummacher‘s island is located in Antarctica and it’s simply beautiful.
Other stars like Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Richard Branson, Michael Jackson, David Beckham or Rod Stewart are rumored to be owners of islands in the man-made archipelago.
Of course you’ll need to travel to Barcelona, Spain in order to get one but I hear they work every time.
This has to be one of the most ingenious ideas I have ever heard, we all know sweets make everyone feel better so why not use them as actual anti-depressives? That’s exactly what the Happy Pills shop in Barcelona is doing, it raps all kinds of tasty, gummy sweets in plastic bottles, labeled with pink crosses and prescriptions like: “against Mondays” or “against the intolerable lightness of being”. The shop is like a long hallway and you can get a bottle and a spoon and serve yourself from the various medicines.
I have to remember this place for when i visit Barcelona…hope it’s going to be soon!
I have to be honest and start by saying I’m a huge fan of winter and all that it implies, snow, ice, cold weather, the whole enchilada, so I guess I was a little subjective in picking this piece over others. But even you sun worshipers have to admit that these snow sculptures, especially the castles are simply amazing.
These were all sculpted in blocks of snow and ice, during the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, in China by the most talented sculptures in the world. The festival dates back to 1963 and is one of the four largest ice and snow festivals, along with along with Japan’s Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada’s Quebec City Winter Carnival, and Norway’s Ski Festival.
If you haven’t started saving up for a house on the Palm Paradise of Dubai, you’d better start soon the construction will be done soon. Progress is significant according to these pics, with several houses actually finished and ready to welcome their owners. Just imagine walking out of one of those beauties and plunging into the clear blue waters…must be heaven on Earth!
As you all know, Chinese are very serious when it comes to their historical legacy, their centuries old customs and traditions, so it comes as no surprise that even though it’s rapidly becoming one of the most industrialized nations in the world they still honor their forefathers by performing ancient ceremonies.
Avery good example is this Cin dynasty traditional ceremony, performed in the city of Hangzhou. Progress is great but history is fascinating.
I have to say that after seeing these pics, I’ve decided I’d love to visit this place as much as I’d love to visit Devil’s Pool, at Victoria Falls, in Zimbabwe. It’s just one of those sights that simply takes your breath away.
This man-made wonder is 1013 meters long covers 80 acres, its deepest end reaches 115ft and it holds 66 million gallons of water. If you want to take a dip in the world’s largest swimming pool you’ll have to travel to San Alfonso del Mar in Algarrobo, Chile, where a computer-controlled suction and filtration system continuously pumps water from the ocean, keeping crystal clear.
Although it wasn’t cheap, costing around $2 billion to build and another $4 million/year for maintenance, the pool seems to be worth it as it has been attracting huge crowds of curious tourists, since it opened in December.
Hundreds of Japanese grown-men wrestle each other in the mud water of Mimusubi shrine in Yotsukaido, a settlement near Tokyo. Every year on February 25 these men take part in this strange yet fun looking rite, believed to bring good harvest for the whole year and good health for babies.
So what you see in these photos is practically what you get if you decide to marry in some Ethiopian tribes, a woman with a huge round circle through her lower lip and no lower front teeth…That’s right, in order for her to be able to wear that thing, 2 or sometimes all four lower front teeth are yanked out.
Now I’ve always supported cultural diversity, but this and what they do at Phuket Vegetarian Festival, just make me sick. I wouldn’t go out there and try to impose my culture on them but still…I can’t agree with I’m seeing either. I wonder how they kiss in Ethiopia? Even with that thing off, it’s got to be something nasty! Read More »
Set in Yellowstone National Park in the US, Morning Glory Pool is one of our planet’s many natural wonders. It is one of the park’s many hot springs and it was named in 1880, due to its resemblance to the well-known flower. The pool used to be completely blue, but human kind had to screw things up, as it always does, and because of the debris that’s been thrown in along the years, part of the vent has been clogged. That caused the temperature of the water to decrease, allowing bacteria to settle in, and that’s how the yellow fringe was formed. I’m not saying it’s less beautiful now but, in recent years the bacteria has started moving more and more towards the center of the pool and if the vandalism doesn’t stop, we might soon admire Morning Glory Pool only in photos…
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Miguel Hermoso Cuesta/Wikimedia Commons
Before you go laying the “this is photoshoped” line on me, do a little search on the web and convince yourself it is real. It’s actually one of the most well-known diving places in the world, set in Palau. Actually if any of you watched Survivor Palau, you might remember this as one of the sights.
Jellyfish Lake was once connected to the waters of the Pacific ocean, but is now completely isolated. The large population of jellyfish living here was believed to be missing those stinging cells, also known as nemastocysts, but it turns out they do have them, only they’re really tiny. That’s why it’s perfectly ok for people to swim so close to the jellyfish, our tissue doesn’t feel the sting.
This is definitely one of the “must-go before I die” places, right up there with Devil’s Pool and Morning Glory Pool!
Photo: tata_aka_T/Flickr
Photo: Shinji/Flickr
How would you feel if you were hanging on a metal arm atop of the eighth-tallest building in the world, the Stratosphere hotel in Las Vegas? I know I’d be terrified, but if you’re one of those thrill seekers that will gladly swim in Devil’s Pool, you might like this.
The X-Scream is, according to many, the ultimate fun ride in the world. Those willing to risk a heart attack are loaded in a cart and hoisted high into the air before the track plunges into a 30 degree angle. Just when it reaches 30mph, the carts comes to a full stop at the end of the track, leaving nothing but 300meters of air between passengers and the ground…now that I don’t want to try! I don’t care about their fancy security measures, that include titanium restraint bars and a manual return mechanism in case of power failure, I ‘m just not getting on that thing!
The Karni Mata Hindu temple was built by Maharajah Ganga Singh in the early 1900s as a tribute to the rat goddess, Karni Mata and the most intriguing aspect of it, is that it’s home for over 20.000 worshiped rats.
The legend behind this temple is that Karni Mata, a matriarch from the 14th century was a reincarnation of Durga, the goddess of power and victory. at one point one of her clansmen’s child died and she tried to bring it back to life only to be told by Yama, the god of death that he had already reincarnated as a rat. Karni Mata struck a deal with Tama, that all her dead clansmen would reincarnate as rats, until they were ready to be born again into the tribe.
It’s a nice story but I can’t stop thinking about how that place must smell…
Ivrea is a small town, about 40 minutes north of Turin, Italy. It isn’t a very animated settlement, but once a year, during the Orange Battle Carnival, Ivrea comes to life. the battle is an allegoric representation of the medieval insurrection of 1194, against the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick of Swabia. Masked, armored men throw oranges at the crowd who in turn throw them back at them, until the streets are covered by a carpet of squashed oranges that is sometimes even 30 cm thick…
As much fun as I’m sure this carnival is I have to wonder if those oranges, like the bananas in the banana wall, would have been more appreciated by some starving children in a third world country. But hey, that’s just me…
