A trip to Vietnam is not complete with out visiting one of the world’s most beautiful religious buildings, The Great holy See temple which is the headquarters of Caodaism which is a religion which is made up of a mix of Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism. The temple was built in 1926, the 9 storey high structure is part pagoda and part cathedral. Inside the temple is the most magical the nearly florescent colours of pinks, blues and yellows are amazing. There are four prayer times a day so if you are lucky you will be able to witness this special religious event. The temple is just under 100km from the centre of Ho Chi Minn City or Saigon in the district of Tay Ninh and is usually packaged as a day tour with the close by Cu Chi Tunnels.
Before the days of cars the river was the lifeblood of the country and just as the Paddle steamer on the Mississippi opened up the USA the paddle steamer also opened up Australia along its mighty Murray River. The Cumberoona at the twin cities of Albury and Wodonga is a unique experience to step back in time an imagine the days the paddlesteamer ruled the trading world and also get to experience the mighty Murray River with its huge river gum trees. The Cumberoona offers trips up the river during from about October to April when the river is high and the cooler moths the craft is docked at Noreuil Park on the river, where it is open for dining and special events including some fantastic jazz and blues nights.
When it comes to interesting and odd inventions you can’t beat the Japanese. The Capsule Hotel was first developed in 1979 as cheap accommodation in space starved Osaka and the idea quickly caught on across all of Japan. Check out the video above to get an idea of what a capsule hotel is like, but essentially they are prefabricated fiberglass boxes that are large enough to lay down in. They are piled into a large room with each floor having shared bathroom facilities and possibly some lockers and a vending machine. If you have ever stayed at a backpacker hostel this type of hotel could be considered luxurious with its extra privacy of your own personal capsule. Capsule Hotels are generally located near train stations as their customers are normally drunk Japanese salarymen who have missed the last train home. Very few capsule hotels allow woman to stay and some don’t like foreigners at all, but if your up for a cheap and quirky night’s rest in Japan it would be worth hunting one down.
There is about to be a change at the giant Walt Disney World in Orlando. The Disney MGM Studio’s is changing its name on the 7th of January to Disney’s Hollywood Stuidos. The park was the third to open at Walt Disney World and has been a huge hit ever since. The park has some of the best rides and attractions of all the Disney parks including the Twiglight Zone Tower of Terror, Muppet 3D, Star Wars themed Star Tours and the Rockin Roller Coaster featuring Areosmith. There’s a great Indiana Jones stunt spectacular which is not to be missed and the park also has a great parade featuring a lot of memorable movie icons including plenty of fun from the Disney and Pizar team.
One of Disney’s newest parks opening about 9 years ago, is the Disney Animal Kindom at Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida. This great You Tube documentary/ad gives you a great insight into the fun and adventure of this great park. There looks like there is so much to do and so much to learn about the animal world at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The park has all the expected Disney fun, with state of the art rides and attractions and of course all your fury friends are there, but this Disney park is different it has wild animals- not anamatronic ones like the other parks- real live animals. Join the tour on a ride through the Kilimanjaro on a safari tour and see Zebra, rhino, lion and girrafe grazing peacefully in the Florida sun. Trek through the Asian jungles and see live endangered tigers, bats, komodo dragons and taipirs or step back in time and see the amazing dinosaurs on an adventure thrill ride Disney’s Animal Kingdom makes Walt Disney World even better. Read the rest of this entry »
After a shaky start Disneyland Paris is now one of Europe’s premier attractions and is going from strength to strength. There’s quiet a few new attractions to celebrate the 15th anniversary and an addition of some new rat friends. Yes that’s right- Remy and his brother Emile from the hit Pixar Disney film Ratatouille have joined the crew at Disneyland Paris much to the delight of young and old. They are adorable- the mouse better watch out- these rats might just steal the show. They make daily appearances in the parks and of course can be found in the many gift shops.
Everyone loves a parade, and one of the biggest and the best is the Disneyland Christmas Parade the highlight of any trip to one of the 5 themeparks around the world. This great You Tube video shows the fun of the 2006 parade at Walt Disneyworld’s Florida Magic Kingdom. It is sensational with all your Disney favorites and some special festive fun. Just about every fury Disney Character, Princess, the Mouse and all his friends and of course Santa make this parade Read the rest of this entry »
After a fun day at Tokyo DisneySea the night finishes with the most spectacular finale on the waters of the Mediterranean Harbor. The water comes alive with watercraft, lights, fountains, fireworks and a monstrous fire breathing mechanical dragon. Called Braviseamo! The 15 minute display is the most amazing of all the Disney shows around the world. Set under the backdrop of the erupting Mount Prometheus Volcano and the beautiful Venetian inspired Mediterranean port the show is stunning, exciting and a technological masterpiece.
Well we thought being Christmas Week we should feature stories on the happiest place (or places) on earth- Yes Disneyland’s around the world. Our first story celebrates new monorails at the Anaheim Disneyland. We were reading on one of our favorite blogs that the monorails at Disneyland are getting a huge overhaul. As the photograph shows they are going to look pretty flash, word is they will have fancy blue glass and red strips which change colours in sunlight- a bit like one of those hypercolour t-shirts I suppose. The cabins take on a real futuristic retro look which should look great zooming around the Disneyland park. It looks like the first passengers will be able to ride on these sleek machines around February, so there’s not much time to wait. There should be plenty of new fun at the park during 2008 with a huge multi million dollar upgrade underway at both Disneyland and the Californian Adventure which will both see new attractions and fun for all over the next few years.
The pachinko parlor is a type of gaming hall that is unique to Japan. A pachinko machine uses small steel balls that players load into the machine in order to win more balls, because gambling for cash is illegal in Japan you then can exchange these balls for prizes or tokens which can generally be exchanged for cash at a booth next door getting around the anti gambling laws. If you are in Japan its worth taking a quick wander around a pachinko parlor to experience the noise of thousands of steel balls clunking around the machines with j pop and beeping and buzzing noises turned up extra loud to drown out the sound of the balls. If that doesn’t annoy you enough the cloud of cigarette smoke surly will, as the pachinko parlor is one of the last indoor places where you can smoke in Japan. Read the rest of this entry »
