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Bangkok selected ‘The best scenery’ city
Bangkok was cited with the 2011 Asian Townscape
Awards, presented by Rumi Ichiba, the Chief of
Exchange Promotion Section of the Asian Pacific
City Summit Secretariat of the UN-HABITAT in
Fukuoka, Japan. The award presentation was held
under a concept called “Living Environment and
Urban Revival,” rewarding model towns and
projects which promote the life quality of its
people, along with overall environmental
development. Other criteria include the
promotion of safety, the importance of art and
culture, the harmony between the city’s
landscape and way of life, the city’s
initiatives and its role as a model for other
cities in the years to come..
Bangkok’s candidacy was under the banner of “The
Living Bangkok Heritage”, an organization which
promotes and works towards the conservation of
four areas around the Rattanakosin Island,
including Plabpla Maha Jetsadabodin Ground,
Santichaiprakarn Park, Nakarapirom Park, and
Sanam Luang Ceremonial Grounds. Along with
Bangkok, three other cities shared the 2011
Asian Townscape Awards, including Korea’s Jeju
and Pohang, and the Japanese city of Kumamoto.
The director of Park Holidays UK Tony Clish has
lashed out at ABTA after the trade body attacked
a new government-funded campaign to promote UK
tourism. ABTA described the £4M advertising
campaign VisitEngland as "a misguided use
of public funds". Clish said the criticism by
the association was "a cheap shot from a body
which can't understand why people now prefer
Torquay to Turkey". He said the comments were
hardly surprising, coming from a body whose
members' interests were served by encouraging
people to holiday abroad.
"We are at the start of a year when the
international spotlight will be falling on
Britain, and it's perfectly proper for the
tourist board to highlight the UK's fantastic
tourism product," he said. "Our tourism industry
generates over a hundred billion pounds of
spending each year, supporting over
two-and-a-half million people in tourism-related
jobs. "What's wrong in spending a tiny fraction
of that income in order to generate even more
visitors during a year when we will celebrate
both the Olympics and Diamond Jubilee?"
According to Clish, there has been a steady rise
in UK tourism in recent years, along with a
sharp fall in the number of people taking
overseas holidays. This, he said, might be
fuelling ABTA's outburst. "Clearly ABTA is
feeling the pressure, but people can't be blamed
for re-discovering Britain as a wonderful,
stress-free holiday destination," he said.
"The government is making a very shrewd move in
launching this advertising campaign, for the
cost is just a fraction of what is likely to be
recouped by keeping the leisure pound in this
country. "So let's allow families to make their
own decision about where to go - and if they
choose Ramsgate over Rhodes, then I'd say they
are supporting the right economy!"
Is Alepotrypa Cav, the real site of Mythical
Hades Passage
B y
no means can you call Hades the happiest spot!
For what Hades stood for in Greek mythology was
afterlife!
There,
in
the gloomy world of the underworld,
renowned heroes long gone from this world such
as Achilles or Ajax gathered mostly to grumble
about the boredom they existed in, and to wait
for the judgment of the panel of judges of the
dead
"I would rather be a paid servant in a poor
man's house and be above ground than king of
kings among the dead," said Achilles was quoted
in Odyssey. But for archaeologists, a
Greek cave which brought views of comparison to
Hades looks more like the Olympian abode.
Overlooking a quiet Greek bay,
Alepotrypa Cave
(meaning literally Foxhole in Greek,) contains
the remains of a
Stone Age
village, burials, a lake and an amphitheater
sized final chamber that witnessed blazing
rituals more than 5,000 years ago. Until
recently however, all of this was hidden from
the world and scholars can only take now a peek
on what’s in this ‘beyond.’
"What you see there almost cannot be described,"
says archaeologist
Anastasia Papathanasiou
of the Greek Ministry of Culture, a director of
the Diros Project Team. "There is almost no
Neolithic (Stone Age) site like it in Europe,
certainly none with so many burials." So far,
her team has unearthed at least
160 burial sites
inside the cave, from a time 7,000 to 5,200
years ago (5000 to 3200 BC) when farming first
spread to Europe. The
lives those farmers led inside and outside the
cave, across the remote Mani Peninsula of
southern Greece, offer fresh insights into
humanity at the dawn of civilization in Europe.
"They lived in a large village outside the
cave," says Mike Galaty of Millsaps College in
Jackson, Miss., a co-director of the project's
survey efforts with Willam Parkinson of
Chicago's Field Museum. "And some were inside
too, we think, when the entrance collapsed,"
Galaty adds. The cave inside is covered with a
layer of greasy ash , left over from ritual
fires that may have marked burials there (and
reburials, as many of the skeletons are within
ossuaries, stone boxes where remains were placed
years after their first burial.) "It is quite
dark inside, quite black," Papathanasiou says.
"But the state of preservation is excellent."
From that preservation, we know the Stone Age
farmers at the site ate a diet heavy in barley
and wheat with little meat or fish. Although a
full reconstruction of the region's prehistoric
climate is still to come, we know from plant
remains that it was wetter and forests were much
thicker.
Analysis
of the skeletons shows people were not different
physically from those inhabiting the
Mediterranean today, their height about the same
though
slightly anemic due to lack of meat
in their diet. About
31% of the burial skulls displayed an inherited
line where bone plates meet above the forehead,
showing they were related, Papathanasiou says.
And the noggins show a lot of signs of healed
bumps and cuts, since "they fought a lot."
"We don't quite know what was going on with the
ritual activities, but it seems they were
burning sacrificed animals, smashing pots and
other pottery, and building large fires inside
the cave," Galaty says. "It could have been
really nasty depending on what they were
burning."
Fumes coming out of mystic caves figure in big
ways in ancient Greek mythology, such as the
classical
Oracle of Delphi
who foretold the fate of kings and emperors.
Although that was thousands of years ago, around
1400 B.C., after the closure of Alepotrypa Cave,
such a relationship was suggested by the Greek
archaeologist George Papathanassopoulos, who led
excavations at the site starting in the 1970's.
His speculation is that the ancient Greek notion
of Hades was a gloomy and misty home for the
dead, may have had its origins in the cave's
rituals.
The other task that fell upon Papathanassopoulos
was to save the cave from the fate of becoming a
tourist trap. First re-discovered in 1958 by
local folks, Greek tourism officials saw it as a
cave attraction, carving out walkways with
bulldozers, installing trestles and even putting
a pontoon boat in the interior lake to help with
a light show. ("They had to saw the boat in half
and then put it back together to get it through
the chamber entrance," Galaty says. "It's still
floating there.")
Not protecting the cave immediately" was a huge
lost opportunity, since it had been sealed for
thousands of years," Papathanasiou says.
However, when archaeologists realized what was
at stake there with basket after basket of Stone
Age pottery emerging from the cave, they led
efforts to keep tourists from trampling the
site. "There are still very many places who
remained intact where science can benefit from,"
she adds.
A big step for the Diros project in the coming
years will be mapping the extent of the Stone
Age community living around the bay on the
outside of the cave, Galaty says, Being far from
Athens and anything that has to do with
archeology, the peninsula boasts an isolated
history that saw an arms race of tower building
("They wanted to shoot cannons down on their
neighbors in the
Middle Ages,"
Papathanasiou says) and could be that it served
as a home for the middle-class citizens of
Sparta. In addition, "some archaeologists
speculate there may have been a Mycenaean era
palace around the time
the legendary
Achilles, still alive (if he ever had lived,)
riding around the
besieged walls of Troy
just before he descended to Hades.
"We are going to need
a bigger new museum," Papathanasiou says. "We
are just getting started bringing this site to
the world."
Atlantis Bahamas Sale: Up to 60% Off plus $600
in Perks
The Atlantis on Paradise Island, Nassau, The
Bahamas,
where prices slipped a steep 60%
In addition, to a 60% overall discount on room
rates,
Atlantis stays April 15 - June 13
include an Atlantis Experience Pass -- offering
as much as $600 in perks such as a dolphin
interaction, golf and spa credit. Also,
air-and-hotel packages of at least four nights
through October get an immediate $250 airfare
credit -- $400 with a six-night stay (one per
booking).
Nightly room-only rates April 15 - Oct. 31,
including weekends -- which usually cost a
premium -- are:
·
Beach Tower, $199 (reg. $509): Family friendly
and closest to the beach
·
Coral Towers, $249 (reg. $549): Located by
Marina Village shops and the casino
·
Royal Towers, $299 (reg. $649): Atlantis' iconic
tower, near the water park
·
The Reef Atlantis, $369 (reg. $699): Deluxe
waterfront studios and suites with a kitchen
·
The Cove Atlantis, $449 (reg. $849): Luxury
oceanfront suites with exclusive adults-only
pool
These deals are part of a
Paradise Island sale, including
Comfort Suites, which offers access to Atlantis'
amenities and breakfast for $150 nightly, and
the Best Western for $138 nightly. The air
credit also applies. All deals include $25 free
slot play at Atlantis. To book, click the link
above or call 888-440-9497.
To book an Atlantis stay and to
see terms, conditions and restrictions, call
888-440-9497.
New
Disney cruise ship, Fantasy, arrives in New York
Disney Cruise Line's Disney Fantasy arrives in
New York on Feb. 28, 201
Disney fans in New York today were treated to an
unusual sight as the company's newest cruise
ship, the Disney Fantasy, arrived from Germany.
The 2,500-passenger vessel, which was christened
in the city shortly thereafter, was feted with a
fireboat water salute as it sailed past the
Statue of Liberty to a dock on the Hudson River
side of Manhattan.
Completed earlier this month, the Disney Fantasy
has been under construction for more than a year
at Germany's Meyer Werft shipyard. It remained
in New York only for a few days before heading
to Port Canaveral, Fla., where it will be based
year-round.
Controversial Slogan bites The Dust
In the mountain biker magnet of Fruita,
Colorado, decals for a sports shop read FU ("Fruita,
USA") and an annual festival is dedicated to a
headless chicken named Mike. But that
free-wheeling vibe has its limits: After
asking for public feedback on a
potential marketing campaign incorporating the
double-entendre "WTF" (as in "Welcome to Fruita"),
city officials discovered that most citizens
weren't LOL.
It all started when a local couple printed 500 "WTF"
stickers and distributed them free to downtown
businesses. While the slogan generated attaboys
from as far away as Australia and proved so
catchy the couple made up another 1,500 decals,
the western Colorado town of 13,000
won't be giving it an official stamp of
approval.
The edgy campaign "is not dead," says city
manager Clint Kinney, who predicts the business
community will "pick it up and run with it"
despite the lack of municipal support
Heightened Security in Greek Museums
Culture Minister Pavlos Geroulanos announced
that the country’s museums will be guarded by a
special security team comprising culture
ministry employees and selected Greek Police (EL.AS)
officers with special training in Olympic Games’
security.
Briefing the parliamentary standing committee on
cultural and educational affairs on the
protection of museums and archaeological sites,
Geroulanos said the joint security team has
already agreed on a package of immediate and
medium-term measures.
Referring to the recent robbery in the
Archaeological Museum in Olympia, Geroulanos
stated that it was a “very serious blow” and
expressed certainty that those responsible
will suffer the consequences.
Oldest,
darkest, deepest, largest and quietest hotel
suit
We all dream of 'getting away from it all', but
there aren't many hotels which can offer a suite
220 feet below ground level with no natural
light. The Grand Canyon Hotel in Arizona boasts
the oldest, darkest, deepest, quietest, and
largest suite in the world, in a cavern that
took 65 million years to form.
To get to the room managers have dubbed the
'love cave' guests must take a lift 22 storeys
down. The largest dry cavern in the United
States, it is naturally completely dark and
completely quiet because it contains no life
forms at all. Yes, the only thing moving or
breathing in that room will be little old you.
Water is carried down to the room by staff, and
an employee is stationed at the top of the lift
shaft should guests suddenly decide in the
middle of the night that it's...well, a bit too
quiet.
The suite, which is 200 feet wide, 400 feet long
and with a 70 foot ceiling, can sleep up to six,
with two double beds and a sofa bed provided.
The cave is furnished with all the amenities
hotel managers believe guests will require 220
feet below the surface: a library of old books
and magazines, including a National Geographic
collection which dates back to 1917, and a
collection of books dating back to the late
1800’s.
In keeping with the olde worlde feel, an ancient
piece of equipment called a 'record player' is
provided for entertainment.
The furniture may be also a little quaint, but
there's a healthy twist to staying in this
accommodation.
The hotel manager explains that the air in the
cavern is as dry and clean as one can get,
coming in via 65 miles of limestone crevices
from the Grand Canyon to the caverns, with the
limestone removing all moisture and impurities.
Rates are $700 per night for two sharing with
additional guests up to a total of six paying
$100 each
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