See These Cities Before They Sink! London's Thames Barrier, Sinking cities. Jakarta.

 

Thames Barrier seen from a tourist boat. Photo by Arpingstone in Wikipedia.

Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is sinking and has already been moved. What about the rest of the world?  Global warming is causing temperatures to rise, overall. In the short term, this is good news. England is growing grapes for wine making. We have grapes in our garden in London. 

On the other hand, speaking of London, the long-term view means flooding, and sinking.  Many cities on are on rivers. Capitals are built on rivers. Other major cities are seasides and harbours and ports. That's is where capitals grow and were planted long ago, before plane travel when people travelled by boat, inland on rivers, and trading and emigrating to ports or seeking shelter and replenishment in ports. 

In our lifetimes, in the twentieth and twenty first century, we have seen the growth of travel, trade and hospitality, museums, attractions, restaurants, tourism.

So, as holiday-making travellers, which cities and capitals and countries are under threat? Which should we visit now, before they disappear? Which should we document on photos. 

As travellers interested in trade, in being citizens of the world, in importing ideas and helping other countries, what is new? What needs changing. Which places should we be campaigning to protect! 

Here are a few (listed alphabetically):

AUSTRALIA

Sydney (The capital, Canberra is inland).

BRAZIL

Rio de Janeiro (seaside famous for its beaches, the second largest city by population - the capital being Brasilia).

CHINA

Shanghai.

INDIA

Mumbai (Formerly Bombay), on the sea (Delhi being inland).

INDONESIA

Jakarta, largest city and capital, on the island of Java. Construction of new city announced 2019, started 2020.

THE NETHERLANDS

Amsterdam, Holland.

UK

London, England. See The Thames Barrier.

USA

Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; New Orleans; New York City.

VIETNAM

The capital. Ho Chi Minh city.

Here's is the relevant section which I have pulled from Simple Wiki:

Effects of global warming on sea levels[change | change source]

Global warming means that Antarctica and Greenland ice sheets are melting and the oceans are expanding. Recent climate change would still cause a 6 meters (20 ft) sea-level rise even if greenhouse gas emissions were reduced in 2015 per a scientific paper in Science.^[19][20]

Low-lying areas such as Bangladesh, Florida, the Netherlands and other areas face massive flooding.^[21][22]

Cities affected by current sea level rise[change | change source]

Places that would be flooded by a 6 meters (20 ft) sea level rise

Many cities are sea ports and under threat of flooding if the present sea level rises.

These and the other cities have either started trying to deal with rising sea level and related storm surge, or are discussing this, according to reliable sources.

• London ^[23]
• New York City^{[24][25][26][27]}
• Norfolk, Virginia, in Hampton Roads area of United States ^[28][29]
• Southampton ^[30]
• Crisfield, Maryland, United States ^[31]
• Charleston, South Carolina ^[32]
• Miami, Florida, has been listed as "the number-one most vulnerable city worldwide" in terms of potential damage to property from storm-related flooding and sea-level rise.^[33][34]
• Saint Petersburg ^[35]
• Sydney, Australia ^[36]
• Jakarta ^[37]
• Thatta and Badin, in Sindh, Pakistan ^[38]
• Malé, Maldives
• Mumbai, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro ^[27]

Also, all other coastal cities are in danger.

Further reading[change | change source]

• What is climate change National Geographic Kids

• What is climate change? A really simple guide BBC

Related pages[change | change source]

• Climate change

Useful Travel Websites

London

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10196689/Oxford-Street-leads-festive-light-switch-London-gets-Yuletide-spirit.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ico=taboola_feed_article&ns_mchannel=rss&ico=taboola_feed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Oxford_Street_Christmas_lights_celebrities

https://www.london.gov.uk/about-us/our-building-and-squares/christmas-trafalgar-square

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-thames-barrier

Jakarta

https://wikitravel.org/en/Jakarta

Rio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_de_Janeiro

About the Author of this blog, Author Angela Lansbury

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books, including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

I  also have a blog on comic poems.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Follow The Trail of Tagore - Nobel prize winner - around England, Europe and the Indian Sub-continent

UK flag

Tagore's poems are the national anthem's of two countries. You can see his bust in London, England. If you wonder what the bust of this hero of the Indian sub-continent is doing in London, he studied at University College, London. He also lived with his family in a house in Brighton, England.

Bust in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London, England. Photo from Wikipedia.

Flag of Ireland from Wikipedia.

Bust of Rabindranath Tagore, in St Stephen Green Park, Dublin, Ireland. Photo from Wikipedia.

Over in Europe, I was surprised to see another bust honouring him in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic.

Indian Flag

You can see much more about him in Kolkata (previously known as Calcutta) in India, where he was born and cremated, and in Bangladesh.

If you are not Indian, and don't already know a lot about him, you might be interested to learn the basics about his life. He was born in Calcutta in British India and lived from 1861 to 1941 and died aged 80.

He met several other well-known figures and famous people, such as Einstein and Gandhi and Nehru.

Here are the facts which impressed me:

1 He was the 13th child - and his mother died when he was a teenager.
2 He was awarded the Nobel prize in 1913.
3 His wife was 11 years old when they married - but that was common in those days, says Wikipedia, by way of explanation and in his defense.
Hm, Mohammed, did the same - several years earlier, so critics might remember this and on these ground he should be excused and reinstated.
(Perhaps the same applies to writer Edgar Allen Poe who also married his young cousin who was dying.)
We have the benefit of modern science to tell us what is best nowadays for our health and the longevity of child-bearing women. After this aside, let's move on.

You can take your family or visitors to see monuments and check up on his life story in advance in order to have more meaningful conversations.

Checklist of countries with Monuments
1 Bust in London, England.
2 Bust in Dublin, Ireland
3 Bust in Prague, Czech Republic.
4 Tagore House (museum), Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
5 Shilaidatha Kudibari, Home museum in Bangladesh.
...

There are eight Tagore museums. Three in India and five in Bangladesh:

• Rabindra Bharati Museum, at Jorasanko Thakur Bari, Kolkata, India
• Tagore Memorial Museum, at Shilaidaha Kuthibadi, Shilaidaha, Bangladesh
• Rabindra Memorial Museum at Shahzadpur Kachharibari, Shahzadpur, Bangladesh
• Rabindra Bhavan Museum, in Santiniketan, India
• Rabindra Museum, in Mungpoo, near Kalimpong, India
• Patisar Rabindra Kacharibari, Patisar, Atrai, Naogaon, Bangladesh
• Pithavoge Rabindra Memorial Complex, Pithavoge, Rupsha, Khulna, Bangladesh
• Rabindra Complex, Dakkhindihi village, Phultala Upazila, Khulna, Bangladesh

Tagore house in Calcutta, India is where he lived and died in a spacious house with red double pillars and verandas. Also see a couple of statues.


Memorial to Tagore in crematorium in Calcutta, India. Wikipedia.


Flag of Bangladesh. Wikipedia.


House in Bangladesh. Wikipedia.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore,

National anthem of Bengal 'My Golden Bengal' - read the English translation of the words written by Tagore and hear the tune:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amar_Sonar_Bangla

Airline
singaporeair.com
Tourist Information
UK
visitengland.com
visitbritain.com
visitbritainshop.com
IRELAND
https://www.visitdublin.com/
EUROPE
CZECH REPUBLIC
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Czech_Republic
GENERAL
tripadvisor.com
wikitravel.com
wikivoyage.com
INDIA
https://www.incredibleindia.org/content/incredibleindia/en.html
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g304558-d375376-Reviews-Tagore_House-Kolkata_Calcutta_Kolkata_District_West_Bengal.html
BANGLADESH
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Attraction_Review-g3198095-d3187607-Reviews-Shilaidaha_Kuthibari_Rabindranath_Tagore_s_Residence-Kushtia_Khulna_Division.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Tuk tuk, trishaw or rickshaw, which do I want and does it matter? by Angela Lansbury

Problem With Rickshaw Terminology

I can't tell the difference between a rickshaw and trishaw and a tuk tuk.

Answer About Rickshaws

A technically minded friend tells me:

Rickshaws In Singapore

A rickshaw - the forerunner of the others was pulled by hand.

Usually one man, who could only pull a cart containing one man. An unskilled job, in the early days of Singapore, extremely hard labour.

Horse Power UK

In the UK the rich would have a horse, or a horse and a cart for business, or a pony and trap. Very rich, two horses and a permanent driver. A stage coach would have two or four horses, room for two or four passengers, and driver at the front, and space for luggage.

The horses would race over the ruts and be exhausted. So at the stages or stage posts, the horses, as well as driver and passengers, would stop for water and food and a rest. If passengers did not stop overnight, but were in a hurry, the carriage continued the journey. You would take another set of horses to go back and forth over their section of the road.

A trishaw - was a seated cart pulled by a bicycle. Does it have three wheels? Actually, it often has two under the passengers and the bike has two, so that makes four.

Tuk Tuks - in Cambodia

A tuk tuk is motorised, like a motorbike with a passenger cart, which we enjoyed in Cambodia. In Siem Reap the tuk tuks are the cheap form of transport as there are no buses in Siem Reap. It is the second city - but most popular for tourism - being a half-hour tuk tuk ride from the city to Ankor Wat. Buses run from one town to another but not within Siem Reap.

As you see from my picture, our driver wears a helmet because he is using a motorcycle, quite fast. The tuk tuks weave in and out of traffic, do U turns, cut across oncoming lanes to turn left

Auto rickshaw - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw
An auto rickshaw (in India) or rickshaw (in Pakistan), also known as a baby taxi (in Bangladesh) .... Tuk-tuks, introduced in Durban in the late 1980s enjoyed growing popularity in recent years, particularly in Gauteng.

Tips
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickshaw
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickshaws_in_the_United_States

For more about travel to Ankor Wat and temples and what to see and do in Cambodia see previous posts.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Please share my posts.

Garam masala means what? Hot and spicy, hot, why hot?

I see it so often on 'Indian' restaurant menus in UK and Singapore run by people from the 'Indian' continent (often Pakistani or Bangladeshi owned) restaurants in London. I have it in the spice rack. On the menu from a Eurasian restaurant in Singapore I came across the single word m a s a l a (not nasal -predictive text tried to insert that).

What does a Google search reveal? First, Wikipedia.

Garam masala (Hindi: गरम मसाला, Urdu: گرم مصالحہ‎ garam ("hot") and masala (a mixture of spices)) is a blend of ground spices common in North India, South India, Pakistan, and other South Asian cuisines.^[1] It is used alone or with other seasonings. The word garam refers to "heat" in the Ayurvedic sense of the word, meaning "to heat the body" as these spices, in the Ayurvedic system of medicine, elevate body temperature.

Cooling Cucumber
I used to be puzzled and sceptical about the idea that certain foods heat you. I thought it was metaphorical. But now I think it is practical.

I have noticed that I often feel cold when tired and hungry. After eating I feel warm.

 Obviously an iced drink is cooling. Cucumber is liquid and refreshing and used as lubrication in Victorian style sandwiches in summer to counter the gluey effect of white bread.

Back to masala. Hot spice. Hot in the sense of spicy, hot in the sense of raising your temperature.

Why is Indian food hot and spicy? Why drink hot tea in hot countries?

Admittedly, in Spain they tend to serve soups and drinks tepid. What about warm beer? Iced drinks? In Singapore people often ask for tepid water. (I hate hot drinks made with boiling water which burns me. I add cold milk to coffee. It adds calcium the chance of burning your mouth is reduced.

The English tourists to Spain like their food to have been heated to a high enough temperature to kill the bugs. That is what we are used to at home and what we are expect. Tepid food suggests to us that it has not been sufficiently heated to kill germs, that it has been heated but left lying around, exposed to flies, while we, the customers have been kept waiting, ignored by so-called waiters, that neither the cook nor the serving staff have any concern for the freshness of the food, or the physical and mental health of the customers.

When the British and Americans visit Singapore, Indian and and other Asian countries, it takes some adjusting to understand the varieties of temperatures of food offered.

One member of my family refuses ice in Coca Cola because it waters down the flavour and enables the staff to pass off a small glass as a large one.

I would reject ice on the grounds that ice in India and Thailand and Singapore has been found to be contaminated in the past. On one occasion the bride and wedding party were all sick after drinking drinks made with ice from a supplier who had re-used ice previously used to cool raw fish.

So, up to you, hot or not? At least you now know that garam means hot.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, author, speech writer, speech trainer, speaker.