Noah's Ark Reproduced In a Kentucky theme Park and Noah's pudding

 

If you can't get to Kentucky, day or night, there are others worldwide. If you are staying at home, you could make yourself Noah's ark pudding, known as Ashure.

I have several posts about Noah's ark, other biblical replicas and Noah's ark pudding.

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2021/07/noahs-pudding-new-dish-fromturkey.html

Useful Information

https://www.heraldweekly.com/scientists-believe-that-may-have-discovered-2000-year-old-remains-of-noahs-ark/27?xcmg=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah%27s_Ark_replicas_and_derivatives

Noah\s Ark pudding (ashure)

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

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The World's Largest Cruise Ship - Symphony of the Seas

Symphony of the Seas. From Wikipedia.

The world's largest ship - like a floating theme park! That's where I'd love to be. Although the phrase largest and ship sounds an ominously combination, reminding me of the Titanic.


What is aboard? Wiki says:

She is able to accommodate 5,518 passengers at double occupancy up to a maximum capacity of 6,680 passengers, as well as a 2,200-person crew.^[6]

Facilities include a children's water park, a full-size basketball court, ice-skating rink, and two 43-foot rock-climbing walls.^[17][18]There is also a 'central park' which contains over 20,000 tropical plants.^[19]

Wow!

Symphony of the seas is smartly alliterative. A flowing phrase.

See the video on YouTube.

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

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Researching Travel to Romania: Its Landmarks, Attractions and Heroes

Problem
What to see and where to go in Romania?

Answers

Story
I started talking to a neighbour in London, England, whom I hadn't seen for some time.

He asked, "Where have you been?'

I replied, "I've been to Cambodia."

He looked blank.

So I asked, "Where have you been?"

He replied: "I went to India, to a colleague's friend's wedding, then on to Goa, which has wonderful beaches."

"Uh-huh." sighed. As a last ditch attempt to make conversation, not expecting any success, I said, "I'm going to Romania."

Romania and Turda
"I've been there, too!" he enthused. "Another colleague's wedding. Then we went down the Salt Mine at T u r d a. Underground it's like a theme park. Yet, you enter through a little door in the side of a mountain, not expecting anything."

"Like the Piped Piper!" I went home to research the town of T u r d a on TripAdvisor. (I inserted spaces in case the automatic spell checker was lurking, lying in wait. When a word goes red, that's a red light for this word is about to be changed. Watch it.)

After TripAdvisor I turned to Wikipedia and Wikitravel.

I discovered that famous Romanians include Ionesco, the playwright, who lived in France and was buried in Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Romania

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, author, speaker.

Malta's Famous Arch Collapses Into The Sea

Malta's famous arch which collapsed in March 2017.
Photo by Angela Lansbury, 2015, copyright.
All rights reserved.

Problems
Malta's famous arch has collapsed into the sea. What can photographers and tourists do now?

Answers
This is not a new problem. The same thing happened to an arch in Australia. If you already have a picture, even if you don't, you can take a picture of the remains of the old arch and compare it with one showing the arch as it was.

The arch in Malta is one of the landmarks on the lesser known and smaller island of Gozo. The only money-making enterprises I could see were charges for car parks and the restaurant overlooking the adjacent blue pool, which is still there.

The restaurant overlooking the pool beside the fallen arch on the island of Gozo, Malta.
Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Several possible solutions:

1 Build a reproduction of the old arch nearby in a theme park for people to be photographed on the reproduction.
2 Build a Malta in miniature showing the arch as it was.
3 Encase the whole thing in protective glass with concrete supports and buttresses and install a fake piece in the middle, with windows into the original layers. (This would cost a lot. It would also destroy the 'natural' feel. But you can attract visitors to the Grand Canyon and other landmarks in the USA and China and worldwide with bridges and landmarks installed this century or last century.
4 Install an exhibition of before and after photos, from professional and mature photographers, local people and tourists.
5 Recreate the arch with either a ladder and viewpoint, or walkway up a slope to one side at the back. Use the same or another artificial arch with a waterslide into a swimming pool.
6 Create a last landmarks exhibition with all the fallen arches and other landmarks of the local area through the ages and similar items worldwide.
7 Run a competition for reproductions of the arch, made from rocks, plastic, plasticine, Playdough, toothpicks, lolly sticks, cereal boxes, plaster of Paris (with a sponsor or two from toy companies or craft companies). Show some of the original in an exhibition and photos of the others.
8 Create a model of the arch in a children's playground with safety barriers and a slide.
9 Run an annual event when a beach fair is held, with prizes for the best tee-shirt featuring the arch.
10 Make a local rock cake or meringue in the shape of the arch or a flat cake with a photo of the arch in edible icing horizontally, or vertically.

Stories
The similar arch in Australia fell. It was a popular walk along the top from the nearby cliff, out over the sea for the view and selfie photos. I heard that a couple had got stranded on the end. They had to be rescued.

What a drama. Not knowing if the rest of the arch would collapse. No food or toilet. Unable to get back to home or work.

Real Stories and Fiction
The story was nationwide sensation. According to the person who told me, this event caused more problems for the people involved. (I was unable to find the facts on the internet - so this is just a rumour. However, as the saying goes, why let the truth get in the way of a good story: Here's a drama I or you could use in a short story, or novel:

This is how the Chinese Whispers version goes. The couple were supposed to be at work. Their employers did not know the people were off work - people who not at home sick, or at work, or out delivering or making business calls. (One company or two - if you are writing a novel - your choice.

Their respective families did not know the couple were not at work. At least one of the couple was married, and the spouse saw them on the TV news. One of the couple may have lost a relationship, a marriage or reputation.

You could make this into a short comedy. A short joke or anecdote. A short story or novel.

You could write a tragedy. A short story or a novel.

Or a cautionary tale. Safety for travellers.

Tips
You will find advice on many sites for hiking and climbing areas. Most of the advice applies to a long stroll along flat ground and tourist spots as much as remote areas. The rules are helpful whether you are walking in the woods, the countryside, or along a clifftop or beach.

Notice what the devices for evacuating an aircraft include: something to support you in the sea, a whistle and a light. A lifeboat has extra items. But if you are on your own you need food such as Kendal Mint cake. You would not take chocolate covered mint cake in sunshine because it would get sticky. I once read that Hershey chocolate was developed for soldiers in hot countries who needed a chocolate bar which would not melt in the pocket or backpack.

1 Always take a phone, and a charger.
2 Leave details of where you are going, and/ or photograph your route. You might take photos you would not make public, but which will be on your website or in the network 'clould' if emergency services or family are looking for you.
3 Carry food and drink.
4 Take clothing for hot and cold weather, in the hot day and cold night.
5 Wear or carry something you can wave or use as a signalling device.
6 And use the toilet before not after taking a long walk. You never know how long it will be before you get back.
7 Guides off a trail should have walkie talkies to keep track of the group.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Hong Kong: A Return Visit, sites, Bus, Museums, Food, Hotel, Cantonese Translation

I am researching a return visit to Hong Kong. The name means fragrant harbour. Its nicknamed Hong Kongcrete. The skyscrapers are built to make use of land in this overcrowded area, and to attempt to prevent more landslides, which in the past have killed people, notably in 1972, according to an article on landslides and landslide prevention in Wikipedia.
A government site has a succinct summary with pictures and headlines in English and Chinese.
http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/tc/curriculum-development/kla/pshe/references-and-resources/geography/history%20of%20landslides.pdf

The websites you can find offer you:

Top ten attractions.
Top Twenty Attractions.
Discovery tour (for first time visits).
Hop on hop off bus, with commentary, choice of one or two days plus an optional add on evening tour and three routes.

On previous visits I have
1 Done the escalators up the hillside,
2 rushed all over Hong Kong spending more on transport and taxis than I was saving on souvenirs, silk and clothes - no longer in the market for oriental clothes unless I spot a bargain
3 Theme parks - our Singapore based friends, a Chinese-Western couple with a five year old rated Disney in Hong Kong as less exciting than the two Disney theme parks in the USA.
4 The Police museum - half way up a hillside - the taxi was much more than the museum entrance - was a place I visited last time.
5 The Peninsula hotel. Having seen it previously when it seemed a bit faded, with nothing to see or do except have tea in the huge ground floor central lounge - would like to know if it strikes as exciting now. Probably better to stay in it than look in it. No point in visiting a hotel unless it has artworks, waterfalls, statues, or stunning architecture or a museum.
6 I have seen the hilltop view, Victoria Peak. Observation Deck. (Everything is designed to take money off you.) Views depend on weather, even more so if you are a keen photographer.
7 Big Buddha. Tian Po. Not to be confused with the Po Lin (Precious Lotus) monastery.

For my return visit:
1 A grand hotel: my family when working in Hong Kong used to like the Mandarin Oriental hotel, for breakfast, Caesar salad in the upstairs bar, but this was a long time ago.

2 Dim Sum - snacks. A huge choice. We'll be staying with friends so we'll go with our host's suggestions.

3 Peking/Beijing Duck. Either Western style with meat on it, my preference, or local style with only crispy skin served as a separate side dish.

Sorry, but however delicious the skin may be, I feel cheated if I'm deprived of meat. To me duck skin without meat is like being served crisps instead of potatoes. I want duck meat, soy-plum sauce, pancakes and Western cucumber which is much juicier than the local cucumber.

Looks like the only thing on my list is the Science Museum. Everybody else will be trekking from Causeway Bay or Central and expecting me to meet them at Stanley by taxi.

The challenge is that taxi drivers don't speak English and I don't speak Cantonese. The solution is to go to a hotel, have lunch or coffee and/or use their souvenir shop, then ask them to call me a taxi and write my address in both English and Cantonese on the hotel business card with the hotel's phone number so that if the taxi driver gets lost I can phone the hotel reception and ask them to reiterate the directions to the driver or explain to me the problem (such as one way street and he wants to drop me at the nearby corner).

Now would be a good time to start finding a Cantonese translation I can hook up to on a mobile phone. I went into Google translate and typed in Google translate into Chinese and of course up comes pinyin (English or Western alphabet phonetic spelling) Mandarin.

I re-try using the word Cantonese and get assorted sites including
google
bing
babylon - translation.babylon-software.com/english/Cantonese
lexilogos.com/english/cantonese_dictionary

English Cantonese Translation Free

Here's my final checklist:
1 Big Buddha
2 Science Museum
3 Disney
4 Peninsula / Mandarin Oriental Hotel
5 Dim Sum restaurant
6 Peking Duck restaurant
7 View from the Peak + Trick Eye Museum. (150 HK adult but !00 HK$ age over 65. 10% discount for online booking.) Shop 1, Level 3, Peak Galleria, 118 Peak Road, Hong Kong.Open 10 am to 10 pm. Website at end of this post.
8 Hop on hop off bus
9 Hong Kong Museum of History
10 Flagstaff House Museum of tea ware

If you are on your own the hop on hop of bus organises you so you don't sit around jet lagged too tired or scared to confused. Solves both the organising and translation problems, picks a place to visit, and maybe introduces you to other tourists if you make an effort to arrive early and chat to others on the bus.

Now I shall look at TripAdvisor. First the hop on hop off bus:
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/AttractionProductDetail?product=5817HK&d=2228870&aidSuffix=tvrm&partner=Viator

Costs
I see that the hop on hop off bus basic cost is about 81 Hong Kong dollars. According to the online calculator there are about 10 Hong Kong dollars to the British pound, which online is more usually called pound sterling. So the bus tour is about £8.

Hong Kong includes the main island, Kowloon on the mainland to the north, the New Territories beyond that, Lantau - the large island where air;ones land, plus some smaller islands popular for water sports. The airport has a shuttle bus costing about £10 (about 100 Hong Kong dollars single).

A visitor from Britain says: "Hong Kong is not cheap. You can spend a thousand pounds before you turn around. That's why we stay with friends."

https://www.google.com.sg/?client=safari#q=hong+kong+dollar+to+pound+sterling&gfe_rd=cr
trickeye.com/hongkong
http://wikitravel.org/en/Hong_Kong
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Chinese theme park on fire safety

A theme park devoted entirely to something sensible. In China. Named after 119, their emergency telephone number.
If you want information in home safety, London Fire Brigade website has details. (One of my blog posts shows a fire in a friend's garden in London, and the fire brigade who put it out including a woman fire officer in a helmet.)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-34776760