Archive for the ‘Travel Posts’ Category
They say that it is thanks to rice that Vietnamese people won war with France and then with America. Rice is the principal type of crop and the main ingredient for most local dishes.
Rice is boiled fried steamed and stewed. It is prepared with various spices or without them. Typical Vietnamese scene is: girls planting rice in the marshland. Another joyful scene is harvest. If the harvest is good the country will be replete and satisfied; year off is a black year for every Vietnam inhabitant.
Different sorts of rice demand different preparation. As a rule boiled rice should be dry and crumbly. In Vietnam it is prepared in the following way: first it is thoroughly washed in several waters until water turns completely transparent. Then you should dry it add water and salt and boil it for about five minutes. Water should seethe all the time. After that you should add an onion dont cut it! and keep on boiling it to the moment when water boils away. This will take approximately 15 minutes. Then the pan is tightly covered with lid wrapped into paper and left for 1520 minutes. After that you can serve it with nutmeg and butter.
According to one Vietnamese fairy tale two thousand years ago the country was ruled by Chan Von VI who had 20 sons and only one of them Tiet Lieu was modest and hard working. He spent night and day with his wife planting his own sort of rice that was very popular with local people. Before his death Chan Von said that he will pass the throne and all his riches only to the person who finds a meal that tastes like sky and like earth. Sons started to offer him various exotic dishes: pheasants stuffed with fruit stewed poisonous snakes huge shrimps and lobsters. However the king preferred Tiet Lieus moderate dish round rice and square haricot cookies stuffed with minced pork. Nowadays these cookies are the most traditional Vietnamese dish that you will see on every celebration. All in all Vietnamese love various rice cakes. For instance numerous Hanoi Ho Chi Minh and Haiphong restaurants and snackbars offer banh chung cakes with rice paste and eggs. Banh ran cake stuffed with sweet pea slush is the dish that first evokes astonishment and then real rapture.
But it is not only rice that Vietnamese eat. Local people really like exotic fruit and vegetables pork and of course fish. Which is understandable as Vietnam like the whole IndoChina peninsula is washed by the South China Sea. Not far from Haiphong they prepare amazingly tasty fish sauce nuoc mam which supplements many Vietnamese dishes. Soldiers of the Liberation Army eat this sauce concentrated. It is also used when smoking pork to make it smell even better. There are even special sauces that are aged for several years which makes their taste more delicious. One soldier said that they drank nuoc mam in case they had to spend much time in water. The sauce contains various amino acids phosphorus iodine and calcium. In Vietnam fish is often dried in the sun and pickled. Definite sorts of sardines are turned into powder. Or they cook special paste with typical spicy smell. Then this powder is used to prepare seasoning or garnishes for many dishes. You can also try exotic Vietnamese dishes like tortoise soup with snake liver and monkey brains.
About the Author: Go to Haiphong
Burgenland Travel Guide
Burgenland is a state of Austria. Burgenland is a very lengthy state. It is 166 km long from north to south but much narrower from west to east in one place only 5km. It is divided into seven districts but for this travel guide it will first be divided it into larger regions called Northern Burgenland Mid Burgenland and Southern Burgenland. Those regions have better public transportation within them as opposed to the very very poor public transportation from north to south which is mostly a bus which starts in Eisenstadt twice a day.
Burgenland is the 7th largest of Austria’s 9 provinces Bundeslnder at 3966 km. The highest point in the province is Geschriebenstein at 884 metres the lowest point is 114 metres near Apetlon.
Burgenland has a very long border: To the west it borders the Austrian provinces of Niedersterreich and Steiermark. To the northeast it borders Slovakia Hungary to the east and Slovenia to the farthest south.
Burgenland and Hungary share the Neusiedler See known for its reed shallowness as well as the mild climate throughout the year. The Neusiedler See is Austria’s largest lake serving as a large tourist attraction bringing ornithologists sailors and wind/kite surfers into the region north of the lake.
PLACE TO VISIT
Originally called “The Land of four Castles” Vierburgenland most of them are now in Hungary. It is not that they moved there by themselves but in the political confusion of this area a lot of unification reunification and division took place and that’s where things stand now: a land of castles Burgenland with only few of them. But still there are some which are worthwhile to visit.
The Castles were originally built as some sort of defence against the Osmanic and Magyar threat from the east. The “Road of Castles” Schlsserstrasse starts in midBurgenland and goes right down to the most southern place in eastern Styria. By the way don’t be confused: the name of the castle is almost always the name of the corresponding village minus “Burg” or “Schloss”.
Burg Bernstein In this small castle in Bernstein which was owned by families like Batthyny and Almsy you will find a small hotel a restaurant and a nice garden which is open to visitors. The Castle is very ancient with big rooms and a knight’s hall.
Burg Lockenhaus A stronghold and knight’s castle located in Lockenhaus with knight’s saloon frescos and a subterranean apsis hall. The knight’s hall is regularly used for chamber music festivals and big stylish weddings. The hotel has ancient apartments a wedding suite a tavern and other features.
Burg Schlaining The Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution is located here as well as the European Museum of Peace. In the village Stadtschlaining you will find a medieval heart churches and a synagogue. In the castle Burg Schlaining you will find remarkable medieval architecture a knight’s saloon pomposity saloons and a chapel.
Schloss Burgau This former water castle in Burgau Styria has among others also been in the property of family Batthyny. It is suitable for concerts theater weddings and other festivities. There are also exhibitions of modern art taking place. You can expect theater events and concerts in summer.
Burg Gssing The oldest castle in Burgenland built around 1157 on an extinct volcano served as a defence castle against threats from the east. It features an ancestors gallery cultural items of the renaissance and barock a restaurant with atmospheric music events and an excellent vinotheque. In summer the Burgspiele take place which is openair theater with the picturesque background of the castle itself.
Riegersburg Originally built in the eleventh century the styrian Riegersburg in the similarly called village has its today face from a renewal in the 17th century. It is layn in eastern Styria on a 482m high extinct volcano. The Riegersburg features three kilometers of defence walls eleven bastions and five entries on a 15 hectare big rock plateau. The castle was part of the styrian eastern defence against the osmanic and magyar threats. The Riegersburg referred to as the strongest fortress of Christianity with its impressive quality of fortification remained untaken throughout the history. Since 1822 the castles is owned by baronial family Liechtenstein and is one of the best conserved medieval castles in Europe.
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Jules Trip To India
Ten years ago I first started to go to India and ten years ago I visited Ranthambhore so the epiphany was in fact a long time ago now. Sadly not the great awakening of the wow factor on seeing Tigers here but sadly quite the opposite; an experience that I was very uncomfortable with. I knew then instantly that the wildlife experience on offer here could be done better and with more thought for both Tigers and visitors.
Here was an irrational melee of vehicles and open trucks all in a mindless scramble of dust and diesel fumes that ensued on spotting a beautiful male Tiger; the ghastly picnic spot with the shambles of toilets and litter the organised chaos at the start of the day at the gate with fighting between ticket touts; the lack of care and feeble interpretation from the guides assigned to us or not if you were in a 20 seater truck!; the wholesale pursuit of tigers at the expense of the other glorious diversity of this stunning place.
I admit it I have been spoilt from an early age in Africa to have enjoyed wilderness for wilderness sake lived with the joy of seeing wild antelope on our farm wary of leopards the rock kopjes we climbed as kids and had my uncles his hippo in the garden so it was not a normal childhood but it was always magical often scary and of course life changing so its transpired.
Furthermore I had spent four weeks in a Nepalese jungle called Bardia with my fatherinlaw an inspirational figure himself John BlashfordSnell and we had had superb jungle experiences camped in his JBS camp by the Karnali River searching for Tigers and his famous Mammoth elephants.
Now what I was being offered in Ranthambhore was a hideous tourist trail badly thought through and poorly supervised that was going to do nothing for wild tiger welfare very little for much needed environmental education of visitors and inspire nobody to join the fight for the preservation of the wild landscapes found across India today.
In 2004 I therefore felt compelled to help and the only way I could see this working was through a campaign waged within my own Travel and Tourism community with a global campaign to appeal to businesses within the Tiger tourism fraternity to get together and act both through their own business practices but also through the purchasing power of tourism to encourage more sustainable enterprises and better services that could move Tiger tourism from a real threat to an active force for Tiger conservation.
So now five years on with 150 worldwide members involved in the campaign Travel Operators for Tigers a whole corporate social responsibility certification for lodges in place and increasing commitment from the Travel industry government and conservationists to work together I am finally setting out to prove that it may just be possible in India today. So despite its burgeoning human population its collapsing forests its highly endangered Tigers and withering biodiversity I want look at a new way of preserving its diminishing habitat that goes against everything that has been believed about managing wilderness in India up till today.
I am setting off on a ten week sabbatical from Discovery Initiatives to look at and assess the forests left standing today outside those already under governmental park protection thats still over 88 of Indias remaining forest cover to see if we could return them to viable Tiger habitat using ecotourism carbon offset financing and private enterprise with the communities being actual shareholders in any such reserve.
I have probably foolharedly stated I believe it is possible but tourism can make a difference.
I have seen it done in other parts of the world.
Now I am being asked to find just such a landscape to encourage the setting up of just such a viable reserve to achieve it.
Wish me luck its a mighty challenge!
I will be keeping you updated on my journey through India last remaining forest preserves over the next weeks on this blog or you can read my various articles and information on TOFT with my views and reasoning on www.toftigers.org
About the writer: Discovery Initiatives are experienced providers of tiger safari holidays and antarctic cruises. Visit http://www.discoveryinitiatives.co.uk to find out more.