KELLY'S GONE AGAIN
…AND HERE'S WHERE I'M AT.Archive for Culture
#27. Cairns: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
So after spending 4 days in the Great Barrier Reef, I decided to make an overnight stop back in Cairns, where I’d flown in initially. It’s a seemingly simple town, renowned for sailing, though I admittedly didn’t get a good feel for the place because I was only there for 24 hours. But here is the highlight, and the reason for the early island departure: for dinner, I checked out a nearby aboriginal cultural park, and it was so, so worth the stopover.
#20. Paro: Pilgrimage for a Budding Buddhist
You ever have one of those workouts where you swear your body will be revamped when you get home? Welcome to my world. Yesterday we climbed into the mountains, 10,000 feet (all uphill, by the way), to the Tiger’s Nest.
Any guilt I’ve ever felt from any time I’ve ever stepped off of the treadmill early (or from every piece of naan I’ve eaten over the last 3 weeks) has now been absolved.
#19. Thimpu: Time to Get Happy
So I took a little break from India this week and flew into Bhutan, via Kathmandu, on Thursday. Bhutan is famous for its use of “Gross National Happiness” as a measure of national productivity, and when I heard that a few months back I thought, “well, I’ve got to go *there*.”
It was a pretty pleasant flight over the Himalayas. When I wasn’t glued to my window watching the mountains, I was reading one of the national Bhutanese newspapers, which had articles on how the country was actually fixing ills, such as humanely taking care of the stray dog population, and more personal columns like “Do You Have a Good Sense of Humor?” As we touched down into Paro, Drukair [Airlines] played traditional Bhutanese music, something like that which you might hear while Daniel-san gets a lesson from Mr. Miyagi. The stuff works — I was happy already.
#9. Siem Reap: Angkor Temples; Luang Prabang: Morning
Yesterday I woke up at O-dark-thirty (specifically around 4 a.m.) to go out to the Angkor temples by sunrise. It’s said to be a peaceful, magical time there, the world’s largest religious site, and I can confirm that as true.
#8. Siem Reap: Landmines Museum
Most people who know me know that Human Rights Watch holds a special place in my heart. Most people who know HRW knows that its focus on landmines — and the significant role it played in banning them — is one of the organization’s landmark victories. Accordingly, I went to the Landmines Museum in Cambodia, a country largely affected by the indiscriminate weapon.
