i've been to jaipur too Perhaps ..tourist like you always end up taking photos of calves and urine station ..if you visit again try hangin out nicer places this time ..!!
Hi Dad, I see now that the phrase is ambiguous but even if Sonia Gandhi were to have a sex change she would still not be the grandson of Indira Gandhi, I guess she'd be the son-in-law.
The phrase "(the son of Sonia Gandhi, grandson of Indira Gandhi, and therefore no relation to Mohandas Gandhi)" was meant to imply that RAHUL Gandi is the son of Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi *AND* thereby the Grandson of Indira Gandhi (nee Nehru).
So I should have written "the son of Sonia Gandhi and grandson of Indira Gandhi" OR "the son of Sonia Gandhi who was the daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi".
So Rahul Gandhi is the great-grandson of the first Prime Minister of India.
Sonia Gandhi is still alive and well on the Indian political scene (I think in a different party from her son Rahul, I'm not sure how that works out for them).
I guess I'm picking up Inglish. This Internet cafe bans "porn sights", for example.
thanks Daniel for continuing to entertain and educate us about the places you visit and the people you meet. It's all very interesting.
But tell me, did Sonia Gandhi travel to Italy to have her sex-change? I wonder why after she bore two children she wanted to be turned into the grandSON of Indira Gandhi, as you inform us?
bah, I didn't notice that tyop. I'll change that now! Took too long to upload the photos that I didn't have time to proof-read. I thought Deissmann went by his middle name? Now that he finally has a wikipedia entry I believe that he exists :-)
Thanks, Daniel, for keeping up your blogs.
Anatolia ... ah Anatolia, the land of the rising sun (in Greek A. = East). I only wish I could be there with you specially in Ephesus. Speaking of which, I noticed with glee that you referred to the "20th century classicist Alfred Deissman". Well done! However, his name was actually Gustav Adolf Deissmann (1866-1937), and he wasn't a classicist per se, but rather a theologian who in 1895 became the world-leading expert in the postclassical (koine) Greek language streets ahead of all classicists. Regarding his role in Ephesus, you are quite right, had he not championed its cause after WW1, much of what one sees there today would have been lost forever and with it a large chunk of our knowledge of the ancient world and its people. In AD 100 Ephesus had a pop. of some half a million people, no wonder you were awed by its size.
You also wrote of the Artemision that in the Apostle Paul’s time "They started changing [!] “Great is Diana ...”, and puzzled over how Diana and Artemis could possibly be the same god. Artemis was the name of the Greek goddess whom the Romans took over and called Diana (talk about plagiarism). Actually, this kind of ‘godnapping’ was nothing unusual in the ancient world. The Christians did the same later with the images and statues of the Roman goddess Isis and her son Horus, by simply renaming them Virgin Mary and her son Jesus. Hey presto the myth is re-cycled, repackaged and sold to millions as sacred reality.
Thanks, Daniel, for keeping up your blogs.
Anatolia ... ah Anatolia, the land of the rising sun (in Greek A. = East). I only wish I could be there with you specially in Ephesus. Speaking of which, I noticed with glee that you referred to the "20th century classicist Alfred Deissman". Well done! However, his name was actually Gustav Adolf Deissmann (1866-1937), and he wasn't a classicist per se, but rather a theologian who in 1895 became the world-leading expert in the postclassical (koine) Greek language streets ahead of all classicists. Regarding his role in Ephesus, you are quite right, had he not championed its cause after WW1, much of what one sees there today would have been lost forever and with it a large chunk of our knowledge of the ancient world and its people. In AD 100 Ephesus had a pop. of some half a million people, no wonder you were awed by its size.
You also wrote of the Artemision that in the Apostle Paul’s time "They started changing [!] “Great is Diana ...”, and puzzled over how Diana and Artemis could possibly be the same god. Artemis was the name of the Greek goddess whom the Romans took over and called Diana (talk about plagiarism). Actually, this kind of ‘godnapping’ was nothing unusual in the ancient world. The Christians did the same later with the images and statues of the Roman goddess Isis and her son Horus, by simply renaming them Virgin Mary and her son Jesus. Hey presto the myth is re-cycled, repackaged and sold to millions as sacred reality.
re: Quanjude and girls... Mark D: your logic is obviously flawed because we know that all axe murderers don't understand probability (I'm ignoring here the fact that you're not an axe murderer).
ie you can't ignore the independence of events, that's fundamental to the problem! There might be some biological basis for doing so, in which case you have to say that. I don't think such an effect would be significant.
The intuitive answer would be that it would give more girls, which is what the government was of course hoping for.
But in theory it's simple. Some people are allowed one child, they have a roughly 50% chance of a boy and a roughly 50% chance of a girl. Some people are allowed to try again, they again have a roughly 50% chance of a boy and a 50% chance of a girl.
Yes I think Quanjude in melbourne is probably the same chain, I know they had a branch in LA, which I think closed down, I didn't know they had one in Queen st though, is it good?
Quanjude and girls... For what it's worth there's a Quanjude restaurant at the top of Queen Street which, according to their signs, are "genuine Peeking duck specialists".. probably part of the same chain.
I think the policy re boys/girls is still flawed (better than the previous one of course) since let's assume there is a 50% chance of a boy or a girl and let's assume there is no stacking of numbers through abortion etc.
Those families who have a boy first stop breeding. If they have a girl first then they (let's assume) have another child which statistically would make the next child a boy (I'm ignoring the independence of the events, but relying on the 50% chance thing).
What you wind up with in general is that every 2 families produce 3 children... 2 boys and 1 girl.
Leaving twice as many boys as girls... Not sure if your graph says anything different, but that's my take on it after limited consideration....
Travel safe and have fun....
Mark
nice blog Daniel, this is an awesome blogs...I enjoy reading your blog specially when your were in my hometown Yogyakarta. I should have give you my home address so you can rest or maybe asked my friends to take you around. Me as Indonesian has not travel to other part of Indonesia, and you have visited the place I haven't been to...enjoy the rest of the trips...
Thanks NYCKid, but what I meant was that according to Lonely Planet it's a 10 Yuan trip. I'd expect it to go up a bit in the two years since that LP was published, but not by 400%. Remember it's only meant to be a 1-1.5 hour trip.
The bus ticket just so you know, those tickets are actually standard Chinese receipts issued by the government for tax purposes. They come in 5yuan, 10yuan, 50yuan...ect. It doesn't mean that the ticket is 10yuan. But 40yuan does seem a little bit expensive for a 2 hr ride though.
Interesting to read your blog on current situation in ET. I was there in 2005, at a time when all seemed to be positive about the future. I think it will be a long time before ET is fully functioning and independent.
Chinese Temples Wow, i like temples a lot, and like travel too, hope one day i can go that place feel them by myself.
If you like temples like me, i have some picture of China on http://www.synotrip.com/photos/jiangsu-province/samantha/temples
i wish i was there.. hey Daniel it is really fascinating to read and get insights from you..
esp as i am really interested in visiting the temples..
enjoy
bijal
Sandals and Fun... Sounds like it's all coming together. For what it's worth you'll have no trouble finding someone to make shoes and/or sandals in Kuta when you get to Bali. If you can't find anybody you like then head to Charisma Tailors at the end of Poppies lane 1 (the one with McDonalds on the corner) the last set of actual shops before it hits Legian street. Charisma is next door to a shop which sells T-Shirts for dogs (as opposed to cooking them) and another which sells pirated movies.
Ask for Made and tell him that Mr. Mark from the Grand Istana Rama (The friend of Mr. Paul) sent you. He'll look after you and your sandals :)
Travel safe!
Congratulations Great blog - nearly as good as a postcard!!!
I look forward to hearing if you get up close and personal with any hobbits or their habitat . . .
Check with Wiki Hi Daniel, Apparently, the measurement of a coastline is dependant upon the method used for measuring. so "not 100% accurate" is an understatement. However, as per Wiki:
"....More concretely, the length of the coastline depends on the method used to measure it. Since a landmass has features at all scales, from hundreds of kilometers in size to tiny fractions of a millimeter and below, there is no obvious limit to the size of the smallest feature that should not be measured around, and hence no single well-defined perimeter to the country. Various approximations exist when specific assumptions are made about minimum feature size.
For practical considerations, an appropriate choice of minimum feature size is on the order of the units being used to measure. If a coastline is measured in miles, then small variations much smaller than one mile are easily ignored......"
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Coastline_paradox
I'd suggest that when you are looking at trying to figure out how far you're are travelling around a country/island (or many islands making up a country) you stick to miles or kilometres. Don't let this paradox send you crazy!
Hope your leg is getting better? Your blog is great! Your writing is superb! Keep up the good work and have safe travels!
Fractal Coastlines Thanks Dirk,
If I may respectfully disagree with you ... I don't think that it's just "not 100% accurate". I think it can literally give you any figure you want (above a ridiculously low minimum). It doesn't matter whether you measure it in miles, kilometres, millimetres or stadia, I think that's missing the point. The measurement changes depending on the accuracy with which you measure it, not the units you use.
I also think that it doesn't at all give me an idea ... I still don't know if Indonesia has a coastline greater than Tasmania's for example? Also, it's not about circumnavigating the country, which is comprised of thousands of islands, so it would be about circumnavigating each island, but many don't have roads. If you "circunavigate" the actual coastline, then you get back to the core of the problem.
If you get a world map and try to measure the circumference of Wilsons Prom, then get an Australia map and try again, then get a survey map of Wilsons Prom and try again, you'll see what I mean. Each one will give you progressively greater measurements, and the more care you take, the higher your measurement will be again.
Thanks for the feedback though, it's good to know people are reading.
Cheers,
Daniel
UPDATE (April 2013)
This site was the blog I kept for my long-term travels, mainly through Asia, in 2009-2010. I'm not maintaining it any more. I've done numerous trips since then but haven't kept them on this blog. I did run my own blog for a year but unfortunately lost that data.
END UPDATE
For those who're not familiar with blogs, note that this part is only my profile, the blog entries are linked from the bottom of this page (or subscribe, so you'll always know when I have a new one)
Having always dreamed about travel, previously mainly done it as three-week or four-week sort... full info
M Suresh
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Very Good Blog
Hi,It's been nice reading your blog.