Category: Vacation Days
This week’s #FriFotos* theme is SPECIAL MOMENTS, and what’s more special than a child’s hope for the future? Even though it’s sappy, it’s true. That’s why we chose a photo of a family preparing to launch a wish lantern into the night’s sky to celebrate the new year in Phuket, Thailand — though it’s a tradition on special occasions year round. Zhi Wang submitted this magical picture to our My Shot community photo gallery.
Want to see one of your photos featured on our website or Intelligent Travel blog? Make it happen by uploading your favorite travel pics (don’t forget to add a caption!) to ngm.com/yourshot. Tag all your submissions #travelshot – then look for your photos in one of our My Shot galleries or on our blog.
* What’s #FriFotos, you ask? It’s a weekly themed Twitter chat founded by @EpsteinTravels where travelers share their favorite pics. Search #FriFotos on Twitter to see the latest submissions or tweet one of your own!
Photo: Zhi Wang/My Shot
On the corner of Broome and Crosby in SoHo, a quiet sanctuary celebrates one of India’s spiritual traditions: the Broome Street Hindu Temple. Inside, the community recites the Bhagavad Gita, practices pujas, meditates, connects with the divine. Days after September 11, Eddie Stern opened the temple, which began as a yoga studio the year before. When the Twin Towers fell, it became a refuge to pray for hope amidst the ash-covered streets of lower Manhattan, and it has certainly been a place of transformation for Stern himself.
As a former punk rocker, Stern used to play guitar in three bands, one of them called Losers of a Dying World. Once he began exploring Indian culture, he said his life took a dramatic turn.
“Within a few months of learning about a vegetarian diet, starting to do a little bit of meditation and a little bit of chanting … everything began to change for me,” Stern said. “I felt like I was alive. I could explore and get to know myself in a new way because before I was covering it up.”
Stern has traveled to India around 25 times in his lifetime. He began teaching yoga in 1989. “I didn’t know anything about India at all, but I went and I loved it and I didn’t stop going back,” he said.
And it’s people like Stern who bring elements of India’s culture, history and traditions to the U.S. for others to learn about and enjoy. Here are five ways to experience India in New York City:
- The Dazzling Dosa: It’s the eye-catching spectacle during a southern Indian meal — the dosa. Crispy, spicy and delicious, this crepe-like staple made of fermented rice or lentil batter will take up nearly half the table. For a classic masala dosa, try the Dosa Hutt in Flushing, Queens or the Jackson Diner in Jackson Heights where a dosa is included in the lunch buffet. For fusion fare, swing by the Hampton Chutney Company in SoHo; their melding of southern Indian and Western flavors really spices things up. The curry chutney chicken, spinach and balsamic-roasted onion dosa is a popular favorite, as is their chai tea.
- A Little India in Queens: Off the seven train, an eclectic mix of South East Asian culture awaits on 74th Street and Roosevelt Avenue. Primarily dominated by elements of Indian culture, Jackson Heights is also punctuated by communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Bollywood music blares, brilliant red and orange saris glimmer in window displays and turban-wearing Sikh men chat in the streets in Punjabi. Stop by the Indian grocery stores Subzi Mandi or Patel Brothers to pick up sugared fennel seeds, fresh naan bread or a chilled mango lassi (the classic Indian drink made of yogurt and tangy mango puree).
- India’s Hollywood: A fast-action melodrama that dazzles audiences with color and catchy music, Bollywood dancing steals the stage. In Bangalore’s Hollywood, this dance style, usually performed during musical breaks in Bollywood musicals and movies, combines modern techniques with classical Indian dance. Instructor Pooja Narang at Bollywood Axion in Midtown opened one of the first Bollywood dance studios on the East Coast in 2003. Get coached in high-cardio dance moves that will get your heart pumping or try Punjabi-style Bhangra. Other popular studios include Dhoonya Dance and Bollywood Funk NYC Dance School.
- City in a Curry: If you’re seeking the flavors of India, stroll around Curry Hill in Murray Hill or Curry Row in the East Village where door to door the scent of cumin and coriander teases the nose. The blinking rainbow lights at Panna II Garden on First Avenue beam through the window like the Aurora Borealis. Inside, a chaotic cluster of Christmas lights hangs so low, patrons have to duck their heads to squeeze through the narrow passageway. The experience, prices and food here, however, are a thrill. In Curry Hill, there’s the more modern and spacious Dhaba on Lexington or Chennai Garden on 27th Street with its cone-shaped dosas and Gujarati curries.
- A Tour of Temples: At most Hindu temples in New York City right now, the sound of saws and chisels as renovations are underway. A new exterior edifice is being carved by hand for the Ganesh Temple in Flushing; the Broome Street Temple is retrofitting its second floor temple to make it more green; and The Radhe-Shyam Temple in the East Village closed and reopened as the Ramakrishnananda Yoga Vedanta Center in Astoria, Queens on 38th Street. During construction, however, services continue. Find your way there to chant, meditate, practice yoga or learn more about Hinduism, the majority religion in India.
Megan Snedden is a curator at Wanderfly. Her work also has appeared in the Huffington Post and Santa Ynez Valley Journal. Connect with her at www.megansnedden.com or on Twitter @megansnedden.
Kerrin Sheldon is the content manager at Wanderfly and he enjoys swimming with sharks and climbing mountains. Catch him at blog.wanderfly.com or on Twitter @kerrinsheldon.
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This week’s #FriFotos* theme is VILLAGES, and Sweden boasts a lot of them – as people who have seen The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo can attest. Smögen is one such place, a thriving “summer town” – like Girl’s Hedestad – that becomes a sleepy, snow-covered ghost town come winter. This photo of the bright fisherman’s cottages that line Smögen’s harbor was submitted to our My Shot community by Torsten Muehlbacher.
Want to see one of your photos featured on our website or Intelligent Travel blog? Make it happen by uploading your favorite travel pics (don’t forget to add a caption!) to ngm.com/yourshot. Tag all your submissions #travelshot – then look for your photos in one of our My Shot galleries or on our blog.
* What’s #FriFotos, you ask? It’s a weekly themed Twitter chat founded by @EpsteinTravels where travelers share their favorite pics. Search #FriFotos on Twitter to see the latest submissions or tweet one of your own!
Do you dream of cavorting with sea lions, meditating with giant tortoises, sunbathing with scaly marine iguanas? There’s only one place to do that: the Galápagos islands of Ecuador. Did you know that the National Geographic Society has its own fleet of small, comfortably outfitted ships to take you there, with National Geographic experts aboard to help you get the most out of the experience?
Find out about our Expeditions during the free webinar on Wednesday, February 1. This online presentation will be led by one of our veteran National Geographic Galápagos expedition leaders, Lynn Fowler, and you can ask her all the questions you want. Lynn has been working with the Galápagos National Park since 1978 and was recently elected to the Charles Darwin Foundation’s general assembly. She’ll be joining several of our 2012 Galápagos departures.
We offer special Galápagos trips just for families, as well as for people particularly interested in photography. And if you go, be sure to bring your video camera so you don’t miss moments like this.
National Geographic Expeditions: Galápagos
- Visit before the crowds come in. TripAdvisor recently named 15 U.S. destinations on the rise in 2012 (including Scottsdale, Arizona, above). [TripAdvisor via Travel Daily News]
- Plan an impromptu visit to Montreal this weekend with this mini guide, packed with essentials like what to see, where to stay, and how to find the best in food, shopping, and entertainment. [BBC Travel]
- Take in stunning views along the world’s most beautiful tramway rides. [Got Saga]
Got Radar? Follow us on Twitter @NatGeoTraveler and tag your favorite travel stories from the Web #ngtradar. Check back in the morning for our daily roundup.
Photo: Harry Taylor/My Shot
This week’s #FriFotos* theme is EXOTIC, and New York City recently was the exotic playground for two visitors far, far away from home.
To a Huli Wigman of Papua New Guinea, the streets of Manhattan have got to seem pretty exotic. And vice versa. Even among the blasé denizens of New York, the warriors manage to turn a few heads.
Papua New Guinea, an island nation in the southwest Pacific Ocean, is one of the most culturally diverse countries on earth and home to some 800+ languages. To the American eye, its peoples’ traditions appear exotic and intriguing, especially those of the Huli Wigmen, warriors who craft elaborate headdresses out of their hair, feathers, and plants, and the Asaro Mudmen who cover themselves in mud and don ghoulish masks to hearken back to a legendary defeated tribe who tried to recover stolen land by wearing such “earthy” disguises. The Wigmen and Mudmen usually materialize during celebrations and rituals in PNG so it was surprising when they showed up last month in New York City of all places.
We touched base with Ally Stoltz of the PNG Tourism Promotions Authority, who hosted the special visitors, to learn more about them and their NYC sojourn.
Meg Weaver: How long did it take for the Wigman and Mudman to travel from PNG to NYC?
Ally Stoltz: They flew Port Moresby to Auckland to Los Angeles to New York–roughly 40 hours.
MW: Where did they go in Manhattan? What did they see?
AS: The first day we got to New York we went straight to the Flower District to buy plants for their costumes because they packed TONS of plants & dirt that was obviously confiscated along their travels! They were like kids in the candy store with all the plants. They bought ones just for their hotel room . . . not for the costume! They also had pizza for the first time. They went on the Staten Island Ferry by night so they could see the city from another angle (honestly, they wanted to get away from all the noise) and to see the Statue of Liberty.
MW: What did they think of what they saw/did?
AS: The most interesting part of their trip to U.S. was that they didn’t have much to say at all about it. Journalists and the people at the party kept asking them, “WHAT DO YOU THINK OF NYC?!” and, as Papua New Guinea is known for its quiet, modest culture (until you make them mad), they just would almost whisper, “Yes, it’s good . . . or very busy” and that’s about it. They are really not extroverted people because in village life, extroverts stir up trouble and it’s all about maintaining balance in communities like theirs. And there’s respect issues and the language barrier as well–only the Mudman really spoke conversational English. But back home they speak two to three languages, Tok Pisin and then their town/village languages.
MW: What did New Yorkers have to say about them?
AS: They encountered a wide variety of responses. Some people couldn’t be bothered as they had places to go. An old man in SoHo nearly lost his mind, couldn’t say he had seen anything like them ever before. The Wigman and Mudman definitely turned heads in Times Square. The most common response people had was one of reverence and fascination–their costumes are very intricate and they managed to bring more teeth, bones, feathers, and hair into the country than I ever thought possible.
Related: Dance with the Huli Wigmen
Meg Weaver is a senior researcher for National Geographic Traveler.
*What’s #FriFotos, you ask? It’s a weekly Twitter chat founded by @EpsteinTravels during which travelers share their favorite pics. Each week has a theme. Search #FriFotos on Twitter to see the latest submissions or tweet one of your own!
Denmark. Singapore. Mexico. San Luis Obispo. Are these the happiest spots on Earth? In his book Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way, Dan Buettner explores these four places, identified by researchers as world hot spots in happiness—pockets around the globe where people report more happiness, enjoyment, interest, and respect.
As it fits with this week’s #FriFotos theme, we want to know what is your happy place– the destination that always puts a smile on your face; the one place you’d drop everything to visit if you got that free plane ticket. Or perhaps you travel there once or a few times a year because the excitement of it never fades.
What destination makes you smile? Share your happy place in the comments section below.
*What’s #FriFotos, you ask? It’s a weekly Twitter chat founded by @EpsteinTravels during which travelers share their favorite pics. Each week has a theme. Search #FriFotos on Twitter to see the latest submissions or tweet one of your own!
Photo: Sophia Haynes/My Shot
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[Photos: World's Happiness Hot Spots]
Family travel writer Rainer Jenss shares his New Year’s resolutions when it comes to planning trips with his family.
For 2012, instead of making my usual bucket list, I’m concentrating mostly on which places and activities are going to benefit my kids and enrich their lives. With that in mind, here are a few questions I ask myself when evaluating a trip idea:
- What kind of trip will bring the family closer together? Given our busy work and school schedules, we make it a priority to spend our vacations in each other’s company.
- Which destinations will strengthen our connections to wildlife and nature? Going to a zoo or aquarium is a great start, and you can take it even further by hiking in a state or national park or snorkeling in the Caribbean.
- What activities will spark their curiosity? Sometimes it’s a simple as trying new foods. You might not think the kids will like steamed dumplings, but you’d be surprised what a visit to Chinatown can do to expand their palates.
- Where can we expose our kids to new cultures and perspectives? This doesn’t necessarily require leaving the country.
- Where can we learn new life skills? Surfing in Hawaii? Horseback riding out West?
- What activities will enhance the kids’ education? We looked at their upcoming curriculum: American history, volcanoes, Greek mythology. Great trip ideas there.
- How can the trip promote self-discovery? You can learn a lot about yourself by visiting a house of worship different than your own.
- Will we meet new people? We have formed lasting friendships with people we’ve met while traveling.
- Is the itinerary/destination safe? Everyone has their own threshold, so respect it.
- Will the kids have fun? Trust me from experience; don’t underestimate what kids will enjoy.
What about you? What factors do you weigh when booking a trip for your family?
Follow Rainer on Twitter at @JenssTravel
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Our readers boast impressive travel résumés, which is why every Friday we ask you the same question on Facebook: Where are you traveling this weekend?
See photos of where YOU went, and get inspired to plan your next trip.
Photos by readers like you. Upload your favorite travel photos with a caption to Your Shot/Travel at ngm.com/yourshot. Tag all submissions #travelshot, then look for your photos online in one of our My Shot community galleries or here on the blog.
For seven years, National Geographic has combed the globe to find Adventurers of the Year, each selected for his or her extraordinary achievement in exploration, conservation, and adventure sports. This year, our Adventure editors, in partnership with Glenfiddich, selected men and women who are pioneering innovation in the world of adventure.
Here on Intelligent Travel we will be profiling the 2012 Adventurers of the Year. Check them out, then vote (through January 18) for your favorite to win the People’s Choice Award.
Meet Mountaineer Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner
In the summer of 2010, Austrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner was perched on K2’s infamous Bottleneck couloir 400 meters below the summit. She radioed her husband, Ralf Dujmovits, who was hunkered at base camp far below the 8,611-meter summit of the peak on the Pakistan-China border. Through the radio, Dujmovits could hear the shock in his wife’s voice. Moments earlier her partner, ski mountaineer Fredrik Ericsson, had slipped while unroped, tumbled past her, and fallen to his death.
Kaltenbrunner immediately aborted her summit attempt to look for her friend. It was her fifth failed attempt on the world’s most deadly peak. K2 was the final summit remaining in her 14-year quest to become the first woman to climb all 14 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen or porters.
In 2011, Kaltenbrunner returned to K2, this time to the mountain’s north side to avoid the Bottleneck, where 11 climbers died in 2008. At 6:18 p.m. local time on August 23, Kaltenbrunner reached the summit. “I have never had a view like that. There were no clouds, you could see to Nanga Parbat. I had the feeling that I was one with the universe. It’s still present in my heart,” says the 40-year-old Austrian.
Her fascination with the world’s tallest peaks began when she was in her early 20s. When she was 23 years old, she reached 8,027 meters but not the summit of Broad Peak, also on the Pakistan-China border, which sparked the idea to climb all 14 peaks more than 8,000 meters tall. In 1998, Kaltenbrunner, a professional climber who trains year-round, reached her first summit, Cho Oyu, and began ticking off the peaks, sometimes two in a year. She became known for her calculated patience.
This year on K2, the reminders of a misstep were always present. “Twenty or thirty meters beneath K2’s summit, you can look down and see the Bottleneck. It felt like Fredrik was near,” says Kaltenbrunner. “He was with us in a good sense.”