A while ago I asked if anyone had never stayed at a Holiday Inn. Looks like I’ll be staying at one in Amsterdam.
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Monthly Archives: November, 2009
Celebrity Cruise Deals
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Summary: Â Â Celebrity Cruises is one of the most popular cruise lines in service today. It is also considered one of the most expensive. Fortuntately, there are several ways to score Celebrity cruise deals so you can enjoy all that a Celebrity cruise has to proposal without breaking the bank.
Celebrity Cruises is one of the most popular cruise lines in service today. It is also considered one of the most expensive. Fortuntately, there are several ways to score Celebrity cruise deals so you can enjoy all that a Celebrity cruise has to immolate without breaking the bank.
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Indonesia’s National Museum Stands Test of Time
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There’s an old statement in Indonesia that a big nation is one that appreciates its narrative.
Through history, people can learn touching their cultural origins and their national identity. However, museums — the traditional storehouses of items from the past that help people understand the developments that shaped their society — are not very popular here. Most Indonesians seem to prefer to spend their weekends and other leisure time at the sundry shopping malls that are scattered across Jakarta.
But that may wish started to make different in the last hardly any years, with the revitalization of Jakarta’s Kota Tua, or Old Town, triggering a new devotion amidst the younger crowd for attending museums.
“Going to museums is actually a fun experience. More young people in this city should visit our museums instead of just going to the malls,†before-mentioned Sandra Fetriana, a 21-year-old university student visiting the National Museum through some friends.
The museum, located in Central Jakarta, is hard to build exactly that kind of culture. In its favor, the museum has perhaps the most strategic location of any such institution in the city. It’s located in the heart of Jakarta’s business district, only a 10-minute drive from the city’sitting main train location, Gambir, and equitable across the street from National Monument (Monas) park.
National Museum, or Museum Nasional in Indonesian, is also the oldest such institution in Indonesia, and has the country’s largest historical and cultural collection, with more than 141,000 items. Most were collected from Indonesia’sitting own backyard, but there are also some items that were purchased from other countries.
John Guy, a curator of Southeast Asian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, was at the National Museum recently captivating pictures of Hindu-Buddhist sculptures.
“Museum Nasional is one of the best museums in Southeast Asia,†he said. “This museum has so many hundred-year-old collections.â€
Guy visits Indonesia one time a year to conduct research and always makes a point of going to the National Museum.
His favorite item is the largest statue in the assemblage, the more than 4-meter-tall statue of Bhairawa, a manifestation of Buddha, believed to be from the 13th or 14th century.
“Isn’t that beautiful?†he said.
The museum is also at times known of the same kind with Museum Gajah, or the Elephant Museum, because of the bronze elephant statue in front of the building. This statue was a gift from King Chulalongkom from Thailand in 1871.
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A Day in Wellington: The Beehive
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A recent day trip to Wellington, New Zealand’s chief city, resulted in a examine to The Beehive. It wasn’t a planned stop, but on the way to the airport, I had heard the radio newcaster report that this oddly named parliamentary building, where the politicians decide on the country’s policies,  had just made the plant living but a year ‘World Ugliest Building’s’ list compiled by dint of. VirtualTourist.com.
Ranking it the universe’s third ugliest building, VirtualTourist.com wrote…
“A slide projector that fell on a wedding cake that fell on a waterwheel is human being description of this edifice known as “The Beehive.†Built primarily for the period of the ‘70s, its proximity to the contiguous Edwardian neo-classical Parliament House only accentuates its unattractiveness.â€
That sounded a little of the highest, thus I decided to check it out for myself.
Opposite the railway station and on the airport bus route, The Beehive is easy to find. And it was a hive of sprightliness, with tour groups wandering around the gardens and sitting on the steps of the Parlimentary Buildings. Locals and tourists alike were sitting in succession the grass, shaded by huge trees, and enjoying coffee or a bite of lunch.
All in all, it was a pretty pleasing situation to be.
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Haj & Eid El-Adha
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I wish Eid Mubarak to my Muslim readers, and I refer them to The Boston Globe’s The Big Picture for great photographs of the event.
Friday, November 27th, was the spasm of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim “Festival of Sacrifice”, which is based on the tradition that Ibrahim was willing to sacrifice his son Ismail to God.
As I posted in a POV a couple of days ago, Muslims keep it by dint of. slaughtering animals to commemorate God’s gift of a ram to substitute for Ibrahim’s son, distributing the meat amongst family, friends and the poor.
Speaking of Islam. I frequently read Asim Rafiqui’s blog, The Spinning Head, and one of his latest posts force of will certainly resonate with altogether just persons.
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The Mayflower II: Stepping into America’s Pilgrim Past and the Ship That Started It All
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As always, this week in November, with its turkeys, bog-berry sauce, and expressions of thanks has Americans mind not just of food or Christmas shopping, but of the little town in Massachusetts we all learned about every year as schoolchildren: Plimouth (or Plymouth) Plantation, where the first Thanksgiving was held amid starvation, fear, cold, and the unexpected generosity of the original Pilgrims’ native Wampanoag neighbors.
I wrote about visiting the living museum village of Plymouth last year in Thanksgiving Myth and Legend at Plymouth Plantation. This year I’fight reminded of the journey that brought the Pilgrims to the New World, and the ship they sailed: the Mayflower.
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Please Pass the Yoga Mat (and Antacids): Holiday Survival Techniques
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Don’t leave that pocket yoga pilot – or more importantly, your breath – at home. 
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