H is for Hair in Huangluo

We were en route to the Longji Rice Terraces in Guanxi province when we stopped to have lunch in a small village called Huangluo. 

The village is inhabited by the ethnic minority Yao and it has become a popular stop for tourists. Hence there was an array of minority clothing, jewelry, artwork and intricate embroidery for sale

What makes this Yao village unique is that its women have the longest hair in the world. Really, it's been certified by the Guinness World Records.

We had no inkling of this when we stopped here, but just as we were finishing lunch, I heard a bit of a commotion outside. I grabbed my camera and this is what I saw: a row of women standing on the edge of the river modeling their long hair and how they style it.

By tradition the Yao women cut their hair only once in their lifetime, at an age between 16 and 18 when they are considered adult and ready to get married. The cut hair is kept as a headpiece and is twisted into their standard hairdo.

 

 

The longest of the women's hair can grow up to 1.9 meters (6 feet) and the average is about 1.2 meters (4 feet). Imagine washing that every day... in the river!

  

Seeing these women later in modern street clothes tells me the tradition won't remain pure for long.

 Longsheng, Guangxi, 2007

Location - the red bubble:

If you would still like to see the hair being piled up, there is a short video (not mine) HERE. I posted an earlier photo of a Yao woman HERE.

The letter at Alphabe-Thursday is H.

G is for Gold

How does gold grab you? Is it glamor that glitters? Or is gold given to goons with guns (think: government) ghastly?

Today we look at the letter G at Alphabe-Thursday.

I will first share with you a few scenes of the grand and glitzy Gold Souk in Dubai, where gold gewgaws from tiny to gigantic go for below the global price when you haggle. 

Then you may find interesting the thoughts on gold from luminaries past that seem still so germane in today's turbulent world... and which give heed to the great idiom, "the more things change, the more they stay the same".

Dubai, 2005

By gold all good faith has been banished; by gold our rights are abused; the law itself is influenced by gold, and soon there will be an end of every modest restraint. 

~ Sextus Propertius elegiac poet of the Augustan age (~50 BC-15 BC)

Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

~ Samuel Johnson (1709 –1784) English author

Democracy is never a thing done. Democracy is always something that a nation must be doing. What is necessary now is one thing and one thing only that democracy become again democracy in action, not democracy accomplished and piled up in goods and gold.

~ Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982) American poet

Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; let fortune's bubbles rise and fall; who sows a field, or trains a flower, or plants a tree, is more than all. 

~ John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) American Quaker poet

I did not know that mankind were suffering for want of gold. I have seen a little of it. I know that it is very malleable, but not so malleable as wit. A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom.

~ Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American author/philosopher

All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.

~ Plato (424 BC–348 BC), Classical Greek philosopher

A Great and Glorious New Year to my fellow blog hoppers!

W is for Wish

These heartfelt wishes are for my blogging friends at ABC Wednesday, Alphabe-Thursday, Weekend Reflections and any other friendly bloggers dropping by. CHEERS!

D is for Dove

Last month when my honey and I strolled in Hong Kong, I spied this pretty Chinese Spotted Dove having fun bathing in rain water.

 Hong Kong, 2011

The Spilopelia chinensis also called the Spotted Turtle Dove, Lace-Necked Dove or the Mountain Dove. This species is usually found in open woodland, farmlands and other natural habitats where it can find the seeds and grains it needs for nourishment. Makes me wonder why they are now appearing in urban centers; does anyone know?

Watching it play and noticing it was alone (as opposed to in a big flock one typically sees pigeons) got me asking what is the difference between doves and pigeons. I learned: not much! They are both species of the bird family Columbidae. The larger of the species are generally called pigeons, the smaller are called doves, yet there is no taxonomic difference. 

So I ask the pigeon-haters, those who consider these rats with wings, how can you not adore this sweet looking critter?

Check out other fun and creative D posts at Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday. I'm also linking to Camera Critters, where people around the world share their animal shots and stories.

B is for Bicycle

On an otherwise barren country road in the beautiful province of Palawan, I spotted this human being on an amusing bicycle.

Palawan, 2010

I've been biding my time for a befitting occasion to post this bicyclist, and now seems as good as any, when B is the letter at Alphabe-Thursday. I can bare that the bike I rode back a few weeks ago through villages of Kaiping looked nothing like this one!

 

What came to mind was a silly 1971 pop song by Melanie [click name to hear it] called: Brand New Key. Do you remember it? The stanza that got burned onto my brain cells all those many years ago goes like this:

I ride my bike, I roller skate, don't drive no car
Don't go too fast, but I go pretty far
For somebody who don't drive
I been all around the world
Some people say, I done all right for a girl 

The bother with a ditty like this is that once it bubbles into my mind, it takes hours to brush it out! I bet I'm not the only one...

And while we babble about bicycles, watch this boy Danny MacAskill [click to view] bike from Edinburgh to Skye. It will bowl you over! Simply brilliant!

A is for Arc de Triomphe

I'd be astonished if you were not familiar with the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the famous monument honoring the brave soldiers who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. But you may not know that there are other similar arch structures built around the globe in memory of valiant soldiers who lost their lives for a cause . 

I've seen four other arch monuments in my travels: in Rome, Delhi, Bucharest and Chişinău. Today, for Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday and the letter A, I share with you my photos of the small Arc de Triomphe in the small country of Moldova.

We arrived in the capital in the late afternoon earlier this year and I made it to the monument just as the sun was setting. The massive building behind it is the Government House of Moldova.

Chişinău, 2011

Unfortunately, I've been unable to find out what triumph this monument commemorates. I've learned that it is also called the Holy Gates, but to what I don't know.

Built of white stone this triumphal arch is similar in design to the one in Paris, but much smaller. The architectural details are rather pretty, I think. 

Another confusing fact is that the references I found date this monument to 1841, yet the plaque offers the date 1846. It was restored in 1973.

I think these two plaques in the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet (used only from 1938 until 1989) and the Russian Cyrillic alphabet... and I can't tell you which is what... are interesting and will fit sign seekers at Signs, Signs.

Autumn Colors in Kansai

We purposely timed our visit to Kansai to coincide with its famous fall colors.  Thus many of the photos I have posted previously from this magnificent region will show you the breadth of beauty found this season of warm yellows, oranges, reds and browns.

Today I share a few more autumn photos from that trip to celebrate a season we don't really have at home in tropical Philippines.

I sure wasn't the only one reveling in the flaming colors of the maples!

Kansai, 2009

Extra:

Manila, 2011

I took this final photo last evening. This line of friendly pumpkins are on the street in front of our neighbor's house, waiting to greet the kids of the village coming by on Saturday for group "trick or treat" fun.

Halloween was not known in Finland where I spent most of my childhood, so the only time I got to dress up and go "trick or treat" was a couple of years in my early teens in Vancouver, BC. Fortunately I never did have much of a sweet tooth and I outgrew this pretty fast.

Do you celebrate this event in your corner of the world? Do you have any special memories?

Linking with other autumn images at Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday and (for the last image) to Pat's Thursday's Things in a Row.

W is for Windmill

Aptly called giant electric fans by the locals, twenty whopping windmills grace the northern coastline of Ilocos Norte facing the windy North China Sea.

Ilocos Norte, 2010

The 23-storey windmills standing 236 meters apart were installed in 2005 and were the first source of clean energy in the Philippines. Together they produce over 30-megawatts of electricity and supply 40% of the province's energy needs. Yet, to put this into some kind of perspective, the entire province consumes only about half the energy of one of Manila's larger shopping malls!

It's hard to grasp the sheer size of the windmills. Each windmill with 41-meter blades stands 70 meters tall and weighs 104 tons. Its tapered tower of steel measures 4.2 meters thick at its base. Look again at the relative small size of the people in the first photo!

There's plenty of environmental incentive to build these alternate energy projects. But unfortunately, without government subsidies, this renewable energy source would hardly be financially viable, even considering this privately-operated one stands to earn millions of euros in carbon credits.

This final photo was taken near sundown from a platform built along the highway specifically for tourists to view the spectacular scenery.

We're sharing stories with the letter W at Alphabe-Thursday and the shadow shot is for, well, Shadow Shot Sunday.

U is for Urban Art

On my business trips from Asia to America, I am sometimes able to add a a few days to meet up with a friend. One such rendezvous happened in June of 2003 with my longtime friend Leesa, an urban art consultant in Vancouver. 

Leesa works with municipalities and developers to integrate commissioned art into public spaces in order to create significance for the people who use those spaces. (We are not talking graffiti.)

She wanted to check out how the Los Angeles Metro was implementing its highly praised public art program, and I was game to tag along. 

From bus stops to rail stations, streetscapes to bus interiors, construction fences to poetry, Metro’s Art Department has commissioned more than 300 artists since being established in 1989. [source]

We explored the Green Line and were delighted with the way artists had woven their stories into the environment: walls, ground, seats, stairs.

Here are just a few of the photos I got. You can read about the artists and their project descriptions on Metro's excellent website.

[photos enlarge when clicked]

Los Angeles, 2003

Do you agree with me that Metro achieved its goal?

Metro commissions artists to create engaging and thought-provoking artworks to make your journey more inviting and pleasurable. The artworks weave a multi-layered cultural tapestry that mirrors Los Angeles County’s rich contemporary and popular cultures.

[Source: LA Metro Art Guide]

Besides having quality face-to-face time, Leesa and I had a blast riding the Metro. Today you can take a free Metro Art Tour on the first Thursday and Saturday of the month. When next I return to LA, I will surely continue to explore this people-friendly transit system.

U is the letter at Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday. Go check out how others creatively play with this letter.

T is for Theatre - Peles Castle IV

It's time for Alphabe-Thursday and the letter is T. My T today is for theatre... that is theater for my American blogger friends. 

While I often use American spelling, in my mind, the King's English befits this word. Especially so when the subject of my post is the elaborate private theatre in the gorgeous Peles Castle in Romania I visited last May (first introduced here and here). 

The theatre, built in the style of Louis XIV, holds sixty seats.  

We were not allowed in the room, so these are only quick walk-by shots taken from the door.

 Sinaia, Romania, 2011

This second photo is very similar, but I wanted to show you as much as possible, as I find this mellow yellow room quite extraordinary. Enlarge the photos to take a closer look at the murals painted by the Austrian Art Nouveau duo Gustav Klimt and Franz Matsch. I'm sorry I didn't stop to take better photos of the murals, but believe me, this palace produces sensory overload!

A final piece of historical trivia: the first motion picture in Romania was viewed in this room in 1906.

S is for School

When times are tough, the first things we go without are those we deem non-basics or luxuries. This goes for government budgets, too. Yet I find it incomprehensible and sad that we consider art and cultural programs, including art and music education for our youth in schools, among the dispensable, especially while the war machines are kept humming at full tilt. This value system does not speak well of us as civilized humans.

I am guessing that this once-handsome music school in Bucharest too had its funding slashed.

 Bucharest, 2011

The signs posted in front of the school show there is still a lively interest in a range of music in the city.

Posting for S at Alphabe-Thursday and Signs, Signs.