India to Russia

This woman traveled from India to Russia... by car

 

From Russia to India

I enjoy travel videos.  This one is really impressive.

Alabama to India

Susan played the harp in my church when I was growing up in Headland, Alabama.  Her husband was my Pee Wee football coach.  These days, Susan is quite the traveler.  Last year she was in Hong Kong & Bangkok.  Back in 2015, she visited one of the world's great wonders, the Taj Mahal.  

Ai Goes To India

A Japanese friend of ours traveled with some of her friends to India a few years ago.

 

Great Soul

Growing up in my town I don't recall ever hearing directly - whether it be in school, in the community or in church - the name Gandhi. I think I did have some slight awareness that Gandhi was Indian and had done something of significance.  Perhaps I had just picked that up from TV? Later on, in my last two years at Samford, I was brought face-to-face with Gandhi: first, after discovering what influence he had on one of our own leaders, and, second, after watching this movie (trailer above) and then reading a book titled, Was Gandhi a Christian? Since then, I have traveled to India, seen the movie a couple of more times, latched on to a particular quote of his, and blogged about him a few times. You can see the blog postings here.  Below, I have posted a few of my favorite Gandhi quotes, ending with the one I love the most. 

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. 

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching. 

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. 

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps. 

 I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. 

It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business. 

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

a sticker I bought in Asheville, NC

Fukuoka, Japan

http://wikitravel.org/upload/shared/e/eb/Japan_regions_map.png

 

Ai (pronounced 'eye') is a young lady I have blogged about before.  She is from Fukuoka, the same city I recently just found out a really dear friend of mine - Kyoko!!! -is from.  But back to Ai.  Kade and I met her in Hanoi, Vietnam, and we've all stayed in touch since then.  Ai was my contact person, tour guide and lunch partner had I been able to make it to Japan in February.  My goal was to "bullet train" from Kyoto to Nagasaki, and then from Nagasaki travel by bus to Fukuoka, where I would spend a couple of nights before flying out to Bangkok.  As far I'm concerned, Ai and I are kindred spirits.  She too loves great adventures, as you can see from a couple of attached images.  Incidentally, her work actually brought her to Mobile, AL about two years ago.  She stayed there a couple of weeks, I think.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to see her, but I did put her in touch with a long-time friend and his family.  From my own experiences, I know the value of having reliable contacts wherever you go.

 

 

In Agra, India.  The Taj Mahal.

In Spain.

huge sleeping buddha in Fukuoka Japan 南蔵院 涅槃仏 from kenichi morinaga on Vimeo.

 

Since I've yet to visit Fukuoka, and since it's often a good thing to get an outsider's first-hand take on travel destinations, I am humbly deferring to a friend and fellow traveler (from upstate New York), who has actually traveled to Fukuoka.  Mick was one of my colleagues at The AUA English Institute in Bangkok.  As an aside, I have to give him credit for two memorable things:  First, when we were having my "farewell lunch" in Bangkok, he shared the Gandhi quote about "being the change you want to see."  I had not heard it before.  Since then, it's been a quote that has inspired me.  Second, Mick was the one who planted the seed in my mind for moving to Asheville, NC.  He had not been there himself, but had a friend who thought it was a fabulous place - a lovely, liberal, artsy city surrounded by incredible mountains and small, scenic, conservative towns. Mick also left AUA for other prospects.  He taught English in South Korea for year.  And, during a break, he took a trip to Japan, a place he said he fell instantly in love with.  This is an e-mail he sent out in 2006, describing Fukuoka.  His writing skills are so good (Cornell and UC Berkley paid off!), later I intend to post his impressions of Seoul!

Friends,

My first visit to Japan proved to be lovely. Though a short trip, my three days in Fukuoka were intriguing enough to lead me to consider teaching there (or at least in Japan) early next year. I plan to return for a longer trip later this year to see some of the rest of the country. Some random travel thoughts:

Fukuoka, on the southernmost island of Kyushu, north of Nagasaki, is one of the most beautiful and livable cities I have ever visited, ringed by beaches and full of green spaces and bike trails. And the bikes! The sidewalks are nearly avenue-wide in places and shared by pedestrians and hundreds of cyclists; if the Japanese weren't such polite cyclists this might be a recipe for disaster, but as it is only once or twice did I feel I might be snared between the spokes of an oncoming out-of-control bike. There were also bikes for trustworthy rent in places: simply put in a coin and take the bike away, returning it later when finished. Such a scheme, as another foreigner and I cynically but accurately discussed while standing there scratching our heads, would last a day in New York City before the bikes were gone, stripped down, repainted and sold! Fukuoka is extremely neat and clean, rivaling Singapore in my book; I saw nary a scrap of paper and very few cigarette butts. The city is, I read, making a bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, and I wish it well in its bid.

As an English teacher these past 5 years, I have had ample time to reflect on the English-as-the-global-language phenom (which is certainly real enough), but here at least, though there is certainly a great deal of English visible (road signs are bilingual, for instance, as are the subway stops, not to mention of course the ever ubiquitous advertising English- Wendy's! McDonald's! Starbuck's! Nike! Mickey Mouse!- English feels less prominent than in many other countries I've visited. That said, people were almost always willing, and at times enthusiastic, to have a go at me in English, even stopping whatever they were doing and physically escorting me to places like the subway. This was all lucky for me, since my Japanese is unfortunately limited to "sushi," "kamikaze," "sumo," and slightly more daring, "sashimi," and "miso soup." I did, though, manage to learn my first Japanese "character", the symbol for the Japanese currency, the yen.

In Thailand, if you don't speak Thai or have memorized a ready menu of dishes to order on the street (and if you feel like getting away from the tourist hotels with English menus) you can usually readily point to trays of food and eat easily and well. Or you can always make a fool of yourself (and Thais are certainly used to foreigners doing exactly that!) and point to what other people are eating. In Korea it is a little tougher, though many of the menus have pictures you can point to. But in Japan eating out has been made easiest of all: simply walk into a restaurant, put your money in a vending machine contraption, press the picture of the meal you want, and hand your ticket to the waitress. Not a word of Japanese required, though once, since the pictures are sometimes eye-squintingly small, I thought I was ordering squid and ended up with beef.

I believe I have traveled enough now to conclude that coffee shops and cafes are a truly global Asian explosion. In Fukuoka there are little coffee shops everywhere (as in Seoul and Daegu and Bangkok), and vending machine coffee is wildly popular, if not exactly high-quality. There were surprisingly very few Starbuck's, though I managed to sniff out three or four.

Taxi drivers wear starched shirts, ties, and white gloves, and their taxis are hung with little lacy curtains; just a little different than a cab you might pick up in New York!

Subway fares are around $2, which is comparable to Manhattan.

On a rainy Friday I went to a traditional Japanese onsen, or hot spring, this one in the city center, the water coming up from a 2,000 meter drill core. Fifty or sixty naked Japnese men and boys and one naked foreigner-- me-- shared the wondrous pools of steaming water and dry and wet saunas. There is a large and visible expat community in this city, and so though I got my fair share of looks (well, I was buck naked after all), I was treated most politely. I stayed about 4 hours until my body melted into the clay I think God originally made it from.

Not that it matters, but for some reason or other, Fukuoka has been the adolescent glue-sniffing capital of Japan the last 7 years running.
 

Fukuoka Tower, on the seaside and beach, looks almost exactly like the planned Freedom Tower for New York's World Trade Center site.
 

More travel news in the future! Until then I wish you all the best...Mick

Meet Aishwarya Rai

This Bollywood star is considered by some to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Here's her website and one of her movies. Have you heard of her? What do you think about her beauty? What about her makes her so lovely?

RESPONSES I GOT FROM AN E-MAIL SURVEY I SENT FRIENDS, MEN AND WOMEN, ASKING THEM WHAT THEY THINK ABOUT RAI'S BEAUTY AND WHY PEOPLE IN GENERAL WOULD FIND HER ATTRACTIVE.

So good to hear from you.  I read the article about Rai and agree 

with The author that she is very beatiful physically.  I also approve of the combination of modesty and astuteness she projects.  It seems to me that even if she goes to Hollywood, she will be different from many young actresses there because of her poise, intellect, and special ties to her family.

i do find her quite attractive.  i can't see her body but there is a lot to commend her appearance.  i like a full face, kind of "cute" if you will; i like long thick hair, her hair is very nice; her skin tone is also very beautiful, a caramel bronze color.  also, she is not too thin, i like a woman with flesh on her bones.  and her eyes are bright and round.  i've always been attracted to indian women--very beautiful features. 

interesting question...so I decided to see what several in my office thought.  I even checked with several women because I think they might be...you know,"...but I digress.  Anyway, all responders indicated that she is beautiful -- world class beautiful.  As to the question of whether she the most beautiful in the world, no one in my office was willing to make that claim.   Several thought her eye-brows were unnaturally high and that opened up her face.  Many thought she has beautiful eyes.  There is also something about her general look...she has that All American look -- athletic, hearty, etc -- even though she is from India. 

I think there’s an evolutionary explanation to beauty. What men find attractive in women is generally the features that will make them a good pick to mate with to ensure good offspring. Most of features are signs of good health, like long strong clean hair, eyes where the white is really white (that’s why they use makeup to create an illusion of that), proportional symmetrical face, tall, smooth skin, etc. Some features are similar looking to parts that are involved in intercourse, to attract males even more, for example the lips look somewhat like a vagina and breasts look somewhat like butt cheeks. Its a kind of lure that men fall for. In the case of this lady, I find her pretty beautiful, surely above average. She’ not stunningly beautiful to me, but that’s rarely the case with women who are picked out by the general population. And if a lady struggles too hard to make her looks comply with the current standards of beauty I find it boring, and that takes away impression.   I dunno Allen, beauty and women is a complicated subject, at least for me. Surely I turn around in the streets when I see a beautiful woman, but I rarely try to engage in anything with them, because I’ve found that in general these ladies have very little in common with me. I appreciate them though, they light up my life by their presence, but so does beautiful art and music. What Im trying to say is that I would never have a girlfriend only because shes beautiful. That wears off pretty fast.  

one picture is not enough, need to see her from more ngles. plus, 

no idea what is she like in person, that is deciding in my opionion. so, need more info... 

Notice that she has universal traits. She could be any race dude. 

Wow. I'd hit it. ;) 

She gets my vote until the next one comes along. 

To me she's nothing to write home about based on what I see in the pic, for essentially two reasons. For one thing, while her face is certainly nothing to complain about, it's the least important part to me of a woman's body. I look more at T, A, and legs, especially the legs. I'd also prefer that she have Red, Black, or Blonde hair.  That said, how important is beauty anyway? An actor or actress needs to be able to behave like the character in every little move but most people could be made up and costumed to fit any role that is right their body size. And people that pick spouses based on attractiveness often find that as they and their mate age they become less attractive. 

It is an interesting assignment and I thought a long time how best 

to express my opinion about this 'beautiful' face. I would assume that with your knowledge of Thailand and her girls/women you don't honestly think that this face in question is really beautiful. In one BTS carriage you would find a dozen better and more interesting faces than this Indian one. Her face looks empty, it is a made-up face which would be suitable to advertise Nivea lotion but no more. Nothing comes over from this face. It doesn't cause a "wow" when you look at it. there is nothing characteristic about it. Even in Nana Plaza do you find "wow" faces (they might not necessarily be female of course. I admit, Indian ideas what is beautiful are different to Western ideas. the jury could have easily been made up of an Indian majority. this is how she got into the headlines. 

I don't think she is that attractive, or at least in a way that s

he would be "the prettiest girl in the world." On Aisywra Rai -I think people find her exotic and she has a very kind and innocent look -a tenderness that is appealing.  

personally, i think Rai is an absolute knockout and indeed one of the most beautiful women in the world!  "REAL" is an excellent term to describe her (as seen in the interview). she has a great figure, perfect teeth, gorgeous flawless skin, sparkling eyes and a dazzling smile; she doesn't seem airbrushed or fake...her hair is not colored and she doesn't appear to be a victim of plastic surgery or botox. she says looks will fade with age and she is okay with that...i respect the fact that she appears in indian films and is a bollywood goddess but does not take her clothes off and sell herself as a sex object.  i enjoyed the article and have seen her before on some "E" gorgeous person or beautiful body special and i agree...she is amazing!!!

The Universal Science Of Being Beautiful