Must-see destinations
By S. RAMACHANDER The Hindu Magazine | July 17, 2005 http://www.hindu.com/mag/2005/07/17/stories/2005071700350800.htm International travel writer and photographer Steve Davey selects 40 of his favourite places. THE typical book reviewer tends to treat the illustrated coffee table tomes as not quite in the same class as the verbal narrative. Here is a book that challenges and bridges that divide, and introduces you to the 40 most "unforgettable places to see before you die" on the planet. True, it is still largely a visual delight, full of brilliant and unusual pictures, but the words too are well chosen, used economically and to good effect. It is a rich collection of stunning views: of some known places and many far less known miracles and wonders of the world. Within about five pages to a place, it also contains a description, some history, what is remarkable about it, and why it was chosen, besides chatty tips to help the traveller enjoy the site to the fullest on how to get there, what to see, and what to look out for and not miss. Some locations select themselves, the Taj Mahal, the view of the Himalayas from Nepal, the Grand Canyon, Ayer's Rock in the heart of the great Australian outback, the 3,500-year-old monumental treasures of Luxor, in Egypt and Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The author and his teammate have deliberately chosen some spots that might not immediately spring to the tourist mind, and have gone after fresh perspectives of even well recognised ones. For example the author holds that the best view of the Taj, free of the teeming backpacker crowds, is from the opposite bank of the Yamuna, through the morning mist. And there's a picture to prove it. The ghats of Benares, for instance, are shown along with the tale of 4,000 years of continuous habitation, making it one of the oldest cities in the world. Similarly the Jaisalmer Fort is preferred over the more famous ones such as Jodhpur, because it is probably the only remaining example of a self-contained, fully functioning walled city and a part of an ancient trade route to Arabia. The desert colours and the extraordinary carvings and palaces are beautifully captured. The more modern Western cities get little space and only the unique physical qualities and architecture of Venice and the vibrant energy of the New World in Manhattan manage to get them a look in. St. Petersburg, especially the Winter Palace, scores for its durability and royal grandeur despite the tortuous process of getting a visa and the bone-chilling Russian winter. Nuggets of information To many readers, however, the finest discoveries of the book would be priceless nuggets of information about the marvels of nature and antiquity. Just to list them is awe inspiring. Straddling the Brazil-Argentina border is the Iguassu Falls, a range of cataracts that could be the most perfectly designed in the world. Far larger in sweep than the more famous Niagara, it offers the visitor several alternative views at different heights and on both sides of the border. Want to see the oldest extant rainforest in the world? Go to Taman Negara in Malaysia, a mere three-hour drive from Kuala Lumpur, a 130-million-year-old wonder which is still so alive that its canopy can shut out the sun and give the hiker an eerie sense of being amongst "verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways"! The Ngorongoro crater in Tanzania is the world's largest remains of a volcano, a hollow so vast that from the towering 600-metres high rim, what you see as crawling ant-like creatures on the floor of the crater are full grown wild buffaloes. It is a wildlife theatre more than 20-kilometres across, and houses a breed of inbred lions that have never climbed out as well as other species that keep going up and down the steep sides routinely. The changing hues of land and mountain and sky are vividly seen in the pictures. Across the Atlantic, in the border between Peru and Bolivia is the world's largest and highest (4,300 metres) freshwater lake, with its stunning shades of intense blue. Immense by any reckoning, stretching more than 300 km in length and 50 km wide, it has inhabited islands still populated by people who lead a life no different from what it was long before the Europeans came to the New World. The breathtaking architecture at Machu Picchu in Peru, at impossibly remote heights, leaves one wondering how human imagination could have dared try precision and geometry of that order 700 years ago. With every scene, we learn something that makes it special a unique combination of age, history, geography, culture, beauty and grandeur. In an era of unprecedented worldwide travel by a new class, thanks to falling airfares and vaulting aspirations, a book like this will not just be of academic interest to many; it could inspire some to itineraries off the beaten track. -- This is ZESTGlobal. Post articles on international affairs to [email protected] If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTGlobal by sending a blank mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/join/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
