Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, Japan, is a worthy finalist in the New 7 Wonders nominations and world-renowned as one of Asia’s great cultural heritage sites, but there is another less grandiose yet equally significant cultural venue that has Intrepid travellers hooked, as group leader Aaron Davis explains…
“Tsukiji fish market is a wonder. This extraordinary pre-dawn fish trading frenzy becomes even more of a wonder each time I visit and the statistics are astounding:
The general consensus is that ancient Greek historians compiled the original list of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, and of that list the only surviving man-made wonders are the Pyramids of Egypt.
The Great Pyramids narrowly missed making the New 7 Wonders list, but now standing tall amongst the top 7 is Petra’s 42-metre-high Hellenistic temple facade. These wonders had been on the must-see list of Express reader Rachael Wellington for too long, so finally the opportunity arose to explore them firsthand…
“On a recent trip to the Middle East, I was able to visit to visit both the Pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt and the remarkable Palace Tombs of Petra in Jordan – wonders of the world that had been on my to-do list for way too long!
At first glance Russian looks like the most impossible language to pronounce. There are lots of Cyrillic letters that appear strange to English speakers, like the ones that look like backwards ‘R’ and ‘N’ and the letter that resembles a spider.
In most languages the easiest word of all to say is “hello”, but in Russian even when the word is written in latin letters it still looks intimidating: zdravstvuyte! Don’t let that put you off – Russia and Russian might seem tricky at first, but as Intrepid’s Tara Kennaway explains, you’ll get the hang of it and then there’s so much to enjoy…
“Travelling on the Russia and Beyond trip, our Russian leader Masha helped us to get our minds and tongues around a few of the basics. Her technique for teaching us to read the Cyrillic alphabet had our train carriage attendant a bit nonplussed however – she used a whiteboard marker to write on the train windows! By the time we had crossed into Siberia I thought I was doing pretty well. That was until I asked the name of the little village where we would be staying on Lake Baikal. Instead of answering she wrote it and had us try to read it out loud: Bolshoye Goloustnoye.
Europe has so many stand-out destinations when it comes to buying a traditional gift: Germany for cuckoo clocks and beer steins, Italy for leather, Belgium for chocolates and Switzerland for army knives (and chocolate!). But here’s a tip from Intrepid’s resident Europe expert, Cassandra Wallace, about where else to buy that special something…
“My favourite place to go souvenir shopping and to stock up on gifts for Mum and Dad is Venice. Venetian masks are everywhere. Shops are filled with exquisitely decorated masks with feathers, fine paintings or glitter and there is bound to be one that suits you. (more…)
