The Travel Bug…

Courtesy of hubimg.com

I read words of travel lore and desire today that were so very true. They reminded me of many travel moments, my battered suitcases piled on the sidewalk, where I knew I had longer ways to go without the means. But I thought no matter, the road is life and I’ll get there eventually…

Like you, my dear reader, I’m no stranger to the grip of the adventurous spirit, it tugs and gnaws at you from all angles, and although you may resist for a time it is still there lurking in the shadows of your reality. It tends to strike you at random moments; in the middle of the night, stuck in a traffic jam, munching away gazing into the middle distance, and in any other number of weird and wonderful configurations of reality.

I say, whether it be the next suburb or the next continent, take advantage when the travel bug strikes–venture forth into obscurity! Regulate your imagination by your traveled reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, see them as they are! The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page…

“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang

Jusqu’à la prochaine fois que nous rencontrons…
Cedric

Chelsea Hotel: A Bizarre Tableaux of Souls – New York, USA

The Los Angeles Times describes the Chelsea Hotel as “A collection of bizarre tableaux–aging actresses, bathroom high jinks, ghosts and tricksters. It is full of affection for a passing era. Surrounded by creeping gentrification, the Chelsea may not long remain affordable to the kinds of characters that once frequented its walls”

Constructed in 1883 as an apartment cooperative, the Chelsea commenced operations in 1905 as a residential hotel for theater notables and in the decades since has functioned as both a hospitable longtime residence and way station for writers, musicians, actors and artists. Onetime proprietor Stanley Bard, an eccentric supporter of the arts since the 1970′s was the personality behind this nostalgic hub of creativity and intellectual space.

Countless works of art adorn it’s walls and have been produced within it’s rooms such as: William Burroughs’s Naked Lunch, Sir Arthur C. Clarkes 2001: A Space Odyssey and Kerouac’s on the road to name a few. Tenants that have resided there include: Dylan Thomas, William Burroughs’s, Ethan Hawke, Jimi Hendrix, Stanley Kubrick, Jean-Paul Sartre, Kerouac, Madonna, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Arthur C. Clarke, Sid Vicious, and the list goes on and on…

While residing at the Chelsea, poets Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, and Martin Matz adopted it as a base for ideological and reflective conversation. It is also well-known as the place where writer Dylan Thomas was staying when he passed away of alcohol intoxication on November 9, 1953, and where Nancy Spungen, (girlfriend of Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols) was discovered stabbed to death on October 12, 1978.

With bohemian mystique, dripping with tales of an enthralled fantasia of high times, the Chelsea’s notoriety all but consumes itself with the portrayals of unique individuals. If you’re looking for a nexus of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll, then the infamous Manhattan landmark and artist hangout Hotel Chelsea on West 23rd Street, would be right up your alley.

You will certainly learn about some of the darkly humorous and often tragic stories that happened there. The Hotel Chelsea is a testament to the creative spirit and treasured both as a birth place of creative modern art and by tragedy.

For a closer look visit their website at http://www.hotelchelsea.com

By Cedric Jean

Socotra Island, Yemen: Straight From The Mind Of Dr Seuss Or Dali!

Have you ever had one of those dreams where you were trapped in a Salvador Dali painting or lost in space on an alien planet? I bet you woke up with a mild sweat, or for those brave ‘dreamanaughts’ out there, you may have awakened with a piece of nostalgia wishing you could be there again…

Well your wish or your worst nightmare has come true…

Welcome to Socotra Island, Yemen, where you will find dragons blood, elephant leg desert roses, flying saucer trees, bucha triffids, and cucumber trees.

Approximately 200 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen, and roughly 130 off the coast of Somalia, like a lilliputian, gleaming tooth in the yawing mouth of the Gulf of Aden, floats the fabled island of Socotra  (Island of Bliss in Sanscrit), one of the most peculiar, isolated places on earth. It’s also among the most challenging to get to with two yearly monsoons (June-October and April-May), no natural harbor and a booming offshore piracy business. The climate is brutal, hot and parched, with broad sandy beaches that climb up to limestone tablelands brimming with caves and mountains upward of 1500 meters in height.

It has been titled the Galapagos Islands of the Indian Ocean, and one of The Most Alien Landscapes on Earth. Something like a cross between a Dr Seuss book and the mind of Salvador Dali, Socotra Islands unearthly alien flora deconstructs any notion about what is regarded as “normal” for a landscape on Earth. It’s a place you have to see to believe. If you were marooned here or cast onto the island as part of a practical joke you wouldn’t be alone in thinking that you had been abducted by aliens or taken back in time to the Jurassic period.

Now classified as an International Biosphere Reserve, the island has been geographically insulated from mainland Africa for the past 6 or 7 million years. It is abundant with 700 exceedingly rare species of plant life (of which a third are found nowhere else on Earth–some up to 20 million years old) 140 species of birds and countless additional weird and extraordinary creatures.

Socotra Island is also a location drenched in myths and legends and the ancient source of frankincense, myrrh, ambergris, and dragon’s blood. Apparently Thomas the Apostle was alleged to have been shipwrecked here (first century AD), Sinbad the sailor (The Arabian Nights) is said to have been attacked by mythical birds of prey spawned from the island, and Marco Polo was charmed to the island by corsairs who in his own words were “the most skilful enchanters in the world”

There are about 40,000 inhabitants (blond people who are apparently descendants of Alexander the Great), but because the island is a UNESCO, World Natural Heritage Site, there are no beach-side hotels as it is geared towards eco-tourism and nurturing the local economy and way of life. For diving enthusiasts, there is an unequaled aquatic landscape of submerged vessels ready to be explored.

For more information take a look at the www.socotraislandadventure.com website and prepare to be amazed!

By Cedric Jean

The Churches Of Lalibela: Built By Kings, Templars or Angels?

Lalibela is an ancient African metropolis sculpted from a fable – a mediaeval village in the Lasta region of wollo–the ancestral site of king Lalibela (12th or early 13th century).

Located in the highlands of northwest Ethiopia at approximately 9,000 feet above sea level in the Lasta Mountains rests possibly the most impressive collection of structures and architecture in Africa. Situated high in the mountains lie eleven 1000 year old red volcanic rock-hewn churches of tremendous dimensions sculpted from the top down. No stone, plaster or other materials were used. Considered among the wonders of the ancient world, they’ll leave you dumb with amazement.

No one really knows who constructed these impressive structures. Some say that King Lalibela (1181 – 1221), who was exiled to Jerusalem by his jealous stepbrother, was so astounded at what he discovered in Jerusalem that he came back defeated his brother in battle and decided to establish a new Jerusalem in Lalibela.

Another account suggests Lalibela was built by angels armed with masonry tools, yet another describes a group of Knights Templars who built it to found another dynasty away from the oppression of Europe.

Whoever built the churches and why will rapidly vanish from your mind when you enter the giddy maze of tunnels and gloomy tapering passages with grottos and creepy crypts, courtyards, caverns, and splendid galleries which link all of them.

To comprehend the sheer scale and work involved in constructing these churches can only be realised in person–it is estimated that 40,000 people would be needed…

It will probably take you a whole day to explore them all, but well worth the time. Avoid unlicensed guides! Authorised guides can be found at the tourist office in Lalibela for 150 birr per day. The guides are well educated and have very good knowledge about the churches and reputable relationships with the priests.

The churches are open from 9am to 5pm with a short break from 1pm till 2pm . For more information you can visit the Tourism in Ethiopia for Sustainable Future Alternatives (TESFA) website at www.community-tourism-ethiopia.com

By Cedric Jean

The Hanging Temple Of Xuan Kong Si—Datong, China

Images courtesy of Oddity Central and Atlas Obscura

The reward for any walker making the calf-breaking ascent along the twisting footpath dangling over a sheer precipice of Mount Heng, Shanxi province, China, is the view across the verdant landscape to the Shanxi gorge and the 40 chambers in the building itself, linked through a network of passageways.

However, what’s even more startling are the Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian elements of this 1500 year old temple that according to legend was built by one man, a monk named Liao Ran, at the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534AD).

The Hanging Temple, in China’s Shanxi Province approximately 500km south west of Beijing, must be–in my books at least–one of the shakiest of any similar structure of it’s type on the planet. Endless wooden beams reach out from the outward edge of the Xuan Kong Si structures descending into holes chiseled into the stone. One effective boot to the building could potentially send the entire complex toppling 75 meters into the valley below, yet I’ve been told that it is super safe–one thousand five hundred years can testify to this.

Contemporary engineers from around the globe have come in droves to analyse the Hanging Temple’s unusual architectural dimensions. After careful study they have determined that crossbeams tucked into the rock, both at the building’s foundation to the peak of the clay roof, are crucial to preventing the Hanging Temple from falling. This unique design also incorporates the solid rock mountain face into it’s design, working as a sort of pressure cap keeping the temple in position.

The temple’s remote location was selected by its Taoist builders for a single purpose–serenity. The Taoist priests were a reflective bunch who didn’t want the hustle and bustle of everyday living intruding into their meditative practice and spiritual pursuits. Today hundreds of people visit the temple every day during peak times, a fact that the ancient monks of the Wei dynasty would not be too happy about. For a glimpse of the temple’s meditative environment and exquisite eastern beauty, and for more information visit China Travel. Also make sure you’re at the entrance by 8.30am before the tourist charge.

By Cedric Jean

Relax After a ‘Draining’ Day: Das Park Pipe Hotel–Linz Austria

When I was a boy I always had this fascination of going into one of those huge drainage pipes, you know the ones found on construction sites, under freeways, or jutting onto beach’s. The attraction had always been drenched with scenes of bogey men and strange monsters lurking in the shadows, and so I never really had the guts to venture into those depths–the fear of the unknown.

Now a little (a lot) older, and a trifle wiser, those childhood memories have long been forgotten and less laden with fiction–until now. You can imagine my pubescent excitement resurfacing, when I discovered the Das Park Hotel and it’s elegant pipe rooms.

Constructed in 2004 by Andreas Strauss, the first rooms were offered in Linz, Austria, and are now available in nearby Ottensheim. This unique hotel has been designed to use regular concrete drainage pipe sections each weighing 9,5 tonnes–so they are unlikely to roll away. The wonderful thing about these pipes is that their concrete functional shell requires little modification to make them liveable. Because of their cave-like environment, Das Park Hotel is pretty cool in summer, and stay’s warm in winter. The hotel is only open from May to October.

Facilities are elegantly spartan – a double bed, blanket, cotton sleeping bag, single power point, light, and wall paintings by Austrian artist Thomas Latzel Ochoa. Rooms are extremely safe and can only be accessed by a digital keypad, supplied by the auto-service website when you book. The toilet and showers are a a few minutes walk from the area.

COST: There’s no determined pricing because each room is payable by donation, so make sure you check-out the hotel website for current availability.

LOCATION: Strauss @ Hohenrausch, 29.05 – 31.10.09 OK Offenes Kulturhaus, Linz – Oberosterreich, Austria.

So next time those child hood memories creep up on you, and you happen to be in Linz, Austria, make sure you visit Das Park Pipe hotel. You never know what you could find lurking in the shadows…

By Cedric Jean

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea: Jules Undersea Lodge – Key Largo, Florida.

If you’re afraid to get wet behind the ears then this underwater hotel is probably not for you; however, if a Jules Verne type Poseidon adventure is your thing you’ll love this little gem under the sea.

When guests visit the Jules Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, Florida, some are goggle-eyed that a scuba dive of approximately 21 feet below the surface of the ocean–is required. Nevertheless, most aspiring Jaques Cousteu want-to-be’s take the plunge and dive into the warm cat valium lagoon, where Nemo inspired schools of rainbow coloured parrotfish and the occassional boot (sic) drift lazily by. As you swim past majestic  table coral and bizzare brain coral, it feels as if you’ve visited an alien planet. Once you get to the hatchway in the underside of the hotel, it is as if you’ve discovered a secret underwater James bond lair.

The hotel is run by Aquanaut, explorer, author and marine consultant Ian Koblick, and has been featured on “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous”, in “Sports Illustrated Swim Suit Issue”, in countless magazines and newspapers, and on every major television network in the world*. Originally an aquatic research lab in the 1970s, called La Chalupa, it was formerly the world’s most advanced research habitat.

When you finally peel off your wet-skin and reach the safety of the central wet room, you are surrounded by a common room and two fully equipped hotel rooms. The principal feature of each room is the prominent, 106 cm (42 inch) circular window that looks out into the Florida sea. Gazing out into the crystalline blue, it’s not hard to imagine what a submariner might feel as reef fish dart before your very eyes. The mangrove lagoon in which Jules is situated is a biological marvel teeming with reef fish. Butterfly fish, Caribbean reef squid, manta rays, parrotfish, barracuda, snappers and grunts peep in the windows and doo of your room, while starfish, molluscs, anemones, sponges, oysters and sea urchins blanket every inch of this underwater cosmos.

And to wet your appetite, your stay includes a seafood gourmet dinner prepared by a “mer-chef” and breakfast in the morning. Your stay also includes all dive gear (with the option of earning yourself a PADI or NAUI certification), and guests may spend multiple days underwater without surfacing. There is really nothing that comes close to the feeling of being totally submerged by the majestic ocean alive with life and splashes of colour–Jules’ Undersea Lodge certainly manages to reach a perfect balance of relaxation and adventure…

For more information visit the Jules Undersea Lodge website.
*Taken from the www.jul.com about page.

By Cedric Jean