kokoryko's VirtualTourist Home Page
| Page Views: 24,308 | Look, listen, smell, feel, taste. . . . . . . by kokoryko - last update: Nov 7, 2009  |
Kalaa Rahu is watching you. . . . Galaxies of "Welcome!" dear visitor! Please, (bitte, s'il vous plait, por favor, silahkan, pojalusta, per favore, etc., etc., etc. . . . . ) come in, and see a bit of my travel(s) world I am glad to share with you.
Travels in this world where I Look, listen, smell, feel, taste. . . . . . .discover! A matter of senses. In this world are oceans and continents, mountains and cities, people and nature, history and art, it is just a wonderful world! Wonders of world? Most beautiful buildings? Ugliest monuments? Heritage? Must see? Must do?
The places I want to discover before returning to the galaxies are not on any long list; they are far from crowds, they are my personal heritage places, my personal must see wonders, and many, I do not even know yet! I will just discover. . . . . . .
I do not like a lot to plan my trips, even hikes in remote places or treks in high mountain, just what I feel I need . . . . . Is risk unconsciousness, stupidity? No, it is just the mood to go, like this song expresses: Partir (R. Charlebois)
Along paths and whilst time flows, I will add here below links to common or less common places I visited recently and (or) wrote a few words about.
Yogyakarta is the second visited place of Indonesia, after Bali, with its Sultan’s Palace, the famous Malioboro street, the water castle, the Javanese handicrafts . . . . , and there are still places barely visited by the tourist on a hurry, like a very poetic underwater mosque, full of legends, small back streets with wonderful people, a strange museum, wonderful food, . . . . I enjoyed my (too) short stay there.
I find it is a pity that Paris attracts the tourists like a magnet attracts the iron filings; I try sometimes to escape that magnetic field and visit less touristy places where history and art also add to the pleasure of discovery, and there are places like Conflans Ste Honorine which are just special local life examples I like so much! There is more and more to come. . . . .
Are you sure you know your planet? After a visit in Potsdam, you may want to discover more, in a different way, of this strange object travelling in space and time. . . . .
Krishna, Ganesh, Kalaa, Vishnu, Allah, Jesus, Buddha, . . . . all religions are represented in Jakarta, and I was quite surprised to “meet” the messenger of the Greek pantheon here, even in a museum !
I should have done this since long time: not the world most known cathedral, but a really beautiful one, a great "brothel painter" from the end 19th century, a great navigator coming from far inland, the red city of Albi has all this and also some jewels you will find off the beaten paths. . . . So I share a few views on this city which deserves more than my modest page.
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| Morning wash on the shore of Danau Toba |
|  | My wonder of world number one. In this world are people, their richness is not to be seen at the thickness of their wallets, their richness is in their look, their smile, their words, their heart when they welcome their visitor, or help the traveller on the road or trail. Where ever on this planet, don't keep in the air conditioned bus or behind the barbed wires of your luxury resort, go out and meet people! Even silent, they tell us a lot, be it on the construction places of Beijing, or on the slopes of an Indonesian volcano. People greet you, show they are happy to meet you, express it in their way, like here, in Hanoi, share a visit in a holy place and offer you just their beauty like in Delhi. The very first and real wonders of the world are people! |
Second wonder: my mountains Far from the cities and their hectic bustle are the high trails on the mountains; power and beauty of nature, rediscovering it each morning during a trek like here in the Wyoming Wind River Range; long solitary treks in the Pyrénées, day hikes in the Alps, road trips in the Canadian Rockies, they all show the nature at its best, the landscapes, the flowers, the wind, ice and snow. . . . just real nature. | | | Monte Perdido and Cylindro de Marbore, Pyrenees |
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| Takla Makan Desert, China |
| | Third wonder: Nature, again and again The nature, again, and again; the overwhelming power of nature has its best expression in the rain forests, the deep forests of Africa, for instance; but the deserts of North Africa or Central Asia also express the power of nature and show us how little insignificant beings we are; I spent few weeks in the Sahara, like in Hassi Bel Guebbour or just a day in the real Takla Makan Desert; the time of entering the desert and exploring it with a vehicle has gone. . . . . next desert will be with public transportation and my shoes only! |
Fourth wonder: history and culture During centuries people created, invented, built, painted, sculpted, wrote, . . . . and also they erased, destroyed, killed, locked in prison. . . . . Visiting cities, see the street perspectives, looking at the ordinary houses or great architectural marvels, entering the museums which tell the local history, or museums displaying universal art or science, walking randomly in the streets, take a small boat to have other views and perspectives. . . . Everywhere on the planet people left their traces, display them; you find strange museums like in Nay, a modest village at the feet of the Pyrrénées, or some of the most beautiful museums of the planet like the MNHN, in Paris where you learn to understand laws of nature. . . . . Cultural museums are places to visit, everywhere they are, the great ones, like the Middle Age museum of Cluny, in Paris, but also the tiny museum villages have something to tell, like South Pass, in the Wyoming mountains.
Of course, in places laden with history, you make a long stop at marvels like in front of Sher Dor Madrassa, in Samarqand, and strange cities in the desert, like Ghardaia offer extraordinary vistas with their unusual architecture.
People make wonderful things! | | | Simple geometries and delicate red: rhodochrosite |
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| Frahan village and meander, Ardennes (Belgium) |
| | Fifth wonder: country side, And just ordinary countryside? There are so many things to look at and discover in places we pass by, usually without a look. . . . . I love the rural areas, a few trees, cows in a field, a small shrine at a road crossing, the forests with their treasures. . . . .
In the country where I live, the low mountains offer so much to the hiker, like in the Monts du Forez where life is just so quiet. In the country sides, you discover many local customs, like here cow swerve in Aquitaine villages. Looking at rural areas during travels, sitting in the car, walking in the countryside, discovering villages, being surprised or amazed by people, it is something which makes me love travels, being welcomed in a village of Rajasthan, and in Vietnam small cities; there is some fun with locals, sometimes. . . |
Sixth wonder: unbeaten paths I make also some very private travels, very personal, like many other, probably; going to look at some old rocks, in a special place has a very big lot of sense for me; sometimes there are wonderful and moving discoveries where you don't expect them, just simple surprises! I like the paths far from the crowds, I like to walk, walk a lot and more and more with time. . . Walking like Rimbaud, who, before travelling to Abyssinia, and meet his fate, walked a lot in Europe, just like that:Par les soirs bleus d'été, j'irai dans les sentiers
Picoté par les blés, fouler l'herbe menue
Rêveur, . . . . .
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| Heart or brain? (Mitoraj) |
| | Seventh wonder: Kokoryko, of course! Hahaha! No! I am not a wonder, just part of a wonder, a 1/6.705.000.000th part of the wonder called humanity. Well, the guy who writes here and shows his photographs in this exciting VTwebsite, sharing with this extraordinary VTcommunity, is not important; important are the places he visits, the people he meets.
Just a guy who likes to travel, who travels virtually, who travels really, nothing more; who loves the bustling hectic streets of the cities, but avoids organised herds, who walks far from big (including VT-) gatherings and meetings, who does not feel the need to dye his wool with artificial black pigments and, who simply has his own way to discover the world, like many here on VT.
Forget about me, and go out! Visit the world . . . . .
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 Comments for kokoryko | | | | |
lynnehamman Sat Nov 7, 2009 22:15 UTC
Thanks for visiting Mumbai Hermann. Oh yes- I read Moors Last Sigh- a wonderful book, Am a great Rushdie fan. Midnite's Children my fav book. | sayduvar Wed Nov 4, 2009 21:26 UTC
it is a wonderfull morning in yr balcony and you have a nice page.greetings from istanbul sayduvar | a2lopes Mon Nov 2, 2009 21:43 UTC
Let me know when you come Hermann and I can help you on your "what to do" list. Greetings from Lisbon | yumyum Mon Nov 2, 2009 21:38 UTC
Thanks Hermann :)) |
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