Travel
weekly photo challenge: gone but not forgotten
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is dedicated to the first city in the world to experience a nuclear attack.
As with all memorials, it serves as a reminder. Although all those lives are gone, they are not forgotten. The war is also gone, but will not be forgotten.
Towards the centre of the park is a monument that holds the names of all the people killed by the bomb.
The monument is aligned in such a way that when we look through the arch, we see the Peace Flame and theHiroshima Peace Memorial (i.e. Genbaku Dome or A-Bomb Dome).
The dome marks where the first atomic bomb exploded on the morning of August 6, 1945. It is the skeleton of the actual building that was there that day. What we see is what remained and has been preserved.
See the Weekly Photo Challenge for other bloggers’ interpretation of gone, but not forgotten.
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the day we went to pamukkale
The turquoise water in the white pools of Pamukkale has always been a major drawcard for us to visit Turkey. The travertine pools and terraces always looked so magical. We knew we had to see them.
The day we visited, the temperature was well into the 30s (Celsius). The glare of the sun was blinding as it bounced of the limestone and the heat was staggering.
In our haste to take photos and begin exploring the site, we were not concentrating on where we were walking and both stepped into a muddy, sludgy spot along the boardwalk. We probably don’t need to describe much more because everyone should know what thongs (i.e. flip-flops) in mud equals, right? An impeding ungraceful flailing of arms to steady ourselves; Le grabbing onto David, David almost losing his balance and then so forth and so forth. A scene from a black and white Charlie Chaplin film comes straight to mind as to how we must’ve looked.
After what felt like a lifetime of erratic arm movements to steady ourselves, but probably only 20 seconds in reality, we escape the mud traps. Only to then have to walk along a wooden boardwalk with what felt like glue on the soles of our feet!
Off came the footwear as we made a beeline for the travertine pools. It was a welcome relief to be able to dip our feet.
Wading through knee-deep hot spring water felt simply refreshing until we almost slip on the uneven, slimy floor of the pools. Looking around, we felt like the two most uncoordinated people on land and now in water. It didn’t bother us…. On we walked through pool after pool.
We gave up on photographing by this stage because the entire experience had become “awkward” to say the least. Us juggling our hat, sunglasses and our backpack while we tried to stay upright would just end up with our big camera going for an unwanted dip in the hot springs. It was from this experience we decided to get ourselves a really awesome compact camera for these type of situations.
The experience was slightly less magical than we envisaged but we still enjoyed our time at Pamukkale and were glad to have visited. Although the pictures we captured are hardly anything like other photos we’ve seen…. We hope the ones we have shared can give a little bit of insight into the beauty that is Pamukkale.
If you ever visit Pamukkale, there is also a swimming pool (with entrance fee) where you can swim among ancient ruins. We didn’t take any photos to share as that might’ve been a little creepy for the fellow pool-goers.
Wise Monkeys Trivia: Pamukkale translates to “cotton castle” and has an ancient city called Hierapolis built just above it.
Hierapolis-Pamukkale was listed as a
UNESCO Heritage site in 1988.
To see the other UNESCO sites we have visited,
visit our unofficial bucket list
As with all our posts, we welcome your comments and thoughts.
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how we spent 24 hours in rio
The sweet smell of warm air and the clear blue sky letting the glorious sun shine down on us – Rio, we love you already! This marks officially our second summer for 2014 (even though it was June and technically still winter in Brazil).
With only 24 hours in Rio, we had to be prepared. Glad to be in our shorts, despite shivering when we left Curitiba in the early hours, we threw off our jackets, pulled out our Havianas from the backpack and slapped those to our feet.
Our two weeks in Brazil was predominantly made up of football so on the day we were flying out, we had a full day in Rio to be “tourists”.
Other than probably waiting in queues for about 3-4 of those hours AND sitting in traffic, gondolas and furniculars for another 2 hours or so. This is how we spent, it actually seeing a few main sights of Rio de Janeiro.
Sugarloaf Mountain
It got its name from a direct Portuguese translation. The mountain looked like a sugarloaf mould…. To get atop Sugarloaf, it requires two cable cars. From the ticket booth, we could get a clear view of the mountain. Great to look at but it is the view from the top that is worth waiting for!
Copacabana Beach
A beach of that size is just begging to be enjoyed. There was samba music playing, there was people cheering, there was people blowing horns and whistles. Everything is happening – you name it, we saw it! There are vendors selling hats, bags, souvenirs and food (sandwiches from cooler bags, coconut drinks and prawns on skewers). There are bodies littering the beach, sunbathing or building sandcastles, swimming, playing beach soccer or beach volleyball. Everyone wearing not much, we were possibly the two most overdressed on the beach. We are not big on beaches but Copacabana alone has made us want to come back to Rio!
Christ the Redeemer
We were at Corcovado in the late afternoon. Our tickets for the furnicular were to be at the top by sunset. But thanks to the crowd numbers, we were delayed and so missed seeing Rio during the day and at night which is what we had hoped for. Oh well, we will just have to come back again and see it for ourselves during the day. Not that the views at night was a problem. Far from it…..
A furnicular ride, an elevator ride and 2 escalator rides later, we see the ONE thing that we wanted to see in Rio: the statue of Christ, illuminated at night. What hits us first is the size of it…. Our eyes start at the base of the statue and work up and up and up. Craning our necks, we finally see his outstretched arms. And yes, it does bring a tear to our eyes.
What a magnificent way to end our time in Brazil; standing above Rio at the feet of Jesus! The place is teeming with tourists but we take the time to look out into the city’s lights below and just reflect on how lucky we are to have made it here, to experience one of David’s biggest dreams ever and to see one of the world’s most renowned monuments.
Admittedly, the three things we saw were touristy but all three provided an experience that was unique and memorable to us in their own way! The added World Cup football fever may have also contributed to the atmosphere and the vibe of the city. And we know one thing is for certain, Brazil, you will be seeing us again!
Have you been to Rio de Janeiro?
Share your experiences.
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weekly photo challenge: converge
Today, we share a photo of an outdoor fish market on the island of Santa Cruz, one of the Galapagos Islands.
Where the pelicans converge for any fish that might be up for grabs.
How has everyone else interpreted converge? See here for more!
Can you see the sneaky sea lion?
Hope you all have a terrific weekend!
Tell us what you think of our choice for the theme this week.
wise monkeys abroad 