Category: Travel

Skyscrapers of Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
November 20/21, 2014

Boat rower

Our boat rower sang a beautiful Vietnamese song, but stopped every time I pointed my camera at her.

Ha Long Bay in northeast Vietnam is one of the 7 New Natural Wonders of the world. 1,600 spectacular islands and islets, known as drowned karst landscape, pierce the bay like gray skyscrapers. Karst is formed by erosion of soluble rocks such as limestone, gypsum and dolomite. 20 million years of fluctuating seas and tropical climate have geomorphed the 150 to 300 foot limestone towers into a network of impressive caves, notches and arches.

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How to Chew Betel Nuts

Sumba Island, Indonesia 1996

Sumba Island is one of those rare places where they practice megalithic (monolithic) burials. Prominent villagers are buried under huge rocks in the middle of the village to blur the line between life and death.

We needed permission from the village chief to visit Sumba, so our guide took us shopping for gifts. Cigarettes and betel nuts were the chief’s favorites. I noticed small bloody puddles of what looked like broken teeth and gums on the sidewalks. It turned out that one use for Betel Nut is to stimulate the flow of saliva to aid digestion.

Betel nuts have been around since the 1st century A.D. and are used like caffeine for alertness, increased stamina and euphoria. Medicinal uses include to expel phlegm, kill worms, for purification, and as an aphrodisiac. David gets a lesson on how to chew Betel Nut in this video.




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