because you value your soul » World

One of my friends is going to China to work in 5 days time. Although he is a Chinese, he cannot really speak Mandarin. So I imagined myself going to China and thinking of how it would be like for me to communicate with the locals. I believe that it would be pretty troublesome if I didn’t even know some of the common words. It applies to travelers in foreign countries. Learning at least these 16 common English words in another language would certainly make things easier for the travelers. Not everyone speaks English.

Anyways, here’s the super cool site that has the 16 commonly used English words translated into all the world’s languages. It’s very useful when you know at least how to say ‘thank you’ or ‘hello’. Locals may find you amusing and give you special treatment.

Here are the 16 polite words that comes in handy.

Cheers!
Excuse Me
Good Afternoon
Good Evening
Good Morning
Good Night
Goodbye
Hello
I do not understand
Nice to meet you
No
Please
Thank you
Thank you very much
Yes
You’re welcome

I know how to say ‘Good Morning’ in a few foreign languages like bonjour (French), o hayou gozaimasu (Japanese), selamat pagi (Malaysian) and cho san (Cantonese).

English To Local Languages
Be polite when traveling

The Result For Getting ‘F’ in English

Chris — Tue, 01 May 2007 08:18:07 +0000

In a Tokyo Hotel:
Is forbidden to steal hotel towels please. If you are not a
person to do such thing is please not to read notis.

In a Bucharest hotel lobby:
The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we
regret that you will be unbearable.

In a Leipzig elevator:
Do not enter the lift backwards, and only when lit up.

In a Belgrade hotel elevator:
To move the cabin, push button for wishing floor. If the cabin
should enter more persons, each one should press a number of
wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by
national order.

In a Paris hotel elevator:
Please leave your values at the front desk.

In a hotel in Athens:

Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the
hours of 9 and 11 A.M. daily.

In a Yugoslavian hotel:
The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the
chambermaid.

In a Japanese hotel:
You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.

In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox
monastery:
You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and
Soviet composers, artists, and writers are buried daily except
Thursday.

In an Austrian hotel catering to skiers:
Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the
boots of ascension.

On the menu of a Swiss restaurant:
Our wines leave you nothing to hope for.

On the menu of a Polish hotel:
Salad a firm’s own make; limpid red beet soup with cheesy
dumplings in the form of a finger; roasted duck let loose;
beef rashers beaten up in the country people’s fashion.

Outside a Hong Kong tailor shop:
Ladies may have a fit upstairs.

In a Bangkok dry cleaner’s:
Drop your trousers here for best results.

Outside a Paris dress shop:
Dresses for street walking.

In a Rhodes tailor shop:
Order your summers suit. Because is big rush we will execute
customers in strict rotation.

Similarly, from the Soviet Weekly:
There will be a Moscow Exhibition of Arts by 15,000 Soviet
Republic painters and sculptors. These were executed over the
past two years.

A sign posted in Germany’s Black forest:
It is strictly forbidden on our black forest camping site that
people of different sex, for instance, men and women, live
together in one tent unless they are married with each other
for that purpose.

In a Zurich hotel:
Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the
opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be
used for this purpose.

In an advertisement by a Hong Kong dentist:

Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists.

In a Rome laundry:
Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having
a good time.

In a Czechoslovakian tourist agency:
Take one of our horse-driven city tours – we guarantee no
miscarriages.

Advertisement for donkey rides in Thailand:
Would you like to ride on your own ass?

In a Swiss mountain inn:
Special today — no ice cream.

In a Bangkok temple:
It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed
as a man.

In a Tokyo bar:
Special cocktails for the ladies with nuts.

In a Copenhagen airline ticket office:

We take your bags and send them in all directions.

On the door of a Moscow hotel room:
If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to
it.

In a Norwegian cocktail lounge:
Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.

In a Budapest zoo:
Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable
food, give it to the guard on duty.

In the office of a Roman doctor:
Specialist in women and other diseases.

In an Acapulco hotel:
The manager has personally passed all the water served here.

In a Tokyo shop:
Our nylons cost more than common, but you’ll find they are
best in the long run.

From a Japanese information booklet about using a hotel air conditioner:
Cooles and Heates: If you want just condition of warm in your
room, please control yourself.

From a brochure of a car rental firm in Tokyo:
When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn.
Trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles
your passage then tootle him with vigor.

Two signs from a Majorcan shop entrance:
- English well talking.
- Here speeching American.

Laugh Along With GNU
Providing laughs to the working hackers

The Risks Of Using Public Toilets In Japan

Chris — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 02:56:03 +0000

Americans Are NOT Stupid

Chris — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:19:42 +0000

Americans Are Not Stupid
Funny, funny. Just funny.

9 Astonishing Pictures of The Rest Of The World

Chris — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:13:38 +0000

Great Architects Are Born Here

Leaning Building

The ‘Lets-Pray-It-Doesn’t-Rain’ Building

Feeling Dizzy?

Stop Staring!

The ‘Lets-Pray-There’s-No-Earthquake’ Buildings

The Picnic Freak Owner

The ‘Lets-Pray-There’s-No-Tsunami’ Buildings

The ‘Lets-Pray-There’s-No-Tsunami-Or-Earthquake’ Building

Miracles of Architecture
Fun blog from Russia

The Rest Of The World From A Bird’s Eye View

Chris — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 03:44:38 +0000

Orinoco River Near Esmeralda, Amazons, Venezuela

Maelifell, Bordering The Myrdalsjokull Gacier, Iceland

Deforestation in Amazonia, Matto Grosso Do Norte, Brazil

Fields Of Tulips Near Lisse, Near Amsterdam, Netherlands

Coellgur De Cohen, Nouvelle-Caledonie, France

Northern Gannet Colony, Eldey Island, Iceland

Los Roques Archipelago, North Of Caracas, Miranda Region, Venezuela

Volcano Eruption in Kamtchatka, Russia

Amazon River Near Manaus, Brazil

Abandoned City of Pripiat, Near Chernobyl Power Plant, Ukraine

Interchange Between The 5 and 110 Freeways, Los Angeles, United States

Houses On Stilts at Fisherman’s Point, Orinoco Delta, Venezuela

Beautiful Pictures Of The World
Pictures from the sky

Things that can be found in a floating market

Chris — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 03:46:57 +0000

Where in this world can you find a market that has heaps of people on boats trading in the water?

in Thailand.

The famous one is the Damnoen Saduak floating market in Ratchaburi, Central Thailand. Everyday, a lot of stuff is being sold on boats. You can find

fruits

meals

flowers

dessert

fried chicken

souvenirs

more souvenirs

and lots of tourists.

Abiyoyo
The floating market of Damnoen Saduak

What is the best way to travel Europe?

Chris — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 06:56:41 +0000

Get Eurail tickets.

The Eurail Group G.I.E. is owned by a group of European rail carriers and shipping companies that sells passes and tickets for European railroads to non-Europeans.

Eurail Passes allows a passenger to have a near unlimited ability to travel on almost all European railroads and shipping lines at a fixed price per day of travel. Eurail sells a variety of passes, including :

passes specific to two to five bordering countries.
discounted passes for groups of up to five people travelling together.
discounted passes for those between the age of 11 and 26.
passes which provide unlimited travel in a fixed period.
passes which provide a fixed number of days of travel in a longer period.

Eurail has ticket agents in all 6 continents of the world. Take for example, even a minor country like Malaysia has sales agents that sell Eurail tickets. As of 2006, countries covered include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Every purchaser of Eurail passes will receive :

A free Eurail Traveler’s Guide containing a fold-out map of Europe and the European Train connections. It includes extensive information on traveling with your Eurail Pass in Europe. The traveler’s guide is also available in :

English
French
Spanish
Portuguese
Korean
Chinese
Japanese

A free Eurail Timetable with the most suitable connections for major routes

Upon completion and return of a travel report (found inside the Eurail Pass Cover), you will receive 1 of 3 choices of a free Eurail Souvenir!

A. Set of Eurail country pins
B. Eurail radio with Step Counter
C. Dual time alarm clock, showing time at home and in Europe

Anyone is eligible to purchase a Eurail Pass except residents from the countries of Europe, the Russian Federation, Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, or Tunisia. A resident of a country is considered to be someone who has been living in a country for longer than 6 months.

Eurail
The official Eurail website

List of Eurail sales agents
Find a Eurail agent near you

3 Most Dangerous Paths In The World!

Chris — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 10:51:42 +0000

3. Guoliang Tunnel in Taihang mountains (China)

2. Most Dangerous Hiking Trail, Mount Huashan

1. Road of Death, Bolivia

Javimoya
Pics of Bolivia’s ‘Road of Death’

Guoliang Tunnel in China
Trail of Taihang Mountains

Mount Huashan
Tourist website about Huashan

5 Most Complicated Subway Systems Of The World

Chris — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:06:38 +0000

If you’re a tourist in any of these 5 cities, you’re gonna have a headache traveling by subway. Anyways, here are some facts of 5 of the most sophisticated subways of the world.

All scales are approximate, 7 pixels = 1 km.

London Subway.

Started off as early as 1863.
has 274 stations.
12 lines.
average of 2.67 million passengers per day
12,350 employees

New York Subway.

Started off as early as 1904.
has 490 stations.
27 lines.
average of 7,043,240 million passengers per day.

Seoul Subway.

Started off in 1974.
has 367 stations.
11 lines.
average of 7.9 million passengers per day.

Tokyo Subway.

Started off as early as 1927.
has 168 stations.
14 lines.
average of 5.69 million passengers per day.
8,721 employees

Paris Subway.

Started in 1900.
has 297 stations.
16 lines.
average of 4.5 million passengers per day.

Subways on the same scale
world subways on the same scale

FoxNews
lotsa interesting fast facts found here

Awesome Australian Slang

Chris — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 13:42:25 +0000

I was surfing the net as usual and I came across a site which had an awesome collection of Australian slang. If you’ve watched the late Steve Irwin’s documentary, crocodile hunter, you should more or less know what I’m saying. For Australians, it may be common, but for a foreigner, it’s hilarious!

Australian Explorer divided the collection into 7 different categories. Mainly

Animals
Behaviour
Events
Objects
People
Phrases
Places

Here are a few sentences I’ve made up consisting of Australian slang.

A bogan and a bloke were in the blue when they suddenly heard a ruckus. They walked closer and saw jackaroo and jillaroo flat out having a naughty. Then, a milko and a larrikin came and they raged on.

Got it mate? =)

Australian Explorer
The collection of Australian slang

Grace of Asia : 10 Photographs

Chris — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 11:57:43 +0000

Here are some of the stunning pictures taken out from Kevin Kelly's 600 pages color rich photo book, Asia Grace. All the pictures were taken between the 1970s till the late 1990s. A total of 16 Asian countries are represented in the book. I have chosen 10 pictures that I like and hope that you will like them too.

Here's a barber giving a little boy a haircut in Kunduz, Afghanistan.

Friday prayers in Srinagar, Kashmir.

Durbar Square of Katmandu, Nepal.

Temple city of India.

Tori gates entrance to a temple in Japan.

Selling toy masks under bright cherry blossoms in Osaka, Japan.

Boats, fog and a city in Busan, Korea.

Lunch in Korea.

Procession in Ubud of Bali, Indonesia.

Bathing steps along river Ganges in Varanasi, India.

Asia Grace
The complete collection online.

Human Development Trends – Income, Deaths, Health

Chris — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 13:16:36 +0000

Now here's a non profit organization that develops and provides free software that visualizes human development. Gapminder, the company behind the reports, have been collaborating with universities, UN organizations, public agencies and non-governmental organizations to gather data from all around the world to develop information that is free and enjoyable. Visitors can check out the statistics of human development trends on :

Income
Regions
Poverty
Health
Countries
Differences
Trends
Gaps
Deaths

The REAL Costa Rica

Chris — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 13:05:48 +0000

Here's a guy from Chicago, USA who lives in San José, Costa Rica with his wife and pets who has spent 3 years developing the perfect website for Costa Rica. Tim, the author, looks forward to be a source of correct accurate information about Costa Rica. He's done some traveling around and heard lots of nonsensical stuff about Costa Rica like

"Don't drink the water in Costa Rica.",
"You need to take typhoid shots to avoid getting sick.",
"Malaria is rampant!"
"Stay off the streets, the crime is awful!",
"Costa Rican food sucks!",

Because of that, he's written articles, statistics, photographs, movie clips, tables, charts and 100% accurate information about Costa Rica. So if you ever plan to

visit Costa Rica
live in Costa Rica
move to Costa Rica
do business in Costa Rica

Tim's site is the site to be. If you wanna learn more about Costa Rican'

internet, media, communications
hospitals, health insurance, emergency services
education, schools, universities, Spanish
legal system, the constitution, politics

Tim's site is the site to be. Check it out!

The Real Costa Rica
The link to the great Costa Rica site!

National Public Toilet Map

Chris — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 13:43:36 +0000

Did you know that there is a website that contains the location of more than 14,000 public & private toilet facilities across Australia? Wonder no further as the Australian government funded website is called ToiletMap. You can also find all the information about each toilet, such as :

location
opening hours
availability of baby change rooms
accessibility for the disabled
details of other toilets nearby.

Here's an example screenshot of Shoalwater located in the City of Rockingham in Perth.

This website is certainly of great value to residents in Australia who are affected by the inability to control urination. It helps to :

plan short and long journeys
improve independence on others
handy for young families and the disabled
assist in planning rest breaks in between cities and towns while traveling

To use ToiletMap, narrow down the map to a particular State / Territory. You can also use the search feature provided to find by postcode, town or suburb, specific addresses or landmarks like a sports ground. You can also use the Trip Planner by entering your start and destination and get turn by turn descriptions for the quickest routes and toilets along the way.

The National Public Toilet Map
Interesting stuff from Australia! Worth checking out!