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Photo of the Day (8.31.10)

Photo of the Day (8.31.10) Aug 31st, 2010 at 5:00PM: I think that the best travel photography is the kind that captures a unique instance of the human experience and opens it up for further discussion. It intrigues the viewer to ask questions, to delve deeper and to examine the unfamiliar. It refuses to let you look away or ignore the subject. For me, this moment captured by e.r.g.o in Sri Lanka does exactly that. The festival being ...

Ramadan begins in the Muslim world: a report from Turkey

Ramadan begins in the Muslim world: a report from Turkey Aug 12th, 2010 at 2:30PM: Yesterday was the first day of Ramadan (or Ramazan, as it is called in Turkey), a month-long holiday in the Islamic faith of fasting, prayer, and reflection. For observant Muslims, eating, drinking, smoking, and sexual activity is prohibited from dawn to dusk for 30 days. The elderly, ill, pregnant and nursing mothers, as well as (interestingly) menstruating women are excused. Before dawn, ...

Five facts about the North Korean Arirang festival

Five facts about the North Korean Arirang festival Aug 12th, 2010 at 8:00AM: North Korea's Arirang festival is in motion, and people from all over the world are traveling to the isolated communist country to watch what truly is an impressive undertaking. But, what do we really know about it? So much about North Korea is shrouded in mystery, making it hard to really learn much about what goes on there. Instead of relying on the accounts of tourists, the western media or ...

Wanderfly.com travel-planning site launches in beta

Wanderfly.com travel-planning site launches in beta Aug 4th, 2010 at 10:00AM: A new travel-planning website and booking engine is launching this month in beta, and I was excited to give it a test run, having first heard about the site this spring at a EuroCheapo travel happy hour. Wanderfly.com is a "personalized recommendation engine" that takes your interests, budget, and even social network connections to give you inspiration and help you plan your next vacation. ...

Acadia Night Sky Festival scheduled for early September

Acadia Night Sky Festival scheduled for early September Jul 30th, 2010 at 8:00AM: The second annual Acadia Night Sky Festival is scheduled to take place in Bar Harbor, Maine this September, offering a chance for stargazers to take in the most spectacular views of the night sky along the entire eastern seaboard – from one of the most spectacular national parks in the entire U.S. no less. The event will offer both day and night time activities, with plenty to offer the ...

Love Parade discontinued after 19 killed in stampede

Love Parade discontinued after 19 killed in stampede Jul 26th, 2010 at 11:00AM: Germany's annual dance and music festival Love Parade ended tragically on Saturday after a stampede killed 19 people and injured at least 340, including travelers from Australia, Italy, and China. 1.4 million people reportedly turned out for the event, overcrowding the grounds which had a capacity of only 250,000, according to German magazine Spiegel. Police had closed all but one entrance to the ...

Shanxi International Noodle Cultural Festival

Shanxi International Noodle Cultural Festival May 26th, 2010 at 1:00PM: Each week, Gadling is taking a look at our favorite festivals around the world. From music festivals to cultural showcases to the just plain bizarre, we hope to inspire you to do some festival exploring of your own. Come back each Wednesday for our picks or find them all HERE. It isn't known if Marco Polo stole the secrets of noodle making from China when he traveled the Silk Road, but in ...

La Tomatina - The Lovely Tomato Festival

La Tomatina - The Lovely Tomato Festival May 12th, 2010 at 3:00PM: Each week, Gadling is taking a look at our favorite festivals around the world. From music festivals to cultural showcases to the just plain bizarre, we hope to inspire you to do some festival exploring of your own. Come back each Wednesday for our picks or find them all HERE. By the look of its name, "La Tomatina" might make you think of the word tomato, or in Spanish, tomate. That's because ...

The Afro-Punk Festival: not your mama's punk show

The Afro-Punk Festival: not your mama's punk show May 5th, 2010 at 5:00PM: Each week, Gadling is taking a look at our favorite festivals around the world. From music festivals to cultural showcases to the just plain bizarre, we hope to inspire you to do some festival exploring of your own. Come back each Wednesday for our picks or find them all HERE. You think you know what punk is. But you haven't seen anything until you've joined the thousands of head-bangers who ...

Scotland festival pass gives you options

Scotland festival pass gives you options Apr 9th, 2010 at 12:00PM: If you're headed to Scotland, check out the new Edinburgh Festivals Passport from Visit Scotland. With this pass, you can make the most of the festivals you attend while you're over in Scotland this August. Theater, dance, music, comedy and art are on the list, handpicked by festival critics. And, you'll even get tips on where you'll find the best street performances, restaurants and bars. The ...

Kim Jong-Il Celebration: Party Like It's Juche 99

Kim Jong-Il Celebration: Party Like It's Juche 99 Feb 17th, 2010 at 9:00AM: It was the biggest party of the year – and will probably retain that distinction until the end. Everybody was there, including foreign officials far too cool to be named. Dancers, singers and synchronized swimmers performed ... all in honor of the Dear Leader's sixty-eighth birthday. According to Pyongyang's state-run media, Kim was "praised by mankind as the most outstanding political elder ...

Winter festivals in the Midwest

Winter festivals in the Midwest Dec 28th, 2009 at 11:30AM: What is it about snow that just makes us want to play in it? A fresh, fluffy layer of snow means snow angels and snowmen, building forts and having snowball fights. And for some people, it also means making really, really big snow sculptures like these found on WebUrbanist.com. To see some smaller, but no less impressive, snow sculptures in the Midwest, check out one of the area's many winter ...

Seven ways to explore the world without leaving home

Seven ways to explore the world without leaving home Nov 27th, 2009 at 9:30AM: tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.gadling.com/2009/11/27/seven-ways-to-explore-the-world-without-leaving-home/'; tweetmeme_source = 'Gadling'; Travel can be an escape - a chance to get away from the stress of our daily lives - but it can also be much more. Travel is about exploring a destination (new or familiar), understanding and connecting with the local culture, and seeing how people in a ...

Get out and go: Events around the world (November 25-30)

Get out and go: Events around the world (November 25-30) Nov 25th, 2009 at 3:00PM: If you're living in America, you know what's happening this Thursday. For those of you who aren't in New York to catch the Thanksgiving Day Parade, there are other awesome activities going on this weekend. If you're close and have time, then you have no excuse to get out and go! Charlotte - The Carolinas Thanksgiving Day Parade will be held this Thursday, November 26. This 62th annual parade ...

South by Southeast: Taunggyi Balloon Festival

South by Southeast: Taunggyi Balloon Festival Nov 25th, 2009 at 9:00AM: Daily life is a struggle in Myanmar. For the average local, working days are filled with long hours of backbreaking manual labor, meager pay and no weekends or vacation time. Considering this exhausting schedule, festivals and holidays are special times - a chance to kick back, relax and let loose. In Myanmar's Shan State, one of the most important of these festivities is the annual Taunggyi ...

Get out and go: Events around the world (November 18-21)

Nov 18th, 2009 at 12:00PM: It's time to look at the festivals and events happening around the world, and this week has a particularly international selection of happenings. If you're close and have time, then you have no excuse to get out and go! Mexico - Birders will unite in the Yucatan Peninsula for the Yucatan Bird Festival from November 19-22. For the 8th consecutive year, the festival offers a wide range of field ...

Hawaii delights with a 10-day international film extravaganza

Oct 16th, 2009 at 2:30PM: For ten glorious days (which began yesterday), Hawaii will host its international film festival until October 25. The film line-up is chock full of Asian films as well as other international cinema delights. This year's centerpiece films on opening, mid-festival, and closing nights demonstrate the diverse films that make up this year's deep line-up. The one I'd like to see is "Red Cliff" - a John ...

Ten Finnish festivals to finish the year

Ten Finnish festivals to finish the year Sep 26th, 2009 at 2:00PM: We're into the home stretch on 2009, with only three months left to enjoy. Then, the calendar page flips over, and we take on 2010. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways left to make the rest of this year memorable. In Finland, home to some of the strangest celebrations on the planet, you can find a few interesting distractions – and they'll make for great stories when you get home. Of ...

Oktoberfest off to a bad start for Aussies

Oktoberfest off to a bad start for Aussies Sep 22nd, 2009 at 2:30PM: Just two days into Germany's Oktoberfest celebration, one Australian man is dead and another in jail. The man who died was running alongside a train close to his campsite outside of Munich after the festival, when he fell underneath the train's wheels. Another Aussie was arrested just a few hours into the festival, after he threw a beer stein into a crowd and injured two teenagers. Oktoberfest ...

Early fall events in Carmel

Early fall events in Carmel Sep 21st, 2009 at 9:30AM: My good friend who used to live and work in Carmel took me on a stroll through the historic town earlier this month and she found herself nostalgic. I let her relive her days working in the art gallery that has since been taken over by yet another, different gallery, and her evenings full of meeting military men who attended school nearby in Marina. If that wasn't enough, we had coffee at her old ...

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