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ROUGH GUIDES TRAVEL ONLINE ITALY

2011-08-19T09:43:00.000+07:00

The Rough Guide to the Italian Lakes is the essential travel guide with clear maps and detailed coverage of all the top attractions and scenic journeys in the Italian Lakes. Discover this majestic region including unforgettable Opera in Verona and the best shopping in Milan. There are detailed accounts of all the major tourist sites and the hidden gems that characterise the Italian Lakes from the baroque gardens and hidden palaces on the ridges of green mountainside split by Lake Maggiore to the palm-shaded promenades on the western shores of Lake Garda. Rely on countless recommendations of the Italian Lakes best restaurants, bars and cafés, shops and hotels in the Italian Lakes for every budget. With the clear maps of the Italian Lakes, an Italian language section to help you negotiate your way around, and expert background on everything from romantic Lake Como to local Lombard wine, relax, draw breath and wonder over every corner of the Italian Lakes.

The Rough Guide to Italy is the ultimate travel guide with clear maps and detailed coverage of all the best Italian attractions. Discover the vibrant Italian regions with the off-the-beaten track information every visitor to Italy needs. Find up-to-date descriptions of the best hotels in Italy, bars in Italy, restaurants in Italy and shops in Italy to cater for all budgets. Whether you wish to visit the Colosseum in Rome, the thermal spas of Tuscany, the stunning architecture in the heart of Milan or the magnificent canals of Venice; this Rough Guide will ensure you make the most of every moment in Italy. Featuring a comprehensive guide to Italy’s gastronomic delights; enjoy the best authentic Italian food with regional food guides on each chapter and a section devoted to Italian wines. Packed with detailed, updated maps, you’ll find expert tips to help you make the most of Italy’s varied landscape, fantastic hikes and city walks in Italy combined with an authoritative background on Italy’s rich cultural history, highlighting Italy’s spectacular festival culture.

ROUGH GUIDE TRAVEL ONLINE : THE ROUGH GUIDE TO INDONESIA

2011-08-18T13:35:00.000+07:00

The Rough Guide to Indonesia, Second Edition Lonely Planet Bali Encounter The Rough Guide to Bali & Lombock (Rough Guide Bali and Lombok) The Rough Guide to Indonesian Dictionary Phrasebook: A Rough Guide Phrasebook (Rough Guide Phrasebooks) (Indonesian Edition) Footprint Sumatra Handbook (Footprint - Travel Guides) Lonely Planet Indonesia (Country Travel Guide) The Stormrider Surf Guide: Indonesia and the Indian Ocean DVD Raja Ampat Indonesia Dive Travel Video Adventure Series Dive Travel - Manado North Sulawesi, Indonesia

ROUGH GUIDE TRAVEL ONLINE : THE ROUGH GUIDE TO FRANCE

2011-08-18T13:33:00.000+07:00

The Rough Guide to Paris (Rough Guides) The Rough Guide to Paris Cafe Music The Rough Guide to France (Rough Guide France)The Rough Guide to France 10 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)Pocket Rough Guide Paris (Rough Guide Pocket Guides) The Rough Guide to French Hotels & Restaurants 8 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)The Mini Rough Guide to Paris. (Rough Guide Mini) The Rough Guide to Provence and the Cote d'Azur 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) The Rough Guide Map to France (Rough Guide Country/Region Map)

ROUGH GUIDE TRAVEL ONLINE : ROUGH GUIDE TO INDIA

2011-08-17T16:07:00.000+07:00

Information The Rough Guide to India (Rough Guides) The Rough Guide to Rajasthan, Delhi & Agra (Rough Guides) India (Lonely Planet Country Guide) by Sarina Singh The Rough Guide to Kerala by David Abram Enjoying India: The Essential Handbook by J D Viharini Top 10 Delhi (EYEWITNESS TOP 10 TRAVEL GUIDE) by DK Publishing The Rough Guide to South India 5 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) By David Abram, Nick Edwards, Mike Ford, Rough Guides Rough Guide to the Music of India (Second Edition) Lonely Planet Rajasthan, Delhi & Agra (Regional Travel Guide)

ROUGH GUIDE ONLINE : The Greatest Tomato Fight on Earth

2011-08-16T18:34:00.001+07:00

ROUGH GUIDE ONLINE : The Greatest Tomato Fight on Earth

"Ham up a greasy pole" is one of the traditions of La Tomatina, which is held on the last Wednesday of August every year. Participants try to climb a greasy pole to slap the ham at the top. From our position, we had a good view of the crazy tourists mostly sliding down the pole, but occasionally reaching great heights. It gave us something to do for the two hours we had to wait until the tomatoes arrived.

ROUGH GUIDE ONLINE : The Greatest Tomato Fight on Earth

The crowd around us was excitable - any advance up the pole was met with a cheer, as was the appearance of a local on a balcony with a bucket of water. Nearby, a group of locals were spraying the crowd with hoses, so there was a constant background cheer.

Things were being thrown around well before the tomatoes arrived - capless bottles and cups (empty or otherwise) arced through the air and onto the heads of the defenceless people below. I was hit variously by a lime, a bottle, a flip flop, and a t-shirt - and I think I was lucky.

Since we were wearing watches, we were the official timekeepers of our square metre of space. "One minute to go," I said, just as a horn sounded and a cheer went up throughout the square. A minute later, a truck rounded the corner and the first tomato flew through the air in our direction. The crowd pushed up into the walls of the square to let the truck past, and was rewarded with a barrage of tomatoes. People scraped the tomato off their hair and threw it again, but there wasn't time to really get into the fight, as the next truck was already coming around the corner.

"You are the smartest person I know." The girl seemed serious in her praise, but I couldn't help but doubt her accuracy - after all, I was wedged in the middle of a crowd of 45,000 other people, waiting to throw tomatoes around for an hour, and she was talking about the fact that I'd brought a croissant with me.

We hadn't planned to go to La Tomatina. We had Eurail passes and wanted to visit Berlin, Scandinavia and Spain, and the easiest way to fit them all in was to catch a budget flight from Norway to Spain. Ryanair had recently started an Oslo-Valencia service, so we added Valencia to our otherwise sparse itinerary of Madrid and Barcelona.

ROUGH GUIDE ONLINE : The Greatest Tomato Fight on Earth

We didn't realise we'd be on the scene of the greatest tomato fight on earth until a friend asked us if we'd be in Valencia for La Tomatina. And right up until the day before we weren't sure if we were going to go. But, we decided, we couldn't be there and NOT go. So we went.

We got up at 6am, a bit of a mission after a late one the night before. Catching the metro to the train station was easy, but the crowds waiting at the bottom of the steps of the train station were a precursor to the main event. We managed to get on the next train though, and were even sitting down for the 50-minute trip to Buñol.

Everyone poured off the train and down the long road to the square. Thousands of people were already in the streets when we arrived at 8.45, but we knew where we wanted to go and squirmed our way through the densely packed bodies until we could see the ham.

ROUGH GUIDE ONLINE : The Greatest Tomato Fight on Earth

I closed my eyes behind my sunglasses as the volunteers on each of the five trucks threw tomato after tomato into the throng. After the last truck had passed, people spread out into the square and began fighting in earnest. The street was 15cm deep in tomato juice, it was easy to scoop up a handful and throw it at the nearest person. I found an empty cup and filled it for greater volume - although it was in great demand and I almost lost it two or three times. One guy did manage to empty it over my head - the juice seeped through my closed eyelids and into my eyes.

It was awesome. We were covered in tomato and more was landing on our heads at every moment. Slowly, the momentum started to go out of the fight and we started moving towards the hoses, which drenched us (and our electronics) in a matter of seconds. Further back along the road, the crowd was even more densely packed and people were trying to move in all directions, despite calls of "you can't go this way" and "no hay salida". We were stuck, and the people around us weren't having a very good time. "Did you even throw one tomato?" a girl asked me as we were pressed into a wall by the crowd. "Yes," I replied. "You're lucky," she said "I've just been doing this the whole time."

ROUGH GUIDE ONLINE : The Greatest Tomato Fight on Earth

The horn sounded and gradually the crowd started to thin as people headed back to the train station. We walked back slowly, stopping occasionally to be hosed off by a friendly local. We were turned away at the train station - apparently they don't like people covered in tomato on the train - and stood in line for one of the outdoor showers a few metres away. It wasn't very effective, but I passed muster and was allowed on the train, where we even found seats once again.

We had a great time, and knowing where to go had helped us be in the thick of the fight. Thousands of other people had gone but not even touched a tomato - they'd got to stand in a crowd for a couple of hours and that was it. Even people who'd gone on organised tours, thinking that would ensure them a slice of the action, missed out.

La Tomatina was an awesome experience, but if you're thinking about going later this month on 31 August, be smart about it - and that doesn't just mean bringing a croissant.
ROUGH GUIDE ONLINE : The Greatest Tomato Fight on Earth

ROUGH GUIDE ONLINE : Rituals around the world

2011-08-16T17:43:00.001+07:00

ROUGH GUIDE ONLINE : Rituals around the world

BALI. Anyone who's been to Bali will remember the small offerings, Banten, which you see dotted in every doorway, restaurant, street, wall... These Banten are exquisitely decorated parcels of cut leaves and coloured rice, prepare by Balinese women with the daily meals, as offerings to their compatriot gods and demons, and ancestors. Banten offerings range from the spectacular - for example the festival of Galungan, in which the gods visit earth, will be celebrated with Banten woven from coconut fronds - to the simple - tiny canang, daily offerings of palm leaves and flowers to show hospitality to the spirits of the house. The continuity of this ritual is fundamentally important to Balinese life - and whether it holds the universe together or not, it certainly defines and celebrates a vibrant heritage.

Travelling the world you'll come across rituals that might seem odd, crazy - perhaps even scary. But at the root they all share something in common; they are an expression of the local culture. So here we tell the story behind them five of these unique rituals...

Naghol; Pentecost Island, Vanuatu

The ritual of Naghol, or land diving, has become one of the strangest tourist attractions of the South Pacific and involves men leaping from crudely constructed towers of up to 100ft high, with only tree vines wrapped round their ankles as a safety measure. Perhaps no more strange than bungee jumping, though certainly a great deal more dangerous, this ritual is said to have originated when a woman, dissatisfied with her husband, pretended to jump to her death by tying vines to her ankles. Her grief-stricken husband, unaware of her trick, then leapt to his own death. Since then the men of Vanuatu have performed the ritual to prevent themselves from being tricked again. The diver's goal is to bless the soil by skimming his head against the ground before being whipped back aloft – guaranteeing fertile soil for the yam harvest. Of course there is little margin for error, and for the boys who have been circumcised (at around seven or eight) the performance of the land diving ritual in the presence of elders marks passage into manhood. There has only ever been one recorded fatality, in 1974 during a performance for Queen Elizabeth II, when the vines were not elastic enough due to the ritual being held in the wrong season.

Prayer at the Western Wall : Jerusalem

Perched on the spiritual fault line of all three of the world’s major monotheistic religions, Jerusalem has changed hands dozens of times over the centuries. The Western Wall involved in this ritual, also known as the "wailing" wall, is the last remaining piece of the temple destroyed by the Romans in 70CE and has been a site of pilgrimage since then. Despite often tumultuous disagreements as to the meaning and significance of the space, today visitors of all religions are permitted to approach the wall for prayer. The faithful write requests or prayers on scraps of paper, sometimes carrying them thousands of miles to the wall, before placing them in cracks between the ancient stones, as part of the pilgrimage ritual. If that’s a little too far to travel for you, you can have a prayer printed out and placed in the wall through the comfort of the internet - though no doubt this lacks in experience what it makes up in convenience!

Burning Man; Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA

Burning Man is an "experiment in community, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance". For an event with such primal overtones - it culminates in the burning of a huge wooden effigy - it’s a good deal younger than we might assume. In fact it began in 1986, and by 2010 had drawn over 50,000 visitors or "burners". What the whole ritual signifies is open to considerable debate, but cash is virtually banned from the event, self-expression is encouraged in as many ways as possible, and the "leave no trace" principle is fundamental to the whole project - the desert space is to be left better than it was before the burners’ arrival, certainly not worse. Over the years other aspects of the event have evolved including the celebration of weird and wonderful vehicles and the burning of a separate temple. This remains one of the most eagerly celebrated of modern rituals, though the increasing prevalence of "Burning Man Is Stupid" t-shirts around the west coast may be the real indicator that the burning man has reached the national consciousness!

ROUGH GUIDE ONLINE : Rituals around the world

ROUGH GUIDE ONLINE : Jamu Traditional Java

2011-08-16T17:24:00.000+07:00

ROUGH GUIDE ONLINE : Jamu Traditional Java.

ROUGH GUIDE ONLINE : Jamu Traditional Java

Under the veil of tarpaulin, the market plays out like a slideshow for the senses; fresh bursts of neon pink dragon fruit and fiery red chillies, the reek of sweating meat, the slippery film of eels glistening in the slats of sunlight. A gaggle of women gossip in rapid Javanese as a vendor blasts out bubblegum pop from a distorted radio. Schoolgirls wear their white jilbab like halos, floating between rattan baskets of galangal and tamarind pods.

I find her stall tucked between strings of barbecued chicken feet and a steaming wok of caramelizing peanuts. She squats on a low stool, enveloped in the colourful canopy of her skirts. I notice her hands first, wrinkled fingers like miniature accordion bellows, moving with the stiffness of age yet the deftness of expertise. They dip and dive into the clay pots laid out in front of her. A squeeze of this, a dollop of that, a sprinkle of something else. Fastidious measures gleaned from 1,300 years of tradition.

Her name is Ibu Siswu but she goes by many names. A Jamu maker, a practitioner of traditional Indonesian medicine, a herbal doctor, a medicine woman. She can pluck a miracle from the sky, I’ve been told.

I linger as she tends to her customers: a drooling infant with gooey eyes; a swaddled baby running a fever; an elderly gentlemen with an ailment that turns his cheeks crimson as he whispers in her ear.

Her hands move with the grace of an inspired artist, the clutter of potted herbs and extracts cocooning her in colour. Piles of rose apple, lemongrass, kepal fruit and grated turmeric litter the workspace. Vials of peppermint oil line up behind a bowl of chopped limes oozing with sugary pulp. Swinging baskets tender ready-made tonics - blended oils for eczema, teas to boost fertility, a dubious looking pessary for preserving one’s virginity.

At the front of the queue, I mime eating and clutch my aching gut. She nods knowingly and sets to work. A smidgen of this, a generous squirt of that. Each ingredient crushed beneath bare hands, smashed with a pestle and rolled flat until the juice bleeds out into the bowl.

A coconut shell brimming with runny, canary-yellow liquid is pressed into my hands, the medicine swirling ominously beneath me. It’s a bitter and chalky tonic with an acerbic aftertaste that demands a sweetened chaser to soothe the tongue. My hand drops to my stomach as if a miracle might occur instantaneously in my bowels. “Kesabaran,” she whispers. Patience.

Outside, I brave the death-dance of midday traffic and marvel at the panorama of tiered rice paddies and lush green tea plantations. I scour the roadside warung and munch on glutinous corn fritters and sweet-soy rice balls. I savour the haunting melody of the muezzin as the call to prayer seeps out into the streets. And later, wobbling precariously in the back of a tuk tuk, I have to admit, I feel pretty good.

ROUGH GUIDE ONLINE : Jamu Traditional Java