Adrenaline Rush in Taiwan

By Judith Fein
Photos by Paul Ross

It may be the most macho adventure in the world. The running of the bulls in Pamplona is the most famous, but what are the odds of getting gored by a bull? At the Beehive Bottle Rocket Festival in Taiwan, you will definitely get hit….by bottle rockets. It’s guaranteed.

The event takes place every year on Taiwan, a thriving East Asian island nation of 26 million people, where passionate democracy is practiced. Lawmakers actually get into fist fights during legislative sessions.  Women even get into the fray. But they don’t launch bottle rockets.

That is reserved for l5 days after Chinese New Year, during the Lantern Festival.  The entire small town of Yan Shui, in Tainan County, literally explodes into an extreme sport. Anyone is welcome, but you participate at your own risk. It’s free, it’s insane, and it actually has a spiritual basis.

In 1885, the inhabitants of Yan Shui were battling the dual horrors of plague and cholera. There were no hospitals or effective medical treatments for the suffering, so locals turned to the God of War to help them. They set off firecrackers to honor him and, it is presumed, his divine intervention gradually arrested the two diseases and blessed the town.

The firecrackers became a tradition, and visitors began to gravitate to Yan Shui for the excitement. Today, millions of bottle rockets are set off in a single night and tourists are advised to bring their own protection in the form of clothes.

For starters, you’ll want a helmet and goggles so you leave with your head and eyes intact. A dust mask or bandana over your mouth is a good idea, so you don’t ingest any bottle rocket debris or fry your gums.  Around your neck, drape a wet towel, so the rockets don’t creep in under your helmet and explode your brains.

Moving down, you definitely need a protective jacket or coat, gloves, a thick pair of cotton pants (synthetics will burn faster that you can ask, “Am I nuts to be doing this?”) or two thin pairs of cotton pants, socks, closed shoes and a large dollop of faith.

As the moment of ignition approaches, the brave gather in a

large arena where large launch-frames stacked with hundreds of thousands of bottle rockets loom ominously. An announcer whips up the crowd and you don’t have to understand Chinese to know it’s foreplay to danger.

Suddenly, there is a crackling noise, rockets buzz through the air like angry bees, and they are aimed directly at the several hundred participants who have not run away in terror. The brave ones hide their cameras because a single bottle rocket can ruin a really fine lens.

If you are dressed to the nines in protective gear, you will most likely leave the event intact and wander through the town for food, festivities, a visit to a temple and a lot more rockets (although these are not necessarily aimed at you).

What will undoubtedly strike you is how friendly Taiwanese people are. They are, so to speak, the opposite of the beehive bottle rockets.

Wherever you go on the island, folks greet you in English, Chinese or Taiwanese, bidding you welcome or just saying “hello.” In Taipei, the capital, there are plenty of tourists, but once you get outside the city into the country, westerners are rare. That’s what makes Taiwan such an appealing and emerging destination. It’s safe, (except for the Beehive Bottle Rocket festival), affordable, offers great walks and hikes in spectacular countryside,

features finger-licking food from dim sum to banquets with ten courses, has rapid trains and busses for easy transport, and it’s unlikely that anyone on your block will have been there before you.

After you visit Taiwan, it’s a great launching pad for further travel adventures in Asia.

Recommendations if you go:
Taiwan Tourism Board is very helpful with information about the festival, transport and other attractions and sites on the island.
http://www.go2taiwan.net

EVA Airways has direct flights to Taiwan and many other Asian destinations. The airline is favored by Asians for its punctuality, friendly service and new B777 planes.

Our favorite guidebook is the Rough Guide to Taiwan. It offers comprehensive historical and background material and has much more meat than many other go-there-do-this guides.

PEPY Introduces New Bike & Boat Tour

PEPY Tours is thrilled to announce a brand new itinerary for Cambodia that will combine PEPY’s usual cycling adventure with a boat expedition across the largest lake in South East Asia, the Tonle Sap, including an overnight stay at a floating village.

Two versions of the tour will be offered: a compact 7-day highlights tour (Bike & Boat Highlights) and an extended 12-day adventure traversing all the way to the capital of Phnom Penh by a mixture of bike and boat (Bike & Boat Odyssey).

“We are always looking to support community based development programs here in Cambodia, and this option in the Tonle Sap is one we are really excited to introduce!  The biking and boating combination is new to Cambodia and we are looking to attract those people who are seeking both an exciting adventure as well as a chance to learn more about Cambodia and its people,” says Daniela Papi, PEPY Tours Founder.

Both tours will commence with a bike and hike visit to the world-famous temples of Angkor, widely referred to as the 8th wonder of the world. While in Siem Reap, tour participants will have an opportunity to visit and learn about PEPY’s educational programs as well as the programs of partner non-profit organizations.

From there participants will embark on a voyage across the Tonle Sap to the Prek Toal Bird Sanctuary where they will have a chance to see rare bird species and floating villages with an overnight stop at community-based homestay.

The next morning the tours will split with the Highlights tour returning to Siem Reap while the Odyssey participants continue by boat to colonial Battambang to explore the city, its surrounding countryside, and mysterious caves.

After two days of exploring the area by bicycle participants will begin to cycle south to the capital of Cambodia – Phnom Penh – passing intimate villages, rural street markets, and scenic countryside of lime-green rice paddies, wandering water buffalo, and Cambodian signature red dust.

The Odyssey trip will conclude with a tour of Phnom Penh, visiting the Tuol Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields where participants will learn about the darker side of Cambodia’s history.

“We believe that learning should be experiential, so if we want to know what the realities of life in Cambodia are like, why not go out and experience it ourselves?” says Daniela Papi.  PEPY’s trip leaders and local staff will offer additional insight into Cambodia’s current culture, history, and issues facing the country today through articles, discussions with local authorities, and visits to non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

PEPY will begin offering these tours in the Fall of 2009. Feel free to learn more at www.pepytours.com

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PEPY is an educational development organization with a mission to aid rural communities in improving their own standards of living, with a focus on increased access to quality education. To learn more about PEPY’s educational programs, visit www.pepyride.org

PEPY Tours offers volunteer and adventure tours in rural Cambodia from multi-week bike tours to service learning projects.  To learn more about upcoming tours, or to customize a trip of your own, visit www.pepytours.com

Pozos – An Abandoned Mining Town in Mexico

Three bus rides away from San Miguel De Allende in the central Mexican province of Guanajato, is Pozos, an old mining town.  Pozos is actively promoting an “Art Walk,” and the mysteries of its abandoned silver mines.

Over five hundred barely noticeable circular cement markers are scattered around the outskirts of the town, indicating the presence of mine shafts, some over 150 feet deep.  You can walk through the faded red ruins of the mining industry – brick buildings where equipment was stored and accommodations for the workers.  The first ruin up the road from the main square is adjacent to a shaft equipped with a string of light bulbs, and frayed rope.  For twenty pesos, we paid an old woman perched at the entrance of the shaft, to let us climb about 100 feet down and gained vague sense of what it must have been like to be a Mexican mine worker in the 19th century.

Wacky artists are trying to put Pozos on the tourist map with eclectic workshops making pre-hispanic instruments (among other things), and the town regularly holds festivals when stands of local sweets and roasted maiz pop up on otherwise dusty streets.  The most captivating thing about Pozos, is the example it provides of life in a town after mines close, and the stark difference from nearby San Miguel de Allende.

To get there from San Miguel: take the bus to Dolores Hidalgo, then to San Luis de la Paz, then finally to Pozos (this can take up to three hours; we hitchhiked back in a third of the time, and were regaled with fascinating stories).

- Off the Radar

Join Americans for UNFPA and Wildland Adventures on a Trip of Discovery to Ethiopia

SEATTLE, Wash – Travel-especially to locations with a distinctly different culture from ones’ own, opens the eyes and hearts of those visiting, and a successful travel experience should include personal interaction with the indigenous people and culture. Wildland Adventures has integrated this into every trip they offer, which is one of the reasons why they are proud to partner with Americans for UNFPA (United Nations Fund for Population Activities; www.americansforunfpa.org) to conduct an educational fundraising tour of Ethiopia.

The nine day “Americans for UNFPA & PPGG Leadership Delegation” tour is designed for people who really do make a difference. This small group tour (with no more than 16 participants) will travel into the heart of the close-knit and traditional Ethiopian culture to experience first-hand the challenges – and victories – achieved by the projects and field staff of the UNFPA and Planned Parenthood Golden Gate. The itinerary gives participants in-depth exposure to both organization’s efforts to provide women and children’s health care and promote human rights – first with a general overview of the programs, followed by field visits to programs in process,  and meetings with women receiving support in Addis Ababa, Hossana, Bahir Dar and Lalibela.

The Ethiopian Delegation Donor tour departure is scheduled for October 19-27, 2009 and starts at $5995 per person (based on a group of 16 participants). $1250 of your payment is a tax deductible donation to Americans for UNFPA and Planned Parenthood of Golden Gate (PPGG), and will directly support the work of the UNFPA field offices.

There is also an extension available to visit the historic monasteries and castles of Axum and Gondor and to view game in the beautiful Simian Mountains from Ethiopia’s premier eco lodge.

The Americans for UNFPA and Planned Parenthood Golden Gate operate in both urban and rural areas of the country – and delegates will observe how different the issues that affect women and children in sprawling urban environments are from the issues that affect rural villagers. While in Addis Ababa, delegates will visit the Bright Futures (Biruh Tesfa) project. This program, which operates only in the country’s sprawling metropolis, helps protect poor urban girls from abuse and exploitation. Delegates also visit the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital to learn about this bastion of protection – the only accessible option for Ethiopian women who suffer from the crippling, embarrassing and often deadly effects of fistula. The next few days of the trip focus on a very different environment – the rural areas.  In Hossana, delegates visit Planned Parenthood of Golden Gate’s flagship international program – Community-Based Reproductive Health – which brings maternal and child medical services to 1300 villages where medical care had previously been lacking. In the village of Bahir Dar, guests visit the Light for Eve (Berhane Hewan) program, which works to protect children from child marriages. Delegates will also visit Lalibela, which UNESCO has helped provide with “modern conveniences” such as electricity and paved roads. There will be time along the trip to explore the local culture and scenery, as well as to visit with both the participants in each project.

Wildland Adventures’ partnership with the Americans for UNFPA continues with three more unique experiences in 2010, to Guatemala, Malawi and Cambodia, and planned trips for 2011 and 2012.

This journey is run in conjunction with Dinknesh Ethiopia Tours.

For information and reservations visit Wildland Adventures on the web: www.wildland.com or 800-345-4453 or e-mail info@wildland.com.

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About Wildland Adventures

Wildland Adventures was founded in 1986 by Kurt and Anne Kutay with the intention of offering authentic worldwide cultural and natural history explorations for active and inquisitive travelers. Wildland Adventures was rated the #1 Best Adventure Outfitter on Earth in 2009 by National Geographic Adventure Magazine, moving up from the #4 spot held in 2008. Wildland also operates educational fundraising trips in conjunction with the non-profit Americans for UNFPA (United Nations Fund for Population Activities),  an international agency that promotes the right of women and their families to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity.

At the core of Wildland Adventures is its commitment to conservation and authenticity.  On a Wildland Adventures’ trip, there are remarkably few barriers between visitors and local cultures, creating an authenticity in the way people travel and the places they encounter. A sample of destinations offered by Wildland Adventures includes Costa Rica, Peru, Patagonia, Belize, Alaska, Turkey, Egypt, Africa, India, New Zealand and Antarctica.

Media Contact: Sarah Fazendin
North American Media Relations
Sarah@fazendinconsulting.com
+1.303.993.7906

Visiting “Earth”

Experience species seen in the movie “Earth” up close with 5 amazing ecotours

Left, mother and cub stay warm in the Arctic (© Steve Morello); right, elephant family roams in Africa (© Caitlin Lepper).

Boulder, Colorado – May 7, 2009 – “Earth,” the acclaimed documentary from the new Disneynature series, brings distant destinations close through such powerful footage as polar bear cubs emerging from their den as their father struggles to survive on a melting ice sheet miles away, or a thirsty herd of elephants finally reaching water after weeks on the parched Kalahari. But no photography – however stunning – can compare with experiencing wildlife firsthand in its natural setting. Award-winning ecotour company Natural Habitat Adventures’ rare, small-group nature encounters follow sustainable travel practices that help ensure the future of wild destinations. The company’s family-friendly tours include 5 real-life adventures with species featured in the movie “Earth”:

1. Remember the whimsical scenes of swimming elephants in “Earth”? Botswana’s Okavango Delta on the “Expedition Botswana” trip (www.nathab.com/africa/expedition-botswana) was that life-giving oasis. See multitudes of elephants and more from private camps deep in the bush on this 11-day adventure.
2. An ice-bound wonderland 600 miles from the North Pole, Spitsbergen is the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago and home to some 2,500 polar bears – part of the polar bear footage in “Earth” was filmed in the archipelago – as well as walrus, bearded seal, Arctic fox, reindeer, and seabirds. Cruise along narrow fjords and towering glaciers on the 10- to 16-day “Spitsbergen: The European Arctic” trip (www.nathab.com/expedition-voyages/spitsbergen), available June through August.
3. Polar bears mass in great numbers each fall near Churchill, Manitoba, awaiting the freeze-up of Hudson Bay and the start of the winter seal-hunting season – providing best-in-the-world polar bear viewing. Special tundra vehicles provide intimate access to the bears in their natural habitat on the four separate Churchill-based six- to eight-day itineraries (www.nathab.com/north) available in October and November.
4. In “Earth,” Adelie penguins coasted over the ice on their “built-in toboggans.” Antarctica is the realm of the penguin, as well as whales, seals, massive seabird colonies, indescribable landscapes and legendary history. The three-week “Classic Antarctica Expedition” (www.nathab.com/antarctica/classic-antarctica), provides a small-group immersion in this mystical white wilderness.
5. “Earth” tracks the migration of a mother humpback whale and her calf from their winter home in the tropics all the way to Antarctica. Humpbacks also migrate northward along the Pacific coast to summer in Alaska. On the nine-day September “Spirit Bears and Humpback Whales of B.C.” adventure (www.nathab.com/north/spirit-bears), kayak through sheltered waters where humpbacks play, as well as stalking the rare white kermode or “spirit” bear.

Natural Habitat Adventures gives back to the destinations it visits with economic initiatives, conservation education and sustainable practices. A member of Adventure Collection and exclusive Conservation Travel Provider to World Wildlife Fund, the company’s recent awards include a 2009 National Geographic Adventure Best Adventure Travel Company ranking, a 2009 National Geographic Traveler Tour of a Lifetime pick, and a 2008 Travel + Leisure World’s Best Tour Operator rating. All Natural Habitat Adventures trips are carbon neutral. For additional information, visit www.nathab.com.

Media Contacts: Matt Kareus, Natural Habitat Adventures, 303.449.3711, mattk@nathab.com; Darla Worden, WordenGroup Strategic Public Relations, 307.734.5335, darla@wordenpr.com

Make Your Own Adventure Short

October 11th to 17th, join the Outside Serac Adventure Film School, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. During the course of the week you’ll explore the process of making an adventure short and have the opportunity to head into the field for a hiking and camping adventure. Michael Brown, winner of 50 film festival awards and 3 Emmys, who has also reached the Summit of Everest four times with a 25 pount Hi-def camera, is your mentor.  Ryan Ross and David D’Angelo, two accomplished adventure videographers, are your other instructors.  Check out the program here - and if you enroll, be sure to send Off the Radar your adventure short!

- Off the Radar

Win a Van-Tastic road trip across Australia

Leading online travel insurance company, WorldNomads.com is offering travellers the chance to win an Australian road trip of a lifetime.

WorldNomads.com Global Programs Manager, Amanda Byrne, says applications are now open for the ‘Van-Tastic Adventure’, where travellers can win a trip to Australia and spend 6 weeks driving across the country capturing their adventure on video to ultimately win $10,000 cash and flights from Virgin Blue.

“We’ll fly a team, of up to 2 people to Australia, and give them the Van-Tastic Van to drive across the country for 6 weeks. They’ll share their adventure online, making videos, stories, and posting photos, and ultimately create a mini-video documentary of their trip.” says Amanda.

“The van, supplied by our friends at Travellers Auto Barn, will be loaded with camping gear, video camera, laptop, editing equipment and wireless broadband access, and the Van-Tastic adventurers will get fuel money and a whole range of activities to experience for free along the way.

Applications are now open for the ‘Van-Tastic Adventure’ which begins in August 2009 and will continue around the country for 11 months. Each team will travel for 6 weeks, covering a different state or territory of Australia and will be given suggested driving routes and itineraries, access to YHA hostels, national parks and camping sites.

“With the help of Australia’s state tourism organisations and backpacking industry, we’ve put together an impressive line up of activities for each team to experience, from surfing on the coast to exploring the outback,” says Amanda.

“The teams will choose where they go and share their adventures on the road, with 2 videos, 2 blog entries, and 10 photos posted online each week.

“At the end of each team’s adventure, they will have 2 weeks’ free internet access at a Global Gossip café to create a 3 to 5 minute min-documentary about their ‘Van-Tastic Adventure’ which will be posted online at WorldNomads.com

The most popular documentary, voted by the online travel community, will win $AUD10,000 cash, and 2 Virgin Blue domestic flights, each to the value of $A500.

To apply, budding filmmakers and charismatic travellers should visit http://vantastic.worldnomads.com and prepare a 2 minute or less video of themselves showing off their genuine lust for adventure and filmmaking skills.

Applications close 5 July 2009 for the first leg of the journey which starts in August in Cairns and ends in Brisbane in September.

For more information, details on the 7 legs of the Van-Tastic Adventure, and how to apply, visit http://vantastic.worldnomads.com.

Click here to view original PDF version of this Press Release.

Ancient Civilization Meets Wildlife Rehabilitation

Maya Key a Showcase for Cultural Preservation on Roatan

ROATAN, Honduras – Roatan’s newest and finest cultural attraction will give visitors a little taste of Honduras all in one place.

Developed and operated by the iconic Anthony’s Key Resort (AKR), Maya Key is located in the harbor of Coxen Hole, Roatan.  Opened to visitors in the first week in June, 2009, Maya Key boasts reconstructions of Copan’s famous Maya ruins, a native arts & crafts studio, a traditional Maya village, and a wildlife rescue center displaying many of Honduras’ diverse wild animal species.

“Honduras is a small but diverse and culturally rich country and we want to pay tribute to that,” says Samir Galindo, General Manager of AKR. “We are very proud of our country and we want the world to get to know us better, and this is a convenient and quick way to do that.”

Maya Key will operate on a beautiful 11.5 acre private key conveniently located just three minutes across the bay from the Roatan cruise ship terminal, home to the familiar Fins and Flippers program operated by AKR. This key offers two secluded beaches, excellent snorkeling from a scenic pier, a 70,000 gallon swimming pool, a 5,000 square foot lounge deck and lush garden paths bursting with indigenous flora. Within minutes guests can enjoy the sand and surf of the Caribbean upon arriving at the cruise ship terminal.

Twenty years ago AKR pioneered Honduras’ only research and educational dolphin program, the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences (RIMS). The Institute is a unique on-site research and educational facility with the only dolphin program in Honduras. As one of Roatan’s first dive resorts over the years Anthony’s has expanded to include the RIMS, the Roatan Museum, a fully-equipped medical center, dolphin activities and now Maya Key.

The all-inclusive dive resort is located 35 mi (56km) off the coast of Honduras on Roatan, Bay Islands, part of the second largest barrier reef system in the world.