On Sunday at Kathmandu International airport, Nepal Airways sacrificed two goats in front of one of their flagship Boeing 757 aircrafts to appease Akash Bhairav, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems that force the company to suspend flights in the recent weeks.

"The goats were sacrificed in accordance with Hindu traditions, and the snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights" according a senior airline official.

We all feel safer now, isn't it?

It is certainly more as efficient as most rules that passengers must obey during air travels (no matches; no liquid; no electronics as well as windows shade up and seat back up right during take-off/landing etc..). Who knows!

Tags: 2007, air, air travel, aircraft, airport, Akash Bhairav, blog, Boeing, flight, Hinduism, ia, im, International, kathmandu, lan, landing, light, Nepal, nomadcom.net, passengers, problems, resume, sacrifice, safe, safety, space, sun, Travel, windows, wp

After receiving an email from Kpjas, an Ipernity member, who informed me that he took a photo of mine to illustrate "50 Places To See Before You Die" selected by BBC viewers in 2003 in his blog, I reviewed the list and noticed that I have already visited more than 50% of these places that BBC viewers dream about (lucky me).

This list raised some interrogation to me about why these places have chosen instead of other famous ones ?  I could not find any relevant explanations except perhaps a majority of places where the spoken language is (was) English (but it makes sense as enquiry took place in UK). One thing is sure, after reading names of these great location, you just feel to escape from your office, pack you stuff and go travel.

Personally I would definitively add some places to this list (Okavango delta, Yunnan mountains, Kalahari desert, Japan, etc..) and perhaps drop some but for sure, I'll not be able to keep it to only 50 locations.

BBC 2008 Viewers "Must See list"

Africa
La Digue, Seychelles

(visited)
The Pyramids, Egypt (1993)
Luxor, Egypt  (1993)
Abu Simbel, Egypt (1993)
Masai Mara, Kenya (1993/2002)
Victoria Falls, Zambia / Zimbabwe (1994)
Cape Town, South Africa - (1994/1998)

Americas
The Grand Canyon, USA
Yosemite National Park, USA
Las Vegas, USA
Hawaii, USA
Alaska, USA
San Francisco, USA
Niagara Falls, Canada / USA
Canadian Rockies, Canada
Chichen Itza, Mexico
Angel Falls, Venezuela
Barbados, Barbados

(visited)
New York, USA (1996/2000)
Florida, USA (2000)
Galapagos Islands, Ecuador (1999)
Machu Picchu, Peru (2001/2004)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1989/2000)
Iguassu Falls, Argentina / Brazil (2001)

Asia
Singapore, Singapore
Golden Temple, India
Taj Mahal, India
Bali, Indonesia
Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka
The Maldives, Maldives
Terracotta Army, China

(visited)
Bangkok, Thailand (1994/2002)
Great Wall, China (2005)
Angkor Wat, Cambodia (1995/2006)
Himalayas, Nepal (2006)
Hong Kong, Hong Kong (2006)

Europe
Rome, Italy

(visited)
Paris, France (1980/2007)
Venice, Italy (1977/1982)
Barcelona, Spain (2001/2007)
Iceland, Iceland (1992)
Zermatt, Switzerland (1992/2005)

Middle-East
Dubai, United Arab Emirates

(visited)
Petra, Jordan (2003)

Oceania
Bora Bora, French Polynesia
South Island, New Zealand
Auckland, New Zealand

(visited)
Sydney, Australia (1996/2005)
Uluru, Australia (1996)
Great Barrier Reef, Australia (1996)   

Some pics are really crap, so good excuse to visit some of these places again  

Tags: 1994, 2003, 2007, 2008, 24, 914, arc, asia, ATT, Bangkok, BBC, before you die, best of, blog, ces, emirates, europe, find, Flickr, gap, himalaya, HP, ia, ict, im, japan, lan, language, list, location, MIT, must see, Nepal, nomadcom.net, paris, pet, photo, review, sco, space, switzerland, Thailand, Travel, uk, USA, viewers, wp, www, XP

As I'm not a big fan of Christmas & New Year parties, I took few days off, un-plugged everything and flew "ahead in time"..to year Poush 2063 of the Nepali calendar. 

These 10 "disconnected" days were spent in the Kathmandu Valley visiting ancient cities, buddhist & hindu temples while enjoying the surrounding of Himalayan summits. All pictures are available as usual in the Gallery

Happy New Year !

Tags: 2007, art, blog, christmas, cities, CTU, himalaya, HP, ict, im, kathmandu, lan, MIT, Nepal, New pictures, new year, nomadcom.net, Photography, picture, sco, space, Travel, wp