Tag: village

A journey to a Moroccan village frozen in time

Loknath Das

Our vehicle wound ever higher up the earthen road cutting through Morocco’s High Atlas mountains. Below me, the red soil spilled like wine between green dots of forest and sheets of white snow. I lost myself in the dizzying beauty of North Africa’s tallest peaks, and as I nervously peered out of the window, I saw there was no guardrail separating us from the sharp ledge and distant valley below. Our journey had started an hour earlier at the base of the mountain along an ancient caravan trail that connects…

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Offbeat destinations: Bird language spoken in this Turkish village now on Unesco list

Loknath Das

The next time you are in Turkey, go off the beaten tourist circuit and visit Kuskoy – the village in district Canakci in Giresun province where people communicate through bird sounds. The unusual and very efficient whistle language used as a means of communication by villagers in remote northern Turkey has entered the Unesco list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Unesco has accepted the “bird language” of Black Sea villagers as an endangered part of world heritage in need of urgent protection, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday. Around 10,000 people,…

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Not just flowers, even walls are in bloom all year in this Polish village. See pics

Loknath Das

Danuta Dymon, 70, has been at it since the sun came up, dressed from head to toe in clothes also displaying her brushstroke. “As you can see I’m covered in flowers,” she said, adding neon green leaves to the fluorescent orange and pink garland spanning the fence’s brick base in front of her home in Zalipie, in southern Poland. Danuta Dymon painting traditional flower patterns on her fence in Zalipie. (AFP) Dymon is known around the farming village for having painted flowers on virtually everything under her roof: the ceiling,…

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Indonesia’s ‘rainbow village’ becomes an internet sensation. See pics

Loknath Das

An Indonesian hamlet dubbed ‘the rainbow village’ after being given a makeover in a kaleidoscope of colours is attracting hordes of visitors and has become an internet sensation. The collection of about 200 modest homes on a hillside above a river used to be a typical, low-income Indonesian neighbourhood that was filthy and gloomy. But residents of the Wonosari community in Semarang decided an extreme makeover was needed, and received money from the local government and several companies to carry out the project. Villagers relax along a path in Semarang….

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Athletes say Village much improved but gripes remain

subhadip

Despite lingering issues with plumbing and laundry, athletes and training staff say the Olympic Village is much improved, nine days after blocked toilets and exposed wiring forced the Australian team to move. Organisers hired around 600 people to work on repairing the 31-building complex housing more than 17,000 participants at the Rio de Janeiro Games and within days they had coaxed the Aussies back. “At first we had some problems but they were fixed and we’re happy with the place. The rooms are even bigger than in London (2012),” said…

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Tourists are obsessed with this small English village and no one knows why

subhadip

AN ORDINARY English village is dealing with an extraordinary mystery. Asian tourists are flocking to Kidlington, Oxfordshire, by the busload — and none of the locals can understand why. It was about a month ago residents first noticed packed tour buses arriving in the village — which has a population of about 13,700 — and they’re continuing to arrive in droves. The village doesn’t have a particularly unique history and it has no obvious attractions, locals say. Still, packs of curious tourists pour out of the buses each week, peering…

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