Category: Travel

The Full Moon Party is an all-night beach party that originated in Haad Rin on the island of Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand on the night of, before or after every full moon. It is mostly attended by tourists.

The first Full Moon Party was improvised at a Paradise Bungalows on the beach in 1988, for giving thanks to about 20–30 travelers. The parties gained fame through word of mouth, and the event now draws a crowd of about 5,000–30,000 every full moon evening. The party carries on until the sun rises the next day. The bars on the sunrise beach of Haad Rin town stay open and play music such as psychedelic trance, R&B, drum and bass, house, dance and reggae. The modern event has become a part of the itinerary of many travellers to Southeast Asia.

The success of the Full Moon Party prompted the creation of “Half Moon”, “Black (sic. New) Moon”, and other parties. The ruling military government in late-2014 banned all but the Full Moon Party, the application of sweeping edicts such as this, a proven method of levering the secondary party organizers and local business people adhoc into garnishing further contributions to said administrative coffers. but the 2014 edict may not have been observed by local authorities, given that, as of 5 April 2015, all parties except the Full Moon Party were again banned on Ko Pha Ngan.

The success of the Full Moon Party prompted the creation of “Half Moon”, “Black (sic. New) Moon”, and other parties.

This is to stop the noise pollution which has become a constant source of irritation for the islanders. The ban was ordered by Pha Ngan district chief officer, Mr Krirkkrai Songthani, after a meeting with local leaders on 3 April to discuss complaints from many residents about the various parties which are held up to 25 times a month at one coconut plantation or another on the island.

However, these bans are only ever short lived, and lapse once they have served their unstated purpose. Allowing the re-proliferation of parties. Given the junta’s stated goal of attracting higher-class (wealthier) tourists, it is unclear how much longer the Full Moon Party will be permitted to continue. Already, the Tourist Authority of Thailand (TAT) webpage for Ko Pha Ngan barely makes mention of the Full Moon Party. A police colonel summed up the attitude of the new government when he said, “The sort of tourist that comes here to drink too much and take drugs are not the type that Thailand wants.”

Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal (Nepali: सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल Sanghiya Loktāntrik Ganatantra Nepāl), is a landlocked country in South Asia located mainly in the Himalayas but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain.

With an estimated population of 26.4 million, it is 48th largest country by population and 93rd largest country by area. It borders China in the north and India in the south, east, and west while Bangladesh is located within only 27 km (17 mi) of its southeastern tip and Bhutan is separated from it by the Indian state of Sikkim. A Himalayan state, Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, and eight of the world’s ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Kathmandu is the nation’s capital and largest city. Nepal is a multiethnic nation with Nepali as the official language.

The name “Nepal” is first recorded in texts from the Vedic Age, the era which founded Hinduism, the predominant religion of the country. In the middle of the first millennium BCE, Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in southern Nepal. Parts of northern Nepal were intertwined with the culture of Tibet. The centrally located Kathmandu Valley was the seat of the prosperous Newar confederacy known as Nepal Mandala.

The Himalayan branch of the ancient Silk Road was dominated by the valley’s traders. The cosmopolitan region developed distinct traditional art and architecture. By the 18th century, the Gorkha Kingdom achieved the unification of Nepal. The Shah dynasty established the Kingdom of Nepal and later formed an alliance with the British Empire, under its Rana dynasty of premiers. The country was never colonised but served as a buffer state between Imperial China and Colonial India. Parliamentary democracy was introduced in 1951, but was twice suspended by Nepalese monarchs in 1960 and 2005. The Nepalese Civil War in the 1990s and early 2000s resulted in the proclamation of a secular republic in 2008, ending the reign of the world’s last Hindu monarchy.

The country was never colonised but served as a buffer state between Imperial China and Colonial India. Parliamentary democracy was introduced in 1951, but was twice suspended by Nepalese monarchs in 1960 and 2005.

Wikipedia

The Constitution of Nepal, adopted in 2015, establishes Nepal as a federal secular parliamentary republic divided in seven provinces. Nepal was admitted to the United Nations in 1955, and friendship treaties were signed with India in 1950 and the People’s Republic of China in 1960. Nepal hosts the permanent secretariat of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), of which it is a founding member. Nepal is also a member of the Non Aligned Movement and the Bay of Bengal Initiative. The military of Nepal is the fifth largest in South Asia and is notable for its Gurkha history, particularly during the world wars, and has been a significant contributor to United Nations peacekeeping operations.

Local legends have it that a Hindu sage named “Ne” established himself in the valley of Kathmandu in prehistoric times, and that the word “Nepal” came into existence as the place was protected (“pala” in Pali) by the sage “Nemi”. It is mentioned in Vedic texts that this region was called Nepal centuries ago. According to the Skanda Purana, a rishi called “Nemi” used to live in the Himalayas. In the Pashupati Purana, he is mentioned as a saint and a protector. He is said to have practised meditation at the Bagmati and Kesavati rivers and to have taught there.

The name of the country is also identical in origin to the name of the Newar people. The terms “Nepāl”, “Newār”, “Newāl” and “Nepār” are phonetically different forms of the same word, and instances of the various forms appear in texts in different times in history. Nepal is the learned Sanskrit form and Newar is the colloquial Prakrit form. A Sanskrit inscription dated 512 CE found in Tistung, a valley to the west of Kathmandu, contains the phrase “greetings to the Nepals” indicating that the term “Nepal” was used to refer to both the country and the people.

It has been suggested that “Nepal” may be a Sanskritization of “Newar”, or “Newar” may be a later form of “Nepal”. According to another explanation, the words “Newar” and “Newari” are vulgarisms arising from the mutation of P to V, and L to R.

Geologically, a fjord or fiord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. There are many fjords on the coasts of Alaska, British Columbia, Chile, Greenland, Iceland, the Kerguelen Islands, New Zealand, Norway, Novaya Zemlya, Labrador, Nunavut, Newfoundland, Scotland, and Washington state.

Norway’s coastline is estimated at 29,000 kilometres (18,000 mi) with 1,190 fjords, but only 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi) when fjords are excluded.

A true fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by ice segregation and abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. According to the standard model, glaciers formed in pre-glacial valleys with a gently sloping valley floor. The work of the glacier then left an overdeepened U-shaped valley that ends abruptly at a valley or trough end. Such valleys are fjords when flooded by the ocean. Thresholds above sea level create freshwater lakes. Glacial melting is accompanied by the rebounding of Earth’s crust as the ice load and eroded sediment is removed (also called isostasy or glacial rebound). In some cases this rebound is faster than sea level rise.

Thresholds above sea level create freshwater lakes. Glacial melting is accompanied by the rebounding of Earth’s crust as the ice load and eroded sediment is removed

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Most fjords are deeper than the adjacent sea; Sognefjord, Norway, reaches as much as 1,300 m (4,265 ft) below sea level. Fjords generally have a sill or shoal (bedrock) at their mouth caused by the previous glacier’s reduced erosion rate and terminal moraine. In many cases this sill causes extreme currents and large saltwater rapids (see skookumchuck). Saltstraumen in Norway is often described as the world’s strongest tidal current. These characteristics distinguish fjords from rias (e.g. the Bay of Kotor), which are drowned valleys flooded by the rising sea. Drammensfjorden is cut almost in two by the Svelvik “ridge”, a sandy moraine that during the ice cover was under sea level but after the post-glacial rebound reaches 60 meters above the fjord.

Jens Esmark in the 19th century introduced the theory that fjords are or have been created by glaciers and that large parts of Northern Europe had been covered by thick ice in prehistory. Thresholds at the mouths and overdeepening of fjords compared to the ocean are the strongest evidence of glacial origin, and these thresholds are mostly rocky. Thresholds are related to sounds and low land where the ice could spread out and therefore have less erosive force. John Walter Gregory argued that fjords are of tectonic origin and that glaciers had a negligible role in their formation. Gregory’s views were rejected by subsequent research and publications. In the case of Hardangerfjord the fractures of the Caledonian fold has guided the erosion by glaciers, while there is no clear relation between the direction of Sognefjord and the fold pattern. This relationship between fractures and direction of fjords is also observed in Lyngen. Preglacial, tertiary rivers presumably eroded the surface and created valleys that later guided the glacial flow and erosion of the bedrock. This may in particular have been the case in Western Norway where the tertiary uplift of the landmass amplified eroding forces of rivers.

Confluence of tributatry fjords led to excavation of the deepest fjord basins. Near the very coast the typical West Norwegian glacier spread out (presumably through sounds and low valleys) and lost their concentration and reduced the glaciers’ power to erode leaving bedrock thresholds. Bolstadfjorden is 160 meters deep with a treshold of only 1.5 meters, while the 1300 meter deep Sognefjorden has a treshold around 100 to 200 meters deep. Hardangerfjord is made up of several basins separated by thresholds: The deepest basin Samlafjorden between Jonaneset (Jondal) og Ålvik with a distinct treshold at Vikingneset in Kvam.

Hanging valleys are common along glaciated fjords and U-shaped valleys. A hanging valley is a tributary valley that is higher than the main valley and were created by tributary glacier flows into a glacier of larger volume. The shallower valley appears to be ‘hanging’ above the main valley or a fjord. Often, waterfalls form at or near the outlet of the upper valley. Hanging valleys also occur under water in fjord systems. The branches of Sognefjord are for instance much shallower than the main fjord. The mouth of Fjærlandsfjord is about 400 meters deep while the main fjord is 1200 meters nearby. The mouth of Ikjefjord is only 50 meters deep while the main fjord is around 1300 meters at the same point.

Kuala Lumpur, officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (Malay: Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur), or commonly known as KL, is the national capital of Malaysia as well as its largest city in the country.

The only global city in Malaysia, it covers an area of 243 km2 (94 sq mi) and has an estimated population of 1.73 million as of 2016. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.25 million people as of 2017. It is among the fastest growing metropolitan regions in South-East Asia, in both population and economic development.

Kuala Lumpur is the cultural, financial and economic centre of Malaysia and home to the Parliament of Malaysia, and the official residence of the Malaysian King (Yang di-Pertuan Agong), the Istana Negara. The city once held the headquarters of the executive and judicial branches of the federal government as well, but they were moved to Putrajaya in early 1999. Some sections of the judiciary still remain in Kuala Lumpur.

The city once held the headquarters of the executive and judicial branches of the federal government as well, but they were moved to Putrajaya in early 1999. Some sections of the judiciary still remain in Kuala Lumpur.

Kuala Lumpur is one of three Federal Territories of Malaysia, enclaved within the state of Selangor, on the central west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Since the 1990s, the city has played host to many international sporting, political and cultural events including the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Kuala Lumpur has undergone rapid development in recent decades. It is home to the tallest twin buildings in the world, the Petronas Twin Towers, which have become an iconic symbol of Malaysia’s futuristic development.

Kuala Lumpur has a comprehensive road system that is supported by extensive public transport networks such as the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), Light Metro (LRT), Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), monorail, commuter rail and airport rail link. Kuala Lumpur is one of the leading cities in the world for tourism and shopping. It is the eighth most visited city in the world. The city is also home to three of the world’s 10 largest malls.

Kuala Lumpur has been ranked by the Economist Intelligence Unit Global Liveability Ranking at No. 70 out of 140 global cities, and second in Southeast Asia after Singapore at No. 35. Forbes has also named Kuala Lumpur at No. 6 in its list of 10 best cities to retire abroad, and the best in Asia, with factors including world class healthcare, affordable cost of living and widely spoken English. Kuala Lumpur was named as one of the New7Wonders Cities. Safe Cities Index 2017 has put Kuala Lumpur 31st on its world safest cities list, the highest ranked city for a developing country.