Hawaii impression

　　For most of us, Hawaii begins to weave her spellwith some little glimmer of awareness. Golden beaches and golden people. Sun, sand, sea, and surf……And somewhere between the blue skies and the palm trees……we're hooked.


　　The Hawaiian Islands are one of the most beautiful places on earth. The weather is friendly. The temperature ranges from 60-90 degrees all year long. It's a little warmer in summer, and a little cooler in winter, but every day is a beach day for somebody.

　　There are no strangers in Paradise. Perhaps the most beautiful part of Hawaii is the genuine warmth of people. We call it the spirit of Aloha. It has allowed a melting pot of cultures from all over the world to find common ground, and a new home, in this most gentle of places.


　　1.hook

　　He was surprised to see hookers move into the next apartment.

　　I warned Sally not to believe that man's stories about how rich he was, but she swallowed them hook, line and sinker. After she married him, she found out he owed money to everbody in his office.

　
　　Hey! Since you're a friend of Bill's, why don't you hook me up?
　　2.Aloha

　

　　all day/night long



　　An idle young man finds fun in seeking casual joy and love all day long.


　　He didn't sleep a wink last night because he kept cough all night long.

　

St.Petersburg

Spotlight on St.Petersburg

　　St.Petersburg.The very name brings to mind some of Russia's greatest poets,writers and composers:Pushkin,Dostoevsky,Tchaikovsky.The 19th century was a golden age for St.Petersburg's wealthy classes.It was a world of ballets and balls,of art and literature,of tea and caviar.


　　The golden age ended with the advent of World War 1.Working people were growing more and more discontented.In 1917,Communism came,promising peace and prosperity.



　　St.Petersburg had become Petrograd in 1914.People wanted a Russian name for their city.Ten years later,the city's name changed again,this time to Leningrad.Then in 1991,Leningraders voted to restore the city's original name.Some people opposed the name change altogether.Others thought it was just too soon.Old,run-down Soviet Leningrad,they said,was not the St.Petersburg of 19th-century literature.


　　What,then,is St.Petersburg?In the confusing post-Communist world,no one really knows.The quiet,if Soviet-style,dignity is gone.The Communist sayings are down,and gaudy advertising up.Candy bars and cigarettes are sold from boxy,tasteless kiosks.And clothing?Well,anything goes.Everyone wants to be a little different.But many people do not know the true meaning of freedom.Personal crime has gone up,up,up in the past few years.

　　Yet in spite of this,you can still find some of the city's grand past.Stand at the western tip of Vasilievsky Island.To the right is the elegant Winter Palace,former home of the czars.Its light blue sides and white classical columns make it perhaps St.Petersburg's most graceful building.It houses one of the worlds most famous art museums:the Hermitage.Inside,20km of galleries house thousands of works of art.Look over your right shoulder.The massive golden dome of St.Isaac's Cathedral rises above the skyline.You'll see,too,why St.Petersburg is called a "floating city."Standing there,nearly surrounded by water,you can see four of the city's 42islands.

　　Cross the bridge and turn behind the Winter Palace.In the middle of the huge Palace Square stands the Alexander Column.It commemorates Russia's victory over Napoleon.The 650-ton granite column is not attached to the base in any way.Its own weight keeps it upright.Hoisted into place in 1832,it has stood there ever since.

　　Continue to Nevsky Prospekt,the heart of the old city.Let the crowds hurry by while you take your time.Admire the fine carving on bridges and columns,above doorways and windows.Cross over canals and pass by smaller palaces and other classical structures.Let your eyes drink in the light blues,greens,yellows and pinks.

　　Take time to wander among Kazan Cathedral's semi circle of enormous brown columns.Or, if you prefer Russian-style architecture,cross the street and follow the canal a short distance.The Church of the Resurrection occupies the site where Czar Alexander 11was assassinated in 1881.

　　Travel outside the city to Petrodvorets Palace for a taste of old imperial grandeur.After a visit to France in the late 17th century,Peter the Great decided to build a palace for himself better than Versailles.His dream never came true in his lifetime.It took almost two centuries to complete the palace and park complex.

　　Seldom does any city have the chance to reinvent itself.That chance has now come to St.Petersburg.A few people might hope to return to the glory of the past,but most know that is impossible.They want to preserve the best of past eras and push ahead.You can bet the city won't be old St.Petersburg,but something altogether different.

the Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls comprises three distinct cataracts. The tallest are the American and Bridal Veil falls on the American side, separated by tiny Luna Island and plunging over jagged rocks in a 180ft drop; the broad Horseshoe Falls which curve their way over to Canada are probably the most impressive. They date back a mere twelve thousand years, when the retreat of melting glaciers allowed water trapped in Lake Erie to gush north to Lake Ontario. Back then the falls were seven miles downriver, but constant erosion has cut them back to their present site. The falls are colorfully lit up at night, and many say they're most beautiful in winter, when the grounds are covered in snow and the waters turn to ice.

　　The best views on the American side are from the Prospect Point Observation Tower (daily; 50￠), and from the area at its base where the water rushes past; Terrapin Point on Goat Island in the middle of the river has similar views of Horseshoe Falls. The nineteenth-century tightrope-walker Blondin crossed the Niagara repeatedly near here, and even carried passengers across on his back; other suicidal fools over the years have taken the plunge in barrels. One survivor among the many fatalities was the Englishman Bobby Leach, who went over in a steel barrel in July 1911 and had to spend the rest of the year in hospital. That practice has since been banned (though a couple of maniacs did it in summer 1995 and came away with minor bruises), for reasons which become self-evident when you approach the towering cascade on the not-to-be-missed Maid of the Mist boat trip from the foot of the observation tower (summer Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat & Sun 10am-6pm; $8.50; 716/284-4233). From Goat Island, the Cave of the Winds tour leads down to the base of the falls by elevator to within almost touching distance of the water (mid-May to late Oct; $5.50). A combination pass for these and other attractions costs $16. Rainbow helicopter tours (716/284-2800) are a more expensive proposition at $40 per person for a ten-minute ride. To check the view out from Niagara Falls, Ontario, it's a twenty-minute walk across the Rainbow Bridge to the Canadian side (25￠ each way; bring ID, and check with US Immigration officials before heading across), where you get an arguably better view, bigger crowds and even more tawdry commercialism. Driving across is inadvisable: the toll for a car is just 75￠, but parking on the other side is upwards of $15.

　　As you look on in awe, reflect that you're seeing only about half the volume of water - the rest is diverted to hydroelectric power stations. The full story of this engineering feat is related at the free Niagara Power Project Visitors Center in nearby Lewiston (July & Aug daily 9am-6pm; Sept-June daily 10am-5pm; 716/285-3211). With your own transportation it's also possible to trace the inhospitable Niagara Gorge two miles along the dramatic Robert Moses Parkway to the Whirlpool Rapids, a violent maelstrom swollen by broken trees and other flotsam.

　　Ten miles east of Niagara Falls, the town of LOCKPORT takes its name from the series of locks that raise and lower boats some 65ft at the western end of the Erie Canal. You can see the impressive flight of locks from the Pine Street Bridge, or up close on canal boat tours (May - Nov daily at 12.30 & 3pm, also 10am on Sat; $9; 716/693-3260).

Bali

Have you heard of Bali, a place to the south of Indonesia? It's a small island but is becoming more and more famous by its fascinating tourist attractions enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of people from world at large. Bali is so picturesque that you could be fooled into thinking it was a painted backdrop: rice paddies trip down hillsides like giant steps, volcanoes soar through the clouds, the forests are lush and tropical, and the beaches are lapped by the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. But the postcard paradise gloss has been manufactured and polished by the international tourist industry rather than by the Balinese themselves who don't even have a word for paradise in their language.

　　When to Visit

　　Just considering the weather, the cooler dry season from April to October is the best time to visit Bali. The rest of the year is more humid, cloudier and has more rainstorms, but you can still enjoy a holiday.

　　There are also distinct tourist seasons that affect the picture. The European summer holidays bring the biggest crowds —— July, August and early September are busy. Accommodation can be tight in these months and prices are higher.

　　Balinese festivals, holidays and special celebrations occur all the time, so don't worry about timing your visit to coincide with local events. It could be a nice treat to fuse into the local culture and enjoy the traditional cuisine and local delicacies.

　　Off-beaten Tourist AttractionsKuta and Legian

　　Including the two beach sites of Kuta and Legian, this area is a major sightseeing for travelers, offering cheap accommodation, Western food, great shopping, surf, sunsets and riotous nightlife. Although it's fashionable to contempt Kuta for its rampant development, low-brow nightlife, the cosmopolitan mixture of beach-party and entrepreneurial energy can be exciting.

　　Kuta is not pretty but it's not dull either, and the amazing growth is evidence that a lot of people still find something to appreciate in Kuta. It's still the best beach in Bali, with the only surf, which breaks over sand instead of coral. Lots of cheap accommodation is available and there's a huge choice of places to eat. Shops and venders offer everything from local handcrafts to genuine antiques. Even the tourists themselves have become a tourist attraction, with visitors swarming into this small island on the tropical area.Behind the beaches, roads and alleys lead back to the most amazing district of hotels, restaurants, bars, food stalls and shops. The renowned Poppies Gang, running directly back from Kuta Beach, is where most of the quieter, inexpensive hostels and restaurants are located. Cheap beachfront accommodation is available in Legian; the lanes running parallel to the beach are the best places to start trawling for a decent bed.

　　The Bali Museum

　　The Bali Museum consists of an attractive series of separate buildings, including examples of both palace and temple architecture. The exhibits themselves are not always well presented, but there are enough arts and crafts and everyday items displayed to make it worthwhile. The tiny cane cases for transporting fighting crickets are pretty special. The Abiankapas arts center houses a collection of modern painting and woodcarving. Dancing groups and gamelan orchestras regularly perform here, mostly for the benefit of tourists.

　　Ubud

　　Situated in the hills 20km north of Denpasar, Ubud is the serene cultural center of Bali. Extensive development in recent years has meant that Ubud has engulfed a number of nearby villages, although these have retained their distinct identities. Head off in any direction and you're in for an interesting walk to a secluded craft hamlet, through the rice paddies or into the dense Monkey Forest, just south of the town center.

　　In Ubud itself, the Puri Lukisan Museum displays fine examples of all schools of Balinese art in a beautiful garden setting. There are several other quality galleries such as Museum Neka, which features work of some Western artists who have painted in Bali, and Agung Rai Gallery, a commercial operation which also houses a small, but important, permanent collection. The homes of influential Western artists Walter Spies and Rudolf Bonnet, who played key roles in transforming Balinese art from the purely decorative, can also be viewed. Ubud is a good place to see Balinese dancing and hear Balinese music, and it has some of the finest restaurants on the island.

　　Tenganan

　　The ancient village of Tenganan, inland from the east coast port of Padangbai, can only be reached by motorbike or on foot. It's a walled Bali Aga village, busy with unusual customs, festivals and practices. It's the center for the weaving of the little-seen double ikat cloth, and ancient versions of gamelan and accompanying dances are performed here. The nearby towns of Amlapura and Tirtagangga are known for their decaying water palaces - relics of the power of the Balinese rajahs - which are surrounded by beautiful terraced rice paddies.

　　The Bali Barat National Park

　　The Bali Barat National Park covers nearly all the coral reef and coastal waters. Most of the natural vegetation in the park is coastal savanna with deciduous trees, which become bare in the dry season. Over 200 species of plants inhabit the various environments. Animals include black monkeys, leaf monkeys and macaques; Java, barking, sambar and mouse deer; squirrels, wild pigs, buffalos, iguanas and pythons. The bird life is prolific, with many of Bali's 200 species represented, including the striking Bali starling. The park's attractions include hot springs, uninhabited Deer Island (which has great diving) and guided jungle treks.

　　Transportation

　　Transport from Ngurah Rai international airport, 2.5km south of Kuta, is quite simple. Choose from an official taxi counter, where you pay a set price in advance, or walk across the airport car park and hail a metered cab. The lightly-laden can walk straight up the road to Kuta, although it's a more pleasant stroll along the beach. The main forms of public transport on Bali are the cheap buses and bemos (minibus) that run on more or less set routes within or between towns. If you want your own transport, you can charter a bemo or rent a car, motorcycle or bicycle. The Balinese drive on the left, use their horns a lot and give way to traffic pulling onto the road. Tourist shuttle buses, running between the major tourist centers, are more expensive than public transport but are also more comfortable and convenient.

　　So, after such a descriptive guide about this tiny little island in the South East Asia, are you in the mood of visiting it. It's worthwhile for sure.

Ethiopia's enchanting

　Much of the fascination of Ethiopia lies in its myriad historical sites, the obelisks and stele of Axum, the churches and coptic monasteries in the Tigre, in the Lake Tana isles and in the Lalibela: the African Jerusalem with its monolithic churches. In Ethiopia there are also nine national parks, two of which include the mountain groups of the Simien and the Bale, while the others lie in the Rift Valley towards Kenya. The unforeseeable wild landscapes are surely the main attraction of these parks, where many of the animal species are protected, and some of them are endemic to the area. The proximity of Ethiopia to the Equator and the variety of its habitats make it one of the richest countries in Africa in wild bird life.

　　History and nature are not the only attractions of this surprising country. It is a unique experience to come into contact with its people, so deeply rooted in their traditional culture, to participate in religious rites in one of the many Coptic churches, to meet native populations like the Hamer, the Mursi, the Caro and the many others whose lifestyle is hard to imagine today, so far is it from our modern life.

Ethiopia's enchanting

　Much of the fascination of Ethiopia lies in its myriad historical sites, the obelisks and stele of Axum, the churches and coptic monasteries in the Tigre, in the Lake Tana isles and in the Lalibela: the African Jerusalem with its monolithic churches. In Ethiopia there are also nine national parks, two of which include the mountain groups of the Simien and the Bale, while the others lie in the Rift Valley towards Kenya. The unforeseeable wild landscapes are surely the main attraction of these parks, where many of the animal species are protected, and some of them are endemic to the area. The proximity of Ethiopia to the Equator and the variety of its habitats make it one of the richest countries in Africa in wild bird life.

　　History and nature are not the only attractions of this surprising country. It is a unique experience to come into contact with its people, so deeply rooted in their traditional culture, to participate in religious rites in one of the many Coptic churches, to meet native populations like the Hamer, the Mursi, the Caro and the many others whose lifestyle is hard to imagine today, so far is it from our modern life.

The Pyramids，Egypt

Built 4,000 years ago, the three great pyramids at Giza, in the Egyptian desert remain the most colossal1 buildings ever constructed.
The pyramids were built by Egyptians under the orders of the Egyptian leader, whose title was Pharaoh2. There was a sequence of Pharaohs culminating3 around 2615 B.C., with the Pharaoh Cheops who built the biggest thing ever built, the Great Pyramid, also known as Khufu. Cheops built a pyramid 770 feet on one side and 481 feet tall. How ancient builders managed to build these massive structures has never been fully answered but the effort clearly required brains and brawn4.
Was there engineering genius involved? Yes, there was. For example, when you're putting the block right at the top, how are you going to lug5 a block of stone that weighs several tons 480 feet up a structure? How are you going to do it, and how are you going to do it without leaving scratches6 on all the rest of the structure? And how many people does it take to drag a block weighing several tons 480 feet up into the sky? Approximately, 2.3 million blocks of stone were cut, transported and assembled to create the Great Pyramid.

The Pharaohs may have set out to build magnificent tombs for themselves, but in the end they created monuments to human potential. There's a universal message in the pyramids. The pyramids belong to Egypt, but the pyramids also belong to the world. That's why we can all identify the pyramids as an early monument of human greatness.

the Statue of Liberty

Out of all of America's symbols, none has proved more enduring or evocative than the Statue of Liberty. This giant figure, torch in hand and clutching a stone tablet, has for a century acted as a figurehead for the American Dream; indeed there is probably no more immediately recognizable profile in existence. It's worth remembering that the statue is - for Americans at least - a potent reminder that the USA is a land of immigrants: it was New York Harbor where the first big waves of European immigrants arrived, their ships entering through the Verrazano Narrows to round the bend of the bay and catch a first glimpse of "Liberty Enlightening the World" - an end of their journey into the unknown, and the symbolic beginning of a new life.

　　These days, although only the very wealthy can afford to arrive here by sea, and a would-be immigrant's first (and possibly last) view of the States is more likely to be the customs check at JFK Airport, Liberty remains a stirring sight, with Emma Lazarus's poem, The New Colossus, written originally to raise funds for the statue's base, no less quotable than when it was written……

　　Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips."Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse to your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

　　The statue, which depicts Liberty throwing off her shackles and holding a beacon to light the world, was the creation of the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who crafted it a hundred years after the American Revolution in recognition of solidarity between the French and American people (though it's fair to add that Bartholdi originally intended the statue for Alexandria in Egypt). Bartholdi built Liberty in Paris between 1874 and 1884, starting with a terracotta model and enlarging it through four successive versions to its present size, a construction of thin copper sheets bolted together and supported by an iron framework designed by Gustave Eiffel. The arm carrying the torch was exhibited in Madison Square Park for seven years, but the whole statue wasn't officially accepted on behalf of the American people until 1884, after which it was taken apart, crated up and shipped to New York.

　　It was to be another two years before it could be properly unveiled: money had to be collected to fund the construction of the base, and for some reason Americans were unwilling - or unable - to dip into their pockets. Only through the campaigning efforts of newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer, a keen supporter of the statue, did it all come together in the end. Richard Morris Hunt built a pedestal around the existing star-shaped Fort Wood, and Liberty was formally dedicated by President Cleveland on October 28, 1886, in a flag-waving shindig that has never really stopped. The statue was closed for a few years in the mid-1980s for extensive renovation and, in 1986, fifteen million people descended on Manhattan for the statue's centennial celebrations.

　　Today you can climb steps up to the crown, but the cramped stairway though the torch sadly remains closed to the public. Don't be surprised if there's an hour-long wait to ascend. Even if there is, Liberty Park's views of the lower Manhattan skyline, the twin towers of the World Trade Center lording it over the jutting teeth of New York's financial quarter, are spectacular enough.