PlanetOddity.com » travel

Floating Village On Magical Tonle Sap Lake

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:00:22 +0000

In Cambodia there is three villages that are attached together and called Kampong Phluk. The interesting thing about them is that they float on the Tonle Sap lake that lies about 16 km southeast of Siem Reap. The houses in these villages are built on wood poles that vary from 6-8 meters.

The 3000 inhabitants feed themselves in the flooded mangrove forest surroundings that consist of much wildlife. When there are dry seasons the water level goes down so the houses are in a way levitating over it which can look pretty funny.

The lake Tonle Sap always reverses direction during the wet season, which makes it fill the lake, and it can thank the Mekong river for that. It is then one of the largest freshwater lakes in Asia, and hundreds of waterbirds live by it. Something completely similar are these floating islands on lake Titicaca in Peru.

Artistic Subway System Of Stockholm

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:54:14 +0000

When you enter the subway system in Stockholm, you’re not sure whether you’ve entered an art exhibition or a transport system. That subway system is said to be the longest art exhibition in the world, about 110 kilometers in length. There are 100 subway stations around Stockholm, and about 90 of them are decorated with old and new art. Everything from sculptures to paintings.

150 artists have participated in this project to make the Stockholm subway an amazing traveling experience, and it is part of a long tradition. When you sit on one of the trains and travel underground you feel like you are traveling through time. In some stations the roof has a bright and crazy color.

Another station looks like an archaeological excavation, while others have modern style several arrows painted in different directions. You can find all kind of art, and it’s open for everyone. Something completely opposite is this abandoned subway in Cincinnati.

Detroit – Town That Is Falling Apart

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:36:10 +0000

Detroit has become a ghostly town. Its population has really fell from 1950 till today. It used to live about 2 million people, now it lives only 700 000. No jobs and poverty has driven away families to live outside the city.

When driving through the city you will notice lots and lots of abandoned houses. Some of the houses are torn down by now, but photographer Kevin Bauman did capture a lot of them in the 90′s.

He wanted to create a record for these homes. The style of photographing is straight-on, like it’s supposed to be in a commercial catalog magazine. Here you have a selection of the most beautiful abandoned houses of Detroit.

Some are still going strong while others are really rusty and old. It’s a bit spooky I’ll admit. Other abandoned places is this French town in Cambodia.

The Hills We Wish Were Full Of Chocolate

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 22:18:18 +0000

The hills of Bohol province in the Philippines has nothing to do with chocolate, but still they are called the Chocolate hills. Disappointing, but true. We know you would all like to visit a chocolate heaven.

These hills got the name because during the summer times, the green grass turns into a chocolate brown color. The largest hill rises almost 400 feet, but they tend to be from 100 to 160 feet high.

Some say that the hills were named after the Hershey confection known as Chocolate Kisses, but the hills have probably been there a lot longer than the confection. There are a lot of myths connected to this place.

One beautiful story says that a giant fell in love with a mortal girl, and the day she died he couldn’t stop crying. When his tears dried the Chocolate Hills were made.

Today the hills are a major tourist attraction. It’s so popular that the national government has chosen the Chocolate Hills as one of its “flagship tourist destinations”. Speaking of beautiful but weird nature, take a look at this white and undiscovered desert in Egypt.

Storseisundet Bridge Of Norway Leads You To The Edge

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:38:13 +0000

They call it the drunk bridge or the bridge to nowhere, but it’s just the Storseisundet Bridge in Norway. It is a part of the “Atlanterhavsveien” which means Atlantic Ocean Road. A lot of tourists actually come here to see this crazy bridge, because it’s really something to see. It’s still a mystery why the bridge is built like that, but you get dizzy just by looking at it.

The Storseisundet Bridge is the longest of eight other bridges in that area, and definitely the weirdest one. It’s construction is supposed to go out horizontally, but that obviously failed. And the fun thing is that it’s different from several angles, which makes it so special.

From one angle it looks like the bridge has no end at all. If you decide to see this wonder you have to be really careful when driving over it, because it can trick you easily, and you don’t want to end up in the water, would you? But it’s better that a bridge is drunk rather than dangerous, like this one.

The Incredible Volga Delta

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 01:47:05 +0000

You will maybe recognize the river on these photos or maybe you’re not familiar with it. It’s the Volga Delta, the largest river delta in Europe. It drains into the Caspian Sea in Russia’s Astrakhan Oblast. During the past century Volga has grown because of level changes, but it’s still an amazing river delta. It has played a big role in Russian culture, and it still does.

When seeing the pictures you can notice how huge it is, and that is looks like a big network of little rivers, and there are round canes everywhere. As you can see there are no population or anything, maybe you’ll just spot a few fishermen here and there.

The area is so wide that most of it is desolated, just like a lot of other territories in Russia. But it is the only place in Russia where flamingos, pelicans and lotuses may be found.

The Volga Delta has been protected since the 1900s by a Russian nature preserves named “Astrakhan Nature Reserve”. Other beautiful rivers are these two that are actually meeting each other at some point and making a beautiful nature phenomenon.

Photos Via Sergey Dolya.

Beautiful Parts of West Siberia We Didn’t Know About

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 17:06:42 +0000

Photography with an “above-view” has always been popular. Here we have a selection of those kinds of photos of The Novosibirsk region which is a part of the West Siberian Plain. It’s a huge area that’s about 178,2 thousand square kilometres. It’s mainly plain but in north there are some huge woodland with lots of marshes.

There are two main rivers of this “oblast” (Russian for region) , the Ob and Om, and the biggest lakes are Chani, Sartlan, Ubinskoye, some with salt water which looks completely white. They all make wonderful nature that can be seen on the photos.

The region has a continental climate, -19C in winter and 19C in summer. Animals can also be spotted in the photos, but the green vegetation is stunning. You may also notice the border with Kazakhstan.

There are also some population here and there, and some farmlands. All in all a beautiful but forgotten part of this world. This lovely Siberian nature has been used to express art as well; the frozen lake of Baikal is now full of huge circles made by a talented artist.

Photos by Gelio.

Concordia Research – The Loneliest Place On Earth

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:15:03 +0000

Have you ever wondered how the end of this planet looks like? Now you guys got the chance. On the Antarctic Plateau in Antarctica there is located the Concordia Research Station which operate every day every year.

The summer temperature tend to be -25C, so just imagining the winter makes you scared. You would maybe think that this research station is run by Russians, but no, the truth is that it’s partly French and partly Italian.

It mostly measures climate and atmosphere but you never know, but the air has hardly pollution so it makes it perfectly fit for research. Just imagine how it was to built this station; they had to do it during the little warmer summers.

It is about 500 kilometers away from humans and it opened in 2005. And when I say humans, I mean people that work on the nearest station, so the Concordia is even further away population, and you can say that it’s the most lonely place on earth.

The workers use a lot of days just to get out there from where their airplane left them 1100 kilometer away.

There are no plants of animals, except for some seabirds called “skua”. Another place that is perfect for research is on the Norwegian island Svalbard.

Via Kuriositas.

Immortal Bridge In China Made From Rocks

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 22:16:05 +0000

The Yellow Mountains in China has some amazing heights. It is so high up there that you can literally see how the clouds are touching the mountain walls under you. That’s right, under you. One of the mountains Mount Tai has something that they call the Immortal Bridge. It’s basically a bridge that is made of three big rocks and several little ones, so it’s actually not a bridge that is made by humans.

Some say that the Immortal Bridge has been standing like this since the last ice ages, maybe that’s why the name sounds like that. Pretty impressive that it is that old!

Underneath the bridge there is a valley but just some meters south there is an endless abyss, so you don’t want to lose your balance while you’re up there. I doubt that they let you climb on the rocks, but I know for sure that they do some pretty crazy hiking up the Yellow Mountains.

So crazy that you are separated by inches from falling down into…well let’s not ruin the beauty of those mountains. Other scary bridges in the world is the Hussaini Hanging Bridge, it’s actually the most dangerous rope bridge in the world.

Mysterious Persian Cliff With A Lot Of History

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:00:45 +0000

North of the ancient city Persepolis in Iran is a weird cliff named Naqsh-i-Rustam located. The construction of the cliff is amazing, and it’s weird that people way back then actually succeeded in shaping it that way. It has massive doors that goes right into the walls of the cliff. It’s a total of 4 entrances that are shaped as giant crosses also known as Persian Crosses.

They are perfectly carved into the walls. Inside the entrances you will find a small camber where the king would be in his sarcophagus, but now it is empty of course. The cliff is also known as the Persian Empire and its rulers were Xerxes, Darius and Cyrus.

Outside it also has sculptures carved of people and horses, and the oldest ever recorded inscription bearing the name Iran are also to be found there. Today it’s a tourist attraction and a great way to get to know the old Persian history and culture. Something that can remind of the Persian Empire is this beautiful Cave City in Georgia that actually was a monastery.