Knut the Polar Bear has made the Berlin Zoo even more popular and when you see the cute little bugger on this video you will see why he is gorgeous. But the Berlin Zoo is more than just Knut there are a huge variety of fascinating animals to see including monkeys, penguins, kangaroos, ostriches, hippos, tigers, and some pretty weird and mean looking wart hogs among other things. The zoo also features an Aquarium which is ranked as one of the world’s best and includes tropical reefs and even sharks. The Berlin Zoo is right in the heart of the city- near Zoo Station, where else and is a great experience for young and old.
Posts under ‘Youtube of the week’
Spend the night in a shipping container
We think shipping containers are pretty cool, after they spend their lives moving products around the world they can be recycled into other products either by being squished up into a new metal item or being used as is for the very popular shipping container storage shed. Well here is another use for the humble shipping container, a hotel. Traveloge in London is constructing a hotel made out of shipping containers, the containers are fitted out in China and then lifted in to position to form a multi story hotel in Uxbridge, West London. It may be ugly but its recycled and construction has been fast and cheap, its also possible to move the hotel when the need arises making the concept a good idea for short term events also. Check out the video above and let us know if you would stay in a shipping container hotel. Read the rest of this entry »
A rollercoaster while you shop? whats going on here?
We have featured a lot of weird and whacky attractions and things to see around the world on Tripandom but this one even shocked us! It’s a supermarket in China which has a rollercoaster like ride built around the isles of the supermarket where people can just reach out from the little car and pick up their groceries. No longer do you have to fight your way through dozen’s of chatting people with kids and trolleys, you just hop on this system and cruise around the supermarket. The only problem if you forget toothpaste you cant go backwards you have to go around the supermarket again- but who cares, it’s more fun. One report we read said the trip around the supermarket took about 2 hours on the ride, so it might not be the most practical place to go for a loaf of bread. The supermarket is located in Shenyang, which is is the capital city of Liaoning province in Northeast China with a population of about 7.2 million residents about 500km north east of Beijing. Lets hope the big supermarket chains take note and start installing them everywhere.
Harbin Ice Festival in China
Harbin is located in north east China, it lies east of Mongolia an just below Siberia and at this time of the year it is freezing, during the day expect -2f on a good day and -19f during the night. But what better way to celebrate the icy conditions than to have an ice festival. The festival is great fun with ice rides, ice bars and some amazing sculptures. At night the ice becomes magical with a kaleidoscope of coloured lights. This YouTube video gives you a great insight into the fun and the clever artists who create these works of icy art.
Is it a Capsule Hotel or a Coffin
When it comes to interesting and odd inventions you can’t beat the Japanese. The Capsule Hotel was first developed in 1979 as cheap accommodation in space starved Osaka and the idea quickly caught on across all of Japan. Check out the video above to get an idea of what a capsule hotel is like, but essentially they are prefabricated fiberglass boxes that are large enough to lay down in. They are piled into a large room with each floor having shared bathroom facilities and possibly some lockers and a vending machine. If you have ever stayed at a backpacker hostel this type of hotel could be considered luxurious with its extra privacy of your own personal capsule. Capsule Hotels are generally located near train stations as their customers are normally drunk Japanese salarymen who have missed the last train home. Very few capsule hotels allow woman to stay and some don’t like foreigners at all, but if your up for a cheap and quirky night’s rest in Japan it would be worth hunting one down.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
One of Disney’s newest parks opening about 9 years ago, is the Disney Animal Kindom at Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida. This great You Tube documentary/ad gives you a great insight into the fun and adventure of this great park. There looks like there is so much to do and so much to learn about the animal world at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The park has all the expected Disney fun, with state of the art rides and attractions and of course all your fury friends are there, but this Disney park is different it has wild animals- not anamatronic ones like the other parks- real live animals. Join the tour on a ride through the Kilimanjaro on a safari tour and see Zebra, rhino, lion and girrafe grazing peacefully in the Florida sun. Trek through the Asian jungles and see live endangered tigers, bats, komodo dragons and taipirs or step back in time and see the amazing dinosaurs on an adventure thrill ride Disney’s Animal Kingdom makes Walt Disney World even better. Read the rest of this entry »
Disney Christmas Parade
Everyone loves a parade, and one of the biggest and the best is the Disneyland Christmas Parade the highlight of any trip to one of the 5 themeparks around the world. This great You Tube video shows the fun of the 2006 parade at Walt Disneyworld’s Florida Magic Kingdom. It is sensational with all your Disney favorites and some special festive fun. Just about every fury Disney Character, Princess, the Mouse and all his friends and of course Santa make this parade Read the rest of this entry »
Pachinko – gambling Japan style
The pachinko parlor is a type of gaming hall that is unique to Japan. A pachinko machine uses small steel balls that players load into the machine in order to win more balls, because gambling for cash is illegal in Japan you then can exchange these balls for prizes or tokens which can generally be exchanged for cash at a booth next door getting around the anti gambling laws. If you are in Japan its worth taking a quick wander around a pachinko parlor to experience the noise of thousands of steel balls clunking around the machines with j pop and beeping and buzzing noises turned up extra loud to drown out the sound of the balls. If that doesn’t annoy you enough the cloud of cigarette smoke surly will, as the pachinko parlor is one of the last indoor places where you can smoke in Japan. Read the rest of this entry »
The John Lennon Memorial in Central Park
John Lennon was tragically taken 27 years ago this month and once again thousands of people visited the Strawberry Fields Memorial in New York’s Central Park. The memorial is close to the Dakota Building where John lived and was murdered on December 8, 1980. The memorial is set in a 2.5 acre landscaped area of the park and is dedicated to Lennon. The memorial opened on what would have been Lennon’s 45th Birthday on October 9th 1985 and was underwritten by Yoko Ono, Lennon’s widow. The gardens are not only a place to celebrate the life of John Lennon, it is a place to reflect peace, during the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11 2001 the gardens were used by hundreds for prayer and reflection of the happening events.
I left my heart in San Francisco
San Francisco is one of the world’s most beautiful bayside cities. The Golden Gate Bridge, Pier 39, the Trolley Cars and Alcatraz this city is an amazing holiday destination. Explore the city, the waterfront, the great food, the parks and gardens and meet the friendly people. This week’s You Tube of the weeks shows some of the beautiful sites all set to an amazing soundtrack.
