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help

Posted on December 16, 2006 @ 12:15 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog,china,fear,illustration,news,people,travel,wordpress

subway-copy.jpg

In November 1994 I landed in Beijing’ International Airport, coming from Helsinki. As soon as I asked the basic information that I needed to go to the city centre, I realized that the language would be the problem for me while in China. Actually very few of the Chinese population spoke any English at all. Every traveller knows that a few words spoken in the local language will bring smiles of appreciation and establish friendly relationships between visitor and host. While I was well aware of the fact that my pronunciation of the local language did not correspond exactly to the pronunciation of native speakers (it was really was far beyond my objectives…), I was sure it must be within an acceptable range of variation: no way! I learned quickly that the tone can drastically alter the word’s meaning and these tones can not be learned from a guide book.
Just consider the sound “ma”: in the first tone it means mother, in the second tone it can mean hemp or numb; in the third tone it means horse, while in the fourth tone the meaning is to scold. Funny? You should also realize that the levels of the tones are not absolute but relative, depending on the speaker’s age or sex…A few days later I got lost in the over-overcrowded Beijing’s subway during the peak hour. Platform-signs were written only in Chinese and the people around me was too damn busy and in a hurry to even notice me. I felt lost and lonely and really needed some help to get out of there. But, as usual, nobody seemed to speak a single word of English, not to mention my pathetic efforts with the local tones and the like…Finally a gentle lady rescued me: smiling a lot, she asked me in perfect english were I was heading and pushed me on the right train.

Illustration Friday‘s topic is: help

a ghostly place…

Posted on October 22, 2006 @ 11:43 am by massimo | Filed under: bargain,blog,fear,illustration,news,people,philippines,travel,wordpress

ifugao sagada philippines cordillera aynaku illustration adobe

I once visited the ancient burial caves in the village of Sagada located in Northen Luzon’s Central Cordillera.
The area is home of the ancient Ifugao tribe, a former head hunters population who made -2000 thousand years ago- the stunning Banaue’s rice terraces that start from the base of the mountain range and reach up to several hundred meters high. Permeating Central Cordillera there are also Ifugao’s funerary customs peculiar enough to make a traveller an aspiring anthropologist.The formation of the lime stones with their hanging coffins are really spectacular and aw everyone. And everyone has his own theories on how the coffins were placed on seemingly impossible locations! I also learned that the natives of Sagada had a ceremonial burial ritual which involved placing their dead into hollowed-out logs and placing the coffins in caves; so I decided to venture with a native guide inside one of these caves. The place we headed to, was actually nothing more than a big hole hardly holding to people together. I entered the ghostly cave alone and remained for a little while to contemplate those skulls that seemed to glow in the darkness…

Illustration Friday’s topic is: ghost

goggles

Posted on October 7, 2006 @ 9:42 am by massimo | Filed under: beach,blog,fear,illustration,india,news,travel,wordpress

varkala kerala india aynaku illustration adobe

What a trouble for me getting my expensive goggles lost! I am a bit short-sighted and use to wear special goggles. Though they are not really necessary to me they become a fundamental item I rely on every time I jump into unknown waters. And Varkala was a real troubled spot, yes indeed!
Yet I was fit and trained and felt sure: the choppy sea wouldn’t fool me. So I dared the Ocean and enjoyed my self confidence while snaking through the waves for ten minutes or so. No problem. Under these circumstances I knew that the worst of it was getting the shore safely. You need some skill and extra effort while the breakers tumble you hard about, to avoid some powerful wave pushing you straight to the sand. Unless you don’t care that much about your backbone! So lulled by the “lovely” sea I was deeply considering my best strategy when an unnoticed, nasty wave took me and made me cutting underwater capers, once, twice, then it took my goggles away and blinded me, throwing finally my half drowned and wrecked body to the firm land…
Do you know the old song telling “…trouble you can fool me, I see you behind that tree…you want to jump on me…”? I should say that my valuable goggles couldn’t help me to see a real trouble: perhaps it wasn’t only them.

Illustration Friday‘s topic is: trouble

claustrophobia

Posted on September 24, 2006 @ 4:57 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog,boracay,diving,fear,illustration,island,people,philippines,wordpress

In clear water at 30 meters, everything is blue-grey; in murky water at the same depth, there maybe no light at all. Here divers consume air rapidly and usually experience nitrogen narcosis that tends …

mosquito net

Posted on September 3, 2006 @ 8:39 am by massimo | Filed under: animals,art,bargain,blog,fear,illustration,island,news,travel,wordpress

In tropical climates mosquitoes are of the sort that spread malaria and dengue fever, so keeping away from them is simply a must. Avoiding …

sacrifice

Posted on July 14, 2006 @ 5:56 pm by massimo | Filed under: africa,architecture,blog,cheap,fear,fun,illustration,mediterranean,people,travel,wordpress

Tunisia is the northernmost country of Africa and has a warm climate, a long and gentle seacoast, salt lakes and Sahara Desert oasis, Punic and Roman archaeological sites…and all just about 1 ½ hour flight from Rome! …

an overloaded skyline…

Posted on July 7, 2006 @ 10:03 pm by massimo | Filed under: architecture,bargain,beach,blog,boracay,fashion,fear,illustration,island,news,people,philippines,travel,wordpress

In 1997 I had got an architectural commission in Boracay. I was asked to design a trendy ice cream parlour and it actually was under construction nearby the beach; I liked this …

submarines

Posted on April 29, 2006 @ 11:00 pm by massimo | Filed under: ancona,another green world,blog,books,fashion,fear,fun,illustration,mediterranean,news,people,politics,wordpress

Maybe I could have submit half of my blog for “under the sea”! I might add something else about because I’m thinking of submarines. When I was a kid I use …

stingray

Posted on April 16, 2006 @ 11:36 am by massimo | Filed under: animals,beach,blog,boracay,diving,fear,holidays,illustration,island,news,package tour,people,philippines,swimming,wordpress

Stingrays are a triangular flat shape with conspicuous spots on a light brown disc; the spots are well-spaced in young but crowded to form reticulated pattern in adult. White ventrally with a …

eruptions

Posted on March 25, 2006 @ 10:42 am by massimo | Filed under: beach,blog,boracay,fear,illustration,island,mediterranean,news,philippines,travel,wordpress

Among the natural  phenomena , volcanic eruptions are definitely fascinating. (is it worth saying that the Latin term monstrum etymologically means phenomenon?)
Volcanoes are largely scattered upon planet Earth’s surface. I was in the in the Philippines when Mount Pinatubo …

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