Very often many thing become reality inspired by a dream. For example if one wants to have a very memorable holiday he will choose a place which have everything to fulfill his needs or his requests sometimes begin with a sweet dream. If a dream tells about beautiful island lies under the equator and have a nice weather all year round, an oasis of undying culture and quiet beauty, if so, Bali has it all.
Bali is a beautiful island situated within Indonesian Archipelago and one of the best tourist destinations in Asia. In 1930th some of the foreign writers and artists arrived in Bali and stayed on, thoroughly seduced and inspired by the island’s breathtaking physical beauty and cultural complexity. They were also deeply impressed by the warmth and the hospitality of the Balinese, and the amazing breadth of artistic expression that pervaded daily life.
Since 1970th Bali performed his high quality in tourism industry, and attracted many bona fide tour operators and airlines companies to bring their clients to enjoy this enchanting island. The island boast a Bali International Airport, luxuries 5 star Bali hotels, best built Bali villas, luxury and typical secluded resorts ad even hundreds of budget hotels.
The development in tourism industry continues in progress for years, and the visitors of Bali can learn and explore more its unique places of interest, various typical local cultures, enjoy the hospitality of the people, as well as other tourist attractions such as diving, snorkeling, para-gliding, cruising, rafting and even sports. Besides, Bali Island is also an ideal place for having MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Convention, Exhibition) and honeymoon. Tourism actually has been becoming a massive industry and the main source of Bali’s income.
In October 2002 and again in October 2005 Bali was frightened by a violence terrorist’s attack, the boom blast that devastated the island of Bali and the international community. More than 200 lives were lost and hundreds more were injured. It need months for recoveries and the Balinese people is still working hard to rebuild the image of the island and we look forward to a brighter and promising future for the Balinese and our tourism industry.
The Balinese have their own way to respond the terrorist attack not by physical violence but by peaceful means; performing major cleansing ceremonies, prayer and hopes, establishing a memorial for the lost lives, because the Balinese believe that the true and utmost prayer have a magic power to face up to evil. The Balinese doctrine Ruwa Bineda tells that all nature is eternally divided into pairs – high and low, right and left, day and night, strong and weak, healthy and sick, clean and unclean; in general: good and evil, life and death. Each illuminates the other within the scope of creation, and the Balinese ritual strives always to maintain a middle ground – a harmony between two poles. So wherever one goes, be a wise man and beware of any possible dangers and put oneself on guard, because the good and the bad are everywhere in this world.
All the appropriate efforts has been performed by Indonesian Government and the Balinese people and also by the world in order to keep the island peaceful. For the Balinese after performing major ceremonies, it is now time to move ahead and leave the incident behind us. Bali Loves Peace is our motto, peace for everyone, and peace for the world. Many of the visitors have been proved the peace of the island after the incident and leaved Bali with a memorable stay.
So if you plan a vacation do not doubt to put Bali at your top list for your next holiday destination. Bali is still worth a visit after the boom tragedy, because the situation is well in hand now. The easiest way to book your preferred Bali Hotels is go online and visit a hotel reservation website. Do a search for the city or island you are traveling to (Indonesia-Bali) and you will be presented with a list of available Bali hotels/Bali Villas in that area. Or you can search a local reliable Bali Tour Operator and contact him by e-mail for further information.
Selasa, 05 Januari 2010
Minggu, 03 Januari 2010
Mystery of the Mummy
Ancient Egyptian mummies have long sparked our imaginations, starring in countless horror films and novels. But what are they? How were they made? Why were they made? That's the mystery of the mummy.
The Egyptian mummification process is basically a means of preserving a dead body. Without preservation, a body will decompose, leaving only the bones. The Egyptian mummification process therefore prevents a body from decomposing, allowing the deceased to resemble what he looked like when he was still alive.
THE FINAL JUDGMENT
To the ancient Egyptians, a person is composed of 6 different parts: his body, ba (personality or character), ka (spirit of life), akh (immortal soul), as well as his name and his shadow. A person is not whole if he is missing any of these parts.
The ancient Egyptians believed in the afterlife. They believed that when a person died, he continued living in another plane of life in the underworld. Since he is still considered to be "alive", all 6 parts of that person should be intact for him to live properly. Hence the need for preservation of the body, and the creation of the ancient Egyptian mummies.
An important belief in ancient Egypt, and the source of many Egyptian paintings, is the Final Judgment. It describes what happens after a person physically dies. The paintings show the recently deceased describing his deeds to a panel of judges. He is then led to the scales of balance by Anubis, the jackal-headed god of mummification and the afterlife. Here, his heart, which contains all the evil that he has committed, is weighed against the feather of Ma'at, goddess of truth and justice.
Thoth, the ibis-headed god of wisdom, records the outcome. If the heart is heavier, the deceased is judged too evil and undeserving of a place in the afterlife. The heart will then be devoured by Ammit, the god with the head of a crocodile and the body of a hippopotamus.
If the feather of Ma'at is heavier, the person is deemed worthy, and is taken by Horus, the falcon-headed god, to the afterlife and the underworld, ruled by Osiris.
THE MUMMIFICATION PROCESS
The details of the Egyptian mummification process has been lost to time. Most of what we know today about the mummification process comes from the writings of Herodotus, the Greek traveler. From what we know, creating the ancient Egyptian mummies is a complicated process. Herodotus' writings indicate that the entire process takes 70 days, from the time of death till the mummy is buried.
Firstly, the internal organs are removed. All organs are removed except for the heart, which the ancient Egyptians believed to be the center of a person's being.
To remove the organs from the abdominal cavity (such as the lungs, stomach, liver and intestines), a small cut is made in the left abdomen, and the organs removed from there. The organs are then cleansed and stored in 4 canopic jars, representing the Four Sons of Horus. These jars will be buried together with the mummy.
The brain is also removed. A hooked instrument is inserted into the skull via the nose. The hook is then used to pull out the brain in small pieces.
The next step in the Egyptian mummification process is to dry the body. If there is any water remaining in the body, bacteria will grow and cause the body to decompose. The drying agent is natron, a mixture of salts found along the Nile valley. By covering the body with natron for the majority of the 70 days, it will be completely dried.
After the natron is removed, the body is then wrapped using linen and resin. Hundreds of yards of linen are used, and usually covered with holy inscriptions. The finished mummy is then buried in his tomb together with his possessions.
Egyptologists have long wondered if this process as described by Herodotus could really create the ancient Egyptian mummies. In 1994, a team of scientists at the University of Maryland, USA, closely followed the Egyptian mummification process and successfully created a mummy that was free of bacteria and decay. Thus the mystery of the mummy is finally solved.
The Egyptian mummification process is basically a means of preserving a dead body. Without preservation, a body will decompose, leaving only the bones. The Egyptian mummification process therefore prevents a body from decomposing, allowing the deceased to resemble what he looked like when he was still alive.
THE FINAL JUDGMENT
To the ancient Egyptians, a person is composed of 6 different parts: his body, ba (personality or character), ka (spirit of life), akh (immortal soul), as well as his name and his shadow. A person is not whole if he is missing any of these parts.
The ancient Egyptians believed in the afterlife. They believed that when a person died, he continued living in another plane of life in the underworld. Since he is still considered to be "alive", all 6 parts of that person should be intact for him to live properly. Hence the need for preservation of the body, and the creation of the ancient Egyptian mummies.
An important belief in ancient Egypt, and the source of many Egyptian paintings, is the Final Judgment. It describes what happens after a person physically dies. The paintings show the recently deceased describing his deeds to a panel of judges. He is then led to the scales of balance by Anubis, the jackal-headed god of mummification and the afterlife. Here, his heart, which contains all the evil that he has committed, is weighed against the feather of Ma'at, goddess of truth and justice.
Thoth, the ibis-headed god of wisdom, records the outcome. If the heart is heavier, the deceased is judged too evil and undeserving of a place in the afterlife. The heart will then be devoured by Ammit, the god with the head of a crocodile and the body of a hippopotamus.
If the feather of Ma'at is heavier, the person is deemed worthy, and is taken by Horus, the falcon-headed god, to the afterlife and the underworld, ruled by Osiris.
THE MUMMIFICATION PROCESS
The details of the Egyptian mummification process has been lost to time. Most of what we know today about the mummification process comes from the writings of Herodotus, the Greek traveler. From what we know, creating the ancient Egyptian mummies is a complicated process. Herodotus' writings indicate that the entire process takes 70 days, from the time of death till the mummy is buried.
Firstly, the internal organs are removed. All organs are removed except for the heart, which the ancient Egyptians believed to be the center of a person's being.
To remove the organs from the abdominal cavity (such as the lungs, stomach, liver and intestines), a small cut is made in the left abdomen, and the organs removed from there. The organs are then cleansed and stored in 4 canopic jars, representing the Four Sons of Horus. These jars will be buried together with the mummy.
The brain is also removed. A hooked instrument is inserted into the skull via the nose. The hook is then used to pull out the brain in small pieces.
The next step in the Egyptian mummification process is to dry the body. If there is any water remaining in the body, bacteria will grow and cause the body to decompose. The drying agent is natron, a mixture of salts found along the Nile valley. By covering the body with natron for the majority of the 70 days, it will be completely dried.
After the natron is removed, the body is then wrapped using linen and resin. Hundreds of yards of linen are used, and usually covered with holy inscriptions. The finished mummy is then buried in his tomb together with his possessions.
Egyptologists have long wondered if this process as described by Herodotus could really create the ancient Egyptian mummies. In 1994, a team of scientists at the University of Maryland, USA, closely followed the Egyptian mummification process and successfully created a mummy that was free of bacteria and decay. Thus the mystery of the mummy is finally solved.
Hamtastic: Spanish Ham
THE ONE AND ONLY SPANISH HAM
There’s more to Jamón Ibérico than meets the eye. Those waxy haunches that hang above every other bar, from Bilbao to Benalmadena, are not just any old hams. There is a story behind them - an encyclopaedic body of knowledge, a raft of rules and regulations and a plethora of skills and crafts. The “transcendentally superlative” (according to Ford, of whom more below) Spanish Hams stand some comparison with fine wines - for the strict demarcation of their areas, for the rigorous methods of production, the fastidious denomination and classification, the quality controls, the testing and the tasting. Jamón is quintessentially Spanish, the product of a unique pig on a very special diet. It comes from defined areas in the southwest of Spain, notably the Provinces of Badajoz and Cáceres in Extremadura, and the Province of Huelva in Andalucía.
The word dehesa, according to my dictionary, means pasture or meadow. In reality it means something more poetic. It is that rolling country of rich winter grasses and wild flowers, through which rounded boulders sometimes swell, and across whose expanse the dwarf oak thrives, dispersed at seemingly regulated intervals. The dehesas of southwest Spain – nearly a million hectares of them - present a pastoral, almost park-like prospect, sylvan and welcoming, an appropriate home for the aristocrat of the hog world, the Iberian pig. These black and bristly descendants of the Iberian boar enjoy an enviable early life, rooting and wallowing on the open dehesas for a year or more, before their appointment with the slaughterman.
Pigs have forever been important in these parts, even residing in the homes of the farmers in days gone by. In the early 1830’s the travel writer, Richard Ford, recorded: “They return from the woods at night, of their own accord, and without a swine’s general. On entering the hamlet, all set off at a full gallop, like a legion possessed with devils, in a handicap for home, into which each single pig turns, never making a mistake. We have more than once been caught in one of these pig-deluges, and nearly carried away horse and all..”
The authorities of Extremadura have recognised the touristic, as well as the epicurean and commercial importance of ham to their area, and designated a “Route of Ham”, for the ham gastronome and the porcine enthusiast alike. It was visiting one of the towns on the route, Jerez de los Caballeros, that we met Julio, the technical director of Dehesa de Extremadura, the main governing body for Jamón. In this town of time-worn stone, the cradle of many stubbly conquistadors, we talked pig and we talked ham, and we talked, briefly, about the transition of the one to the other.
This middle bit I will gloss over, because I’m squeamish, but of the pig in the field and the ham on the plate, I am endlessly enthusiastic. To witness the former we piled into a car along with a registered vet called Fernando and headed for a nearby farm, bumping along a drive and going through a gate to arrive into the middle of a real dehesa. The dusky porkers flocked around us in a ‘pig-deluge’, grunting contentedly while raising moist snouts to the car, quivering with curiosity. Why do they do that? I wondered.
“maybe they are glad to see us?”, Fernando tried. It was not so much a joke as a case of mistaken identity. Because, he continued, “They perhaps confuse us with the vareadores”. This word was a new one on me, and it referred to the herdsman who is armed with a long stick with a rope attached to the end. With this simple implement, the vareadore shakes, agitates and whips at the upper branches of the oak, causing bellotas, or acorns to fall to the ground. The pigs go for them like truffle hounds, each consuming eight to ten kilos a day from late October through to March when they pile-on some 60 percent to their body weight. Lush dehesa grasses and rhizomes are on the menu, too. Ford reckoned that the Duke of Arcos also fed snakes to his hogs, but it’s the acorns that the pigs love above all else. First the fruit of the gall oak, later that of the ilex and, later in the season, that of the cork oak. These latter produce the biggest acorns and Julio picked up a handful to show us. They were each as big as my thumb and as shiny as polished mahogany.
After a short but apparently happy life the porkers are converted (I try not to think about this too much…) into their constituent cuts of meat, of which the selected hind legs are known as jamones and the smaller forelegs as paletas. The curing process takes place at low temperatures and it is for this reason that the famous ham towns of Spain are all up in the hills, where cold winters may be relied upon – places like Montanchez, Calera de Leon and Jerez in Extremadura; Jabugo in Andalucía. Each of the ham towns has a curing plant or two on its fringes, where the freshly-quartered limbs are packed in salt and left for approximately one day per kilo of its weight. They are removed and washed in fresh water before transferring to a drying room, where they are hung for 35-60 days at a temperature between 3-6 degrees centigrade. Next they spend 6-18 months maturing and curing in a warmer bodega. Throughout, temperature, ventilation and relative humidity are closely controlled. In the later phases, hams are tested for firmness, and a pointed ox-bone is occasionally inserted and withdrawn to be subjected to olfactory testing by the controller. He has the practised sense of smell of wine-taster and will award each ham its deserved title. From here the hams will usually spend some time resting in a bar before being served as raciones or tapas. Or they may be wrapped whole in coloured paper and given away for Christmas.
Hams make a popular and very welcome gift in Spanish households. They are also the subject of numerous concursos or competitions, both for the qualities of the hams themselves and for the skills of the curing managers. The slicers, too, get their chance of fleeting celebrity. Invariably men and dressed in regulation waistcoat and bow tie, they line up for the cameras and the judges, a clamp securing their ham from which they carve paper-thin with a rapier-like sword.
The labels of authentication to look for are ‘Dehesa de Extremadura’ or ‘Jamón de Huelva’. The best hams are those of pure Iberian pigs fed on a diet of acorns These will bear a red label reading jamón Ibérico de bellota that guarantees the most succulent, delicious and fragrant of hams as well as the highest price tag by far. Next comes Jamón Ibérico de de recebo, followed in descending order by –de campo. These are also excellent but from pigs raised on a diet only partly of acorns. There are a couple of popular misconceptions to watch out for. Jamón Serrano is the less good relative, derived from white pigs that are often intensively raised. Hams named after famous towns like Montanchez and Jabugo, or after the much fancied black trotter or pata negra hog are not much more than trade names – they may be great, or they may be indifferent. It’s the Ibérico in the name that’s all important, and the highest accolade of bellota, or acorn-fed .
While intensification and deforestation have wreaked havoc with delicate farming ecosystems across much of Europe over the last fifty years, the continued popularity of high quality, premium-priced jamón has ensured that the unique Spanish dehesa landscapes have survived relatively unscathed. In this notable victory of conservation, the Iberian pig has played an unwitting though heroic role.
There’s more to Jamón Ibérico than meets the eye. Those waxy haunches that hang above every other bar, from Bilbao to Benalmadena, are not just any old hams. There is a story behind them - an encyclopaedic body of knowledge, a raft of rules and regulations and a plethora of skills and crafts. The “transcendentally superlative” (according to Ford, of whom more below) Spanish Hams stand some comparison with fine wines - for the strict demarcation of their areas, for the rigorous methods of production, the fastidious denomination and classification, the quality controls, the testing and the tasting. Jamón is quintessentially Spanish, the product of a unique pig on a very special diet. It comes from defined areas in the southwest of Spain, notably the Provinces of Badajoz and Cáceres in Extremadura, and the Province of Huelva in Andalucía.
The word dehesa, according to my dictionary, means pasture or meadow. In reality it means something more poetic. It is that rolling country of rich winter grasses and wild flowers, through which rounded boulders sometimes swell, and across whose expanse the dwarf oak thrives, dispersed at seemingly regulated intervals. The dehesas of southwest Spain – nearly a million hectares of them - present a pastoral, almost park-like prospect, sylvan and welcoming, an appropriate home for the aristocrat of the hog world, the Iberian pig. These black and bristly descendants of the Iberian boar enjoy an enviable early life, rooting and wallowing on the open dehesas for a year or more, before their appointment with the slaughterman.
Pigs have forever been important in these parts, even residing in the homes of the farmers in days gone by. In the early 1830’s the travel writer, Richard Ford, recorded: “They return from the woods at night, of their own accord, and without a swine’s general. On entering the hamlet, all set off at a full gallop, like a legion possessed with devils, in a handicap for home, into which each single pig turns, never making a mistake. We have more than once been caught in one of these pig-deluges, and nearly carried away horse and all..”
The authorities of Extremadura have recognised the touristic, as well as the epicurean and commercial importance of ham to their area, and designated a “Route of Ham”, for the ham gastronome and the porcine enthusiast alike. It was visiting one of the towns on the route, Jerez de los Caballeros, that we met Julio, the technical director of Dehesa de Extremadura, the main governing body for Jamón. In this town of time-worn stone, the cradle of many stubbly conquistadors, we talked pig and we talked ham, and we talked, briefly, about the transition of the one to the other.
This middle bit I will gloss over, because I’m squeamish, but of the pig in the field and the ham on the plate, I am endlessly enthusiastic. To witness the former we piled into a car along with a registered vet called Fernando and headed for a nearby farm, bumping along a drive and going through a gate to arrive into the middle of a real dehesa. The dusky porkers flocked around us in a ‘pig-deluge’, grunting contentedly while raising moist snouts to the car, quivering with curiosity. Why do they do that? I wondered.
“maybe they are glad to see us?”, Fernando tried. It was not so much a joke as a case of mistaken identity. Because, he continued, “They perhaps confuse us with the vareadores”. This word was a new one on me, and it referred to the herdsman who is armed with a long stick with a rope attached to the end. With this simple implement, the vareadore shakes, agitates and whips at the upper branches of the oak, causing bellotas, or acorns to fall to the ground. The pigs go for them like truffle hounds, each consuming eight to ten kilos a day from late October through to March when they pile-on some 60 percent to their body weight. Lush dehesa grasses and rhizomes are on the menu, too. Ford reckoned that the Duke of Arcos also fed snakes to his hogs, but it’s the acorns that the pigs love above all else. First the fruit of the gall oak, later that of the ilex and, later in the season, that of the cork oak. These latter produce the biggest acorns and Julio picked up a handful to show us. They were each as big as my thumb and as shiny as polished mahogany.
After a short but apparently happy life the porkers are converted (I try not to think about this too much…) into their constituent cuts of meat, of which the selected hind legs are known as jamones and the smaller forelegs as paletas. The curing process takes place at low temperatures and it is for this reason that the famous ham towns of Spain are all up in the hills, where cold winters may be relied upon – places like Montanchez, Calera de Leon and Jerez in Extremadura; Jabugo in Andalucía. Each of the ham towns has a curing plant or two on its fringes, where the freshly-quartered limbs are packed in salt and left for approximately one day per kilo of its weight. They are removed and washed in fresh water before transferring to a drying room, where they are hung for 35-60 days at a temperature between 3-6 degrees centigrade. Next they spend 6-18 months maturing and curing in a warmer bodega. Throughout, temperature, ventilation and relative humidity are closely controlled. In the later phases, hams are tested for firmness, and a pointed ox-bone is occasionally inserted and withdrawn to be subjected to olfactory testing by the controller. He has the practised sense of smell of wine-taster and will award each ham its deserved title. From here the hams will usually spend some time resting in a bar before being served as raciones or tapas. Or they may be wrapped whole in coloured paper and given away for Christmas.
Hams make a popular and very welcome gift in Spanish households. They are also the subject of numerous concursos or competitions, both for the qualities of the hams themselves and for the skills of the curing managers. The slicers, too, get their chance of fleeting celebrity. Invariably men and dressed in regulation waistcoat and bow tie, they line up for the cameras and the judges, a clamp securing their ham from which they carve paper-thin with a rapier-like sword.
The labels of authentication to look for are ‘Dehesa de Extremadura’ or ‘Jamón de Huelva’. The best hams are those of pure Iberian pigs fed on a diet of acorns These will bear a red label reading jamón Ibérico de bellota that guarantees the most succulent, delicious and fragrant of hams as well as the highest price tag by far. Next comes Jamón Ibérico de de recebo, followed in descending order by –de campo. These are also excellent but from pigs raised on a diet only partly of acorns. There are a couple of popular misconceptions to watch out for. Jamón Serrano is the less good relative, derived from white pigs that are often intensively raised. Hams named after famous towns like Montanchez and Jabugo, or after the much fancied black trotter or pata negra hog are not much more than trade names – they may be great, or they may be indifferent. It’s the Ibérico in the name that’s all important, and the highest accolade of bellota, or acorn-fed .
While intensification and deforestation have wreaked havoc with delicate farming ecosystems across much of Europe over the last fifty years, the continued popularity of high quality, premium-priced jamón has ensured that the unique Spanish dehesa landscapes have survived relatively unscathed. In this notable victory of conservation, the Iberian pig has played an unwitting though heroic role.
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