196: Hotel Carlton Intercontinental, Cannes, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, France

The so called doyenne of film festival famous Cannes, the Hotel Carlton has held its place with the Riviera set for a long time- how long I dont know as neither the lobby nor the website gave any details as to when this blancmange building was built....but i guess early 1900's.

Interestingly, the website proudly displays that pets are allowed- a necessity i guess given the number of handbag sized pooches I saw all over the streets or nestling in the gucci logod bags of the size 0 women meandering down Boulevard de la Croisette- a veritable Rodeo Drive of the Riviera.

As you can see, a size zero I am not......and this is the type of Riviera men who frequent this place ("walkers" I think they are called). Anyhow, this very young gentleman, resplite in Gucci belt, loafers and hat, jumped into his convertible blue Bentley while the staff loaded up a number of Louis Vuitton cases into the boot.....

On to the bar I think- of course it is called "Bar des Celebrities" and quite nice it was as well, surrounded as it was by luxury jewellery stores and a view over the Riviera. A warning for the complimentary nuts- they are not all shelled...but are all rolled in paprika making it rather easy to crack a tooth on a shell without realising it!

A riviera style beach (read spit of sand with loungers on it) is available for hotel guests from April to October

No preview of a hotel in Cannes would be allowed unless it had two compulsory photos I think...firstly the red carpet for the Cannes Film Festival and secondly the bay

Now for the review- should it be in the 1000 places to see before you die book. Well.....Im going the way of Copacabana Hotel on this one and saying that you can live...and die...without seeing this hotel and wont lose much rest! Its nice.....but you wont have any regrets if you never see it

195: Aix en Provence, France

An extremely quaint, albeit chi-chi French cobblestoned town overrun with tourists and the requisite things that bring people to Provence- lots of good food and lots of lavender. And so for three days we ambled up and down the streets, popping into restaurants to try the Provencale food, a fair bit of shopping (seriously cheaper than London).

The main reason I was there was for a cousin’s wedding and the base was very handy for both the Monaco Grand Prix that was running the same weekend and for the hordes of “farangs” coming out to celebrate. The surrounding regions were jammed full of gorgeous chateauxs and gardens (one of which was hosting the wedding) and littered with built up developments all the way along the coast until Italy- which was roughly only a four hour drive away and rather tempting in my little Avis rent-a-car.

Anyhow it is a tiny town with some 140,000 inhabitants, blessed with almost continuous sunshine throughout the year, a surprising array of festivals to attract more farangs and even better- every day there is markets!! The flower market was superb, the food one sublime, the fish one smelly but inspirational, the clothing one cheeeeep, the bric – a brac a source of inspiration for the house.

Didn’t take that many photos as not much really to photograph once you get over cobbled streets. Hard to know if this belongs in the book 1000 places to see before you die. I think I need to see a few more towns in southern France yet to decide if this is stupendous enough that you have to see it before you cark it…or whether it is just in there as there is some nice brickwork, some cute markets and some lovely restaurants. So back to the car I go
....

Postscript: no..shouldnt belong in the 1000 places to see before you die

191: Terracotta Warriors

A true case of Humpty Dumpty being incorrect…with a little bit of resin, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men (well in this case actually the President of China) could put him together again!!

And so, in a remote field an hour outside of Xian, China, a team of Chinese archaeologists are painstakingly putting together pieces of pottery- some as small as your little finger, back together again to rebuild the smashed and vandalised terracotta army. To date, some 1800 have had their broken bodies glued back together to stand proud for the 3 million tourists a year that fly to this pollution smogged industrial town for the day to get their photos taken alongside a warrior or ride the chariot (all replicas of course).

Little Qin Shi Huang, the very first Emperor of China, started this project of his after unifying China for the first time when he was 12 years old. Some 720,000 workers took 38 years to assemble this incredible cast from foot soldiers to horses and chariots, archers and workers, acrobats to musicians.

All replicating what lies nearby- the Emperor’s actual mausoleum filled with human bodies of the soldiers, archers, musicians, acrobats, horses and generals he wanted in his afterlife….not to mention a rumoured 20,000 concubines and his wife. Gruesome!!! No wonder the mausoleum is actually a rather large hill to cover all those bones.

Dating from 210 BC, the army was found by a farmer in 1974 when digging for a well and 5 metres down hit terracotta fragments and called in the Government. Now this is one country where treasure hunting does not pay. The poor soul was given 30RMB by the Government for this discovery- that’s £3-which at that time was one month’s salary of a worker. Now the find would be worth 3000 RMB (£30)…still the monthly salary of a worker.

My guide told me (and she really was being straight) that “this was good- because all the ground belongs to the Government. And he is now rich from signing autographs.” When I queried just how many RMB it needed in order to be deemed “rich” in China she obliquely replied with an explanation that there is many ways to be rich. “With money you never have enough, so it is better to be rich with life.” Mmmm. Anyhow, I later witnessed the farmer signing books for the tourists…..Im in the wrong country really to say “he had a gold Rolex, raybans and was wearing Gucci loafers so must be doing well for himself.” Suffice to say the Government now has him on a salary to sign books and he’s upgraded his farmer’s overalls for a black suit and shirt and sunglasses on indoors. A celebrity!! Presumably when he passes away, his son then inherits the mantle and continues the signing tradition.

Anyhow, back to the Army.

A large number stay entombed awaiting excavation as well as the technology to better restore them given that the local unbaked clay cant be used and thus they are relying on developments in epoxy resin to put their humpty dumpty bodies together again.

No amount of epoxy however can hide the fact that a number of the soldiers do not look that happy. Turns out the Emperor demanded no two were to be alike so after the bodies and blank faces were made they were all personalised. Initials of the artist were put in the foot of the soldiers and any statue the Emperor wasn’t happy with….well…”off with his head.” Not exactly the best environment to work in never knowing if you’d be the next bag of bones consigned to “Mausoleum Hill.”

And then there is the issue that a century after the mausoleum was completed, a Chinese poet wrote about it talking of “palaces, riches and 100 rivers fashioned in mercury”. Poor misguided workers pouring that stuff in thinking they were safe from ending up in the mausoleum pile- not realising of course that they were destined to die shortly anyhow from mercury poisoning. Interestingly test work has shown high levels of mercury in the soil on and around Mount Lishan, underwhich lies the mausoleum,which remains unopened…apparently for fear of damage to the valuables buried with the Emperor. More likely no sucker wants to excavate and breathe the fumes given that mercury is completely non-biodegradable, is the most potent free radical known to humans and can only leache away. More bodies for the Emperor’s afterlife!

His afterlife of a huge army to maintain his empire proved to be a waste of time, money and energy anyhow. Shortly after he was buried vandals broke in, stole all the bronze CHECK weapons from the warriers, torched the place causing the wooden beams above their heads to burn away and bring tons of soil on their heads smashing them to smithereens.

It’s rather eerie when you first enter and look down to see an entire army- in precise military formation according to rank and duty- some in lines, some facing outwards looking for threats, in full battle regalia according to their roles. While Im sure the travelling exhibition that is currently going around the world is worth seeing on account of most people never getting to Xian….but all I can say is seeing some 20 warriors in a museum pales into significance when looking at thousands, line after line, of the real thing.

Life size, full uniform, all with different faces and exact replicas of mankind down to fingerprints. Sadly due to the fire when it was vandalised, the colours on their uniforms also disappeared and they are now a chalky and black soot covered bunch of men.

There are three main areas to see- the first being the army- some 8000 figures (about 2/3 still not excavated and glued together) stretching about 230 metres long with 11 corridors over 3 metres wide each.

The second pit a short walk away contains the chariots and cavalry riders.

And the third is the command post room with people standing around and four horses ready to gallop up a chute.

Described as the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century (and found for the price of a Big Mac meal in Beijing) it is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Talking of which, I’m off to investigate visiting another UNESCO Cultural Heritage site and a fitting tribute I think to compare to my blog on Christ the Redeemer in Brazil…….the Leshan Giant Buddha. This is the world’s tallest and largest Buddha standing at 71 meters high and 24 meters wide with a head over 14 meters long and 10 meters wide. To put this into a perspective you can understand- his toenail alone can accommodate a seated person, 100 people can fit in his instep and a dining table can be placed on one of his toes alone.

As the local saying says, "The Mountain is a Buddha and the Buddha is a Mountain."

190: Intercontinental Hotel, Hong Kong

Well, oddly enough as Ive slammed other 5 star hotels in the book, I could see how this one made its entrance.

The views at the Intercontinental Hotel were magnificent, easily the best place to go and view the falling nightlights of Hong Kong and Victoria Harbour.

The best is watching not only the tower block lights come on- but also the light show from a number of the towers. Add some absolutely divine martinis.....and array of lovely nibblies..and its the perfect place to settle in for a night in a bar.

I wont go into the rest of it of the hotel (albeit their website lists some 495 rooms with BOSE DVD/CD home entertainment sound systems, iPod docking station, 24-hour butler service and in-room dining as well as concierge services- all pretty standard nowadays for 5 star hotels)…nor did I have the time to sample the restaurants by Nobu or Alain Ducasse.
This hotel is in here for its lobby lounge with its views.

Interestingly , when in China a few weeks later, I read about the opening in March 2011 of the world’s tallest hotel, the Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong.

Now it will be interesting to go back and see the view from there- the Intercontinental is ground level with the beauty of huge seamless glass windows stretching up what appears to be a good 30 odd metres high giving you an unparalleled…but ground view of the lights over the harbour. The Ritz on the other hand is at some 1600 feet high in the International Commerce Centre, the fourth highest building in the world, and thus looks down at the lights. Not one for those prone to vertigo Id suggest!!

189: Victoria Peak and Victoria Harbour of the 1000 places to see before you die

This is only a half review as I didn’t have time to revisit the Peak (saw it as a child) and only the harbour…. So…

Now, firstly Hong Kong is a lot of reclaimed land- and there has been some controversy over the environmental damage that that has done to the Harbour given the amount of water traffic on it. Looking at the muddied waters I was flabbergasted that there used to be swimming and water polo competitions in it because it definitely is not clean!! Over a couple of hundred thousand boats come into the harbour annually. Suffice to say there is a number of NGO’s and environmental bodies all lobbying furiously on the subject of reclamation which goes on apace in this country.

The reclamation has seen some eight islands in the harbour already disappear as they were connected to other land masses and now only four islands remain- Green, Little Green and Tsing Yi Islands and Kowloon Rock.
Now there is a number of ways to see the Harbour- from Victoria Peak (damm!!), from the Kowloon side (tick the Intercontinental Hotel for that one), from the Culture Centre (tick) or on a Star Ferry ride across the harbour (tick, tick, tick and tick!!). At a pound to cross from one side to the other I decided to do it a few times- each time on a different boat- they have quaint names like Twinkling Star, Night Star, Golden Star, Morning Star and Heaven Star among others.

To add to the beauty, one night sets in the tall buildings on Hong Kong Island host a light show known as the Symphony of Lights. Its pretty surreal to see these huge spotlights dance across the harbour, backdropped by the twinkling office lights, lit up by neon signs and blinking lights in a rainbow of colours going up and down the skyscrapers.

When I visit Hong Kong again ill do the peak and add to this blog (did it when i was 10 but cant remember it!!)

No 188: Rio Carneval

Sadly as I needed to be in another city I could only witness the final night of the second tier samba schools……but what an amazing night which left me for a thirst to go back and attend the final for the first tier bands. Certainly looking at the web afterwards, it looked 100% bigger than the parade night I witnessed- which was pretty spectacular in itself.

Rio Carnaval is perhaps the biggest and well known carnival in the world and attracts over half a million foreign visitors a year. Lasting for four days it’s the final hurrah before Lent commences on Ash Wednesday and all bodily pleasures are meant to be abstained from. And man do those Brazilians go out with a big bang of body painted naked women, gyrating, dancing, drinking and generally bopping da beet. It is said that the history of Carnival goes back to the Ancient Greeks and Romans, was spread across Europe, and then was brought to Brazil by the Portugese around 1850. It soon expanded to incorporate the African black slave culture (who were given days off to partake) and became a riot of fancy dress, headware and masks …before finally becoming a competition.

Carnaval in the 20th century had a European influence- with polkas and waltzes….but then morphed into an Afro Brazilian affair with sambas and music. Finally, given the size, the purpose built Sambadrome was finished in Rio in 1984 with a 700 metre “runway” past boxes holding some 90,000 spectators who watch about 8 schools parade once from 8pm until dawn.
The format is always the same- each school has 90 minutes to parade from one end of the Sambadrome to the other which, given that the web tells me that it would take a person seven and a half minutes to walk that distance is…..well…slow! But then there is on average some 5000 performers parading in each samba school.

Watching the first samba school come down was amazing. You can hear the music at the end of the Sambadrome and the whole crowd stands up and starts peering towards the end to watch the huge first float enter. Its only as it gets closer you realise that for a good 50 metres in front of it there are people dancing in formation. The crowd went wild as the first float got nearer, all singing the songs (which are released in advance of Christmas) and dancing in their seats. The costumes were mind blowing- and this was only second tier schools who have less money than top tier. The intricacy and the colours of them all, never mind the synchronised movement of the dancers as they sambaed, swirled and gyrated to the music was a moving experience.

The floats were huge- largely manually pushed down the Sambadrome, at times driven, and seemed to be higher than 10 people standing on each other’s shoulders. Enormous….and there about 8 floats in each school’s parade. On each float were the most intricate costumes of the parade (albeit I did see one float solely with body painted naked women) with dancing girls in the front, sides and back, multi-tiered, and perched at the very top one doubly spectacular costumed dancer normally with 4 foot feather headdresses, clutching two poles in front of them so as to dance safely on these mini stages on the floats which wobbled as well!
Moving that many people down a short length of strip, even despite lines of men in front of each section counting the rhythm to make them move faster or slower (points are deducted both for large gaps or over running the allotted time) was awe inspiring to see. I think the photos and the movies have to speak for themselves for this event so Ive for once gone overboard on them!!

Now- hindsight is a wonderful thing and I wished Id known more about the Rio Carnaval before I went so I knew what to look out for- given that it was all pretty overwhelming. Not to mention realising it went until dawn as I faded out at 3am which only meant half of the schools had paraded. So, if you are as lazy as me in pre-researching things you attend, let me give you the run down…..

Carnaval starts with the samba school picking a theme, writing the music for that theme, designing the costumes and floats and choreographing the music and dance for each of the sections. Each section has up to 200 people in it wearing the same costume, and up to 8 floats splitting up each section.

The most eagerly anticipated is the first section-the Flag Bearer and her Consort who carry the school’s flag and perform a solo and elaborate dance at the front. These two are, along with the owner and the choreographer, the most famous in the school.

This is followed by the Vanguards which is a group up to 15 people dancing a highly choreographed routine, who introduce the school to the crowd.
After that comes the Whirling Ladies section where older women are dressed in some rather elaborate huge skirts representative of the traditional costume of the Bahia state and reflecting the African roots. At least 80 must perform in this section and they are usually the old ladies of the community, who have already been with the same School for many years like the samba dancers. Some schools also have wings of little Baianas in this section filled with dancing teenage girls.

The next section is the Percussions who sing and dance to set the rhythm with large surdo drums.Then there are the vocal Singers.And then the Samba dancers.

Judging is taken very seriously with 4 judges in each of the 10 categories being theme for the year, samba song, harmony, overall impression, flow and spirit, flag bearer, vanguard group, percussion band, floats and props and finally costumes.

Now…to the experience. Well firstly it was pissing down with rain. I walked to my allocated seat (2 back from the ledge so prime position and thoroughly recommend paying for front row as it means you can get clearer shots with any type of camera while not having to worry about insufficient zoom for the detail let alone enthused Brazilians waving their hands about all the time or the rain with people holding umbrellas in front of your view). Thankfully someone had left a little plastic raincoat nearby which I huddled into and watched from the downpour while riskily bringing my camera out into the open.

I was only sad when I got into the prearranged transport to go home (another necessity) that I didn’t bolt out of the bus at the junction at the end of the Sambadrome where all these discarded costumes from the performers were piled up in the rain- would have won any fancy dress costume you ever went to.

Finally….Id say watch it rather than partake. You could be in a naff costume, and it must be incredible going down the Sambadrome, however you miss the entire parade let alone the parade of the School you are dancing for. While its expensive (think $400-$1200 a ticket) its definitely worth paying through the nose at this one!!

Corcovado, Rio: Number 187 from the 1000 places to see before you die book

You almost wonder why you bother really.

Perhaps the Ancients kept on outbeating themselves around their empires to prove a point and we no longer have the records to know..or perhaps the Great Pyramid at Giza, which was finished circa 2560BC was always the tallest pyramid in the world, and has remained so. To go more recent from medieval times, perhaps the Great Wall of China, at some 8,851 km was the longest wall in the world then,  and has remained so. Perhaps the Colosseum, when it was finished in 80AD, was the largest stadium in the world, and has remained so.

And then we have, on the top of Corcovado Mountain a figure of Christ the Redeemer- all 39.6m of him, including its base, with a reach of 22m fingertip to fingertip which was in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest statue of Christ, and was also included in the New 7Wonders of the world (albeit to be fair it was a hodgepodge finalist list including the Great Pyramid of Giza getting in the top 7…………….. as number 8 as an honorary candidate..and including Petra, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itza, the Colosseum, Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China).

So…lets look at the facts here. Completed in 1931 to commemorate the 1922 centennial of Brazilian independence (yep theres a story in there as to why it was 9 years late!!) Christ the Redeemer is actually only the third tallest Christ in the world.  In a classic case of outdoing what is already there- it was the tallest until the 1980’s when Bolivia built the El Cristo de la Concordia statue, which admittedly only stands 33m but, if you include its mount (always important it seems in arguing a world record) , reaches a final height of 42 meters.

Both countries Im sure pulled out the rosary beads when in November 2010, a tiny little village in Poland called Swiebodzin, which is inhabited by a mere 21,000 people, decided to spend $1.5m and five years building one that is 51m tall- making their statue of Christ the King monument the tallest in the world.  To be fair the statue is only 33m – according to the blurb which is “one metre for every year that Jesus lived” however when you take into account  its 3m gold crown and the mound it sits on,  it tops a very respectable 51m….yet to date has not hit anything other than the Guinness Book of Records.  

What’s the lesson here……build the biggest thing you can then get wiped out by another race (calling Mars……calling Mars) or don’t bother because technology allows us to always build bigger and better so put the funds into the poor people in your country instead of building a statue “to attract pilgrims” as the local priest in Swiebodzin says was the rationale for building the Christ the King monument??

Anyhow, back to the ” Christ the Redeemer” statue on Corcovado which has fallen in and out of favour with the Catholic Church as to its maintenance but now looks to be fully funded with Vale, the mega large Brazilian mining company, signing an agreement in 2010 to sponsor any restoration.

the view when i arrived

me and Christ the Redeemer

Access is either via a cable car (sadly my tour guide thought there were too many people lining up from the 3 cruise ships in town so we didn’t do that) or by driving. It was a ghastly miserable day anyhow- fog streaming in off the sea, raining heavily, and quite hard work on the top of any mountain- whether or not God’s presence felt closer or not.

And so, wet, cold and damp I trudged up the steps to stand at the foot of Christ. Slippery feet man…that black marble they used all around the base had tourists falling over left , right and centre.  Pity his feet were a few metres above our heads otherwise Id have mistaken their falls for eagerness to replicate St Francis or at least Easter Friday and kiss the soapstone toes.

Now- here is an interesting dilemma on reviewing this entry.

Was it included as it was the largest statue of Christ in the world …or the second if you take into account the mount under El Cristo de la Concordia ….and now anyhow the third given Christ the King?  Interesting that the largest statue of Mary (which is in Bulgaria) and incidentally stands at a far smaller 32 metres ,  isn’t included in the book. …nor is the second nor third largest Mary statue….nor indeed either number 1 or 2 of the world’s largest statues of Christ (mount included!!).

Even if that were the rationale behind its inclusion….it has now dropped to number 3 on the world stage of Jesus statues  (albeit perhaps either with a tectonic plate shift the Corcovado Mountain might gain another 11m or so, or Vale might open up their back purse and stick a massive 14m crown on his head).

Could it have been included in the book because of the view……however TableTop mountain in South Africa has a pretty cool view (and a cable car) and Sugarloaf rock on the next bay around in Rio has a similar view (and a cable car)…as below pictures show (yes- it was still miserable and raining)?

even the monkey hated the cold and the rain

So I presume its included because there is a view AND it is from one of the largest statues of Christ in the world.

So on that basis I googled to look at views from Number 1 and Number 2 of the highest Jesus statues … here’s number 1 and this is the best I could find of Number 2.

So, on the basis that you are into modern age and religious sculptures and with views and it already exists…then Christ the Redeemer retains its spot in the 1000 places to see before you die book as it is large and has the best view. Besides which…it’s a pretty famous statue so should be seen.

If however, you are after something that  is modern age and religious and has views and exists AND is unlikely in our lifetime to be “topped” AND incidentally doesn’t appear in the 1000 places to see before you die book , then I raise for consideration the  world’s largest statue- the 502 metre tall Spring Temple Buddha in Henan, China.

Mind you, skim a bit deeper and you find out the statue (oh that mount issue keeps on cropping up) is only 128 m and plans are afoot in this decade to build a 152m, mount aside,  Maitreya statue in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India costing some $250 million.

As I say…compete on sand castle building on your local beach. At least then you hold a record for a while and save yourself millions trying to be remembered when someone just pips the post by building their castle on a dune that has a fantastic tropical island view.