AKUJOM Guide To Having Mad & Life-Defining Experiences
Located in the Annapurna region of Himalayas, Nepal, this 17-21 day long Annarpurna trek goes counter-clockwise from Besisahar to Nayapul and reaches its summit in Thorung-La pass at the height of 5416m (17,769 ft) and passes through 4 outstanding beauty regions; Lamjung, Manang, Mustang and Myagdi.
Japan is home to a particular breed of macaque that positively revels in the stuff. These clever monkeys share a number of common bonds with human beings- they’re one of the only 2 animals known to wash their food before eating it, and no other primates live further north. Also, many macaques counter the winter cold by hunting down a source of warmth; in Japan, you’re never far from a hot spring, and one of the country’s most magical winter sights is the view of a horde of apes silhouetted in the mist of outdoor pool. And, it’s hard to say what’s more amusing as the winter is coincides with the mating season- monkeys engaging in poolside trysts, or the Japanese pretending not to notice.
Mount Kinabalu National Park , Malaysia’s first UNESCO World Heritage site is the most spectacular mountain in South east Asia and one of the richest assemblages of biological diversity and natural landscapes in tropical South-East Asia. Every year thousands of visitors brave the freezing conditions and risk of altitude sickness to reach the summit. The reward is a spectacular dawn panorama across granite pinnacles rising out of the clouds below you- and you’ve conquer the highest peak between the Himalaya and New Guinea.
If you are looking for some of the most adventurous and thrilling scuba diving in the world, this is where you should start. Well out of sight of land and almost 200km southeast of Puerto Princesa, this World’s Heritage Site is only accessible on live-aboard boats when seas are favourable between March and June. It’s very isolated. The reef-actually a grouping of dozens of small reefs, atoll and coral islands covering more than 300 sq km-is one of the finest in the world, with daily sightings of the big pelagics that all divers dream of. Rise at dawn for a quick dive among the turtles and small sharks before breakfast. Afterwards there’s time for a visit to Shark Airport, where sharks ‘take off’ from sandy ledges like planes, before it is back to the boat for lunch and a snooze. You can do deep dives, night dives, drift dives, all kinds of dives. Or you can simply fossick gently along some of the shallower reefs, home to many coral walls that seem to plunge into infinity and hang out for a few minutes with giant mantra rays, black-tip reef sharks and, just possibility, cruising hammerheads. You also stand a good chance of getting up close and personal with a whale shark, the harmless gentle giants of the sea known in the Philippines as butanding.
It’s one of China’s great engineering feats that few, even in China, believed could ever be achieved. Inaugurated in July 2006 and is the highest railroad on earth. Fom Beijing to Lhasa, Tibet, it seems destined to become one of the world’s legendary train journeys. Chew Tick Wah investigates. Would he be at awe with the experience?
The Battle of the Oranges is a festival with 3,900 people, divided into nine combative teams of revolutionaries, pounding each other with 400,000 kg of oranges, in 3 consecutive days. This is the fiercest and largest food fight in Italy. The festival’s origin commemorates the city’s defiance against the city’s duke, who reserved himself the right to sleep with any local woman who was about to be married. On the eve of her wedding, Mugnaia decapitated the tyrant, after which the locals stormed and burned the palace. On foot and armed only with stones, the impoverished townspeople pelted the count’s troop as they rode around town in horse-drawn carts.
Stunning Photo by Tomek Meks.This is well-regarded as one of the world’s classic walks. It circles the highest mountain in Western Europe, Mount Blanc (4807m) and many of its satellite peaks. TMB starts in Chamonix, France, passing through Courmayeur, Italy and Champex, Switzerland and ends in Charmonix. Demanding in parts, the trail is well within the capabilities of any fit mountain walker, involving generally moderate hiking through delightful alpine villages and picturesque valleys.
