Lý Thái Tổ (974-1028) was the founder and first emperor of Vietnam’s Lý Dynasty (1009-1225). After ascending the throne, he moved the capital to Đại La (which he renamed as Thăng Long) in 1010, which in the end becomes present day Ha Noi.
The Ly Thai To statue above is located at Indira Gandhi Park, nearby Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi to commemorate the Vietnamese emperor.
USD1 = 16,500 Vietnamese Dong, which literally makes me a millionaire in during my Vietnam visit (well, who isn’t?)… it’s actually quite a pain though, for foreign travellers who are slow in counting lol.
Vietnamese Dong (đồng), if not mistaken, is the second least valued currency behind Zimbabwean dollars. The face value of Dongs started rising since late 80s because of inflation; in 1985 the largest banknote was 500, but now 500,000.
Despite the high inflation rate, Vietnam’s economic growth is quite decent over the time span… most Vietnamese are probably living better now as compared to a decade or two ago.
Cosplay, or costume play, is a popular trend where people dressing up mimicking fictional characters from anime, manga (comics), video games and movies etc.
Japan is generally credited as the origin of cosplay, but there are no actual facts of when the cosplay culture started. The credit for coining the word ‘cosplay’ seems more apparent though… although there are a few versions on how it was created, the credit goes to Nobuyuki Takahashi when he first used the word in some Japanese magazines in 1983/1984.
Akibanana has some scanned image of the My Anime magazine released in June 1983, which is said to be where the word first appeared, written in Japanese – コスプレ (kosupure)…
The Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu Festival) is celebrated by the Chinese on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese calendar (June 8 this year).
The festival is celebrated to commemorate ancient poet Qu Yuan, who jumped into a river and killed himself after his country was conquered by the other.
Locals who admired his patriotism fed rice dumplings to the fishes in the river which he committed suicide so that the fish would not disturb his body… some others also rode on boats and beating on drums to scare away the fishes for the same purpose.
Thought to be the first McDonald’s store when I posted the original article… but turned out that it’s a museum which was modelled after the first McDonald’s Restaurant opened by McDonald’s Corporation founder, Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1955.
The first McDonald’s was actually opened by Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California in 1948… the Des Plaines restaurant was the ninth outlet but is often regarded to be the beginning of the modern McDonald’s franchise that exist today [more McDonald's history on Wiki]
The Loch Ness Monster… one of the most famous mysteries in the world. Nicknamed Nessie, it’s a creature that’s said to be inhabiting in Loch Ness, a large and deep freshwater lake in Scottish Highland.
The first recorded sighting of Nessie could date back to 565AD… but the whole monster-fever probably started in 1934 when the infamous Surgeon’s Photo (right) was published and shocked the world.
(The photo was however discovered to be a hoax in 1993, more details at the end of this article)
Since then, numerous sightings have been reported; some with pictures or videos but none of the images captured could clearly prove the existence of the Loch Ness Monster.
Some of the ‘evidences’ are proven hoax; while some others are genuine but inconclusive. Critics believe that lots of those genuine images were actually objects like flock of water-birds, wood logs, boats and natural phenomena etc.
Trafalgar Square is just a few minutes walk from Piccadilly Circus. The square was under renovation when I was there; in normal days it should be pretty crowded.
First destination during my UK trip in October 2005, the Buckingham Palace.
