Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
Description, courtesy of Wikipedia:
In 1861, part of the facade collapsed, damaging the atrium. The whole front of the church was then rebuilt to a design by architect Errico Alvino in a richly decorated manner drawing on Italian Gothic and especially Arab-Norman styles, similar to but more ornate than the original.
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Construction began around twelve centuries ago, but most of what a 21st century visitor sees when looking at Amalfi Cathedral (aka “Duomo di Amalfi” and “Duomo di Sant’Andrea”) is of much more recent vintage.
Allegedly, it has housed the “relics” of St Andrew (Sant’Andrea) since not long after “Crusaders” delivered them from Constantinople to Amalfi in 1206 CE.
Many a “landmark” Italian church has a “medieval” exterior, now ill-matched with a lavishly reworked, much more ornate, “Baroque” interior.
Over the centuries, Amalfi’s cathedral has become a riotously eclectic hybrid of very different styles. (and of different buildings, joined together, repaired, and re-imagined)
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Its “permanent” population of circa 5,000 people is around the same size as Naracoorte’s, or circa half that of the Australian Portland.
Naracoorte is a prosperous South Australian country town; Portland is Victoria’s oldest “European” settlement.
The post’s actually-European town is very much older than any Australian one.
its population and power peaked circa one thousand years ago.
Its eponymous republic was then a significant maritime power, trading in many “things”, including enslaved humans.
Tourism-wise, its “peak” is circa right now, and it is stratospherically beyond Naracoorte’s or Portland’s wildest dreams…or nightmares.
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This particular tea house was commendable: the ambience was authentic, unfussily lovely, its tea & “goodies” were very palatable, and the “live” music was of a high standard – not merely “close enough, for tourists”.
Keyboards, synthetic “beats” and excessive reverb + compression were all pleasingly absent.
“Attracting tourists” was part of this tea house’s equation, but only part; very evidently, many local people liked it.
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The above photo was taken in Kashgar’s livestock market – a fascinating place, which Pelican Yoga will eventually explore in much more detail.
The particular characteristics that define “premium” sheep are partly environmental, and partly cultural; the “best” sheep on offer in China doubtless look “highly exotic” to most Australians.
To most Chinese people, Australia’s highly-prized merinos would doubtless appear equally “strange”.
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Uyghur teas do not necessarily primarily involve leaves of Camellia sinensis.
(Camellia sinensis is the leaf source for nearly all of the world’s non-“herbal” teas)
Leaves – of whatever species – are not necessarily the key element in Uyghur teas.
More than one species was sourced for the pictured “loose” tea; its “hero” ingredients are flowers.
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In Kashgar’s “old city”, closed doors and windows often deliver more visual delight to a passer-by than do open ones.
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According to the sun, it was not yet 11 am on 24 May 2024.
I took the photo in Kashgar’s “old city”, looking across to “new” Kashgar’s TV tower.
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The pictured location is circa 80 minutes driving distance from White Sand Lake, and within two hours or so of downtown Kashgar.
(astonishingly low speed limits apply to buses on the Chinese section of the Karakoram Highway, even in benign weather. The road itself is excellent. A rational, less rigid approach to speed limits would enable considerably shorter, safe driving times on days when ice and snow are entirely absent from the Highway’s surface. On the day when the rules become rational, motorists should be sure to wave at the pigs who’ll then be flying high, above)
I took this photo from the bed of the Ghez River, adjacent to where it is crossed by the Karakoram Highway.
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“White Sand Lake” is the most common of many names given to the pictured place.
Some call it a lake, others call it a mountain.
The lake’s surface is circa 3,300 metres above sea level, on the Pamir Plateau.
It is adjacent to the Karakoram Highway, around 150 kilometres south of Kashgar city.
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