Vintage Tees

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The Valley Of The Immortals--Vilcabamba

We traveled to Vilcabamba, Ecuador to sample tranquility and see for ourselves what a stress-free locale feels like. We hadn't experienced anything even remotely stress-free in years, and Vilcabamba is the town and area made famous because of the rumored longevity of its citizens and the Immortals.

What did we find? A low-key vibe where men still riding horseback through town. A temperate climate. Friendly people. Great hiking in remote valleys of the Andes. A developing expatriate community. Cellphones. Computers with off and on again service. Charming, local restaurants serving fresh food at unbelievably low prices.

Vilcabamba is off the beaten path to be sure. Flying from either Quito or Guayaquil, you land in Loja. And from Loja, you'll travel another 45 minutes or so along curving mountain rounds to reach your final destination.

When you finally make it to Vilcabamba and gaze upon Mandango Mountain, you may have a chill run down your spine and know you have arrived at a sacred place. I sure did!

Labels: Andes Mountains, Ecuador, Valley of Longevity, Vilcabamba

Posted by Kuanyin Moi at 6:14 PM 6 comments

Friday, August 15, 2008

Flying Over The Circles

In 1992 we flew over the Marlborough-Swindon area of England in a Cherokee 180, a small plane. We hired a pilot who was familiar with crop circles who knew this area.

Our purpose was to view crop circles from the air. We departed from Thruxton Airport in Hampshire and flew North/Northwest. According to my notes from that day, we flew over crop circles located in these areas: Hungerford, Marlborough, Ogbourne, Avebury, Alton Barnes, Alton Prior, and Pewsey Vale.

We were blown away by the many crop circles that we saw, never expecting to see so many. Now that I review these crop circles in 2008, they look like 'kindergarten' crop circles compared to the much more sophisticated ones of recent years.

We also walked in many crop circles, and the first photos are of the flattened grain I photographed in some of these crop circles. Frankly, I didn't care for the energy within them, and I was more than happy to leave them. My partner heard weird sounds in one of them. He said it sounded as if someone was dragging chains behind him plus he saw something in the sky which was unidentified.

Labels: crop circle energy, crop circles, England, mystery of crop circles

Posted by Kuanyin Moi at 5:04 PM 3 comments

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

The Mysterious Kuan Yin Temple

Many years ago my partner and I spent several weeks in Northern Thailand, and every day our driver would drive us to different sacred sites. His English was poor as were our Thai language skills, but he knew what we most wanted: temples, sacred sites, and holy places.

On one of these outings, we discovered this colorful Kuan Yin shrine. We were the only two visitors, and so we had the place to ourselves. As you can see from the following photos we took while visiting this shrine, COLORFUL can't even begin to describe this place. It was like Disneyland on steroids.

The central structure consisted of a large dragon which you walked inside of and snaked around until coming out to a Kuan Yin area with statues (shown below) and eventually you exited through the dragons mouth. The experience for us was very trippy and surreal.

On the grounds of this temple there were other deities with their own structures.

I've been researching the name of this Kuan Yin shrine online, but I can't find any reference to it, so if someone reads this blog and knows of the name of this place, kindly leave it's name and exact location in the comments.

Labels: dragon, Kuan Yin, Kuan Yin Temple, Northern Thailand

Posted by Kuanyin Moi at 7:21 PM 2 comments

Monday, January 21, 2008

The Stones of Stonehenge

Tomorrow --June 1st-- there will be a National Geographic special about Stonehenge. Here's a link to a MSNBC story titled, "Did Stonehenge start out as a royal cemetery?"

And here's the link to the National Geographic Special called Stonehenge Decoded.

I have somewhat of a similar viewpoint about the "cemetery" part, but mine is much more far out version given what happened to me at Stonehenge....but that's another story!

Below are some of my photos of the stones of Stonehenge.

And below is a video of yet another theory!

Labels: ancient stones, Blue Stones of Stonehenge, England, megalithic times, Nigel Tufnel, Spinal Tap, stone circles, Stonehenge

Posted by Kuanyin Moi at 1:18 PM 0 comments

Friday, January 18, 2008

The Wonder Of The Taj Mahal

Here's the "official" story as written on Wikipedia about the Taj Mahal:

"The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum located in Agra, India, that was built under Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal."

However, an alternate theory speculates that this story is just that--a story!

The alternative version goes like this:

"This story has been challenged by Professor P.N. Oak, author of Taj Mahal: The True Story, who believes that the whole world has been duped. He claims that the Taj Mahal is not Queen Mumtaz Mahal's tomb, but an ancient Hindu temple palace of Lord Shiva (then known as Tejo Mahalaya), worshipped by the Rajputs of Agra city.

In the course of his research, Oak discovered that the Shiva temple palace had been usurped by Shah Jahan from then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. Shah Jahan then remodelled the palace into his wife's memorial. In his own court chronicle, Badshahnama, Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra was taken from Jai Singh for Mumtaz's burial. The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur is said to retain in his secret collection two orders from Shah Jahan for the surrender of the Taj building." Read the rest by clicking here.

Whatever the truth, this huge structure is a testament to BALANCE and BEAUTY! Our small group were awestruck by this edifice. Having only seen photos of it, we never imagined the hordes of people walking around and perched in corners everywhere. (See photos). But then again, we should have considered that we were in India after all where people seem to be everywhere! And since this is one of the Great World Wonders, is it any wonder that so many would want to experience this beautiful building and grounds?

Labels: alternate theory about Taj Mahal, India, photography of India, Professor Oak, Shah Jahan, Taj Mahal, Wikipedia

Posted by Kuanyin Moi at 6:37 PM 6 comments

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Searching for Nessie

On our Scottish adventure, we covered a lot of ground-- not only physically, but also metaphysically. My partner-- being the ardent golfer he is-- had to check-out the famous golf courses of Scotland such as St. Andrews and Gleneagles.

I, on the other hand, wanted to experience Findhorn, Callanish (the former post), and most of all, Loch Ness. Somehow we managed to fit all of our interests into our adventure. We even managed to do touristy things like visit old castles and watch bagpipers pipe. We stayed at one expensive hotel where we actually pulled a long fat cord which rang the bell of the establishment and let them know we had arrived--something out of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. We oohed and ah'd at the subtle color of wild purple heather as we whizzed past the Scottish Highlands. (see photos)

BUT the highlight of our Scottish adventure for me was Loch Ness. We had no idea how immensely popular Loch Ness was (and still is!) with British tourists as well as international tourists. We hadn't booked a reservation, and when we showed up late one afternoon in Loch Ness, we quickly discovered there were no rooms available...anywhere! I had so much wanted to spend time the next day scanning the lake for a sighting of Nessie, the famous Loch Ness 'monster'.

We were both bummed that we hadn't planned ahead with a room reservation, but I suggested to my partner that we get a bite to eat at the charming inn (see photo on top) before heading back down the road. The prospect of sleeping in our car overnight didn't excite us, and we might as well leave with a happy tummy I reasoned.

So we returned to the first inn we had discovered upon driving into Loch Ness. It had a charming bar and restaurant and we proceeded to chow down on great food and drink. As we were dining, my partner received a tap on the shoulder. The proprietor remembered that we had been seeking a room for the night, and one had just opened up. Did we want it she asked. Once again our traveling angels had arranged the perfect set-up! All we had to do is fetch our bags from our car in the parking lot and kick back for the night. Then we would have hours to roam around the lake in the morning.

And that's exactly what we did. The biggest surprise was finding a local newspaper the following day with the headline and photo that showed a sighting of Nessie on the day we arrived!

The new movie, "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep" calls me, and it's on my list of must-see movies. Ya see, I believe in Nessie. I KNOW she's there, and no matter how mythical she appears in movies or stories, I feel that in that Scottish Loch, Nessie lives on.

That's my fantasy, and I'm sticking to it!
Labels: bagpipers, Findhorn, Gleneagles, golfing in Scotland, heather, Loch Ness Scotland, Nessie, Scottish inns, St. Andrews yew tree, traveling angels

Posted by Kuanyin Moi at 11:35 AM 1 comments

Friday, December 28, 2007

The Standing Stones of Callanish

The trip to Callanish, Scotland involves quite a bit more travel than going to Stonehenge, England. Thus, this is why Callanish is not very crowded. Actually, when we visited, we were the ONLY two people visiting for a long time--just us and the massive, magical stones!

Here's what we had to do to travel to Callanish: take a ferry from the Scotland Mainland to the Isle of Lewis. Rent a car at Stornoway (the closest big town). We already had a reservation at local lodging arranged before arriving, so we checked in and deposited our few bags in our room, and then we headed directly for the stones down winding country roads.

The Isle of Lewis is in the Western Isles of Scotland, the Outer Hebrides.

What are these massive stone circles and single menhirs doing here? No one really knows, but there is speculation that in the days of wizardry, these stones were once giants that were turned into stones. I like this version of the story, although it's rather sad if the giants were good giants.

The stones are said to date back about 5,000 years, and altogether there are around 50 stones here with a heighth of anywhere from 8-13 ft. The tallest one is about 16 feet. The stones are all over the Isle of Lewis, and there are EIGHT different locations. We only spent time at what is known as Callanish 1, and the photos shown here are all from this location. The stones are made of lewisian gneiss, and the theory is that they were used as an astronomical calendar and for sacred ceremonial temple functions.

Since we had the stones all to ourselves, and there wasn't a guard anywhere, we felt incredibly privileged to be able to spend time with these gentle giants. We could touch them all we wanted, and bless them too! We could put our ears to them to hear their secrets, and we could marvel that they had been hidden for so long before being discovered by a farmer.

What other mysteries are out there in this big wide world of ours waiting to be discovered?
Labels: ancient astronomy, Callanish, menhirs, mythology, sacred temples, standing stones of Callanish Scotland, stone circles

Posted by Kuanyin Moi at 2:34 PM 2 comments