The Longest Road in Argentina
Travel Destination 
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Ruta 40, the longest road in Argentina, which runs 4,928 kilometers from Patagonia to the Bolivian border, and leads into emptiness. This is a region that has always been at the outer bounds. In the Quechua language, Tucuman, the name of one of the Noroeste provinces, means “toward where it ends.” The north of Argentina was the south of the Inca Empire. The road crosses through a land of red deserts and white salt lakes. Once covered by the sea, the timeless landscape is today dotted with volcanoes. For ten million years, the sediment-rich volcanic waters emptied into a 12,000-hectare salt lake, the Salinas Grandes, so dazzlingly white you can’t look straight at it. The sea withdrew a long time ago but it left its imprint in the local place names. Past Cafayate is a gorge called Las Conchas, the Shells. You can find them fossilized in the stone, here the land imprisoned the sea.
These landscapes send a shiver down your spine, not so much because they are movie-screen images, but because they tell a silent story, the narration is visual, it recounts how it took time, rivers and rains to forge these stony cathedrals. It is an emotional experience to see with your own eyes what were just words in a geography book, tectonic shocks, plate collision, earthquakes, folds, upthrusting. The sand and snow-laden “white wind”, el viento bianco, which gave its name to an Argentinian novel, will polish a car windscreen in just a few weeks. Over millennia, it fashioned canyons. Here they are called quebradas, great fractures in the rock whose edges are worn smooth by the wind. A red river runs through them, like the blood of the earth. Sometimes, the crimson water runs over the road, turning it into an open vein.
In Latin American “magic realism,” a genre represented in Argentinian literature by Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares that emerged in the mid-20th century, reality and fantasy are intertwined. Looking at these deserts, you can understand how thought forms might spring from a geographical determinism. The mysterious light also fuels the imagination, it can be dark in the middle of the day and then suddenly blaze out from behind a mountain at nightfall, as if there were a world after the world. After San Antonio de los Cobres, the mountains take over. It’s called “la puna,” a term that refers both to the high, windswept Andean plateaus themselves and to the altitude sickness that hits you on certain days. “Today there’s puna” they say. You treat it by chewing coca leaves, but the sensation doesn’t last long because as soon as the landscape drops lower, the road follows.
When the road runs straight, it becomes a tourist attraction, named Recta Tin Tin, a section of the Inca Trail. Human cultures form layers like geological strata, always superposed. The Indians (Diaguitas, Calchaquis), the Incas, the Spanish. Along the road, small misas chicas, or itinerant masses, move toward Humahuaca, bearing the effigy of a saint, yet people also worship Pachamama, Mother Earth. Behind the procession ride the gauchos. Horses are another religion here, that of freedom, perhaps because they enable man to leave the road and travel across the wide, uninhabited spaces.
An absolute must-see, the Hill of Seven Colors in Purmamarca, as well as the Painter’s Palette in Tilcara. Everything can be photographed. Why is it that the tourist brochures focus on what seems like nothing?. For there is much more than the rock and its colorful show of different minerals, there is more than records, the highest vineyards in the world in Cachi, the train to the clouds that runs at over 4,000 meters in altitude. There is what you don’t see, but what you can feel. The spectacle of slowness, here where everything has come about through erosion, where time takes longer, passes more slowly.
Seoul Has a Rich Cultural History
Circled by rugged mountain peaks, Seoul itself is an ancient city built in the late 14th century under the Chosun Dynasty. With a population of nearly 11 million, it boasts a blend of well preserved antique buildings and palaces juxtaposed with state of the art skyscrapers, deluxe hotels and shopping complexes. Beautifully landscaped parks, temples and fortresses vie for attention with museums, art galleries, and shopping arcades bristling with bargains.
Including historic sites, and tourist attractions, sightseeing on your own is relatively easy in Seoul, where the public transport system is safe and efficient, and taxis are plentiful. Some of the points of interest are, the national museum which houses one of the finest collections in Korea. The Kyongbokkung Palace, a favorite with visitors. Built in 1305 by King T’aejo there is a ten-storey stone pagoda and several lovely pavilions. In the beautifully landscaped gardens, is the national Folklore Museum which depicts the daily life of South Koreans through the ages.
East of City Hall lies an area rich in cultural lore and antiques. The C’hangdokkung Palace is best known for its secret garden (Piwon), 78 acres of renovated beautifully landscaped garden with pavilions ponds and wooded areas are open to small groups. Within the grounds is the separate royal residence, Nakasonjae where the last remaining members of the Choson Dynasty royal family still live. Nakasonjae is sometimes open to the public for special occasions. Adjacent is another royal palace, the Ch’anggyonggung. Here you can take a glimpse into the life and arts of the royal families. A pleasant cultural area is Taehakno, where tree lined streets house small sidewalk cafes, restaurants and galleries. Closed to traffic on weekends, it has become a place for pedestrians to enjoy the works of local artists, dance groups, poets and other performers. Just west of the bustling shopping area of Insa Dong, is Chogyesa, the headquarters of the main Buddhist sect of Korea (Chogye). It is the main temple within the city limits and is famous for its Lantern Festival.
Suwon , 48 kilometres south is the fortress of Suwon. Near Suwon is the Korean Folk Village, a kind of living museum which recreates life as it was several centuries ago. Potters, millers, weavers and other craftsmen work here just as their ancestors did dressed in the national costumes of the time. There is an outdoor market place with artifacts and tasty snacks for sale, nearby are two amusement parks. Ich’on about 59 kilometers southeast from Seoul is famous for its pottery kiln and hot springs. The kilns specialise in Koryo celado ware and Choson Dynasty ceramic reproductions. Watch the master potters at work and select the most desirable pieces for sale.
Kyongju, if you have time for only one trip outside Seoul, Kyongju the capital of the Shilla Kingdom should be the choice. Here is a “museum without walls”, a treasure chest of historic remains with tombs, monuments and temples. The Pulgoska Temple complete with magnificent pagodas and the home of a serene stone Buddha, Sokkuram Grotto are especially interesting sites.
Pusan, 480 km southeast of Seoul lies Pusan, second largest city and major port of Korea. It is here that the yachting events will be held. Other attractions at Pusan include international hotels, fish markets, beaches, hot springs, national parks, cultural centers, and historical sites.
The Scent of the Fragrant Milk Flower of Hanoi
Every morning you can see Vietnamese women pushing bicycles loaded with white, red, yellow and orange roses, water streaming from their baskets. Vietnam’s capital grew by absorbing the inhabitants of the surrounding countryside. “The neighborhoods in the city center, along the Red River, were the business districts,” explains historian Philippe Papin in his remarkable book Histoire de Hanoi. “Each one was named for a specific trade: the Street of Sugar, Hemp, Cards, Chicken, Platters, Tin, and so on. To understand the unique aspect of Hanoi commerce, you have to distinguish between the district (phuong), an administrative division defining “a village in a city,” and the street (pho), a plot of land where villagers sell their goods, without any official status at all.”
Is Hanoi a rural city?. Frangipani and magnolias line the chic avenues, home to trendy clothes stores. Hanoi is a city of water, of reflection, of introspection. The Red River acts like a protective rampart, and the city winds around the Lake of the Restored Sword (Hoan Kiem) and the West Lake (Ho Tay), where couples stroll along the banks and people practice tai chi.
Laurent Severac, a Frenchman who’s lived in Vietnam for nearly 20 years, creates botanical perfumes and essential oils, and is also a consultant for a Vietnamese company. He has captured the essence of Hanoi perfectly, “It’s a lush city where you can often catch the scent of the fragrant milk flower. But you can also smell the pagoda trees that are used in perfumes, notably Chanel No. 5. Unlike many Westerners, the Vietnamese have developed a keen sense of smell and are extremely wary of odors. They are drawn to natural products, like orchid flowers, for example.” Severac describes himself as a researcher, a craftsman, an explorer, Flowers are inseparable from Buddhist meditation. At the Temple of Literature, Vietnam’s first university created in the 11th century, lotus flowers bloom in the Well of Heavenly Clarity. Based on the teachings of Confucius, who promoted the study of essential arts such as poetry, music, archery, horseriding, calligraphy and mathematics, this open-air temple seems draped in a red toga, from the color of the walls to the incense sticks and even the statues. The steles with the names of scholars and graduates rest on carved stone turtles, an animal that symbolizes stability.