The Kruger National Park- South Africa

The Kruger National Park is one of the most well known South Africa travel destinations. It is one of Africa's top safari destinations, and the Kruger National Park offers visitors the iconic African safari - a spectacular production rich in lion prides, elephant herds and thousands of other animals, played out against shifting backdrops of savannah, forest, river and mountain.

Visitors arrive from all over the world for a taste of a Kruger Park safari experience - a South Africa travel holiday characterised by untouched wilderness, a huge concentration and variety of wildlife, Kruger Park accommodation. The accommodation ranges from self-catering to absolute exclusive luxury that rivals (and often surpasses) the world's best hotels.


General Kruger National Park Information
The Kruger National Park is the jewel of South Africa's safari destinations. The park stretches some 400km from north to south along Mozambique's eastern border, making it the largest game reserve in South Africa.

Kruger National Park Map As one of the world's iconic game reserves, the Kruger National Park boasts the highest number of mammal species (147 species) of any game park in all Africa. These animals are found in a variety of extremely different ecosystems.

Kruger National Park Wildlife
Whether it's the lions that roared in your bedtime stories or the cartoon elephants that flew across your childhood movie screens, the Kruger National Park is home to everyone's favourite animals...for real.

The combined wilderness areas of the Kruger Private Reserves are also home to abundant wildlife and birdlife.

Technically, there are larger populations of wildlife within the boundaries of the Kruger National Park, but as most of the private reserves are unfenced, the animals have access in and out of the park proper.

The Kruger National Park is filled with a wide variety of wildlife, with nearly 150 species of mammals that are commonly sighted by the park's visitors.
Private Game Parks of the Kruger National Park
Visitors are often confused by the terminology used to describe the Kruger National Park and its neighbouring areas.

The Kruger National Park is basically the area that falls under the control of the South African government, with its clearly defined borders and fences and an extensive network of tarred and dirt roads. Along the park's western border, a large number of privately owned reserves have been established.

Although technically not part of the park, most of these private reserves share an unfenced border with the Kruger PArk, allowing free movement of animals in and out of the territories. These reserves are tailored to offer their guests a superb safari experience with accommodation that's the last word in luxury.

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Nias

One of Indonesia's most exotic destinations, Nias Island combines a great surfing break, the most beautiful of beaches and a culture older than history.

Nias has the size of but outside of the months of June and July it is a quiet place and great to relax. The most important places on the island are Gunung Sitoli in the north, and Teluk Dalam in the south. Teluk Dalam is close to Lagundri/Sorake which has the best beaches and surfing. Lagundri/Sorake is called the CITY SURF by tourist who ever visit Nias Island.


After the movement of Nias people from Gomo to others place, they were going to make a new settlement at the new area, and it might be close to their origin. One of the places they have reached is Teluk Dalam at the South of Nias Island. In the time of inventing the new life style and the growing population, the people of Nias made the community of life more advanced and more organized. Such as they built a village ruled by the land lord, the houses bigger, the construction stronger, more finely, and the new rules.

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Looking For Honeymooning on A Cruise Ship

very Year, 100’s of thousands of people make the decision to get married. If you are planning on getting wed, then you and your future spouse will most likely plan to go away afterwards. When it is time to pick out a honeymoon location, there are numbers of alternatives to choose from.

Honeymoons are often seen as vacations. In a way, a family vacation and a honeymoon are quite akin, except for the romantic aspect and the absence of youngsters. A honeymoon is meant to be happy, exciting, memorable and secluded. Instead of vacationing with the whole family, a honeymoon often only involves the bride and groom.

As mentioned, when it comes to planning your honeymoon, there are a number of selections. Numerous honeymooners plan honeymoons for popular beaches, ski resorts, or for some other secluded location. Did you know that you can also have a honeymoon aboard a cruise liner? cruise liners have become progressively popular, but Numerous individuals still do not know them as ideal vacation options.

One of the reasons why cruise liners are rarely thought about when selecting a vacation destination, let alone to go away afterwards, is because of their price. There is no doubt about it, this character of honeymoon can be costly, but you should never let the cost cause you to shrink from enjoying the ideal honeymoon along with the wedding of your dreams. If the price is too high, you may need to try getting discount rate cruise ship tickets.

Even if you may need to pay a high price for the cruise of your dreams, it is likely that you will still receive a good deal. Despite the higher price for the tickets, still make it a point to look at the facilities which are accessible onboard and at the cruise’s length. Ticket prices will rise in accordance to more services that are available and to longer cruise duration. If you spend some time at figuring out all of the services that are included with the cruises and the monetary value for overnight accommodations, you will see that cruises are not really that expensive in comparison.

Also, be advised that you may want to take the inherent romantic attraction of each destination under consideration as you examine the cruise ship locations. Since knowing that your honeymoon is expected to be one of the most romantic and relaxing times, you will want to select an environment that helps to promote the atmosphere. cruise liner destinations are found throughout the World. Some popular destinations include Alaska, Hawaii, The Bahamas, The Caribbean and Mexico. For finding the perfect honeymoon cruise, you are encouraged to select a cruise that offers stops at the locations you have chosen.

In addition to taking cruise liner locations into consideration, you are also encouraged to study the type of cruise that you wish to set sail on. Many cruise lines have ships that they use to target specific groups of people. These cruises frequently have cruises designed for adventurous lovers, entire families or couples, and as a couple, you should be welcome on any cruise.You may want to avoid cruises directed at for family vacations, if you are looking for a secluded, romantic or cozy setting.

Before you book your honeymoon on a certain cruise liner, it may be a good idea to examine what you want and need out of your trip. In doing this you will be enabled to select the ideal cruise ship for you and your new partner.
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Underwater Amazon

Jeremy Wade explains why Manaus fishmarket is an ‘accidental temple to biodiversity’

In the geographical centre of the Amazon stands an ornate structure of wrought iron, fabricated in Europe a century ago and reputedly designed by Eiffel. Inside, early each morning, down either side of a long hallway, crowds of people inspect weird and wonderful creatures which, although abundant in Amazonia, are not normally seen outside this building.

We are in the fish market at Manaus, accidental temple to biodiversity, and as such well worth a non-shopping visit - where the peculiar forms and lifestyles of the species on view give a graphic insight into the nature of the Amazonian ecosystem.

Take the bulky black-and-green fish looking rather like our European carp - until you notice the crushing plates set in muscle-packed jaws. Much prized for its firm, tasty flesh, the tambaqui feeds almost exclusively on the seeds of trees that, half the time, are nowhere near water. It pulls off this unlikely feat thanks to an unlikely feature of Amazon geography: the annual flooding of huge areas of forest - to a depth of ten metres or more. So abundant is this seasonal feast that during the rest of the year, when it is confined to the river channels, the tambaqui lives on its fat reserves. Fish bought from the market between August and December will have empty stomachs.

Another species on view that makes the most of this season ticket into the forest is the aruanã and again the clues are in its design: a long body with a paddle-like tail for propulsion, ruler-straight back for a stealthy approach just below the surface, big eyes set high on the head, and a huge lower jaw that opens like a drawbridge. Also known as the ‘water monkey’, the aruanã specialises in surface-to-air attacks on insects minding their own business up trees. It can grab prey from branches a metre above the water. Most aruanã are caught in nets, but any spotted with puncture wounds will have been shot by sharp-eyed bow-fishermen.

There are also fish here that exploit the less obvious opportunities provided by low water. Laid out on a slab in a corner are huge fillets looking like two-metre-long kippers. This is the meat of the pirarucu, one of the world’s largest freshwater fish, sometimes weighing as much as 150 kilos (3OOlb). When the water level falls, in the Amazonian ‘summer’, some backwater lakes become very shallow and deoxygenated, and the fish in them become torpid. But not this giant predator. It is able to absorb oxygen from air gulped at the surface, and so remains active while the smaller fish it feeds on are sluggish and vulnerable.

Unfortunately for the pirarucu, however, its habit of periodically surfacing, then burping a trail of bubbles, makes it vulnerable to fishermen, who hunt it with thick-cord nets and harpoons. Add to this the market’s (unaccountable) taste for salted, as opposed to fresh, pirarucu, and the result has been a wholesale onslaught. In recent years numbers have declined to the point where it is a protected species. But for many riverside dwellers, selling salted pirarucu meat is one of very few ways to earn some cash, so they still find their way to market.

In fact, such is the city’s demand for food - a million-plus inhabitants and growing - that many of the fish on view will have come, packed in ice, from tributaries and lakes a week’s journey, or more, away by boat. Manaus has become the centre of a food web that reaches right into the region’s furthest extremities. Despite the Amazon’s vastness, therefore, harvesting fish stocks sustainably is becoming a matter of some urgency - not just for humans but also those others with a vested gastronomic interest: dolphins, caimans, otters, many species of birds, the odd jaguar...

And not just predators. Scavengers also have a stake. Looking once more round the market hall - at the bright colours, striking patterns, armour-plated bodies, tentacles, teeth - we are suddenly aware of an absence. The Amazon’s most famous fish is not here. This is nothing to do with declining stocks, however. Although good eating, if somewhat bony, the piranha is not really a commercial species: normally it is eaten only by the riverside dwellers.

The most interesting way to see piranhas is to catch your own. Pay a visit to a backwater lake when the water is low and the fish are concentrated. No special tackle is needed: Just a short piece of line, a hook, and some cut fish or meat. A cane pole is an optional extra. To stop fish severing the line, local people make their own long-shanked hooks from 5-8cm (2-3in) of stiff wire bent at one end.

Unhooking requires careful handling and concentration - their dentition really is formidable. Despite the tales, however, they are not normally a threat to swimmers - although there are rare ‘hungry’ lakes around, and anybody with a bleeding cut shouldn’t swim anywhere.

A more exciting method of rod-and-line fishing is casting artificial lures that mimic small fish. This can tempt red-bellied piranhas weighing close to a kilo (2lbs) and black piranhas potentially twice that size. Often other predators get in on the act, too: notably tucunaré. (the ‘peacock bass’), toothy traíra, and sometimes aruanã. Lumps of fish offered on the riverbed will pick up bottom-feeding catfish such as the red-tailed pirarara or the zebra-striped surubim - if a stingray doesn’t get there first (a fish that poses a much more real threat to paddlers than piranha). There’s even a chance, hard to believe 1500km (900 miles) from the sea, of a shark snaffling the bait. Local fishermen still take them, and sawfish, very occasionally on their catfish-lines - moth-eaten stuffed specimens can be seen hanging in the Casa Dragão fishing-tackle shop near the market.

Even without sharks, though, visitors to Amazonia have the opportunity to marvel at more fish species in a couple of days than during a lifetime in Britain - perhaps dozens (from a total of some 3,000) of different variations on the fish theme, some of them hard to believe. Biodiversity ceases to be just a word, a dry and distant academic concept. In the Amazon’s fish it can be spectacularly seen.

Jeremy Wade is a freelance writer who has covered aspects of Amazonia for the Sunday Telegraph and BBC Wildlife magazine. Selengkapnya...

Ubud Monkey Forest

Ubud Monkey Forest
Ubud Monkey Forest is a small rain forest dwelt by some group of monkeys and other tropical animals. It is strategically located in the hearth of Ubud Village, precisely located in the region of Padang Tegal Village, Ubud Sub district and Gianyar Regency. Monkey Forests in Balinese language called Wanara Wana are spread out in the island and Ubud Monkey Forest itself own very important function of the continuity the monkey habitat in Bali. Meanwhile the local community own important role to keep this forest naturally in order to all wild animals able to live smoothly.

Ubud Monkey Forest, Ubud Village, Bali
Monkey Forest Condition
Ubud Monkey Forest, Place of interest in BaliUbud Monkey Forest is dwelt by 200 monkeys, pertained to long tail inclusive macaques or macaca fascicularis group which owns the wide disseminating area. Among the amount monkeys living in this forest, there are 23 adult male, 79 adult female and 98 still baby. All the monkeys in this forest consisted of three groups, dwell certain area and use the certain place and certain time. However, it also happened that entire group can use the forest and whenever two groups are existing at same place and time, they will fight each other. These monkeys are believed as Gods Guard of Dalem Agung Temple, The Hindu Temple exist in the middle of forest. There are three Holy Temples in this monkey forest and those are existing surround the forest and it is estimated built in the middle of 14 century, in the early governance of Gelgel dynasty. Dalem Agung Temple is located in northwest from the forest represent the existence of most important temples. Beside of two others, that are Permandian Temple, in Westside from this forest and Prajapati Temple which is located in south-east side where the place of Dewa Siwa (Siwa God), one of the Khayangan Temple in Padang Tegal Village.
How to Locate Ubud Monkey Forest?

It is very easy to find this place since it is located in the hearth of Ubud Village and it is just about 1 hour drive from Denpasar Town. This monkey forest is close to other places of interest in Ubud like Ubud Palace, Ubud Art Market, Tegalalang Rice Terrace, Painting Museum and Gua Gajah. Selengkapnya...