Download Canadian World Traveller Winter 2020-21 Issue
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Shanghai Quebec Sulawesi Tunisia Mallorca CANADIAN TravellerWORLD ALREADY 19 YEARS WINTER 2020-21 We Travel Will ! Come With Us & See The World! Published by Welcome to World Traveler Canadian World Traveller 5473 Royalmount, suite 224 TMR (Montreal) Qc H4P 1J3 American World Traveler 347 5th Ave, suite 1402 New York, NY 10016 Tel: 1-855-738-8232 www.worldtraveler.travel [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Publisher Michael Morcos We will travel! Editor-in-chief Greg James Contributing Editor David J. Cox Graphic Department n this issue, we start our world-wide In the Americas, we first start in Quebec’s Al Cheong adventure in Sulawesi, Indonesia, as north and have ‘Fun for Families in we mingle with the locals and have an Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean’ region and find Advertising Department Iamazing ‘Defining Experience’ by delving out why it is a place worth returning too Leo Santini into their culture and ceremonies. Next, we again and again. Not far away we take a race around to uncover ‘Shanghai’s Hidden leisurely boat ride on the historic Rideau Marketing Department Gems’ in this almost otherworldly city. Canal with the self-drive boats from ‘Le Boat’ Tania Tassone company. Still in Canada, we head to the We then change gears with an incredible metropolis of Toronto, and uncover the many Distribution snorkelling adventure while cruising in Royce Dillon multi-cultural neighbourhoods, each with French Polynesia, Hawaii, and the their own charm and style. Galapagos islands. Jetting off to the east, Senior Travel Writers: we find out exactly how ‘Qatar Airways South of the 49th parallel we are off to Susan Campbell Qsuite Sets Precedent in Air Travel’. bite into the Big Apple and enjoy some Steve Gillick dining pleasure in some of this city’s Flying back to Europe, we enjoy the best best and most interesting eateries. Still in that Turkish airlines has to offer, first the states, we visit Virginia and experience Regular Contributors: heading to Istanbul and discovering the best the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains region. Habeeb Salloum this fascinating city has to offer. Close by, we South of the equator, all that is new and excit- Jennifer Merrick then visit ‘Turkey's Mountainous Gem: Bursa’ ing in the tropical paradises of the Olivia Balsinger and then find true magic in wonderful Caribbean are ours to experience before we Mike Cohen Cappadocia. In Spain, we head to ‘The head to the end of the world and cruise with Ilona Kauremszky Mediterranean Pearl’ on the island of Princess from Buenos Aires to Santiago, Natalie Ayotte Mallorca. Chile, all the while enjoying the majestic nat- Jasmine Morcos ural flora and fauna of the best this amazing- Daniel Smajovits A quick ride later and we are in North Africa, ly abundant land. Cherie DeLory an unbelievably diverse destination where we Lisa TE Sonne first learn why it is truly ‘Magnificent Tunisia’. Happy Travels! Alexandra Cohen Jessica Percy Campbell Mathieu Morcos Gregory Caltabanis Anne-Marie Macloughlin Janice Mucalov Disclaimer: World Traveler has made every effort to verify that the information provided in this publica- tion is as accurate as possible. However, we accept no responsibility for any loss, injury, or inconven- ience sustained by anyone resulting from the infor- mation contained herein nor for any information provided by our advertisers. Destinations Crusing Section 38 Sulawesi 8 Mallorca 10 Cruise News Shanghai 12 Saguenay, QC 56 Princess Le Boat Snorkeling Cruises Stay & Play - 48 Toronto 58 Tunisia 60 Virginia Casa Cartel, Austin Texas Around the World 16 8 Tana Toraja, Sulawesi, Indonesia: A Defining Experience Article and photography by Steve Gillick ulawesi is a captivating destination 11 History Teacher who had us read por- Several years later, after a few days of dis- for travelers looking to connect and tions of Sir James George Frazer’s classic covery in Bali, we took the 75-minute flight Sinteract in a personal, meaningful study of mythology and religion, The from Denpassar to Makassar, where we met way. During our five day visit, we attended Golden Bough. our guide for the seven hour (310 km) jour- funeral ceremonies, visited cave, cliff and ney to Tana Toraja. Today there are one- tree graves, met the fascinating Tau tau, But there was also a totally unexpected mys- hour flights from Makassar (a.k.a Ujung trekked to remote villages and interacted tical intervention, when, on a flight to Irian Pandang) to Palopo Bua Airport and then a with the locals selling their wares in the mar- Jaya (now Papua), our plane made a brief two-hour drive to Rantepao, so the choice of kets, planting the rice fields and doing stop in Makassar, the capital of Sulawesi. At transportation just depends on time, budget household chores in and around their that time the airport terminal was designed and curiosity. homes. to evoke the image of ‘Tongkonan’, the tra- ditional, peak-roofed houses of the Torajan We drove up the coast, making frequent Our journey to Tana Toraja, “the land of the people. I was totally amazed and vowed that stops to photograph landscapes of moun- people of the uplands”, was motivated by I would return one day. And I did! tains and villages, scenes of small fishing an overall desire to gain insight into other boats and roadside stalls selling everything cultures, inspired, no doubt, by my Grade from dried fish to basketball-sized Pomelo (a expensive ‘production’, ceremonies often 9 citrus fruit, locally known as Jeruk Bali). take years to plan. Hundreds of guests arrive and walk around the ritual field in the In Batu Kabobong or “Erotic Mountain”, village, showing off their best attire as well (named after the ‘use-your-imagination’ as the number of pigs they have brought, or visual-shapes of the topography), we baskets of rice or tubes of palm wine. Each learned one of the seminal Torajan myths. In gift represents a debt and a social tie. The olden days, people were free to climb the guests then retire to temporary shelters, built Celestial Ladder to meet the deities in the around the field. sky, particularly Puang Matua, the High God. Puang Matua wanted to see the Aluk Water Buffalo play an important role in (‘the way of the ancestors’ or ‘the law’) leading the deceased to the afterlife. After brought down to earth, and so a man and the Buffalo are paraded on the field, they his wife were assigned to carry all 7777 Aluk are slaughtered and the meat is divvied up and the wind will take their soul to the heav- down the Celestial Ladder. But the couple according to the rank of the attendees (the ens. could only manage to carry 777 and left the head goes to the highest noble, the ribs are rest behind, including the Aluk on permissi- distributed to commoners etc). Probably the most notable symbols associat- ble marriage practices. ed with death in Tana Toraja are the Tau tau, And while this is taking place it’s hard not to a name that means “person-like”. These Many years later, a great-grandchild of the notice the Tongkonan (meaning “sit down life-sized wooden or bamboo effigies that couple had two daughters and two sons. As together”). Tongkonen honour the birth- guard the nearby graves, are thought to be there were no available partners for the chil- place of the parents, grand-parents and receptacles for the ghosts of the deceased. dren to marry, the parents sent an emissary ancestors, and are characterized by roofs Tau tau appear to be alive, with vivid staring to climb the Celestial Ladder and ask Puang that resemble boats. While some say that eyes and dressed in the finest clothes, while Matua if the children would be permitted to this tradition commemorates the ancestors standing or sitting in family groups, in marry each other. The emissary decided not who sought shelter by turning their boats recesses carved into the limestone cliffs and to undertake the tiring journey and instead, into houses, others believe that the roofs inside caves. made up the answer. He informed the par- resemble the shape of the sky and are a ents that siblings were permitted to marry, connection to Puang Matua. Our visits to explore these important life- and the marriage went ahead. Puang Matua cycle events took us to small settlements in was so enraged that the Celestial Ladder Tongkonen are often elaborately decorated Lemo, Sangalla, Marante, Londa Kete, Keta was hurled down to earth. Over the years, with colorful symbols: Two roosters signify Kesu and Pangli. But we also had the oppor- the remaining Aluk that would provide the rule of life; a circle represents Puang tunity to trek from one farming village to direction for all aspects of social life, agri- Matua; snail-like decorations relate to com- another, to visit and chat with locals working cultural practices and rituals, were conveyed munity and the ideal of working together; in rice terraces, tending crops, and engaged to the Torajan people. and the Water Buffalo represents power. In in household chores. fact the most important Tongkanen display a On the final leg of our journey we turned ‘kobongo’ on the façade; a carved buffalo In Rantepao and Makale, we visited the live- inland and after encountering miles of head with real horns, often accompanied by ly, crowded markets, watched the animated steep, winding roads, we finally arrived at a roof-to-ground display of buffalo horns, trading of palm-leaf-and-bamboo-bound the formal “Gateway” to Tana Toraja in symbolizing the age, wisdom and stature of live pigs and frantic, squawking chickens, Rantepao, the capital of North Toraja the man of the house.