Carmen Mata Essays - Boracay, Kyoto, , Term Papers

Carmen Mata Professor Benavides English 1301 M09 06 March 2017 The Other Side of the World "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go." Written by the best-known author for children's book, Dr. Seuss. I enjoy reading about other countries and cities around the world and getting to know more about their environment, culture, and historic monuments. I live on one side of the world and there's still a whole other side I have yet to explore such as, Zhangjiajie, Kyoto, and Boracay. These three cities have one thing in common, they are all located in Asia and claim to have one of the most beautiful sittings in the world. Nature itself grabs my attention, therefore when I learned about these three cities it immediately got my attention. Initially, people think China is best known for their food, however they are also known for having beautiful nature sittings. Zhangjiajie, China has their national forest park which consists of many sand-stone, pillar-like formations. One tourist said "there are many stairs to walk, but definitely worth every step, beautiful scenery of the lakes" Another tourist also stated, "When we were there it was rainy and cloudy, yet this made the scenery even more beautiful", there's not many places you can go visit and say that the rain and clouds made everything more beautiful, in fact most people would probably think it would make it less attractive. Some people even said they felt at peace once they reached the top of the pillars and saw the view; they felt as if their problems didn't exist anymore and nothing else mattered but what they were looking at in that very moment. It's amazing how nature itself can change a person's emotions and feelings with such beautiful views of the world. Next, I have on my list would be Kyoto, Japan. Kyoto is the home of many Buddhist temples and also the home of hundreds of beautiful gardens. Kiyomizudera Temple, is a well-known temple in all of Kyoto and Japan. Kiyomizudera, means "Pure Water Temple", the temple is made out of wood which makes the temple stand out the most and is surrounded by cherry and maple trees. The main hall in Kiyomizudera has a small statue of the eleven faced, thousand armed Kannon (which people worshipped back then). Behind the main hall stands Jishu Shrine, a shrine dedicated to the gods of love and matchmaking. In front of the shrine are two stones that are 18 meters apart, they say if you stand on the stone with your eyes closed it'll bring luck into finding love. And lastly, my favorite part of the Kiyomizudera Temple would have to be the Otowa Waterfall, which is located at the base of Kiyomizudera's main hall. Its waters are divided into three separate streams, and visitors use cups attached to long poles to drink from them. Each stream's water is said to have a different benefit, namely to cause longevity, success at school and a fortunate love life. Finally, I have Boracay that is in the Philippines. As I've mentioned before nature is one of things that attracts me the most. Boracay has one of the many most beautiful beaches in the world. Beaches in Boracay are known to have turquoise colored water and the clearest water. There are many things to do at the beach such as scuba diving, parasailing, cliff diving, and ziplining. Tourist top favorite things to do is scuba diving and ziplining. One tourist says "really love the drift dive in the channel, in fact it gives me goosebumps just typing. Also, Yapak was just mind blowing, Yapak dive site for me was better than bungee jumping, biggest rush of my life, maybe because I dived on a full moon tide where the current was just crazy!" Can you just imagine diving into a beautiful ocean on a full moon tide? Must be beautiful. As I get older the more excited I get thinking about all these places I want to travel to. In the future I hope to get to travel to these three places in Asia and hope to have an amazing and life changing experience as these tourists did.