Norway and Norgay:
Pictures and Slapstick

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Norway lies as far north as Siberia and Alaska.

Best Destination
More Pictures from Norway

GREETINGS from Norgay.
The dramatic photo of the Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay on the summit of Mount Everest in 1953 got world famous. It was taken by the New Zealand explorer Sir Edmund Hillary (1919-2008).
When people wondered why Sir Edmund had not asked Norgay to take one of him, the answer was: "As far as I knew, he had never taken a photograph before, and the summit of Everest was hardly the place to show him how."

How difficult can it be to teach someone to press a button against losing incredible opportunities?

Fjord Norway, the "Very Best Destination"

THE SPECIAL 15th anniversary issue of the National Geographic magazine includes coastal Norway among "the 50 greatest places of a lifetime. These are destinations we believe no curious traveler should miss." And National Geographic Traveler of March 2004 has Fjord-Norway as the very best destination. Well, summertime may not be all bad. National Geographic's Coastal Norway.

OF TOURISM: According to National Geographic Traveler, March 2004:

Fjord-Norway: 82 of 100 attainable points.
Cape Breton Islands, Canada: 78
Smith Island, New Zealand: 78

The Geiranger Fjord in Sunnmøre, Western Norway

The magazine used 200 experts on sustainable tourism to evaluate the destinations. Other travel agencies, including Lonely Planet, have ranked similarly. A cruise could work well, for the West coast climate is "exotic" and rather "unstable". So now we know where it is beautiful on the planet, or perhaps not. Tastes differ, for one thing. There are those who like plains too.

SCENIC WORLD HERITAGE FJORDS TOO: On 14 July 2005 the scenic Geiranger fjord and the Nærøy fjord - the latter lies deep in Sogn - were included on the United Nations' "World Heritage List", chosen for natural scenic value, and are hence in the company with the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef off Australia and the Galapagos Islands. [Link]

All right living conditions by and large

Not only the scenic beauty, but the economy and education level function in Norway too. For six years in a row the United Nations selected Norway as the best country to live in (2001-2007). The last time Iceland is on top of the list, and Norway was second (2008). Sweden is ranked high too, and Australia and Canada. The United States are the eighth on the list, and France, for example, is 16th. [Wikipedia link]
The annual ranking is based largely on average levels of education and income, combined with expected life lengths of men and women. There are other factors to take into account, though. Some might choose other parameters and make them count differently, for example. And if self-declared happiness is a good sign of a country worth living in, Denmark is number one. If a count of the poor goes into the reckoning, Sweden is best, even though it is ranked as number 15 when it comes to wealth - and Norway is second best for the poor.
And Finland is ranked as number one in technology.

More Pictures from Norway

There is more than one way to present one's background. Now for some pictures with comments.

Borgund Stave Church in Western Norway

You could say the rustic stave church attempts to rise toward the sky in a flatfoot kind of way.
Now consider parachutes or hang-gliders. If you have got it in you to hurl yourself out from cliffs and steep mountain sides, get a hang-glider and some training first. That could be fun. Expect that results will be more convenient than if you train yourself in the art of casting real mountains into the sea, you should also master how to let it be - just to stay on the safe side.

Riding the wind like a wiltered remark

LONG AGO back in China, an emperor questioned about a sage or two he had heard of:
"Lieh Tzu could fly in the wind, could Lao Tzu do things like that?"
The other replied; "Surely, but he could also let it be -" [See Ded below]

Drowned Cattle and the Geiranger Fjord

High above a valley and fjord. Geiranger may be glimpsed too. Detail

High above a Norwegian valley and Geiranger. [See all]

Along the west coast of our country there are mountains and cliffs that one may throw oneself out of with a hang-glider to ride the wind in the easy way. Or if the view from the mountain top is a quite all right experience, one may do without a hang-glider.
Rocks and boulders in the mountainside may be used for adamant practice too, for those eager to follow Jesus all the way as he said. But think twice first. There lies a dormant, confluent warning to take heed in something that took place in the pretty fjord around Tafjord on the west coast of Norway back in 1934. All of a sudden a huge avalanche of rocks - 3 000 000 cubic meters of rock - rushed into the sea and drowned cattle and pigs and 40 people in Tafjord and Fjørå. The waves were up to 64 meters high. Most houses, roads, bridges, boats, and quays were washed away.

The Geiranger Fjord

If you really manage to cast mountains into the sea, consider that number one target of international tourism nowadays, the Geiranger fjord, and what once happened nearby: Do not cause waves that make cruise tourists stop coming to this better-looking part of Norway to look at breath-taking mountain sides as they rise toward the sky above. It happens that the weather is lovely.

The Astronaut's Range of Vision

Seeing earth, alas, just the earth!

IT IS reported that a certain fjord cruise tourist - was it the US astronaut John Glenn or was it Neil Armstrong? - later was shipped to the moon. He looked toward our sunlit and blue planet surrounded by blackened space. Within his range of vision was nearly half of the universe the naked eye can see. It was "a hundred billion kilometres back in time for him" right there (due to how long it takes for light to travel).
Now, as he stood there, he was asked by eager ones from Houston, Texas: "Have you ever seen anything more breath-taking?"
"Only the elps and fjords of the Sunnmore district of Norway." [This is a brief rendition only]

COMMENT
A person who grows up near these elps may sooner or later get bored with them, go way to a flat, windy, and moist country like Denmark, only to discover than he misses those mountains, that scenery.
Be that as it may; there are lots of gulches and sagging fjords along the west coast of Norway. There is also a lot more to earth living than plenty of fjords and mountains.

Tao needs to be put to good use.

Waterfall in Western Norway.
It falls 182 m freely.

Literature
Ded: Marcus, Aage. Den blå dragen. Oslo: Gyldendal, 1965.
Ebu: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2008 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2008.

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