Travel Trivia Challenge

Posted on 22. Jan, 2009 by Kerry Banks in International

A new year; a new quiz.

1. Burning Man, a bizarre, eight-day festival dedicated to radical self-expression, takes place annually in Black Rock Desert in which U.S. state?
A. California
B. Utah
C. Colorado
D. Nevada

2. What is the only country to feature a building on its national flag?
A. Panama
B. Lebanon
C. Cambodia
D. Albania

3. If you travel to Spain you will likely find yourself offered tapas (small dishes of food) to eat. What is the English translation of tapas?
A. Tokens
B. Appetizers
C. Lids
D. Jewels

4. Covering an area of 55,000 square kilometres, the Selous Game Reserve is the world’s largest game reserve. In which country is it located?
A. Botswana
B. Kenya
C. Tanzania
D. South Africa

5. A wind known as “the Fremantle Doctor” cools the west coast of what country during the summer months?
A. India
B. Australia
C. Portugal
D. Ireland

6. The Great Wall of China is one of the world’s most amazing man-made constructions. If you began the wall in Vancouver, B.C., approximately how far eastward would it extend?
A. To Calgary
B. To Winnipeg
C. To Toronto
D. To Halifax

7. Which country has the largest number of active volcanoes?
A. Indonesia
B. Guatemala
C. Japan
D. Iceland

8. The song “The Girl From Ipanema” launched the Bossa Nova craze in the early 1960s. Ipanema is a district in which South American city?
A. Rio De Janeiro
B. Buenos Aires
C. Montevideo
D. Sao Paulo

9. What does the “Red” in Moscow’s Red Square refer to?
A. The colour of Communism
B. It symbolizes the blood shed by Soviet soldiers
C. It means “beautiful” in old Russian
D. The colour of the Kremlin’s brick walls

10. Women are still not allowed to drive in which country?
A. Kuwait
B. Libya
C. Afghanistan
D. Saudi Arabia

11. Where will tourists encounter soldiers clad in vivid red, blue and yellow uniforms, known as the Swiss Guard?
A. The Vatican
B. Luxembourg
C. Monaco
D. San Marino

12. Table Mountain, a popular destination for hikers, climbers and cavers, is a major landmark in what African city?
A. Nairobi, Kenya
B. Khartoum, Sudan
C. Cape Town, South Africa
D. Rabat, Morocco

13. New Zealand was named after a region in which European country?
A. Germany
B. Portugal
C. Sweden
D. The Netherlands

Answers

1. D. Nevada
Launched as a free bonfire party with 20 participants on San Francisco’s Baker Beach in 1986, the Burning Man festival has since evolved into massive tribal gathering in the desert in northen Nevada. Last year’s event attracted 50,000 people who paid from $210 to $295 to get through the gates. Because of the variety of goals fostered by attendees, known as “Burners,” Burning Man does not have a single focus. Features of the event are subject to the participants and include community, artwork, absurdity, decommodification and revelry. At the end of the festival, a large, wooden effigy of man is burned.

2. C. Cambodia
The design of the Cambodian flag consists of three horizontal stripes–the top and bottom are blue and of equal size; and the centre stripe is a larger red one with a white emblem representing the towers of Angkor Wat in the middle of it. The famous temple was built in the 12th century by King Suryavarman II, who although he governed a Buddhist country, wanted to use Hindu concepts such as king-as-incarnation-of-gods to legitimate his rule. The temple was thus dedicated to Vishnu and constructed as a Hindu temple. It was converted for use as a Buddhist temple in the 14th or 15th century when Hinduism became unfashionable.

3. C. Lids
According to culinary lore, the concept of tapas began in Spain at least a century ago, when barmen started putting a slice of bread over a glass of beer or wine to keep the flies out of the drinks (“tapa” means “lid”). Patrons found these lids to be quite tasty, and would often choose their favourite bar by the quality of its tapas. Accompanied with a wide variety of wines, the concept of tapas has since evolved into a complete dining experience.

4. C. Tanzania
The pristine reserve, a World Heritage Site since 1982, covers about six per cent of Tanzania’s land surface. Larger than Switzerland, it is the world’s largest game reserve and second only to the Serengeti in its concentration of wildlife. It is also the sanctuary of the biggest elephant herd in the world, about 32,000. However, due to its remote location, and because it is most easily accessible only by small aircraft, Selous attracts few tourists, although hunting safaris are popular.

5. B. Australia
The cooling afternoon sea breeze which occurs during summer months in coastal areas of Western Australia was named the Fremantle Doctor because it appears to come from the nearby coastal city of Fremantle, and it brings welcome relief from the broiling hot temperatures. However, it is almost certain that the term Fremantle Doctor has its origins in Fremantle’s dark past. At Catherine Point, a short distance south of Fremantle, crematoriums were established during the colony’s early days to dispose of the corpses of those who had fallen prey to illness. It is reported that the Doctor was named in honour of the wind which blew the stench of burning human flesh inland across the settlement.

6. D. To Halifax
China’s Great Wall extends some 6,400 kilometres (4,000 miles) from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along a path that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia, but stretches to over 6,700 kilometres in total, which is longer than the distance from Vancouver to Halifax. At its peak, this structure was guarded by more than one million men. It has been estimated that somewhere in the range of two to three million Chinese died as part of the centuries-long project of building the wall.

7. A. Indonesia
The volcanoes that dot Indonesia’s island arc give it its ominous nickname, “The Ring of Fire.” The country can claim 167 of the 850 active volcanoes known in the world. Krakatoa, which blew up in 1883, may be the most famous volcanic event in modern history, but another Indonesian volcano, Tambora, which erupted in 1815, was even more violent, killing 71,000 people. The most active volcanoes in Indonesia are Kelut and Merapi on Java island, and both have been responsible for thousands of deaths. Since AD 1000, Kelut has erupted more than 30 times, while Merapi has erupted more than 80 times.

8. A. Rio de Janiero
Ah, the cool sounds of the Bossa Nova. “The Girl From Ipanema” was inspired by a real person, a striking five-foot-eight-inch teenage brunette named Heloisa Pinto, whom the song’s composers–Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes–used to watch as she strolled past the popular Veloso Bar, attracting wolf whistles from the regulars. The Veloso Bar, renamed “A Garota de Ipanema” (The Girl From Ipanema) by its owners, still exists in Ipanema, an upscale neighbourhood in Rio.

9. C. It means “beautiful” in old Russian
Nothing epitomizes Moscow, Russia’s vast and ancient capital, like Red Square or Krasnaya Ploschad, as it is known in Russian. An enormous 400 by 150 metres, it lies in the heart of Moscow and on its four sides stand the Kremlin, GUM Department Store, State Historical Museum and St. Basil’s Cathedral–the centres of government, commerce, history and religion. The square is also home to Lenin’s tomb, a gleaming granite mausoleum to the revered founder of Socialism. The name of Red Square derives neither from the colour of the bricks around it nor from the link between the colour red and communism. Rather, the name came about because the word krasnaya originally meant beautiful in old Russian. It only came to mean red in more modern times. The word was originally applied (with the meaning “beautiful”) to Saint Basil’s Cathedral, and was later transferred to the nearby square.

10. D. Saudi Arabia
Women in Saudi Arabia are subject to very strict regulations. They cannot vote, they must be covered from head to toe in public, they are not permitted to travel unaccompanied by male relatives, and although there is no specific law to forbid it, they cannot obtain driving licences, because for a woman to drive is considered sinful. The ban on female drivers was recently extended to cover golf carts.

11. A. The Vatican
One of the oldest military corps in the world, the Pontifical Swiss Guard has been protecting the Pope since 1506. Although most tourists see the Guards in their famous multicoloured dress uniforms complete with a helmet similar to that worn by the Spanish conquistadors, and assume they are merely ceremonial soldiers, they are actually a competent modern force. Each member of the Guard has served his time in the regular Swiss Army before being allowed to join on a sponsorship from his local canton and they all train with modern weaponry. The size of the unit has fluctuated over time, but since 2003 it has consisted of 134 men.

12. C. Cape Town, South Africa
Table Mountain forms a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa. The mountain’s flattened summit is often covered by clouds or mist spilling over the top to form the “table cloth.” A Portugese explorer named Antonio de Saldanha was the first European to climb the mountain in 1503 and he named it Table Mountain.

13. D. The Netherlands
The islands of New Zealand were named by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman in 1642. Tasman originally named it Staten Landt, believing it to be part of the land of that name off the coast of Argentina. When that was shown not to be so Dutch authorities named it Nieuw Zeeland in Dutch. The two major seafaring provinces of the Netherlands at the time were Holland and Zeeland, and originally the Dutch explorers named the largest landmass of Oceania and the two islands to the southeast respectively, New Holland and New Zeeland. New Holland was later replaced by the name Australia, but the name New Zealand remained in place.

Photo Credits:

#1: flickr.com

#2: faqs.org

#3: paulnoll.com

#4: img.dailymail.co.uk

Tags: Travel Trivia