Author Archives: Ursula When I spend time in the crush of Indian streets, rubbing shoulders with holy men and drinking masala chai with the locals, I always come away with some new realisation about myself, or the world. My first visit to Varanasi was not my first trip to India, but it was revelatory. Most of my time […]  There is something ineffably sad about an abandoned city or town. Ibra is one of the oldest cities in Oman, and home to some of the biggest tribes in the country. It grew rich because of its location on the major trade route between Muscat, Sur and Zanzibar, becoming a centre of trade, religion, education, […]  Hiking the Inca Trail from Piscacucho, or Kilometer 82, to the Inca citadel city of Machu Picchu is an unbeatable experience. The trail follows just a small part – 42 kilometers (26 miles) – of the much larger UNESCO-listed complex of roads, the Qhapaq Ñan – meaning ‘royal road’ in Quechua – built by the […]  The Ganges River is India’s lifeblood, flowing 2525 kilometres (1570 m) from her source in a glacier in the Himalaya, across India and Bangladesh, and into the Bay of Bengal. The river is sacred: personified as Ganga Ma, mother to humanity. Hindus worship Ganga Ma as the goddess of purification and forgiveness. Some places along […]  The spring month of May in Nanaimo on Canada’s Vancouver Island was unseasonably cold and wet this year. I was living in a too-small-space in a boat on the harbour, and by the end of the month, I needed to get out! Fortunately, the weather improved somewhat, and Nanaimo has a lot of beautiful parklands […] |
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