Author Archives: Ursula

Ever since my brother gave me my first camera just before my first major overseas adventure (a very long, long time ago), I have loved traveling and loved taking pictures. It's only recently, however, that I've been able to really indulge my passion for both. Living in Bangkok for many years gave me access to some wonderful photographic teachers and mentors, as well as allowing me opportunities for travel that I'd not had before. Although I've moved back to Australia, I am still traveling a fair bit - and I'm loving every minute of it!

Travelling around Switzerland is like luxuriating in a box of the rich, truffle-filled chocolates that the country is famous for. Everywhere you go, picture-postcard scenes meet you. And, if you have Swiss friends to guide you and a Swiss Travel Pass in hand, you don’t even have to work hard: accessing these magic places is easy. […]

View full post »

The remote, mountainous corners of northern and western Thailand – and neighbouring  Laos and Myanmar – are home to countless small villages of “mountain folk” (ชาวเขา), or ethnic “Hill Tribes”.  These Hilltribes/Hill Tribes are not a unitary group. In Thailand alone, there are six major distinct ethnic minority groups – the Akha, Karen, Meo or Hmong, Yao, Lahu, and Lisu, plus a few […]

View full post »

If you want to be a successful traveler, it pays to do your homework. For example, checking the expected temperatures all around a region – not just on the coast – and packing accordingly! This was not the first time I’d been caught out by weather in Asia: last year, my husband and I “forgot” […]

View full post »

“Spring” – that season of new life and fresh growth – is a concept originating in the temperate regions of Europe.  There is nowhere quite like an English country-garden to herald Spring in all its traditionally subtle beauty. The gentle rains – for which the countryside is so well known – coupled with slowly increasing sunlight, give […]

View full post »

It was a long day. Long, bumpy, and noisy. I’ve said it before: Cross-country travel in Mongolia is not for the faint-hearted – or for those who are weak of bladder! The Russian UAZ (Ulyanovsky Avtomobilny Zavod) four-wheel-drive vehicles that are tough enough to negotiate the matrix of mud, rocks, dirt and potholes that pass for a road network across the expansive steppes of […]

View full post »