Category Archives: Travel Bad lighting and dancing shadows lend an eerie air of animation to the figures on the walls all around us. Intricately carved pillars and beautifully restored wall-reliefs contrast with uneven stones and rough scaffolding: it truly is surreal walking after dark through structures built over 2000 years ago. My Nile river boat was rafted up […]  India is in the news at the moment – because of Covid. In spite of the fast-tracking of any vaccines the country can get hold of, a second wave of virus variants is sweeping the country. India now has the second-highest number of Covid cases in the world, and their public and private hospital systems […]  Sri Lanka was a delight! I hadn’t done any homework prior to travelling there, so it was also a delightful surprise. I expected (and got) colonial architecture and Hindu temples (see: Temples, Rains, and Ruins), but the number and variety of Buddhist sites in the country (eg: Dambulla Cave; Avukana Buddha; and Sigiriya) surprised me. […]  There is something about a European woods that lends itself to cautionary tales of faeries and ogres. Away from the densely populated modern cities, there are still mountains where wolves might dwell, and winding forest paths that have been used for centuries by pilgrims, saints, and ordinary travellers. In the days before telecommunications, this network […]  Anyone familiar with the rugged, jungle-clad terrain and dearth of infrastructure across Papua New Guinea will be horrified by the news of the recent rise of Covid-19 cases in the country (e.g. Covid Cases Triple). The very remoteness of tribal territories that helped keep the epidemic at bay until now also complicates the delivery of […] |
|
