Category Archives: Travel The landscape around the Altai Mountains of far-western Bayan-Ölgii Province in Mongolia is as untamed as the people and animals who live there. The cold desert climate experiences dustings of snowfall – but little rain – and the measured temperatures – ranging from -22.6C (-8.68F) on a January night to 22.6° (72.7F) on a July afternoon – […]  There is nothing romantic about nature. But, nor can you call nature “cruel”. Cruelty implies intention. I watched The Lion King again recently – I had grandchildren visiting – and it was interesting to reflect on the difference between that romanised version of life in the savanna and my memories of my time in Etosha […]  As cosmopolitan a city as Bangkok is, there are still spaces where one feels as though one has been transported into the distant past. The old community of Bang Khun Thian – established around 1867 – is one of the 50 districts (เขต – khed) that the huge and sprawling city is divided into. Tucked […]  When I think of Oslo, Norway, I think of sculpture: sculptured spaces and sculptured figures and objects. I had seen pictures of the famous Vigeland installation of Frogner Park, Oslo in an inflight magazine years ago, and this had coloured my expectations before my visit to the city in May. I didn’t arrive under the best of circumstances: my […]  What is “culture”? That was the question for our first assigned essay in “Culture Myth and Symbolism”, an upper-level anthropology course I took at university, many, many years ago. Deceptively simple, the “answer” – if there is one – became increasingly layered and complex the more I delved into tomes written by the notable ‘modern’ […] |
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