Category Archives: Travel

Some time ago – last April, to be exact – I wrote about the breathtakingly awesome experience of meeting Sumatran orangutans in their wild jungle habitat (Ursula’s Weekly Wanders: Meet the Locals). Truly, it was a memorable encounter – one not easily matched. It was hard to leave the Gunung Leuser National Park, but our itinerary called for us to […]

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It is pretty impressive: the world’s tallest brick minaret, set in a complex of archaeological ruins dating back to 1193 AD, on a site that is much older than that. The stories behind it are quite something as well. Qutb Minar, sometimes spelled Qutub or Qutab, was started in 1192 by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, the first Sultan of Delhi and ruler of North India from 1206 to […]

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“Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit.” -Brooks Atkinson There are those who sail just for sailing’s sake: for the feel of the wind, the rush of the waves, and the challenge of managing a boat and the elements. As much as I enjoy the physical activity of sailing, I also love it […]

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My husband is in China at the moment. I am not. Such is life! I shouldn’t complain too much; his absence gives me extra time to get to photos I haven’t yet processed… including those pictures I took when I tagged along on his last trip to China in April. We stayed in Xiamen (Amoy): […]

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“Same, same… but different.” This common Thai expression is one that perfectly sums up my perception of markets in Southeast Asia: they are the “same”, in that they are all densely packed environments full of colours, people, sounds, smells and (usually) oppressive heat. Often wet and uneven underfoot, they are a warren of activity that can be […]

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