Tag Archives: everyday life Head-hunters once lived here. In spite of the inroads made by nineteenth century Christian missionaries, the men of the Tanimbar Islands were still known as fierce warriors well into the independence fights of the twentieth century. Today, local languages and many traditional beliefs, ceremonies, and dances survive. On the largest Tanimbar Island of Yamdena, the […]  The town of Munnar, in Kerala, South India, was once a popular summer resort for members of the British Raj. Sitting high (1,600 metres – 5,200 feet) in the Western Ghats, this hill station offered cooler summer temperatures than those in the hot and humid coastal cities. Tea plantations were established here in the late […]  Finally! The day dawned clear, and while the mists cloaked the distant mountains, the extensive green hills covered in tea bushes and silver oak trees that surrounded my ‘resort’ had at long-last come into view. I had booked myself in for a week’s stay above Munnar, a town in the Western Ghats in India’s southern […]  If you Google “French” and “food” you will get chapter and verse on culinary artistry, precision techniques, high-quality ingredients, and deep cultural significance. On my first trip to France – many, many years ago – I was working for some friends at a small auberge in Parignargues. There, I was introduced to concept of the […]  Sorong, the largest city in the newly-formed Indonesian province of Southwest Papua, is the sort of place people usually go through rather than to. As the logistics hub for Indonesia’s thriving eastern oil and gas frontier, it harbours a busy industrial port. For tourists and scientists, it is the gateway to Raja Ampat, a collection […] |
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