Tag Archives: Photo Blog “Take me to the Light!” It is Christmas Day here in Australia: – A good time to reconnect with family and loved ones, even though some might be far away, or missing completely. An ideal time to reflect on the possibilities of love and peace – although the world at the moment seems to be providing few examples. […]  Nats (နတ်), or spirits, have been a central part of Burmese life since time immemorial. Nats are everywhere in Myanmar: they are in the trees, the wind, the stones and the waterways. They act as personal and village guardians, but can be troublesome if not properly propitiated. Every Burmese village has a shrine to curry favour with the local Nats; […]  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 […]  A castle, cheese, wine and chocolate: what’s not to love about Gruyères? We were meant to be hiking around Leysin in the Swiss Alps, but it was raining, and had been for days. We went through the guide books and asked locals about alternative amusements (q.v.: A Trip to the Salt Mines). The medieval town of Gruyères was three train-hops away […] 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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