Iceland: Drangey Island
Iceland: Hotpooling with heroes
Iceland: Surprising Sauðárkrókur
Iceland: Akureyri Botanical Garden
Berlin: Fashion Week walks
England: Chelsea Flower Show 2010
The world of cruises
Japan: Kyoto fleamarket around a temple
France: Château de la Barre
Berlin: Cherry blossoms replace barbed wire
Thailand: Spending a day with tigers
Honeymooner’s paradise
South Africa: Tenikwa Center for “Lesser Cats”Culture»
Malaysia: Blue Mansion Hotel in Penang (6)
Stepping inside the cool front hall of the Cheong Fatt Tze Blue Mansion is like stepping into a bygone era. It is easy to imagine the soft padded footsteps of wives, concubines, children, relatives, servants, and hangers-on scurrying in long silk gowns through the high-ceilinged rooms, most likely whispering intrigues behind intricately carved ivory fans. [...]
Destinations»
Iceland: Drangey Island (0)
Even the islands around Iceland are volcanic in origin. So, too, Drangey, a 180 meter high steep-cliffed, tuff-stone blob of about 20 hectares in diameter, that is the remnant of a 700,000 year old volcano dominating the Skagafjoerdur fjord in the north of Iceland. Now uninhabited (except for a small cottage for bird catchers), it [...]
Events»
Japan: Kyoto fleamarket around a temple (1)
Voices hushed, feet in socks shuffling softly on tatami mats, sandalwood smoke from incense sticks, heads bowed in ancestral prayer … not so at the Kyoto temple fleamarket: a cacophony of voices, from shrill to shriller, boom to bass, everyone trying to overtrump the other and all with the same message: “buy me”. Hundreds of [...]
Food and drink»
Australia: Delights of “the Hunter” (2)
The northern Hemisphere is getting ready for the golden colors of Autumn, but in Australia, Spring is being welcomed with open arms. So, too, at the Hunter Valley Gardens. This 25 ha. (60 acre) privately owned, themed garden was created from scratch in 1998 and opened to the public in 2003. By far the most [...]
Observations»
Bangkok to Penang: 24 hour International Express Train (12)
Nowadays, the internet is the source of instant information and this is especially true for travel news. I forget how I found www.seat61.com but in no time, I was intrigued by the very detailed account of how to get from Bangkok to Butterworth, which is the railway station to get to Georgetown on Penang Island [...]
Travel tips»
The world of cruises (1)
After my recently completed 257 day around the world trip, there was only one mode of transportation that I had not used: cruise ships. Simply the idea of not packing/unpacking and to be taken to a destination is utterly appealing! I think I have saved the best for last and who knows, may become a [...]
Entries(RSS)