Travel with me

Travel snapshots from Toonsarah

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  • Archive
  • Home
  • Destinations
    • England
      • London
      • Newcastle-upon-Tyne
    • Europe
      • Austria
      • Bulgaria
      • Estonia
      • France
        • Paris
      • Germany
      • Iceland
      • Italy
      • Jersey
      • Latvia
      • Norway
      • Portugal
      • Spain
        • Seville
      • Switzerland
      • Ukraine
    • Beyond
      • Africa
        • Botswana
        • Cape Verde
        • Gambia
        • Kenya
        • Morocco
        • Namibia
        • Senegal
        • Tanzania
        • Zimbabwe
      • Americas
        • Belize
        • Canada
        • Chile
          • Rapa Nui
        • Costa Rica
        • Ecuador
          • Galapagos Islands
        • Guatemala
        • Jamaica
        • USA
          • New Mexico
          • New York City
          • Washington State
      • Asia
        • DPRK
        • India
          • Kerala
          • Rajasthan
        • Indochina
          • Cambodia
          • Laos
          • Vietnam
        • Japan
        • Oman
        • Syria
        • United Arab Emirates
        • Uzbekistan
  • Themes
    • Architecture
    • Art
      • Crafts
      • Street art
    • Colour
    • Dark tourism
    • Eco-tourism
    • Food & drink
    • Gardens
    • History
      • Ruins
      • War
    • Landscape
      • Coast & seascapes
      • Deserts
      • Mountains
      • Rivers
    • Nature and wildlife
      • Animals
      • Birds
      • Plants
        • Flowers
        • Trees, forests and woodland
    • People
      • Culture & tradition
      • Street photography
    • Travel in general
  • Photo galleries
    • Themed galleries
    • Travel galleries
  • Challenges
    • General challenges
      • Friendly Friday
        • The Friendly Friday Challenge: how to join in
      • Monday walks
      • Writers’ Quotes Wednesday
    • Photography challenges
      • Lens-Artists
      • Life in Colour
      • One-to-Three
      • Photographing Public Art
      • Pick a Word
      • Squares
      • Sunday Stills
      • The Changing Seasons
      • Thursday Trios
      • Cee’s challenges
        • CBWC
        • CFFC
        • CMMC
    • Challenges archive
      • Bird Weekly
      • Friday’s Foods of the World
      • Just One Person
      • Ten photos
      • Thursday Doors
  • About me
    • Contact me
    • ‘Always Write’ interview
    • My love of travel
    • My photography
      • Photographic techniques
      • My photography journey
      • Video
    • Disclaimer & GDPR
  • Archive

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Topics I’ve touched on

africa architecture art birds bird_weekly black_&_white botswana buildings cambodia cffc chile churches cities colour costa_rica deserts dprk ealing england flowers friendlyfriday Friendly_Friday history india japan just_one_person_from_around_the_world landscape Lens_Artists_Challenge london Monday_Walks museum new_mexico north_korea people photography photo_effects PPAC rivers ruins Street_Art Street_Photography Sunday_Stills usa village wildlife
  • Laos,  Monday walks,  Ruins

    Wat Phou: walking in the footsteps of the king

    May 23, 2022 / 30 Comments
    Avenue lined with small stone pillars and distant mountains

    Wat Phou is a pre-Angkorian Khmer Hindu temple at the foot of Mount Phou Khao. The Khmer chose this site because the unusual shape of the mountain peak seemed to them to resemble a Shiva linga. Today it was so hazy that the peak was hard to make out, but we had seen it yesterday in the late afternoon sunlight.

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    Pink bike helmet with Pinkie logo

    Gallery: motorbike ‘art’ in South East Asia

    December 27, 2021
    River with small boats and rocky cliff

    A day on the Nam Ou

    July 3, 2021
    Man in orange robes by worn plaster wall

    Gallery: the monks of Luang Prabang (a life in orange)

    October 11, 2021
  • Culture & tradition,  Deserts,  Oman,  Ruins

    Dhofar, the Land of Frankincense

    May 11, 2022 / 26 Comments
    Small squat tree in a dry stony landscape

    You can’t travel far in Oman without hearing the word frankincense. Every Omani home burns this fragrant resin daily, it is an intrinsic part of Omani life. Not only does it make the home smell nice, it also keeps flying insects such as mosquitoes at bay. The best quality frankincense is steeped overnight in water which is then drunk at breakfast time to treat a variety of ailments. And inhaling the smoke is said to be good for asthma.

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    River through a city with several bridges

    Gallery: ‘Coming home Newcastle’, a football anthem

    August 9, 2021
    Girl in traditional blue clothing

    Traditional textiles in San Antonio Palopo

    April 21, 2021
    Lady in Indian dress with a goat

    Meeting the locals in Narlai, Rajasthan

    March 17, 2021
  • Architecture,  Guatemala,  Ruins,  Squares

    A city shaped by earthquakes

    October 27, 2021 / 35 Comments
    White painted cathedral

    Antigua, or Antigua Guatemala to give it its full name, is a city shaped by the movement of the earth on which it stands. It was founded in 1543 and despite the ravages of several earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, it was for over 200 years the capital and economic centre of the whole Kingdom of Guatemala. This was a significant country, covering what today we know as southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

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    Series of ornate arches with trees beyond

    Gallery: looking out from the shadows

    May 7, 2022
    Empty airport seating area

    Gallery: Wonsan Kalma International Airport sits deserted

    May 7, 2021
    Two white bell towers

    A stroll around Tavira

    April 29, 2022
  • DPRK,  History,  Ruins

    Another slice of North Korean history in Kaesong

    October 21, 2021 / 17 Comments
    Ornate moss-covered oriental roof

    Kaesong is unusual among North Korean cities in having not been largely destroyed during the Korean War. It is also noteworthy as the only city to have changed hands as a result of the armistice agreement, having been part of South Korea from 1945 to 1950 until the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement brought it under North Korean control.

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    Memorials separated with low green hedges and city view beyond

    Commemorating the fallen: the Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery in Pyongyang

    February 10, 2021
    Huge statues of young women holding a stone map above an empty road

    The Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification

    September 18, 2021
    Large building with green oriental roof

    A look inside the Grand People’s Study House

    November 18, 2021
  • Cambodia,  Ruins,  Squares,  Travel galleries

    Gallery: Ta Prohm, Angkor’s Royal Monastery

    October 7, 2021 / 25 Comments
    Stone ruin surrounded by trees

    In a clearing in the jungles of Angkor the Buddhist king King Jayavarman VII built a monastery, Rajavihara, meaning ‘Royal Monastery’. We know it today as Ta Prohm. Here lived more than 12,500 people, including 18 high priests and 615 dancers. The temple was wealthy, amassing riches such as gold, pearls and silks.

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    Ornamental gate

    The Killing Fields of Cambodia

    June 23, 2022
    People walking by wide river lined with palm trees

    A Sunday evening by the Tonle Sap, Phnom Penh

    April 8, 2021
    White window shutter and green leaves

    Eating out with a conscience in Indochina

    April 17, 2021
  • Lens-Artists,  Oman,  Ruins

    Seen better days: the ruined villages of Oman

    October 2, 2021 / 26 Comments

    Not many countries can have seen such rapid change as did Oman in the 1970s. When Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al-Said overthrew his father in a bloodless coup in 1970, Oman was considered one of the most technologically and educationally deprived countries in the world. In the first 25 years of his reign it moved from a largely feudal society to a rapidly developing modern one.

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    Landscape with church and autumn trees

    Signs of autumn at Emmetts Garden

    September 27, 2021
    Golden temple reflected in a lake

    Exploring the temple gardens of Kyoto

    May 9, 2021
    Old sign advertising a clog shop entrance

    Gallery: shoes, slippers, trainers, boots and clogs

    August 15, 2021
  • Architecture,  Morocco,  Ruins

    ‘Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!’

    August 12, 2021 / 26 Comments
    Red crumbling ruins

    The crumbling red stone ruins of the Kasbah of Telouet hide a secret; within their walls lie the remains of a glorious and self-indulgent palace, where Pasha Thami El Glaoui asserted his power and wealth. These atmospheric ruins are relatively off the tourist trail, although easily visited on a day trip from Marrakesh.

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    Looking across a park to an historic building with a river and modern skyscrapers beyond

    Gallery: what makes a perfect city?

    March 29, 2022
    Detail of ornate tiled frieze

    Finding geometry in the buildings of Marrakesh

    July 27, 2021
    Colourful paper lanterns at night

    Gallery: let there be light

    September 21, 2021
  • Coast & seascapes,  England,  Monday walks,  Ruins

    Kippers and castles: a walk from Craster to Dunstanburgh

    April 13, 2021 / 18 Comments
    Ruins of a castle

    One of the most memorable and striking sights along the Northumberland coast is Dunstanburgh Castle. Its ruins stand on a remote headland, reached by a beautiful coastal walk from the nearby village of Craster. It is this distance from any other building, any other sign of human habitation, that makes Dunstanburgh seem rather magical.

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    Rocky foreshore and distant cliffs

    Gallery: not just any day!

    November 1, 2021
    Old boat and rail track on a shingle beach

    Gallery: at the edge of England

    November 11, 2020
    Boardwalk with sea beyond and yellow flowers

    A spring walk by the sea in Faro

    April 19, 2022
  • Cape Verde,  CFFC,  Dark tourism,  Ruins

    Campo da Morte Lenta: Camp of the Slow Death

    March 31, 2021 / 25 Comments
    Looking down on faded yellow-painted buildings

    On the southern outskirts of the small fishing town of Tarrafel on Santiago, one of the Cape Verde Islands, is a haunting sight. Now a museum, this former concentration camp, also known as Campo da Morte Lenta, commemorates a darker time for the islands, under Portuguese rule.

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    Lady in bright carnival costume

    Carnival parade in Praia, Cape Verde

    January 18, 2021
    Large mural of woman's head wearing a colourful headscarf

    Gallery: Cape Verde street art

    June 3, 2022
  • Architecture,  India,  Ruins

    ‘He keepeth a great court’: Fatehpur Sikri

    March 26, 2021 / 23 Comments
    Red sandstone palace buildings and pool

    There is something about a tale of a deserted city that tugs at the imagination. Here on this rocky ridge near Agra in Uttar Pradesh, the third Mughal emperor Akbar built a new capital: the walled city of Fatehpur Sikri, the ‘City of Victory’. But soon after its completion he abandoned his great city due to a lack of water at the site.

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    Ornate door and building

    Gallery: the doors of Tallinn

    October 24, 2020
    Row of elegant buildings in cream, blue and white

    Gallery: the Art Nouveau gems of Riga

    August 20, 2021
    Two white bell towers

    A stroll around Tavira

    April 29, 2022
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Some favourite photos

Man in a turban with fishing nets
Fisherman in Fort Kochi, Kerala
Two elephants in long grass
Okavango elephants
Blue glacier edge
Glacier Grey, Torres del Paine, Chile
Elderly woman in black hat and sunglasses
In Santiago, Chile
Very large statues of North Korean Leaders
Statues of the Great Leaders on Mansudae Hill, Pyongyang
Water reflecting the sky with clouds and low sun
Approaching sunset in the Okavango Delta
Feet of huge metal sculpture, with man standing beside
The feet of the Angel
Large moai with row of more behind
The ‘travelling moai’ and Ahu Tongariki
Man in knitted hat by water, black and white photo
Waiting for the ferry, Banjul
Mountain reflected in a lake
On the road to Dyrholaey
Sunset at Wahiba Sands, Oman
Squirrel with a conker in his mouth
In Walpole Park, Ealing
Silhouette of a man in a gateway
Looking out from Bundi Palace
Blue and pink bird on a dead tree
Lilac-breasted Roller, Chobe NP, Botswana
Buddhist monk in orange robes with mobile phone
Monk at Wat Nong Sikhounmuang, Luang Prabang
Man sleeping in a tuk tuk by a carved stone wall
Tuk tuk driver by the Terrace of the Leper King
Close up of flamingo with head tucked under
Flamingo (Jersey Zoo)
Lady with baskets of fruit sitting by a canal
In Hoi An, Vietnam
Small fishing boat with a man in it, on a large lake
Lake Atitlan
Wet street and two people with bright pink umbrella
Street in Lucca, rainy day – edited

Some topics I’ve touched on

africa architecture art birds bird_weekly black_&_white botswana buildings cambodia cffc chile churches cities colour costa_rica deserts dprk ealing england flowers friendlyfriday Friendly_Friday history india japan just_one_person_from_around_the_world landscape Lens_Artists_Challenge london Monday_Walks museum new_mexico north_korea people photography photo_effects PPAC rivers ruins Street_Art Street_Photography Sunday_Stills usa village wildlife

Archive

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You may have missed

  • International friendships in North Korea
  • A stroll around Avebury’s stone circle
  • Gallery: making eyes at me
  • Introduction to some monuments in Riga
  • Gallery: pick a word (June)

How to join the Friendly Friday Challenge

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