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
    Two elephants among trees

    Elephant encounters on elephant terms

    September 13, 2020
    River with small boats and rocky cliff

    A day on the Nam Ou

    July 3, 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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    Two large mosaics with portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il

    Gallery: mosaic portraits of a dynasty

    October 21, 2020
    Rocky coastline

    Stunning landscapes of Iceland: the day the sun shone

    October 29, 2021
    Statues of four young men

    Roll up, roll up! A Magical Mystery Tour

    August 26, 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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    Ornate door and building

    Gallery: the doors of Tallinn

    October 24, 2020
    Closed sign on a shop door

    Gallery: when one door closes …

    June 20, 2022
    Blue tiles with religious painting

    Gallery: tiles, tiles and yet more tiles!

    April 30, 2022
  • 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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    Pink bike helmet with Pinkie logo

    Gallery: motorbike ‘art’ in South East Asia

    December 27, 2021
    Red lantern, blue wall, green shutters

    2020: my (pandemic) year in review

    January 3, 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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    Back of whale with mountainous coast behind

    Thar she blows – eventually!

    July 7, 2021
    Balloon over a desert landscape

    Reaching for the sky again in Africa

    April 18, 2021
    Cityscape with river in the distance

    The bliss of returning to the air

    November 24, 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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    Yellow Victorian house

    Gallery: the Painted Ladies of Cape May

    October 10, 2020
    River view with modern city buildings

    Gallery: city living in London

    February 15, 2021
    White painted cathedral

    A city shaped by earthquakes

    October 27, 2021
  • 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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    Orthodox cathedral at the end of a wide street

    Gallery: Sofia’s St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

    March 7, 2021
    Church tower and old stone built gatehouse

    A city walk in Newcastle-upon-Tyne

    May 31, 2022
    Yellow Victorian house

    Gallery: the Painted Ladies of Cape May

    October 10, 2020
  • Challenge Your Camera,  England,  Ruins

    The Abbot’s Kitchen at Glastonbury Abbey

    March 2, 2021 / 13 Comments
    Four terracotta jars with cloth covers

    While the monks of Glastonbury may have taken a vow of poverty and lived a life of abstinence and poverty, the abbot lived in a vastly different style. He had a magnificent house, as befitted the abbot of the second richest abbey in the country. His kitchen needed to be able to cater to the many great visitors who came to the abbey, including Henry VII.

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    Back of a head wearing Union Jack hat

    When the Olympics came to London, 2012

    February 23, 2021
    Close-up of pink blossom

    Gallery: beautiful blooms and bees in close-up

    March 9, 2021
    Several bridges over a river

    Newcastle: a city and its river

    February 18, 2021
  • Architecture,  Art,  Rajasthan,  Ruins

    The Palace of Bundi: Kipling’s ‘work of goblins’

    November 18, 2020 / 7 Comments
    Lake with palace on the hill beyond

    ‘The Palace of Bundi, even in broad daylight, is such a palace as men built for themselves in uneasy dreams, the work of goblins rather than of men.’ So said Rudyard Kipling of Bundi Palace. Also known as Garh Palace, it was home to the rulers of Bundi for centuries.

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    Sculpture of a cat on a roof

    Gallery: meet the many cats of Riga

    September 25, 2021
    White painted cathedral

    A city shaped by earthquakes

    October 27, 2021
    Modern white building with moat

    Gallery: cool architecture, cool colours

    May 24, 2021
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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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  • December 2020
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  • September 2020
  • August 2020

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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