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Travel snapshots from Toonsarah

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  • Archive
  • Home
  • Destinations
    • England
      • London
      • Newcastle-upon-Tyne
    • Europe
      • Albania
      • 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
        • Colombia
        • 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
        • Nepal
        • 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
  • Postcards from the road
  • Challenges
    • Photography challenges
      • Just One Person
      • Lens-Artists
      • Mid-week Monochrome
      • Monochrome Madness
      • Nature Photo Challenge
      • One Word Sunday
      • Photographing Public Art
      • Pick a Word
      • Squares
      • Sunday Stills
      • The Changing Seasons
      • Words of Wisdom
      • Cee’s challenges
        • CBWC
        • CFFC
        • CMMC
    • General challenges
      • Monday walks
      • Writers’ Quotes Wednesday
    • Challenges archive
      • Bird Weekly
      • Friendly Friday
        • The Friendly Friday Challenge: how to join in
      • Friday’s Foods of the World
      • Life in Colour
      • One-to-Three
      • Ten photos
      • Thursday Trios
      • 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 animals architecture art birds black_&_white buildings bulgaria cffc chile cities colombia colour costa_rica dprk ealing england flowers france friendlyfriday Friendly_Friday history india just_one_person_from_around_the_world landscape lens-artists Lens_Artists_Challenge london Monday_Walks nepal new_mexico north_korea paris people photography photo_effects PPAC ruins Street_Art Street_Photography Sunday_Stills usa views village wildlife
  • Culture & tradition,  Monday walks,  Nepal

    A walk in a Tharu village

    December 13, 2022 / 30 Comments
    Three women in bright clothes and a man carrying large bundle of leaves

    The Tharu are a people of the forest. They have lived for centuries in the lowlands of southern Nepal and northern India. Often persecuted, they have now been recognised by the Nepali government as an official nationality. But their lives are still not easy.

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Low stone houses on a hillside

    The Birdmen of Rapa Nui

    January 15, 2021
    Men with fishing nets on colourfully painted wooden rowing boats

    Living on borrowed time in Djiffer

    January 11, 2023
    Print with blue mountains

    Dust collectors? Or precious memories?

    January 23, 2021
  • England,  History

    Eyam, home to the original lockdown?

    August 25, 2022 / 22 Comments
    Tombstones in a field

    When Alexander Hadfield, a tailor, ordered a bale of cloth to be sent from London to his home in the small Derbyshire village of Eyam, he cannot have dreamed of the dreadful consequences. Nor could he have dreamed that this simple action would be remembered centuries later.

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    Or what about ...?

    Lobster pots, small boats and a distant castle on a hill

    Gallery: an ode to beautiful Northumberland (shhh!)

    November 28, 2022
    Stone statue on a plinth on a grassy hillside

    Admiral Lord Collingwood, a forgotten hero

    April 25, 2021
    River through a city with several bridges

    Gallery: ‘Coming home Newcastle’, a football anthem

    August 9, 2021
  • Monday walks,  Rajasthan,  Street photography,  Travel galleries

    Gallery: the friendly people of Khimsar

    July 13, 2022 / 40 Comments
    Boy and his father in a shop

    Around a 450 year old fort on the edge of the Thar Desert a small town has grown up, consisting of little more than a market, some shops and a bus station. These serve the surrounding rural community and those who work in the fort, which is today is both home to the Thakurs, former rulers of the Kingdom of Khimsar, who built it, and also a heritage hotel.

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    Or what about ...?

    Dead tree and long grass

    A walk on Sausage Island: it’s all about the elephants

    May 25, 2021
    Men with fishing nets on colourfully painted wooden rowing boats

    Living on borrowed time in Djiffer

    January 11, 2023
    Single storey houses in bright colours

    A wander through Getsemani

    March 21, 2023
  • Kerala,  Monday walks,  Street photography,  Travel galleries

    Gallery: a stroll through a Kerala village

    January 18, 2022 / 28 Comments
    Washing drying outside a simple home on a dirt street

    Chowara is a small fishing community in Kerala. While tourism has come to the area, bringing visitors from elsewhere in India and further afield, it remains unspoiled and still focused on that traditional mainstay of its economy, the fish. Our hotel lay right next to the village, so it was easy one morning to forsake the lure of the pool and take a stroll with our cameras.

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    Or what about ...?

    Smiling lady on a bamboo ladder

    Gallery: in the Cardamom Hills of Kerala

    May 17, 2022
    Man beating white cloth

    A dhobi wallah in Fort Cochi, Kerala

    April 14, 2021
    Hazy view of bamboo clump

    Periyar’s monkeys, elephants, bison and more

    October 4, 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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    Looking up at sunlight filtering through trees

    Gallery: backlighting to add drama and atmosphere

    May 4, 2023
    Small concrete bridge over water with several boats

    Gallery: getting from A to B

    September 9, 2022
    Modern white building with moat

    Gallery: cool architecture, cool colours

    May 24, 2021
  • Italy,  Monday walks

    On a walk through Serra San Quirico

    July 21, 2021 / 29 Comments
    Typical Italian stone village surrounded by trees

    Imagine a small hill-top town, its old buildings ringed by a defensive wall. The wall is threaded through with covered passageways, known as copertelle. In the past these afforded the residents a safe route around the town even at times of attack. Today they repay exploration by visitors who want to absorb some of the unique atmosphere of this pretty town.

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    Two men in fancy dress

    Gallery: Comic and Games festival in Lucca

    November 8, 2020
    Church roof and bell tower with the sea behind

    A walk around Ancona’s picturesque old town

    February 2, 2022
    View down to an Italian town square and hills beyond

    Postcards from the past: a small town in Italy

    November 14, 2020
  • England

    Yes, I remember Adlestrop

    June 17, 2021 / 26 Comments
    Yellow stone cottage with roses growing around it

    How many of you have had to learn a poem by heart as a child? It’s strange that something that was perhaps a chore at the time can become a fond memory, especially if we grow to love the poem. One of the most often learned English poems might just be Edward Thomas’s Adlestrop, first published in 1917. The poem describes an uneventful journey Thomas took on 23 June 1914 on an Oxford to Worcester express.

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    Or what about ...?

    Red lantern, blue wall, green shutters

    2020: my (pandemic) year in review

    January 3, 2021
    Old boat and rail track on a shingle beach

    Gallery: at the edge of England

    November 11, 2020
    Large flying horse made of disjointed metal parts

    Radical Horizons: the Art of Burning Man at Chatsworth

    August 27, 2022
  • Culture & tradition,  Monday walks,  Senegal

    A village built on shells

    May 11, 2021 / 26 Comments
    Village street with men sitting on bench

    Fadiouth is an island village, and a rather unique one. It is also known as Shell Island, and the reason for this is pretty obvious; it is built on layers and layers of shells. These have accumulated over the centuries as the locals subsisted on cockle fishing in the shallows of the mangrove lagoons and simply discarded the shells, or used them as building materials.

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    Or what about ...?

    Small squat tree in a dry stony landscape

    Dhofar, the Land of Frankincense

    May 11, 2022
    Huge blue statue of seated figure

    Lord Shiva statue in the hills above Pokhara

    January 7, 2023
    Large illuminated reindeer model

    Celebrating Christmas in London and (a little way) beyond

    December 6, 2021
  • Culture & tradition,  Guatemala,  Just One Person,  Street photography

    Traditional textiles in San Antonio Palopo

    April 21, 2021 / 15 Comments
    Girl in traditional blue clothing

    There is something a little bit different about San Antonio Palopo, one of the smaller villages on Lake Atitlàn. Most of the villages in this part of Guatemala are Tz'utujil, where bright reds and embroidered flowers are the preferred shades for huipiles, the traditional embroidered blouses. But the people of this village are Cakchiquel Maya; and almost without exception every woman and girl wears the same lovely shades of blue in narrow vertical stripes.

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    Or what about ...?

    Golden temple reflected in a lake

    Exploring the temple gardens of Kyoto

    May 9, 2021
    Man sitting on a rug using a hammer and anvil

    A blacksmith at work in Bukhara

    March 24, 2022
    Blacksmith crouching

    A village blacksmith in the Lao highlands

    March 10, 2021
  • Bulgaria,  Street art,  Travel galleries

    Gallery: Staro Zhelezare, another street art village

    March 24, 2021 / 16 Comments
    Mural of Barack Obama shaking hands with another man

    Can you change the world, or at least one village, with art? It seems that in several parts of the world, that idea is taking hold. In this out of the way spot a group of young Polish artists have painted portraits of famous people on the walls alongside those of villagers.

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    Or what about ...?

    Red Metro sign against a backdrop of leaves

    Gallery: a September selection

    October 3, 2022
    Brick church with domes against a blue sky

    A postcard from Sofia

    September 28, 2022
    Stone church and blue sky

    The wonders of Bulgaria’s Bachkovo Monastery

    February 10, 2022
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Read my featured blogger interview

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By Marsha of 'Always Write'

And my answers to Bren’s ‘five at five’ questions

Lady in a hat and red top sitting on rocks

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 animals architecture art birds black_&_white buildings bulgaria cffc chile cities colombia colour costa_rica dprk ealing england flowers france friendlyfriday Friendly_Friday history india just_one_person_from_around_the_world landscape lens-artists Lens_Artists_Challenge london Monday_Walks nepal new_mexico north_korea paris people photography photo_effects PPAC ruins Street_Art Street_Photography Sunday_Stills usa views village wildlife

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You may have missed

  • A postcard from Norway: Roald Amundsen
  • A postcard from Norway: crossing the Arctic Circle
  • Gallery: a May selection (2023)
  • Gallery: London from the top of the Shard
  • Gallery: finding peace while travelling

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All images and texts copyright Sarah Wilkie - 2023 ©
 

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