India, love it or hate it, so they say. Rajastan was getting me down. Its sights are amazing, but along those well-trodden tourist-routes, from the minute you head outside your room, til the time you head back at night – you are pestered. If it’s not shopkeepers trying to drag you inside their place, it’s… Continue reading Gujurat, India: a lost dream, lucre and an hierloom
Category: Travel
An Ottoman Treasure in Develi, Turkey
Tourism – good thing or bad? I’ve written about Develi before –a town in central Turkey, where I was based, along with my geological colleagues. It’s a culturally conservative city, where women tend not to be on the streets. Not because they can’t, it’s just the cultural thing for women to stay at home while the… Continue reading An Ottoman Treasure in Develi, Turkey
Travelling with Landscape-Awareness
Over ten years ago I taught visiting American classes at the University of Queensland. The itinerary of one lucky class was to be taken to a remote location for what was a pretty genuine ‘wilderness experience’. It was located on the ‘Youth Enterprise Trust’ property on the boundary of Carnarvon National Park. When I joined… Continue reading Travelling with Landscape-Awareness
The Prehistoric Songlines of Brittany, France
The French woman had parted the curtains, and was peering out into the stormy night. *** There are up-sides and down-sides to travelling in the European winter – there are, of course, less tourists, but to compensate for this, the locals tend to shut up shop. I’d arrived in Carnac, the little town in the… Continue reading The Prehistoric Songlines of Brittany, France
Making a Bee-line to the Republic of Adygea, Russia
Honey, honey, honey – it seemed Adygea oozed the stuff. Everywhere we looked it seemed someone had set up a road-side stall and in total, were trying to sell more jars of golden honey than there were inhabitants of the Caucasian republic. Honey is nice but that wasn’t quite the bee-product we had in mind.… Continue reading Making a Bee-line to the Republic of Adygea, Russia
Geologising in the Rainforests of Aceh, Indonesia
Our Indonesian guide, with a parang (machete) in hand, dropped vertically in front of me, just brushing my face, while out of my peripheral vision I saw someone cartwheeling down through the trees. Then, within about two seconds, six people had vanished. I was alone in the forest. *** We were geologists, daily exploring the… Continue reading Geologising in the Rainforests of Aceh, Indonesia
Of Wolves, Ibex and Mongolian Petroglyphs
In all my outings in Mongolia, I never saw a wolf – I only heard them howling while camping out one night (you can read about that here). Wolves, so I was told, are not a danger to humans – mostly. They are smart enough to avoid trouble, but a hungry wolf is a different… Continue reading Of Wolves, Ibex and Mongolian Petroglyphs
The Ghost in My Nanjing Apartment
Those who know me will know that I can recount more than my share of what are commonly known as ‘ghost experiences’. They happen after I’ve gone to bed, turned the lights off and am drifting off to sleep. Usually they are the momentary glimpse of a person beside my bed. They can be so… Continue reading The Ghost in My Nanjing Apartment
Lurking in the Streets of Old Tartarstan in Kazan
I admit it, I was lurking in the back streets of ‘Old Tartarstan’, Kazan. Trouble is, I like old buildings, and particularly quirky old doors and gates. Short of bubble-wrapping them and shipping them back home to New Zealand, I have to make do with photos. But even the most amazing old portals can need… Continue reading Lurking in the Streets of Old Tartarstan in Kazan
Kazan – the Peacock Big Enough to be Seen from Space
In about 2014 some genius decided to plant a peacock in front of the Kazan Kremlin. Kazan is the currently the capital of Republic of Tatarstan, part of the Russian Federation. The city is relatively recent, but for over a thousand years there has been a state of some form in this region. One of the… Continue reading Kazan – the Peacock Big Enough to be Seen from Space