Category: Travel
The Sunday Post: Solid
Jakes theme for the Sunday post this week is solid. I’m posting a picture of a granite boulder in the North Teign river, called a Tolmen stone. Legend says that fertility is guaranteed, if the rock is climbed through nine times, at the right time of the Lunar cycle.
So my ‘solid’ rock has a metre wide hole in it!
Visit Jake’s Printer, check out his animated graphics and the other entries this week.
http://jakesprinters.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/sunday-post-solid/
7 Super Shots!
The lovely Madhu over at http://theurgetowander.com/ chose me for the http://blog.hostelbookers.com/travel/7-super-shots/ and gosh was it difficult. I have 20-25 thousand photos to choose from, how do you decide which are good and which you just like? So mine are possibly a mix of both.
The first was in India a few years ago when I had a point and shoot, to date it is the only photo of mine I have framed. It takes me right back to how I felt that day. It was taken close to the top of Ratnagiri hill in Pushkar which has a temple to the goddess Savitri at the summit. We got up before dawn to climb up for the sunrise as suggested by our driver the venerable Magan Singh. What he didn’t know – until now maybe – was that we didn’t actually quite reach the top, but didn’t have the heart to tell him as he was so sure that we would love it! The problem was that we had been so ill for a few days before and were still incredibly weak. He was right, the view was beautiful. I remember every moment, every laboured step, and most of all, the tiny, bent old ladies climbing to the temple as they do each day for prayer. This one literally took my breath away, I couldn’t breathe as I struggled upwards!
Next, a little closer to home, this is close to the finishing line of last October’s Commando Challenge on Yettington common in East Devon. I love this photo because it shows the determination of these women to complete a really gruelling and hideously muddy course. They ran 10 kilometres through water and mud filled tunnels and tracks that is part of a marines endurance training course. This particular group were so supportive of each other, and it makes me think, isn’t it wonderful what can be achieved when you work together? 
Over in Malaysian Borneo this time, at Kota Kinabalu. There had to be at least one sunset! These are two of the islands of Tunku Abdul Rahman park taken from Jesselton Point. This the photo that makes me dream!
At the village of Baobeng-Fiema the story goes that the monkeys are considered special. The locals give them all names and they are buried in a graves when they die. It wasn’t the monkeys that I found special in this Ghanaian village, it was the children. This is the shot that makes me smile
This young woman’s backpack must have weighed as much as she did. I couldn’t help wondering where she was headed, I suspect a local youth hostel. More interesting still, where had she been? For me, this photo tells a story.
In Western Anatolia breakfast was early one day last June. We had a lot of miles to cover that day so we had to skip the hotel meal but were promised a treat instead. Delicious local yoghurt and honey, sprinkled with poppy seeds, it worked for me and made my mouth water, I’m not sure about the carnivores though. 
Now, I don’t know if anyone else will ‘get’ this photo, what I see in it. Again its a shot that conjures up atmosphere for me. I love the quality of light, I love the activity, the between time. It was taken in Marrakech from a rooftop cafe at a time when the work of the day was ending, and the evening’s entertainment and culinary delights had not yet begun. So this is my photo that I am most proud of , aka my worth of National Geographic shot. 
So there we are, all seven, I hope you like them. Is there one in particular that you think is good? or terrible?
As always there are rules! I have to nomnate five bloggers to take part, but only if you want to. My five are,
http://sophomorejinx.wordpress.com/
http://jobryantnz.wordpress.com/
http://catbirdinoman.wordpress.com/
http://adinparadise.wordpress.com/
http://flickrcomments.wordpress.com/
Wordless Wednesday
Travel Theme: Night, Exeter this time!
Ailsa was expecting a photo of my city for her travel theme challenge so I’m back with a second post and I hope this doesn’t disappoint!
Mols coffee house was built in the sixteenth century and on the left, The Royal Clarence, is reputedly the first hotel in England and of course its haunted! It’s a lovely rambling place that I have been to for conferences and has a Michael Caines restaurant. The Cathedral is across the green behind me.
Ailsa is here and there are some stunning photos this week.
Travel Theme: Night
Ailsa at http://wheresmybackpack.com/ has chosen the theme of night this week. The photo I am posting was taken at Jemaa El F’na in Marrakech which has been recognised by Unesco as a ‘ Masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity’. Beautiful and bustling by day with orange juice sellers and caleche rides, at night it really comes alive. There are snake charmers, story tellers, healers and tooth pullers. In the evening the food stalls arrive, you can choose from a vast array of delights, all cooked on the spot and filling the air with steam and smoke. Be sure to check a few before you decide, of course they will all do their best to tempt you to take a seat, but if you check where the locals are eating you can’t go far wrong. At the back of my photo is the minaret of Koutoubia mosque, the largest in Morocco, but not open to non Muslims. 
When I was a child, I was entranced by the Crosby, Stills and Nash song, Marrakech Express and as I write the lyrics are buzzing through my head. When I finally went for the first time, four years ago, it was a dream come true. I’ve been back since and will again. Marrakech doesn’t disappoint, it’s magical and La Place Jemaa El F’na at night is a vibrant, chaotic, smelly and noisy sensation.
Sadly in 2011 the square was bombed, killing fifteen people and injuring more. The blast destroyed Cafe Argana, one of my favourites, a great place to sit back and enjoy the spectacle. I have never heard if it has been rebuilt, so if anyone has any information could you share please? I would love to know.
Travel Theme: Art 2
I was browsing around at other people’s entries for Ailsa’s travel theme and was inspired by http://adinparadise.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/travel-theme-art/ who shows photos of her sister’s beautiful art work. It reminded me of a visit to Sirigu in Northern Ghana, close to the border with Burkina Faso. SWOPA, Sirigu Women’s Organisation of Pottery and Art has been around for about fifteen years. It has brought women out of poverty while promoting their cultural identity in a traditional society. They are known for the way they decorate the outside of their homes and the art they produce is stunning, as well as the pottery they make. Here are the things we bought there.
This hangs on the dining room wall.
Bird one
Bird two
The entrance to the workshops
Round rooms, you can even stay here! That would be wonderful, these huts looked so cute. I would love to return and spend longer than a day visit.
Wordless Wednesday
Dressing up Nigerian, strolling around Southwold
I’ve been spending time in Suffolk this week visiting my half sister and her beautiful daughter. For my blogging friends around the world, Suffolk is a county in East Anglia, a part of the country which has the earliest sunrise in the UK. Travelling friend came too and yesterday we had a girls dressing up day when Patricia got us all done up in Nigerian clothes from her copious wardrobe. Actually her wardrobe is several rooms including this one where she keeps some of her shoes. 
She herself looked fabulous of course; her outfit was made to measure for her, a lovely little number in blue. I chose a turquoise wrapper and headtie with a white buba (blouse); travelling friend wore a three piece set in a turquoise print with white panels and turquoise edging. Headties are great for bad hair days, just scrape it all up under and no-one knows if it looks a mess! A touch more make up than usual to try to do something with the very exposed face, some matching jewellery and off we drove. 
Southwold is the classiest little town on the east coast and as soon as we arrived we turned heads. I think that a Nigerian, a mixed British Nigerian and a white American woman dressed in traditional clothing was quite a surprise. We had only walked a hundred metres when three women stopped us to say we looked beautiful. That became the theme for the whole afternoon, every few minutes people approached us, smiling, chatty and paying us compliments. 
We walked the along the prom, or rather we promenaded, stopped in a café for ice cream, 
and strolled to the end of the pier, a must do, just to look back. 
A very sociable afternoon. So, if you want to get into conversations with strangers, then get into some unusual clothes, it’s a great ice breaker, makes you feel incredibly good about yourself and enormous fun.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment 2
Like Isobel http://isobelandcat.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/fleeting-moment-on-the-street/ I have already posted a fleeting moment, but didn’t interpret the theme as it was intended. So here is my second attempt, taken on the street in Kuala Lumpur of a reflection I spotted overhead.
Lucid Gypsy 