The landscape and elements scream for attention in Bagan, home to more than 10,000 Buddhist temples lying in various states of repair amid lush vegetation by the Irrawaddy river in central Myanmar. Weather is a big factor in any travel and photography. And I got lucky, and unlucky, during my second trip to this amazing place.
The two young visitors walked beside the concrete wall, taking a close look at the fading graffiti from an era before their time. Beyond were more modern and colourful buildings and the hum of traffic and the dinging of trams and bicycle bells. But on this side they looked incredulous as they tried to imagine living behind this relic.
Bratislava lures many visitors with its well protected historic old town, including grand 20th century buildings and medieval city towers, including St Michael’s Gate. But there is another side to Bratislava, for better or worse.
The riverboat from Siem Reap to Battambang, in Cambodia’s northwest, leaves early each morning and takes five to six hours squeezing through narrow waterways and wetlands and past myriad small villages, stopping at many to pick up or drop off passengers. It’s a photographer’s paradise.
The fog rolls in and covers the northern Laos riverside town of Nong Khiaw each morning during winter. You awake to the early morning sound of the first motorised fishing boat puttering its way down the Nam Ou river, and see it disappearing into the pea-soup thick mist. Somewhere out there are spectacular karst hills and cliffs, but they won’t appear again […]
It is one of the quintessential sights in all of Asia, yet the early morning tak bat ceremony in Luang Prabang, Laos, in which Buddhist monks collect their daily alms, has become more a feeding frenzy for the hungry 21st century tourism industry. Despite the annoyance of a throng of iPhone and iPad-wielding tourists intent on grabbing their photo no […]
Florence’s cathedral, or Duomo, has to be one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world. But for photographers its sheer size and location – sandwiched amid the narrow streets of the centre of Florence, present a holy problem. So what to do? My advice – and I don’t profess to getting good shots of this building despite many […]
It’s all about space. And distance. It is where the horizon plays a key role, but where everyone has a part once there. It talks of a sense of belonging and a connection between people and the environment – in this case a vast, flat land in the West Australian outback. Inner Australia, by renowned English sculptor Antony Gormley, consists […]
His name was Myron Red Moustache, and he was going to tell me the story of how he came to have such a name. But first, I was to climb into the truck cabin with him, leaving our three German tour “hitchhikers” in the back. He was going to tell the story to me, not them.
So why is it called Grand Canyon? What else could you call it? Is ginormous actually a word? Ginormous Canyon? Humongous Canyon? Neither sounds as elegant. Nor does Most Incredible, Unbelievably Large Canyon in the World, Ridiculously Huge Canyon, You Can’t Imagine How Big it Actually Is Canyon. You get the idea.
