Monthly Archives: May 2024

Bali is a wonderful holiday destination: the people are warm and welcoming, the landscape is varied and amazing, the culture is rich and fascinating, and the food is fresh and fabulous. I thoroughly enjoyed previous visits to this lovely Indonesian island (see: Bali, Indonesia), but this trip was for a family function, rather than purely […]

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To me there was something surreal and troubling about watching Hugh Grant singing on the stairs of Kilmainham Gaol in pink-striped bell-bottoms. It is a disturbing place: dark, cold, and in its day, severely overcrowded. Men, women and children were crammed in together, up to five in a small cell with only a single candle […]

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I do love a road trip!  Of course, it can be easier with two people: with the non-driver navigating, map-reading, and watching for interesting stops. I find that I need to do much more preparatory planning ahead of time when I’m travelling solo. On my last Canadian road trip, I made a point of breaking […]

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It was my last day in Rishikesh: that magical city of yogis and mystics on the Ganges at the foothills of the Himalaya. I’d been there for a week-long yoga ‘retreat’ – a retreat that turned out to be more of a test of patience than a practice of yoga (more on that some other […]

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My travel choices are often a bit haphazard: as much reliant on timing and opportunity as they are on interest and desire. I’ve found it doesn’t really matter: wherever I go, there are interesting things to see and learn, and surprising connections to my own life-so-far. Take Toulouse, in Occitania, in the south of France. […]

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