Category Archives: Religious Practice Khmer ruins are just magic! Moss and lichen make their homes on the piles of tumbled stones, trees grow up and through fallen buildings, holding walls together with their roots, light and shadow play across the whole scene. Wat Ek Phnom, just outside Battambang, may not be the best known of the Angkor ruins, but […]  “The mosquitos are our friends.” These were the words of Beatrix, our pranayama (breathing exercise) teacher as we sat in a small, hot, darkening room in Nong Khai, Northern Thailand. Her voice embodied calm, as only a yogini’s can, as it floated through the buzzing, humming, mosquito-filled evening. These words spun around my head as I sat […]  I received a postcard from friends this week: a picture of women in Laos on their knees giving alms to the monks. It reminded me how much I love Laos: the songs, dances and smiles of the people, the brilliant hand-woven fabrics, the colourful markets, the ethnic villages, the beautiful countryside… I’m less fond of the border […]  “By the way, you DO have your passports with you, don’t you?” our guide asked (in Thai) after the van we were in had pulled away from our hotel. At least, that is what I finally figured out she had said – by which time we were already five or ten minutes down the highway. Negotiating […]  We are currently having renovations done in our ‘new’ home. Every time I watch the builders calculate the square meterage of a floor or wall, I’m reminded how many of us, back in those dim-distant school days, complained about studying maths, and claimed that we “would never need it in real life.” If you talk […] |
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