Tag Archives: blog

If you are a regular visitor to this site, you’ll know that I love walking. The thing is: some days I enjoy it more in retrospect than in real time! By Day 8 of our walk around the Dingle Peninsula, that was certainly the case. I was tired. We’d lost the trail on a bog-covered […]

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We live in a glorious corner of the universe, with National Parks, beaches, wetlands and mountains virtually at our doorstep. Trouble is, we are on the road so much that sometimes we forget to get out and explore when we are at home. That’s where having visitors comes in handy: there is no better way to […]

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Skookumchuk.  Anyone who has had anything to do with boating or waters in the Pacific Northwest has heard of the legendary Sechelt Rapids at Skookumchuk Narrows. Boats, especially sail boats, need to pay careful attention to tide charts, and only attempt the narrow pass between Sechelt and Jervis Inlets at slack tide. Spectators and kayakers, of course prefer their […]

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Temples in Southeast Asia are living places. This is certainly true in Myanmar. The many Buddhist temples I visited there were architecturally beautiful – and different, with no two exactly the same. But what I generally find more interesting is the life – both sacred and secular – within and around them. On my first afternoon in Mandalay, […]

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Myanmar truly is “The Golden Land.” From the mines to the temples, gold is everywhere. Shwedagon Pagoda, for example, is covered in 60 tons of gold, pounded into thin leaves. Gold is an integral part of Burmese life. Every day, faithful Burmese apply gold leaf to their favourite Buddha images as offerings. So much gold leaf has been […]

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