Tag Archives: environmental portrait

Like other Indian cities, Madurai in the southern state of Tamil Nadu offers up some magnificent palace and temple architecture. But, it was the life in the streets that I loved best. I was travelling around South India with a small group. We had driven to Madurai from Thanjavur the day before, stopping to visit […]

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From the First People of Comox Valley, Canada, to the landlocked central African nation of Chad; from acoustic guitar folk harmonies to cross-cultural genre-bending musical layers; from unaccompanied voices and percussions to complex and layered instrumental blends – the Vancouver Island Musicfest in July had no apparent boundaries. Even if I’d had an idea what […]

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Wherever you go in India, you will find colour and crowds, heat and history. This is particularly true of South India where the humidity rolls in from the surrounding waters, and the distinctive Dravidian Hindu temples punctuate the cities. Take, for example, the city of Tiruchirappalli (commonly known as Trichy or Tiruchi) in the middle […]

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Rishikesh is a magical city of fairy tale ashrams and colourful gods. The city sits at an auspicious place, where the Ganges – one of the most sacred rivers to Hindus – flows out of the Himalaya and towards the plains. For me, the city’s name alone is evocative of sitar music, pastel-coloured Hindu temples, meditation, […]

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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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