Tag Archives: sculpture It can be risky travelling through Southeast Asia during the southwest monsoon season: – daily rains can almost be relied upon, and when they come, they tend to be sudden and torrential. They make getting around difficult, especially for tourists who are not necessarily used to wading through the deep, dirty waters that often come with routine […]  What an amazing place Bagan must have been in its heyday! “Bagan is a gilded city alive with tinkling bells and the swishing sounds of monks’ robes” – attributed to Marco Polo‘s late-12th-century account. Probably founded in the mid-to-late 9th, the city was the political, economic and cultural capital of the Pagan Empire for 250 years, and would […]  Religion has been at the centre of countless world conflicts since time immemorial – as I was reminded by an article about religion and politics posted on Facebook this morning. Religion is also integrally entwined with the role politics plays in managing societal organisation and ensuring civil order: in many parts of the world, religion shapes every aspect of […]  It seems like half the North Americans I have ever met have at least a drop or two Irish in them! Not surprising, I suppose, in view of the continued growth of the Irish diaspora. Three million people outside Ireland (a country of less than 5 million internal residents) have legal claim to citizenship, and between 80 and 100 million more have […] “… and you can have a shot of Jack Daniel’s,” our guide told us as we set off on our tour around the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee. It was a joke, of course – a pun on the word “shot”: a jigger of alcohol or a picture. No free tastings were available, as Lynchburg is […] |
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