Singapore: Gardens by the Bay
Singapore – from a garden city to a city in a garden, the Gardens by the Bay symbolises Singapores 21st century transformation
Final preparation for the Camino
With our final training walk with backpacks before the Camino, it is time to reflect on not just the physical, but the mental preparation and final pack, both physical and mindful.
Why Seneca hated Diocletian’s Baths
At the T-junction of the present-day Via Nazionale and the Via Vittorio Emanuele Orlando in Rome, lies the Piazza della Republica. Glancing up from your Café Latte you will see a large but somewhat nondescript Romanesque building – part ruin, part cathedral and part museum. This is what remains of …
Hands-free trekking umbrella
What the…? This post is my solution to using an umbrella hands-free. Sometimes when hiking, or walking with trekking poles, it can be useful to use an umbrella. Now, before I get shouted down by the ultra-lightweight hikers, it is, of course, a personal choice. The problem with an umbrella …
Travel sensationally!
Have you noticed that when you eat certain foods, taste certain wines, smell certain smells, you are instantly taken back to your memories of a place, perhaps distant in space or time from now? For example, I recently baked.a tarta de Santiago – an almond cake common in Galicia in …
Arles: Then and now – Van Gogh’s Yellow House
In May 1888 Vincent Van Gogh rented four rooms at 2 Place Lamartine, in a town called Arles in the south of France. This would come to be known as the Yellow House. The rooms were on the right wing of the nearest building in the painting. The two ground …
Angkor Wat – the Jewel of Cambodia
The day was already warm as we made our way along the edge of the 200m wide moat which surrounds the temple complex. We are about to enter Angkor Wat, the largest and most iconic temple complex in Cambodia. In many ways it has come to symbolise Cambodia – it …
Travelling mindfully is like making a violin
Do you approach travel with excitement or trepidation? How do you find calm amidst the excitement? And importantly, how do you balance these to get the most out of travel, and out of life more generally? It seems to me, that to get the most out of our travel, we …
Cambodia – Ta Prohm: An Angkor treasure
Ta Prohm emerged from the Cambodian forest about an hour’s drive out of Siem Reap, and immediately we knew it was special. Towering trees sprawled protectively over the ancient temple ruins. Groundwater lay all around from the recent monsoonal rains. It looked like a scene from a movie, and it …