On a trip along the backwaters in Kerala in June, we spent the night on a houseboat docked next a village along the waterway near the Punamada Kayal lake. It was just before dusk and all the homes in the village were lighting oil lamps in the from of their homes as they recited prayers….
Tag: tourist
Reflection: Mumbai
Reflection with a view overlooking the Colaba Reef from the Souk Restaurant Taj Mahal Tower Hotel, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Step Back in Time: Mumbai
Mumbai is a rapidly developing, densely populated financial centre along the west coast of India. Home to Bollywood, scenes of this city have been beamed to us via televisions in our living rooms more often than we can remember. If not for the traffic chaos and incessant honking, a walk down the streets of Colaba…
Floral Finery @ The Taj
The attention to detail at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India is astounding. The bright flowers that greet you at every lobby, reading corner and table tops were a testament to this. In addition floral floor decorations in our room lent a lingering fresh smell of jasmine and roses which lulled is…
Tea Plantation Tranquility
After a gruelling four hour drive through early monsoon showers, and bumpy pot-holed and landslide ridden roads, we arrived at the Gruenberg Tea Plantation Haus which was to be our home for two days. The three storey building set in a valley in Munnar – a hill station in Kerala, India is surrounded by tea…
Weekly Photo Challenge: Rise/Set
The rays of the setting sun above the Indian Ocean – captured from the cliffs on which the sacred Uluwatu temple in Bali is located. This temple is one of six temples that are believed to be the spiritual pillars of the island of Bali in Indonesia and one of the best places in the…
Chasing Ghosts: Birth of the Kellie Saga
Based on what we were up to, one would expect a “Booooo! Instead of the”Mooooo!” we got as a greeting when we pulled into Kellas Estate located in the rural district of Dallas, Scotland. “You’d really look good on my plate right now … a nice juicy steak!” exclaimed an exasperated Terence as we passed…
Magical Land of Fairy Chimneys
We landed at the Kayseri Airport late in the evening and some of the spectacular scenery that greeted us during the flight descent was fading in the twilight. When we got into the Natureland Cave Hotel that I had booked online, Terence looked like he was about to bite my head off. “I’m not a…
A Rail Adventure – Coast to Coast on Amtrak
Two years ago I embarked on a trip to the United States of America. I wanted to do and see as much as I could, but soon discovered that this would be impossible because geographically the United States was a huge land mass and it would take hours to fly between cities and days to…
Maria Dass the World 