travel theme: pathways

Tags

Japan, Nepal, Oman, South Korea, travel theme, Turkey

Sunday, May 26:  Ailsa’s Travel Theme this week is Pathways.  I’ve seen many beautiful pathways in my travels around the world.

Path of Bamboo in Arashiyama, near Kyoto, Japan

path through Ihlara Canyon in Cappadocia, Turkey

path through Suncheon Bay Ecological Park in South Korea

snow-covered path through Gongju, South Korea

Many people use the aflaj in Oman as pathways. This one is at Wadi Bani Khalid in Oman.

Pathway of enlightenment ~ leading to a Buddhist temple in Pokhara, Nepal

a pathway along a farmer’s field in Pokhara, Nepal

pathway through Little Petra in Jordan

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weekly photo challenge: from above

Tags

Greece, Jebel Akhdar, Jordan, Nepal, Oman, weekly photo challenge

Saturday, May 4: This week’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is From Above: Change your perspective on something. Share a photo of a subject which you shot from directly above.

From above at the Monastery of St. Barbara, Meteora, Greece

Looking down at Kalambaka from the Monastery of St. Stephen at Meteora, Greece

from above: Nepalese Vegetarian food: basmati rice, black lentils, vegetable curry, spinach green curry, pickle, papad (some kind of mushroom curry?), salad and curd.

the view from above at the Hotel View Point in Nagarkot, Nepal

From above: flowers at Pokhara, Nepal

the view from above at the ancient Crusader castle at Karak, Jordan

from above: the curving staircase at Eikan-do, Kyoto, Japan

From above in a hot air balloon over Cappadocia, Turkey

From above: the “fjords of Arabia” in Musandam, Oman

Omani children at Jebel Akhdar, from above

CBBH photo challenge: multi-colored

Tags

CBBH Photo Challenge, India, Muscat, Nepal, Oman

Tuesday, April 16:  Marianne of East of Malaga has a monthly photo challenge called the Conejo Blanco Blog Hop, or CBBH for short.  Her challenge for this month is: multi-colored.

According to this website: “Colour is a meaningful constant for sighted people and it’s a powerful psychological tool.  By using color psychology, you can send a positive or negative message, encourage sales, calm a crowd, or make an athlete pump iron harder.”

Talking of sales, Henry Ford famously declared that the Model-T buyer could choose “any colour, so long as it’s black.”   Thank goodness that these days, consumers are more discerning!

Here are some multi-colored photos from my travels around the world.

multi-colored boats in Pokhara, Nepal

more multi-colored boats in Pokhara, Nepal

rowboats in Pokhara

a flower stall in Delhi, India

woolly multi-colored gloves in Kathmandu, Nepal

multi-colored flowers in front of the Sultan’s palace in Muscat, Oman

multi-colored trims for abayas sold at Mutrah Souq, Muscat, Oman

** One blogger I follow and love is Lynn Wohlers of bluebrightly.  Lynn blogs about “photography or philosophy, birds or flowers, zen, maps, psychology, travel… [her] mind roams.”  She takes stunning pictures of forests, leaves, flowers, and anything else in nature you can think of.  When I look at her photos, I want to jump into their magical worlds and stay there for a good long time.

**Another blogger I love is Roseanne of Wondering Rose.  Rosie works at an art museum in southern California and shares quirky and funny stories about her encounters at her cash register.  She always writes thought-provoking posts and comments.  I truly enjoy and appreciate her kindness and her insights.  Rosie had the life-altering experience of walking the Camino de Santiago.  I really hope to meet her if I can get to California this Christmas.

 

Related articles

• Colours for two photo challenges.
• CBBH Photo Challenge: Multi-Coloured
• CBBH Photo Challenge: Multi Colored
• A Multi-coloured Dream (for CBBH Challenge)

weekly photo challenge: color

Tags

Japan, Nepal, Oman, postaweek2013, South Korea, Turkey, weekly photo challenge

Saturday, April 6: The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is Color. Splashed on the walls of cities, in batches of flowers in gardens, in the doodles of students, and on the palettes of artists, color is everywhere: it may represent our mood, and it can affect our mood. In photography, you can use a spectrum of colors to bring a place to life, or focus on a single shade to make a bold statement. Conversely, you can shoot in black-and-white or remove color in editing mode for a different effect.

In a new post created specifically for this challenge, share a picture in which color takes center stage.

Click on any of the pictures below for a full-sized slide show.

lamps in Istanbul, Turkey

delicate flowers on the University of Nizwa campus

Flowers on the University of Nizwa campus

Flowers in Crete, Greece

More paintings by Oman

Paintings of Oman

Sweets in Istanbul, Turkey

colorful socks in Kyoto, Japan

a colorful carriage buggy in Kathmandu, Nepal

Colorful doors and bedding in Kathmandu, Nepal

Street art in Rethymno, Crete

Gloves in Kathmandu, Nepal

more colorful boats in Pokhara, Nepal

Paintings by Omani students

the flower market in Istanbul, Turkey

colorful boats in Pokhara, Nepal

Paper lanterns in Kathmandu, Nepal

Pokhara, Nepal

Yarn in Kathmandu, Nepal

Finally, in honor of South Korea, which is having a few problems with its bellicose northern neighbor right now, here are some colorful lanterns from a lantern festival in Seoul.

colorful lanterns at a lantern festival in Seoul, South Korea

Let’s hope everyone takes a deep breath and tries to diplomatically solve the problems between North and South Korea.

travel theme: mountains

Tags

Greece, Nepal, Oman, travel theme

Saturday, February 16: Ailsa’s Travel Theme for this week is Mountains:  She writes: It’s hard to beat the soaring majesty of mountains. It’s also apparently hard to define exactly what a mountain is. Countries around the globe use factors such as height, elevation, relief and volume in a vain attempt to define them. The Oxford English Dictionary settles for something suitably vague: “a natural elevation of the earth surface rising more or less abruptly from the surrounding level and attaining an altitude which, relatively to the adjacent elevation, is impressive or notable.” Merriam-Webster doesn’t do any better: “a landmass that projects conspicuously above its surroundings and is higher than a hill.” Look up ‘hill’ in the same dictionary and you will find that it is described, helpfully, as “lower than a mountain.”

Some of the world’s tallest mountains are the Himalayas in Nepal.  Here is a view of the Annapurna Range taken from Pokhara.

the Annapurna Range seen from Pokhara, Nepal

Machhapuchhre, or “Fish-Tailed” at sunrise

Here are mountains, with monasteries built on top, in Meteora, Greece.

Meteora, Greece

And finally, in Oman, where I have never seen snow-cover, are the mountains of Jebel Akhdar.

the view of Al Ayn and the gorge on top of Jebel Akhdar

For more takes on the theme, see Where’s My Backpack? Travel theme: Mountains.

To see more of my trip to Nepal: catbird in south asia

To see more of my trip to Greece: greek wanderings

kathmandu, i’ll soon be touchin’ you

Tags

Nepal, Travel

Wednesday, January 16:

Katmandu, I’ll soon be touchin’ you
And your strange bewilderin’ time
Will hold me down

~ Cat Stevens: “Katmandu”

The day after my boys left Oman, on Saturday, January 12, the University finally announced that IF we worked REALLY hard invigilating final exams and marking papers during this week, we would get a semester break from January 17-25.  I have been waiting for this announcement and was about to give up hope that we would get a break at all.   I had researched 6 places I was thinking about going if we got a chance to escape: Sri Lanka, Prague, Kathmandu, Casablanca, Beirut and Zanzibar.  When it came to decision time, Kathmandu had the best price, the shortest flight, and the promise of cool, but not freezing, weather.  So, on Sunday, I booked a ticket to Nepal for 166 Omani Rials ($432).  I fly out tomorrow at 12:45 p.m.

I recently read one of Pico Iyer’s travel essays from Video Night in Kathmandu: Nepal: The Quest Becomes a Trek, which, inspired me to visit Nepal, much as his Lady and the Monk inspired me to visit Kyoto, Japan in January 2011.

My colleague, Mona Lisa, spent several months in Nepal and loved it.  She highly recommended the Kathmandu Guest House (Kathmandu Guest House), so I promptly arranged to stay there.  I downloaded to my Kindle the Rough Guide to Nepal and Lonely Planet Nepal and started reading.  I have not had time to do any planning, but Mona Lisa stocked me up with trekking essentials (which I’m not sure I’ll use since I don’t plan to do any long overnight treks), a city map, a walking stick, and miscellaneous other essentials.  She also sent me the link to some Tibetan incantations, music that will soothe my soul in Kathmandu, music that she says I will hear everywhere on the capital’s streets, music that captures the soul of the place.

Another colleague, Zida, told me she hated Kathmandu because of the filth, pollution and chaos, but she highly recommended Pokhara, which she says is stunning.  I think the Kathmandu Guest House will help me book a flight to Pokhara, home of Phewa Lake, Mt. Machhapuchhare and Annapurna.

I really have no plan and have no idea what to expect.  But I hope to bring home many beautiful pictures!!

If you care to follow my trip to Nepal, please follow me on: catbird in south asia. I won’t be posting about my trip on this blog. 🙂