“Rabindranath Tagore described it as ‘a teardrop on the cheek of eternity’, Rudyard Kipling as ‘the embodiment of all things pure’, while its creator, Emperor Shah Jahan, said it made ‘the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes’.” – Lonely Planet Read more…
Rajasthan isn’t just about camels and camel festivals, the Jaipur Elephant Festival is an annual event which takes place on the eve of Holi and is a fabulous way to commence Holi celebrations, plus it’s a great opportunity to see the sturdy symbol of Rajput royalty at its finest! Read more…
The Gangaur festival is both a colourful and exhilarating welcome to spring which is hugely significant to the women of Rajasthan; during the festivities all of the women adorn themselves in their finest clothes and jewellery and join together for this annual event. The festival itself is based around marriage – Gaur which stands for Gauri or Parvati symbolises Saubhagya – marital bliss. Read more…
Around 4km above Dharamsala, McLeod Ganj is the headquarters of the Tibetan government in exile and the residence of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. It’s also the main traveller hangout in Himachal Pradesh, with dozens of trekking companies, traveller restaurants and wall-to-wall shops selling Tibetan souvenirs. Read more…
During my short stay in New Delhi I was fortune enough to visit the Bahá’í House of Worship, a multi-award winning and stunning piece of architecture more popularly known as the Lotus Temple due to its flowerlike shape. Read more…
With so many places in India to see and a very strict itinerary to follow, due entirely to having to book trains 3 months in advance, I only had one day to visit Bundi and one day to visit Amritsar. Read more…
Jaisalmer is a giant sandcastle with a town attached – an emblem of honour in a land of rough and tumble. The fort is a living monument to long-lost desert might, a Golden City of dreams that exceeds expectations of the most travel-sick tourist or hardened history buff. Read more…
Jodhpur, with its Brahmin-blue lanes of the old city and its glorious Mehrangarh Fort which mushrooms from beneath a huge rocky cliff to dominate the once indomitable Blue City, is a popular stop on most tourists’ itineraries. I am fortunate enough to have visited Jodhpur on a few occasions, each having its own photographic focus. Read more…
“It’s green, it’s glistening and it’s gorgeous: just three of the reasons why Goa has allured travellers for decades. Two million visitors come each year for the silken sand, crystalline shores, coco-hut culture and susegad – a Portuguese-derived term that translates loosely to ‘laid-backness’. Read more…
Si Phan Don, more commonly referred to as the ‘four thousand islands’, are located at the very southern end of Laos and straddle the Cambodian border. Among this stunningly beautiful maze of waterways is the palm-lined Don Det Island. After the chaos and confusion of a big city, Don Det seems like heaven on earth as nothing here is rushed and time passes by with no-one watching it. Read more…