One of my favourite places in Vietnam was the hilll station town of Da Lat. Cool and friendly I enjoyed the atmosphere of the town and this utterly crazy and weird guesthouse. Yes you can stay in it and you can just look around if you want to. Very Hansel and Gretal!
Another amazing place in the Isaan Region
Wat Sala Loi, built in 1827 by Thao Suranari and her husband. The highlight to visit here is to see The ancient convocation hall. The hall inside the temple is in an applied Thai style in the shape of a junk riding the waves, the buildings was decorated by local Dan Kwian clay tiles to tell the life of Lord Buddha. The door is made of metal with raised designs of the Buddhist tale and the hall houses a large standing white Buddha image.
The amazing Heritage walk round one of my favourite Malay towns of Ipoh where the food is amazing too! The heritage walk is about 4 miles long covering most of the historically important places and might take approx. 2 hours to complete all the places.
In fact I am so keen for you to find out about Ipoh, I am attaching a link for 7 free heritage walk maps and info on Ipoh. Yep FREE!! Please subscribe and go to the download Below http://www.mediafire.com/folder/0u5sy…
The Famous floating Pagodas of Sankar, which sadly due to the droughts that Myanmar recieve are now not floating
In 2013 I was in the amazing city of Singapore where I sought and found some of the wonderful street art you will see here in this slide show.
Wat Ban Rai (วัดบ้านไร่) is a wonderful and marvellous elephant-shaped Buddhist temple, located between Korat and Chaiyaphum in Nakhon Ratchasima, northeastern Thailand.
Located in the middle of a lake comprising an area of 48,562 square meters, it is one of the most fascinating temples in Thailand. Besides its stunning design in the shape of an elephant, Wat Ban Rai features amazing paints and statues.
The temple was conceived by the revered monk Luang Phor Koon Parisuttho พระเทพวิทยาคม (คูณ ปริสุทฺโธ), who passed away at 92 on Saturday May 16, 2015. Wat Ban Rai is one of the most significant temples for Isan people as well for all Thais.
Worshippers from across the country come there to pay their respect to Luang Phor Khoon. Wat Ban Rai is a 100 million baht temple (around 2,626,000 euros) which was built from donations and personal contributions.
Sri Chamundeshwari temple is the most famous temple in Mysore, a city in the Southern state Karnataka. It is located on the top of Chamundi hill which is about 3,489 ft. above sea level and situated at a distance of 13 kms from Mysore. Named after the Goddess Chamundeshwari or Durga, this temple is considered as one of the Shakti Peethas. It is known as Krouncha Pitham. I was visiting it on my 5mth tour round southern India
I visited this weird and quirky place in 2012 when spending time in Laos near vientiane. It caught my imagination, I hope it does yours!
Buddha Park is more curious than spectacular – which makes for a curious spectacle. A rogue monk is said to have attempted to reconsolidates Buddhism and Hinduism into his own brand of mysticism through a prolific collection of sculptures depicting various deities and scenes from both religions. The information provided at the park is less dramatic, simply stating that Bunleua Sulilat constructed this sculpture garden in 1958 before fleeing across the Mekong to Thailand in 1978 and building a sister park across the river in Nong Khai.
In 2013 i was in Cambodia as part of my bigger Central and SEA tour for just over a year. In Battambang I took what is fondly referred to as “The Bamboo Train”, their proper name is a Norry or Nori and can get upto speeds of 50kmh. It certainly felt like it!!
Norries have low fares, and are frequent and relatively fast, so they are popular despite their rudimentary design, lack of brakes, the state of the rails (often broken or warped) and the lack of any formal operating system. Its simple construction and light weight means that a norry can be easily removed from the track – if two meet on the line, the one with the lighter load is removed from the rails and carried round the other. At the end of the line the vehicle is lifted and turned.
In 2015 I was fortunate to be travelling round the Southern part of India on a 6mth Journey of Indian Culture and discovery. In the place of Malabar in the state of Kerela I was deeply honoured to meet Kierian from “Costa Malabar” who arranged for me to not only visit but film and photograph openly some 3 Theyyam ceremonies. Lasting from a couple of hours to all day and all night and most of the next day. A tiring experience for the onlooker but a marathon for the participating Gods.
The people of Malabar and the Gods made me feel most welcome and it was a deeply touching cultural experience I will never forget. I can only hope that these images and videos give you a taste of what I witnessed.
The worshipping place of Muthappan is called Madappura.Many Madappuras are there in North Malabar .Of all such Madappuras; Parassani Madappura is the most prominent. Here Muthappan devotees of Muthappan who throng here being supplied with Tea, steamed pear and a small piece of coconut. Relief and consaltion is accorded to all devotees of Muthappan who come here and conolation is accorded to all devotees of Muthappan who come here and after the lighting of the lamp called Deeparadhana.Devotees are blessed with the ‘Holy Darsan’ by both Cheriya Muthappan and Valiya Muthappan when they conduct Thirivappana Vellattom
Hotan Sunday Market Hotan’ s bazaar is also called The Sunday market. Local people call it Chukubaza (meaning is low location market) located in the north-eastern corner of Hotan city. It is one of the biggest markets in southern Xinjiang. It has many special sections for the market. The Bazaar in Hotan is active every day, but the Sunday is special day, when it gets flooded by hundreds and thousands of people on Sunday. The kind of people who come to the market are people from seven counties of Hotan and some other prefecture of Xinjiang. They sell all kinds of special local Hotan such as beautiful styled dresses can be seen or bought and many sweet fruits and delicious dishes as well as snacks can be tasted. Minority Products and Souvenirs local made carpets and roll jade. local people say that it is possible to find everything accept Chicken milk, cows egg in Europeans style. While you are in the market, please remember the word “posh” that means get out of the way in Uyghur language, as soon as you hear this word, please watch yourself. The best time to go to the market is after 8:30 AM Xinjian time.
Journeys From A Small Room 