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It Dropped Into My Inbox And….
Our 2017 trip to India incorporated an overnight sleeper train journey from Agra to Varanasi, and for reasons we can’t quite explain we have never unsubscribed from emails from the India railway company. Recently, one of their emails landed and I did one of those double takes. “Michaela, listen to this……” Now, anyone who knows us, knows that we don’t like to be organised by others, we like to travel completely independently and sort things for ourselves. It gives us freedom, and of course it’s hugely cheaper. It’s also true to say that neither of us are what you would call spiritual, and we’re certainly not religious. So why would…
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Questions About Travel
Travelling the way we do, in regular lengthy stretches, is not something everyone is fortunate enough, well enough or even inclined to do. Whatever your chosen style of travel, there are some questions which all of us who do so are asked on a regular basis. Like… What do you miss about home? Answer: very little. My stock answer is “proper English ale” which is true, I do find myself craving a good pint sometimes. Michaela meanwhile goes straight for the roast lamb and mint sauce. With both of our families being scattered around the country, we always make a round of visits on our return and probably don’t see…
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Photo #20: The Reality Of Poverty
No matter how much you know before you get there, the poverty you will witness on your first trip to India will still shock you to the core. So many people live on the city streets that there are entire runs of pavement which have become temporary homes, and every sheltered area such as a flyover or an underpass is occupied by families. This photograph captures a typical scene, and the very fact that it is typical, is itself shocking. Multiple families live here, on an active railway line, running for cover as each packed train rumbles through, right in the heart of Kolkata, just yards from 5 star hotels…
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Photographic Memories #19
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With lockdown incomplete and travel still on hold for a while, we currently have no new adventures to blog; we do though have many such memories… Photo #19: The Sundarbans This photograph is special to us because of the moment it represents, possibly one of the most exciting travel moments of all our experiences to date, capturing an auspicious point in one of our most adventurous journeys. At this stage of our first trip to India, we had now left behind the amazing cities of Delhi, Agra, Varanasi and Kolkata, and were…
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Were We Safe? Take A Look…
Travel isn’t about staying in your comfort zone, sometimes you just have to seize the moment to embrace a new experience. It’s not always about safety belts, health and safety and life jackets. Here’s just a few of those occasions… We spent a whole day like this, sat on a blanket on a roof rack, clinging on to the struts for dear life as Khaled took us to various viewpoints in the desert. All the other similar rides were in the back of a pick up, but not Khaled, he just stuck us on his roof rack and sped across the sand, much to everyone’s amusement. If you’re out in…
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The Dirty Plastic Bucket
With our travel adventures for 2020 complete, and our plans for 2021 on hold until there’s more clarification around travel restrictions, we have nothing current to write about. We do, however, have a load of stories from past travels, which we hope may be interesting or amusing. Such as…. Bakkhali, Bengal, India, April 2017. The little coastal town of Bakkhali is probably the place, so far anyway, where we have been furthest from our comfort zone. Despite the unique positioning of its beach, jutting out due south into the ocean, meaning that both sunrise and sunset are across the water, this is not a seaside town as we know it.…
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Photography by Michaela
Another photograph taken on our travels has been reproduced in oil by Norma K Read, aka “Michaela’s Mum” This photo was taken in Gasaba market, West Bengal, India, to see other works take a look in “photography by Michaela” Norma is exhibiting the below paintings at the moment at “The Cut” in Halesworth and the Ferini Art Gallery in Lowestoft.
