When I thought of the word “organised” my brain leapt to the word “religion,” hence this picture of a ceremony in Vietnam. It’s a strange mix of a number of popular religions and has a few thousand followers. The theme also works in the sense that the regular columns of worshipers are also very organised.
Turkey is a big country. Opinions you’ve heard about Ankara or Istanbul do not necessarily apply. But that’s fair, smaller towns in a country are rarely anything like their capital city. We stayed hundreds of Kilometres away from either of Turkeys major cities, instead we hung in or around the Mediterranean Sea. We flew into Dalaman airport, moved to Fethiye, across to Antalya and back to Dalaman more-or-less along the coast.
This makes somewhere like Bodrum a fairer comparison. But even there, the tales of “in your face” sales techniques make it sound very different.
Even in the tiny part of Turkey that we saw, there was immense variety. On the trip there was everything from thriving local towns (where we felt like we were the only sight-seers) to tourist centres (where the first language appeared to be German) to “wilderness” that felt like it was hundreds of miles from any form of civilisation. In-between there were vast amount of Roman and Greek ruins, statues and busts of Atat?rk, lovely bays that reminded me of Italy and snow-capped mountains.
Few countries can claim to much variety in such a small area. If you can’t tell, I was impressed and I haven’t even spoken about the locals hospitality.
Click the small pictures below for a full size version.
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
All pictures here have been taken on my EOS300 using Fuji Sensia II ISO100 slide film. Most of the outdoor pictures were taken using a polarising filter.
If the pictures have piqued your interest, there are a few resources that you might want to have a look out for:
I assure you: it’s not deliberate. I’d like to go on record and say that I do not plan to only go to obscure — some have even said dangerous — places. I just go where my interests lie.
I’ve been to a couple of Buddhist countries recently (Thailand and Sri Lanka), but they both practise the same kind of Buddhism — called Theravada. I originally thought that they were the less pure form, the Church of England to Tibet’s Catholicism. I went to Tibet to see the “real” Buddhism, however it turns out that, in some ways, the opposite is true (it’s a long story; leave comments!). Tibetan Buddhism (Mahayana) is actually a merger of the traditional Tibetan religion, B?n, with more normal Buddhism.
My confusion over their form of Buddhism was only the start of it. It’s a schizophrenic place, one where the peoples army destroyed some temples and preserved others, fighting between themselves on more than one occasion.
The Chinese have transformed Lhasa to such an extent that there’s now a “Tibetan Quarter,” yet the Tibetans still seem to be certain of their own identity.
It’s easy to see how people become passionate about the cause of the Tibetan people, however to deny that the Chinese have had a significant positive effect (in some ways) is undeniable.
So I’m in two minds about the place. Maybe with these pictures you’ll be able to make up your own mind. Let me know if you do!
The first few pictures here are all in Kathmandu; there are so few of them that it didn’t seem worth creating a new page for them.
Click the small pictures below for a full size version.
All pictures were taken on my EOS300 using Fuji Reala ISO100 negative film except for the first two in Kathmandu which were taken using Fuji Sensia II ISO 100 slide film. Most outdoor photographs were taken with a polarising filter.
If the pictures have piqued your interest, there are a few web Sites that you might want to visit:
Sri Lanka (nee Ceylon) is famous for its tea and Arthur C. Clarke, but, as I found out, there’s much more to it than that!
We started in Negombo, a beach resort a few miles away from the airport, moved round to take in the ‘Cultural Triangle’, down to Kandy, Adams Peak and a tea plantation. Finally, we headed to Unawatuna, a beach resort near to Galle (and the England – Sri Lanka test series) and then back to Negombo for the last night. We made plenty of stops along the route.
A combination of a new camera and the beauty of the place meant that I took as many pictures in Sri Lanka as I took in Georgia and Thailand put together! Here I present the highlights.
Click the small pictures below for a full size version.
All these pictures were taken on my Canon EOS300, mainly on Fuji Superior ISO400 film. I ran out of film towards the end of the trip so the last few are on Kodak Max (ISO400).
The same pictures that are on Kodak film have white lines down the middle. They are scratches on the negative that appear to have been put there during either developing or printing. I’m tempted to name the guilty company…
If the pictures have piqued your interest, there are a few web sites that you might want to visit:
Thailand is such a beautiful country that I could help but take a huge number of pictures. What you can see here represents the good fraction of those taken!
We started in Bangkok, got the night-train up to Chang Mai and a boat up to Chiang Rai. From there we mini-bused and walked through some Hill Tribe villages back to Chiang Mai, Bangkok and then flew home. A tiring couple of weeks, but well worth it for the scenery alone.
Note that the spelling of many Thai places are not strictly standardised. I’ve used the spellings that our tour-guide or my Lonely Planet guide used, but you may well see others.
Click the small pictures below for a full size version.
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
If the pictures have piqued your interest, there are a few web sites that you might want to visit:
The United Arab Emirates was not anywhere near the top of my list of places to visit, but I went anyway. (Now I think about it, neither was Georgia!) This time it was for work rather than strictly as a tourist, but I did have enough time to have a look around Abu Dhabi and take a few pictures. At the bottom are a couple from Dubai too, although, generally, those pictures did not come out quite as well.
Click the small pictures below for a full size version.
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
If the pictures have piqued your interest, there are a few web sites that you might want to visit: