There are some really big buildings in Dubai. Continue reading
Monday windows: As Sulaif Fort, Oman
Great window arrangement…
I came across this wall of windows at As Sulaif fort, Ibri, Ad Dhahirah Governorate, Oman. Breaking our long drive home, we came across this fascinating walled fort, mostly in ruins. It is an excellent place to visit if you happen to be in the area…
Weekly Photo Challenge: One love
Photo 101, Day Six: Connect
Connecting on the steps, putting their world to rights…
Desert moments…
When I drive in the desert, utter calm descends over me.
Lowering the tyres to 12psi, the Pajero seamlessly floats over the surface of the sand, every dune unknown, accelerating up and over, easing the pressure as the car crests over and down the ridge.
Beautiful desert colours encompass the surroundings with sand hues ranging from pale yellow to deep ochre, offset by the cloudless blue skies. Continue reading
Photo 101: Weekend Review: An Oman tale…
I had planned an Oman weekend well in advance of the massive storms that hit the Arabian peninsula last Wednesday and headed off to my destination in ignorance of the impact such storms cause, especially in Oman. The storm had swept up and over the central mass of the country, culminating in a spectacular thunderstorm that was playing over towards the northeast as we headed down the long, lonely road, once through the Mezayed border crossing formalities at Al Ain. Continue reading
Photo 101: Day 5 assignment: Solitude and the Rule of Thirds
Off the coast of Shannah, Ash Sharqiyah region, Oman.
Thursday Doors: At Ras al Khaimah museum, UAE.
Real doors, opening into a room, not often visible here, normally I only ever see doors opening into a courtyard, privacy of the home and family is very important…
Finally, I found some doors in the UAE that I call doors, not solid, thick, meaty doors, I’m not sure I’m ever going to find those types here, but these ones are carved, slightly misshapen and quaint. I’m really happy to have found these doors. Continue reading
Photo 101: Day 4 assignment: Bliss
My bliss, being outside by the sea in a remote place, seeing a sight like this…
Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 16 – Behind
This is one of my favourite pictures from a visit to Phu Quoc, Vietnam in 2015.
Sadly I lost the original in an Apple storage incident and this copy is all I have left now. It was shot quickly on iPhone 6, it’s not a great photo, but I just loved the beautiful, smiling girl behind the tank of seahorses.The scene is not one you come across often and there is a white seahorse in there too, too good to miss.
Seahorses are sold for snacks in areas of Vietnam. The street was full of shops selling dried fish, fungi and unknown wonders and all of them had a small tank of seahorses outside.
I finally found an English speaker who told me why they were there…. I wish I hadn’t asked!
Joining into
Want to join the fun? Here’s what you need to do.
1. Take or choose a photo that you’ve taken that shows an object, person or something that is behind something else.
2. Create a new post on your blog entitled “Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 16 – “Behind”
3. Add the photo(s) you have taken to the post and tell us a little about what you are showing.
4. Create a pingback to Hugh’s post or leave a link to your post in the comments section on Hugh’s page so that other participants can view your post.
Not sure how to create a pingback? Click here for a step by step guide on how to create one.
Wordless Wednesday: Roots at Con Dao…
Photo 101: Day 3 assignment: Water and Orientation.
Our assignment today is Water and Orientation and the comparison between horizontal and vertical.
It’s a thundery day today in Dubai and I am more likely to see water from the heavens than the sea, so I’m using photographs from a trip to Masirah island, Oman in December 2015. Continue reading
Photo 101: Day 2 assignment: Street and establishing shots.
Day 2: I decided not to use my photo library for this assignment and took a brief step out into the street during my lunch hour to find a shot. Probably one I wouldn’t use again, but time was short.
Privacy laws here are strict, so photographing people and posting on social media is a no-no without their agreement. Penalties are high, so sadly no human interaction in my photo, I need to keep working! Continue reading
Monday Windows: Whitby Abbey
The empty and atmospheric windows of Whitby Abbey.
The original monastery was founded in the Anglo-Saxon reign of King Oswy in 657 AD. Work on the ruins still standing, probably began around 1200 AD as a Benedictine monastery, disestablished during the reign of Henry V111, as part of the dissolution of monasteries in 1539 AD. In later years, the haunting ruin was the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula.
I visited on a moody Yorkshire day, the Abbey perched high on the cliff above Whitby harbour, a graveyard below; the scene was set for swirling mists, howling dogs, black cloaked men and nefarious deeds…
Here are the links to Wikipedia and English Heritage who now run and care for the historic site.
History of the Abbey can also be found at http://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/churches/abbey.shtml
Note to potential visitors: Avoid visiting on English Bank holidays, Whitby is popular on the Yorkshire tourist trail and most of the visitors had arrived before me and taken all the parking!
Home is where my heart is….
I currently live in Dubai in a rented flat 30 plus floors up in the sky, looking out over a surreal view of the waterfront. I watch the traffic queues just below me, hear the supercars speeding down the beach road, see the boats, the beaches, the hotels, the waterfront palaces but it’s not my real home, albeit a home with stunning sunset views. This is my temporary home for the last few years. No garden or balcony, just a little window that opens just far enough to push my lens through… Continue reading
Monthly Memories : February 2016
I have wonderful February family memories. February is my personal Aquarian month, memory month for my boy, born on 6th February. Often rainy and windy in Cyprus, it was a good month to go home, celebrate with the birthday boy and suffer some cold before the long hot summer starts in the Middle East.
But Cyprus was beautiful, a glorious spring Cyprus, almond blossom covering the hillsides, white clouds of fragile flowers everywhere. Winter skies and moody sunsets, sun-filled days, too short and sweet.
A slug has attacked my lily, need to go home more often to expel slugs..!
Feeling orthodox…
Almond flowers…
Sunset on a grey day…
Cheerful celandine…
With my Aquarian…
Spring over the mountains..
Blossom and blues…
Bluebell in my garden…
Stark white and blue, so Cyprus…
Sunset on a pink day…
Another day, another flight, back to the city in the sand. Work days fill the week, waking on the 35th floor to white-out conditions as the Dubai fog swirls over the city, creating surreal views of skyscrapers towering above the mist. Weekdays consist of traffic, work and traffic. Work days and nights are quiet ones.
Moody arrival at work…
Emirates towers in the mist…
Marina towers above the fog…
I take any chances that arise on my precious weekends. This time, a visit to the East coast of the UAE, with the Emirates Natural history group. A weekend of immersion in the history and nature of this region. Shell collecting with a group of keen enthusiasts, then visiting one of the region’s wetland sites, ending up with a wadi drive through Madha to Chees, an Omani enclave in the Eastern region. February is the month to head outside and explore this region, the summer heat is coming. I relish all the opportunities for fresh air before the long drawn out summer in air conditioning.
View inland from Khor Kalba…
Heron in the mangroves…
Whose footprints are these?
Turtle gliding through the sea…
and surfacing…
Boats at rest…
Finding a nudibranch sunning itself on the rocks…
What’s in inside a barnacle?
A live Grayana cowrie, some brittle starfish…
Impenetrable wadi mountainsides…
Absolutely!
On the way to Chees…
Wadi pools at Chees…
A very red dragonfly…
Up to the village…
Tiny, narrow village alleys…
Old watchtower on the hill…
Heading out of the wadi…
Enjoying a walk at Khorfakkan…
A quiet moment…
Sunset over the mountains….
Another weekend, another flight, another place, this time, Kalptiya, Sri Lanka. Within easy reach of Dubai, it’s my place to go to relax, feet in the sand, a boat trip exploring the furthest reaches of the offshore archipelago. A beautiful country, far too quickly it was time to board the return flight.
Birds on Puttalam lagoon…
Fishermen bringing the catch home…
Fishing is the way of life in this remote area…
Windswept palms…
Sea Eagle just sitting still…
Church and huts on the island….
Beach art…
Weatherbeaten dwellings…
At the end…India next stop…
Chicoreus ramous found cast up on the beach…
Flowerfest…
Tranquility….
Just in case you forgot where I was….
Chilaw temple…
Peaceful sunset……
Flying home, clouds over the Western Ghats…
Ah yes, the diet, slow progress, perhaps I must spend a quiet month to achieve faster progress… hmmm.
Participating in Monthly Memories, created and hosted by Basant She
Weekly Photo Challenge: Harmony
One of the definitions of Harmony is a “pleasing arrangement of parts”.
In the desert, the elements combine to create harmonious colours and patterns, sculpting the landscape into shapes which are pleasing to the eye.
Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 15 – Under
Hiding from my lens, a large and colorful crab backed under a rock, at Masirah Island, Oman.
Joining into Hugh’s weekly photo challenge
Thursday Doors: Sri Lanka, opening into prayer…
In Kalpitya main street, Puttalam district, Sri Lanka, little doors into a shrine tucked into a small room on the roadside.
Thursday Doors is run by Norm Frampton. Thursday Doors 03 March
Unique Umbonium …
Shell collecting is my free-time-passion, every weekend some reason is made to feature a beach outing, be it all weekend or an hour or two. My reasons are that it’s healthy to be outside, walking miles along beaches is good for me, recording the collecting is environmentally helpful, especially with all of the off-shore construction in the region, added value now with involvement with environment groups, interest is slowly growing in the work achieved so far. Continue reading
Wordless Wednesday : Sunset in the Central region,UAE
Monday Window:#6 When is a window not a window?
When it’s taxed… Avoiding Weekly Photo Challenge: State of mind … flight
I took flight this weekend, this reflects my State of Mind perfectly…
To Cambodia: Siem Reap…
February 2014 seemed like a good time to whizz off to Cambodia and ultimately Angkor Wat.
Flying via Bangkok, a short flight onwards to Siem Reap, the town next to the Angkor Wat complex. Siem Reap is situated north of the Tonle Sap lake, a huge body of water with the southern river leading to Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city.
A fairly flat farming area, roads busy with motorbikes and tuk-tuks but not so many cars. Cambodia is still recovering from its past of war and corruption, still rife and the poverty left as Pol Pot’s legacy from his Khmer Rouge regime.
Staying in a town centre hotel, a quick check-in, then off out to explore Siem Reap. The town centre is geared up for the tourist influx that it’s proximity to Angkor Wat brings and there was the usual contrast of poverty and luxury.
This amazing statue was on my hotel doorstep…
Heading off, as usual to the local markets to get a feel for the people and atmosphere and the Siem Reap market centre was no disappointment. Packed tightly together, narrow aisles full of stalls selling everything from tourist wares, handbags, shoes, vegetables, meat, fish, sweets, it was bustling.
The usual Asian market scenario, but I love it, poking around stalls, checking out what type of vegetables are sold, scanning the fish stalls, trying on the shoes.. great fun with the lovely Cambodians trying hard to make a sale, but so welcoming with it.
It was hot, humid and plenty of flies…. these were fresh, strong stomachs in Cambodia!
Different colours of eggs…
Moto parking…
So this is how it’s done…
Rambutans…
Garlic and red onion…
Two hat selling…
Lovely fresh ver and saladd…
Air drying fish…
down the stalls…
Coconut selling on the road-side
Just chilling’ on the veg…
I really have no idea… I think fish but…
Plenty of restaurants, a night market with desirable Cambodian local crafts, the town buzzes. It moves with the flow, catering to the tourist market with massage, fish pedicures, bars, street stalls and everything else that goes with entrepreneurship.
My first fish pedicure, perched up above the street, feet being gently nibbled, chatting with passers-by, drink in hand, great fun and so much life to look at, out there in the street.
A good place to sleep…
Siem Reap’s river…
Young monks…
In town…
Have hammock, sleep anywhere…
Orchids in coco shell…
Lost his clothes…
Keeping shaded…
Busy streets…
Nice smile for me…
and lovely smiles from this young lady…
floating on the river…
A tired angel…
Monks and technology…
But memories of the horror of Pol Pot’s regime are there to be seen, a reminder of Cambodia’s dark and painful past.
A memorial to those who died…
there are no words to express this…
or this…
Angkor Wat will be my next post. It was a remarkable experience and deserves a post of its own.
Cambodia Travel information: Check out this link for passports that can obtain visas online and how to apply. Apply online for a visa, print out and take with you.
Bangkok to Siem Reap: 1 hr flight time.
Taxis and Tuk-tuks: Available at the airport.Taxis are probably more expensive, but it’s not much in the greater scheme of things and a Tuk-tuk is a fairly relaxed drive into town, we negotiated two sight-seeing days with our driver and he was an utter gem.
Hotel: Central Siem Reap, clean comfortable, pool. Good breakfast and loads of variety, I confess I have forgotten the name but one is spoilt for choice…
Food: Well just go for it, everything you want from pizza to local. Go local, it’s really good.
Be prepared: For intense humidity, poor living standards versus a spectacular Unesco World Heritage site. Women, take a fan, it helps. Men, I can’t really help apart from to suggest a man fan. Comfy shoes, a lot of ancient roadways around the Wat and it’s not rubberized! A HUGE GB memory card for all the pictures you are going to take. Small change for tips, helps appease the gap and received gratefully.
ENJOY: It’s a once in a lifetime experience…
Thursday doors:
Wordless Wednesday: Camels at Mahout, Oman
Monday Window:#5 Dubai high rise windows
Dubai’s new centres are the high-rise city. Home life and office working hours are invariably carried out many floors up. Windows are important in this aerial city, the only link between you and the outside world. Modern buildings here, windows form an important part of the building design. Not so many traditional windows in this city, mostly bland and featureless but somehow complementing the modern architecture. I often photograph the buildings marvelling at the construction and extravagance…
Travel Theme: Abstract
Shell under water, distortion and reflection turn the setting into an abstract view….
Linking to Travel theme: Abstract hosted by Ailsa at http://wheresmybackpack.com
Weekly Photo challenge : Seasons
Thursday Doors: Ancient door at Angkor Wat
Travels in the Middle East and beyond 