Month: April 2015

The Streets Of India

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When you wander the streets of India you become aware of the vibrancy of colours that surround you.  Everywhere you look your eyes dart around hoping not to miss anything.  I loved seeing the street art that would appear randomly.  My first true encounter was in Puducherry where I stumbled across the graffiti artist Tona.  My delight of this discovery continued throughout my travels as I encountered Tona several more times in different locations. Below is a collection of images from the streets of India.  A large majority of these images where taken while walking from the Jewish Town in Mattancherry to Fort Cochin in Kerala. The day I took these photos, thanks to a strike, the streets were almost empty and I had the advantage of photographing the majority of this art without any people in the way.  Everywhere I turned I was captivated by another image, which are captured in this series.

The Royal Treatment

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After departing Shreyas Yoga Retreat with a gift package of roses and freshly made cookies, I had three hours in a taxi ahead of me to ponder what lies ahead.  I was back to travelling on my own and I was making my way to Mysore where I was to spend the next two days.  Mysore is famously known for its palace, silk and sandalwood.  It was early to bed and then early to rise to try to beat the heat during the day. Walking to see the palace I met a tuk tuk driver by the name of Iman who offered to take me to a few local sites for the day. Usually I dismiss tuk tuk drivers quickly, wary as they are often looking to take you to the nearest emporium. But my sense felt he wasn’t taking me for a ride and I decided to give him a try, which I’m glad I did as I got to see some sites that I might not have seen on my own. Our first stop …

A Dedicated Playlist

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The reason I was in Thailand recently was to help celebrate my friend Melenie’s 40th Birthday.  As some of you know I post one photo and one song a day on Instagram.  This playlist is dedicated to Melenie. Listening to it will always take me back to the three glorious weeks I spent in Thailand. 1  Beautiful Day U2 2  Eye Of The Tiger Survivor 3  Useless Depeche Mode (The Kruder & Dorfmeister Session) 4  There She Goes The La’s 5  It’s Tricky Run-DMC 6  Until We Shine David August 7  Total Giovanni Human Animal 8  Lovlee Dae Blaze 9  Plan Moe Turk (Silkast Remix) Feat. Sanna Heartfield 10  Troubled Girl Karen Ramirez (Spanish Version) 11  All By Myself Eric Carmen 12  Stretch In Tropic Sunshine Budda Bar Vol 8 13  Another Day In Paradise Phil Collins 14  Body & Soul Billie Holiday 15  Secret Place Gabe & Thomaz Krauze 16  Orange Blossom Special Johnny Cash 17 Twisting By The Pool Dire Straits 18  Learn To Fly Foo Fighters 19  Jump Madonna 20  Happy Max Sedgley 21  One Night In Bangkok Murray Head 22 Positively Me Tess Henley You can find these songs on iTunes or YouTube.

A Luxury Escape For Two

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Thanks to some creative accounting I was fortunate enough to spend two days at Shreyas Yoga Retreat with my friend Majo.  After spending most of the week in Bengaluru, the prerequisite for the weekend was to retreat away from the city and embark on a wellbeing journey of the luxury kind.  From the moment we departed our hotel, we had a sense we were about to experience something special.  From the chauffeur driven Indian Army car (it pays to have friends in high places), to the ceremonial blessing on arrival and refreshing pineapple and celery drink (who would have thought of that combination), our humid one hour car journey was quickly forgotten and a sense of calm gathered around us as we were transported into another world. Nestled amongst 25 acres of greenery and frangipani gardens, we were guided through the resort to our garden cottage tent named Titiksha.  Titiksha is Sanskrit meaning forbearance. Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 2, Sloka 14) refers to Titiksha as the contact between the senses and the sense objects.  O Arjuna, are the …

Happy Holi

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Holi festival, also known as the festival of colours and the festival of love is an ancient Hindu festival which celebrates the beginning of Spring.  I was fortunate enough to be in India to experience this wonderful festival.  Although the North of India traditionally celebrates the festival in its true entirety and is the best place to be for Holi, we were still pretty happy to be in Bengaluru to celebrate. The day progresses as a game of chase with dry powder and water.  Anyone and everyone is fair game.  If there are patches of bare skin showing, watch out! By the end of the day you are literally covered in colour.  When you think you have as much colour on you as possible, someone will think otherwise.  The best part about our day was the people we met. We were taught Bollywood dancing in the rain by complete strangers, we threw powder back as equally hard as we received it and my face was sore from laughing all day. If you are ever in …

We’ll Always Have Bengaluru

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There’s always something quite special about travelling when you’re able to share it with a friend or loved one creating memories to cherish for life. With the majority of my time in India to be spent travelling on my own, luck was on my side, my friend Majo was to be in India for work around the same time. Majo is the New Zealand Operations Manager for Fair Trade Australia & New Zealand. She studied international law and human rights at university which led her to work for the United Nations in countries such as Vienna, Afghanistan and Bolivia. She’s a wife, a mother to two gorgeous girls and someone I feel very lucky to call a friend. Unsure of when we would get to see each other again, I happily worked my itinerary to fit in with her so we could spend a few days together in Bengaluru. Bengaluru or previously known as Bangalore, is one of India’s major IT hubs. As I drove into the city it was a refreshing change after Chennai …

A Playlist From The Soul

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On the first day of January 2014 I posted the above photo on Instagram. It was taken while lying on the beach at Byron Bay, in Australia.  It was the first day of a new year and I had decided to post one photo and one song a day for the entire year. It was to be a distraction while I experienced what grief really felt like for the first time in my life. I had no idea what lay ahead, but I wanted to be able to look back on the year and know when it came to the 1st January 2015 that I had made it through a difficult period of my life and could reflect on what had happened.  An easy task I thought, surely it can’t be that hard to post just one photo and one song each day? But it was a lot harder than I ever anticipated, especially when half way through the year I was faced with a second round of grief, my fathers mortality.  I watched him disappear …

The Road To Bengaluru

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After three days in Chennai I retreated south to Puducherry in Tamil Nadu before looping back round to Bengaluru where I was due to meet a friend.  I loved this part of Tamil Nadu.  I wandered for hours up and down the streets of the French Quarter in Puducherry admiring its tranquility and beauty.  I was in awe of the grandness of the Matrimandir in Auroville and enjoyed the organic food and products on offer.  And even though the car journey from Puducherry to Bengaluru was a long day, it was nice to sit back and enjoy the scenery surrounding me. Images shot on a Fujifilm XT100