My Travels #

I've throughly enjoyed backpacking around the world with friends and family. Here are my highlights.

• One of the oldest jungle in the world, Taman Negara. Highlight here was getting a leech on my foot when trekking through the jungle and once waking in the night for a toilet trip and seeing a swarm of black bugs for the outhouse. One night I'll never forget.
• Thailand. Spent a number of weeks exploring it all, not the beaches where people just partied to the full moon but I throughly enjoyed the oldest city in the country Ayutthaya where I saw magnificent temples and structures that makes you wonder how old they really were.
• Batu Caves in Malaysia. Formed 400 million years ago, and meaning 'rock'. they are a lovely shrine and temple today. I remember having to trek a number of steps up and up. And remembering that I needed water a number of times as I took them up.
• Another in Malaysia is the Cameron Highlands, the tea farms. Funnily enough I went to a Sikh temple there and had Langar from the priest there. They always have their doors open. was a wonder to see and witness.
• Ponte Vecchio - a magnificent bridge that has a load of history in how it was burnt and the rebuilt many times through the ages. One night, I walked the city of Florence and found myself sitting there with a couple of lovely ladies discussing the uniqueness of the architecture.
• Copenhagen - specifically cycling around the city and getting lost. Was wonderful to see the canals and colours of their boats.
• Amphitheatre of El Jem in Tunisia. An oval amphitheatre that makes you first think it's a Gladiator theatre but when you see the structure of rooms and roofing around it, I thought it was an old university or library.
• Japan. Lots to share here, but two I want to share. Himeji Castle, an unbelievable fortress that has lovely gardens that visitors can tour and find zen. There were trees that were supported with a unique method to ensuring their structure was beautiful, like a scaffold of sticks on them. Koyasan Mount Koya. Having to take a cable car up the mountain, I remember having to layer up my clothing as it was so cold up there. I was blessed to be allowed to sit with the buddhists with their morning rituals and traning. Learnt a lot about meditation and one's mind/body.
• 2008, New York. One of my highlight new york trips. Spent 2 weeks with a very close friend who is a photographer and his wife, an actress, who was kind enough to tour me around the whole city. Visiting a building that was constructed with tubular bells, that you could play. And one of the best lighting installations at the MOMA, my favourite musuem in the whole wide world.
• San Juan Teotihuacán. One of the best structures I've seen in my life. It was on my bucket list to find the best Aztec structure to explore and study. The Sun temple there is unique and as you walk it, you know it was used for something very specific in history. I saw it as a place of healing for those that were there in how they used the stages of the sun and moon. Magnificent.
• Iceland. Was very lucky to tour the country with my family in 2022. One place sticks with me, Vik with it's black sands and a church that sits on top of the town.
• Puerto Escondido, November 2023, trained 4 weeks with beach sand surfing, new forms of tai chi, healthy foods and star theories.