It is raining in Hiroshima. I am walking towards the Peace Park, which is at the hypocentre of where the atomic bomb was dropped over the city in 1945. My shoes are getting soaked from above and below. Under the umbrella, my steps feel heavy, even as I dance and jump around puddles to minimise the soaking. A sense of gravity is settling in...
There is a storm brewing and the sun has yet to rise. People are walking around, sparsely and a bit aimlessly, with what appear to be focussed looks on their faces. It is hard to see much though – it still looks and feels very much like the dark of night, despite everyone here having been up for hours already. It is the beginning...
I walk among mystery in the warm February afternoon on the Mediterranean island of Malta. Giants? Phoenicians? Aliens? Who carved and arranged these gigantic slabs of limestone in such evocative forms on the hillsides? There have been many colourful theories through the centuries, since the sites were abandoned in 1500BC or earlier. They are older than the Pyramids of Giza, and Stonehenge on the...
Let me paint a scene in your mind, with brush strokes broad enough for desert vastness and vagaries. In the centre of this scene there is a portaloo – a temporary toilet cabin made of plastic, for those unfamiliar with the word – and from inside it, an attractive young woman is peeking out through the crack in the door. She is both annoyed...
On a moon- and candlelit walk to Petra… Magic and mystery in the Jordanian night. Seven men spend up to three hours carefully placing the 2000 candle lanterns by the path and in alcoves along it. And at the end, sinuous Arabic tunes rise into the night sky in a sea of lights in front of the...