Category: Travels for Fun
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CHEBROLU
On this trip, we never know what the family has in store for us. We just move when we’re told to move and eat when we’re told to eat. After we visited the cemetery I assumed we would head home but we started heading out of the city. I asked Sampath what’s going on and he said we’re going to his house. I said I didn’t recognise the road and he said his ‘other home’ – the new home that he was building. So we drove on for thirty minutes or…
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A WEDDING IN KAKINADA
Padma and I jumped out of bed at 7.30 as we were told a car would drop by at 9.30 to pick us up and take us to the wedding. Lots to do to get organised. But we must have been so exhausted that we had forgotten we were in India. It was more like 11 before we finally left the hotel. No one seemed concerned that the wedding was set to start at 10, so I just sat back and enjoyed watching the street scenes of Kakinada as we drove…
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A CHANGE OF PLANS
You always need a contingency plan when you travel in India. Our plan was to arrive in mid-morning and check into a comfortable airport hotel and just recover from the flights. The next morning we were to catch an early morning flight to Kakinada via Hyderabad and have a relaxing afternoon to rest prior to the wedding. That all changed once we arrived. We were told that our early morning flight on SpiceJet to Hyderabad had been cancelled and there were really no other flight options the next day. A train…
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CANCELLED!
Today was supposed to be a fairly relaxing day with minimal travel. A day of rest prior to the wedding. All started out fine but the tide quickly changed when we arrived at the airport. We checked into our flight and the attendant acted as if all was fine and on time. When we arrived at our departure gate I immediately realised that this would not be a slow and relaxing day. A large group had congregated at our departure gate and was shouting at a pair of SpiceJet employees and…
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Chennai.
Nothing beats the joyous atmosphere of an airport reunion and all of the elements were in place as we made our first steps into the hustle and bustle of Chennai. Padma’s cousins, Ravi and Minny from Gudur and Usha and Santosh from Chennai were waiting for us as we finally left the airport and took our first steps on Indian soil. Before we knew it we had beautiful garlands made of fresh flowers placed around our necks by Usha and Minny. We felt quite honoured to be welcomed in such a…
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HITCHHIKING TO THE MORRAINES
FIVE-DAY BLACK & WHITE PHOTO CHALLENGE – DAY 5Kettle Morraine State Park, Wisconsin – 1978Scanned from Kodak Plus-X negative film To conclude this B/W photo challenge, I’m going to go back to one of the first rolls of black and white film I ever shot. You may think that I’ve got an incredible memory to recount these stories from long ago. The truth is I often have travel journals to consult and that was the case of this trip in 1978. Or so I thought. I pulled out the notes and…
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VUELTA DE NICARAGUA
Managua, Nicaragua – 1987 Scanned from Kodak Tri-X negative film In the early 1980s, US President Ronald Reagan seemed determined to deny the Nicaraguan people the right to self-determination. He authorised Oliver North to organise a band of misfits called the Contras and attempt to oust the popular Sandinista government from power. On the other hand I felt that the Sandinista-led people’s revolution which overthrew the oppressive regime of Anastasio Somoza was glorious and helped provide hope for the downtrodden and I couldn’t wait to be a part of it. The…
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BOOM BOOM IN PURACE
Puracé National Park, Colombia – 1994 Scanned from Kodak TMax negative film (the last roll of B/W film I ever shot) Colombia was hardly the safest place in the world when Padma and I lived near Cali between 1993-94. On one hand you had the ‘narcotraficantes’ – the drug lords. The Medellin and Cali Cartels were in their heyday. However, the drug lords pretty much just killed each other so as long as you stayed out of the cross fire you’d be safe. A bit more concerning was the FARC, which…
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MY BARBER LARRY
In the four years I lived in Madison in the late 1980s, I only let one man cut my hair, Larry the barber. I have never been fussed about my hair and hated going to fancy hairdressers who would offer you a Chardonnay. I just wanted to come out with hair shorter than it was when I came in. And Larry and the College Barber Shop on Madison’s State Street was the perfect solution for me. Larry and I would talk and talk. He always remembered how much I paid for…
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