Category: Travels for Fun
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A HOT PRAGUE IN JULY
In July of 2019, Padma and I travelled to Prague with our son, Joshua, and daughter-in-law, Shereen. I didn’t write a story or take notes and I hardly shot any photos. It was hot. And it was busy. And I vowed never again to plan a visit a European capital city in the height of the summer holidays. Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time. We downloaded Rick Steves Audio Walking Tour of Prague and let him guide us through the city. It was an excellent way to visit the city at…
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AMPELMANNCHEN
Not much of East Berlin remained intact after reunification. The West invested billions to rebuild the infrastructure. But when the German administrators suggested that all pedestrian crossing signals adopt the signals used in the West, the East Berliners kicked up a fuss. There was no way they were going to give up the beloved ‘Ampelmann’ crossing signals. The signals were not only part of their cultural identify but also cleverly designed. The traffic psychologist who designed the Ampelmanns realised that many folks are colour blind and didn’t relate to a green=go…
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KILLING ME SOFTLY WITH AN ALBINO
BATU FERRINGHI – 20 January 1978 Olympus OM-1 on Kodachrome 64. Roll 1 Frame 14 Every time I hear Roberta Flack sing ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’ I am immediately transported back to Malaysia. Funny how our brains can so strongly associate music with time and geography. I was 19 years old, half a world away from home and drinking a beer at outdoor cafe while watching the sun set into the Indian Ocean. Roberta set the mood by telling the story of the boy who seemed as if he…
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ALPINE SKINNY DIPPING
NORTH CASCADES, WASHINGTON – July 1980 Olympus OM-2 on Kodachrome I think I invented selfies. I always wanted to have people in my photos but often I was the only human being around … so I became the model. I travelled alone in my younger days so I had no choice. A tripod and a camera with a self timer and me with a classic pose – that’s all I needed. As a result I have a lot of photos of me doing this and me doing that … even skinny…
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MY FIRST SLR
SINGAPORE – 12 January 1978 I bought my first SLR camera in Singapore in 1978. I was after an Olympus OM-1, a brilliant manual camera which was smaller than most of the SLRs on the market at the time. So it was perfect to throw in a backpack. At the time Singapore was supposed to be one of the cheapest places in the world to buy cameras as it had duty free status. Even so, it was hard to beat the prices of New York mail order. I visited lots of…
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MY COUSIN MARY AT THE D’ORSAY
I will be honest. I had never heard of the American Impressionist Mary Cassatt until I discovered we were cousins. Turns out Mary and I descend from Louis DuBois, a French Huguenot who fled persecution in his home country. Louis arrived in present day upper state New York in 1661 and established a community of like-minded individuals. Mary and I are connect via his son, Jacob DuBois, so that makes us fifth cousins, 3x removed. Padma and I were in Paris to move Joseph out of his sixth floor flat. We…
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THEY’RE TAKING ME TO MARRAKECH
When I told Padma I was travelling to Morocco for work, she immediately expressed interest in joining me. My official business starts right after the Easter holiday so we decided it would work out nicely that Padma and I could come a bit early for a bit of a holiday. Padma didn’t want to come all the way to Morocco for a four-day trip so she decided to stay and travel on her own while I was busy with my work. But travelling on your own isn’t fun so on a…
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MORE CAMERAS THAN TULIPS
It’s tulip time and the bulbs are blooming in full force in Holland Zuid. So Padma and I set out to cure our spring fever and travelled to the land of tulips over the weekend. Our destination was Keukenhof Garden, a 32-hectare garden dedicated to all bulby things growing in spring. We first drove around on arrival and walked amongst the farmers’ fields and found we arrived at a perfect transition time – the early blooming daffodils and hyacinths were still in full bloom and shared the colourful landscape with the…
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SIX FLOORS, NO ELEVATOR, MOVING DAY IN PARIS
Joseph has lived in Paris for 13 months … and now in four homes. When Joseph announced he was moving in to a new place, Padma and I evoked that unwritten rule which says mom and dad will come with the station wagon to help the university student move. And so we drove to Paris, packed up his stuff in the old place in the south of Paris, braved the central Parisian traffic chaos and eventually landed at his new home in the north. OK. Joe didn’t have to twist our…
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