“… travel is more than the seeing of sights;
it is a change that goes on,
deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”
~ Miriam Beard, b1901, American Writer

My wanderings have taken me far and wide, to fancy places and through rough-hewn paths. I am often asked which is my favourite place. The answer is: All of them. The ones I have been to, where I am now, and where my travels will take me tomorrow. For each one lives on in me and makes me what I am. 🙂

Please note this page does not contain posts on India which are listed under Exploring India.

ASIA

Afghanistan

• travel diaries: from bamyan to herat via the minaret of jam
• persian herat and its hidden wonders
• ghazni and its indomitable sultans
• a guide to solo travel in afghanistan for the indian traveller
• photo essay: in search of kandahar, the taliban’s former capital
• the complete travel guide to ancient bactria and silk road’s fabled city: balkh
• top 15 memorable things to do in kabul, afghanistan’s capital
• travel shorts: hazrat-e mazar, afghanistan’s most sacred site
• taliban afghanistan, a solo indian woman traveller, and help from unexpected quarters

Armenia

• photo essay: monasteries and manuscripts, echoes from the world’s first christian country
• the 5 untold treasures of gyumri, city of 22,000 orphans
• from a 5,500-year-old shoe to genocide to fountains: 72 hours in yerevan
• travel shorts: khachkars, markers of armenian christianity
• film in a frame: the eclectic world of sergey parajanov’s collages
• global travel shot: the pagan temple that became a christian country’s favourite

Azerbaijan

• travel diaries: the caucasus and talysh mountains
• mud, petroglyphs, oil, and fire: quintessentially azerbaijan
• 72 hours in baku
• the road less travelled: azerbaijan’s unusual villages
• travel shorts: a tale of two heritage cities—shamakhi and sheki in azerbaijan

Bahrain

• top 15 memorable things to do in bahrain, pearl of the persian gulf

Bhutan

• thimphu, the unusual capital city—a photo essay
• the secret, sacred wonders of paro valley
• sacred mountain passes of western bhutan
• the taktsang trek for the non-trekker
• punakha dzong: bhutan’s most beautiful dzong
• bhutan, land of happiness: what it means for the traveller

Cambodia

• cambodia: the sacred and ugly of divine rule
• phnom penh, “we don’t need to fight anymore”
• khmer rouge, hell on earth in the 20th century
• the splendours of angkor

China

• to travel 1,000 miles is like reading 1,000 books: confucius
• hong kong, fragrance harbour
• buddha is a mountain and mountain is buddha; and kunming
• chengdu, capital of sichuan
• karst peaks and minority nationalities—li river and guilin
• futuristic shanghai, by the sea
• ultimate yangtze
• a crash course in tang culture
• yellow earth, yellow river and its capital xi’an
• great wall of china and summer palace in beijing
• the forbidden city of beijing
• yanjing, dadu, beiping, peking—also known as beijing

Iran

• tehran … politics, shrines and martyrs
• nain, abyaneh, kashan—traveling through the desert
• esfahan nesf-e Jahan, esfahan is half the world
• the desert city of yazd
• shiraz, the heartland of persian culture
• the city of darius I, esther and avicenna—hamedan
• the story of persepolis
• takht-e soleiman, epicentre of zoroastrianism
• soltaniyeh’s mongolian sultans and exotic bazaars in zanjan
• tehran … museums, palaces, bazaars and mosques

Israel

• a guide to independent travel in israel
• top 15 memorable things to do in jerusalem, capital of the holy land
• a self-guided walk through the yafo of tel aviv-yafo: old jaffa
• israel museum, jerusalem – tuesday evening at the museum
• the 5 untold treasures of northern israel
• a self-guided walk through biblical mount of olives
• 36 hours in tel aviv
• the three magnificent jewels of israel’s judaean desert
• nazareth, in search of jesus christ’s hometown
• global travel shot: uninterrupted prayers at the wailing wall

… and Palestine

• travel diaries: unravelling west bank’s area ‘a’
• photo essay: the writing is on ‘the wall’, bethlehem
• hebron, half-brothers of a common father: microcosm of the israeli-palestinian conflict

Kazakhstan

• travel guide: the six untold treasures of kazakhstan’s silk road heritage
• 36 hours in almaty
• astana aka nur-sultan, the brand new capital for an ancient heritage
• kazakhstan’s ‘golden man,’ stories told and untold
• kazakhstan’s natural wonders where lakes, canyons, and a dune meet
• travel shorts: kazakhstan’s bronze age gallery with 5,000 petroglyphs
• secrets of ussr’s polygon nuclear test site

Laos

• phonsavan—dead cats, freezing nights and the plain of jars
• sacred chants and harmony in luang prabang
• vang vieng, a backpacker’s and non-backpacker’s paradise
• vientiane, first-last impressions

Oman

• travel diaries: a tale of two capitals—nizwa and muscat
• photo essay: mountains, desert, and coast of northern oman
• salalah: middle east’s anomaly

Qatar

• 72 hours in qatar in pictures

Sri Lanka

• the complete travel guide to the treasures of sri lanka’s cultural triangle
• exploring sri lanka’s coastal towns: from galle to trincomalee
• 4 sri lankan game reserves for 4 authentic safaris
• the road less travelled: delft island
• travel diaries: hiking through the horton plains
• travel shorts: hill country—nuwara eliya to ella by train
• global travel shot: seeing eye-to-eye with the sri lankan leopard at wilpattu
• jaffna: the unexplored north of sri lanka
• the sigiriya frescoes: king kassapa I and his 500 damsels

Tibet

• travel and tibetan culture essentials
• the rest of lhasa … drepung, sera, norbulingka
• potala palace, the home of avalokiteshwara
• jokhang temple in lhasa, the spiritual center of tibet
• tashilhunpo monastery, shigatse—tibet’s heap of glory
• gyangtse, after three mountain passes and two lakes
• tsedang, the road less travelled … mountains and monasteries

Turkmenistan

• photo essay: unravelling turkmenbasy, the rukhnama, and ashgabat
• 11 memorable experiences only to be had in turkmenistan
• time-travel and dinosaur plateaus in remote north-east turkmenistan
• travel guide: turkmenistan’s 3 legendary unesco-listed treasures
• travel shorts: kyrk giz grotto, if ribbons and mud could stick
• at turkmenistan’s darvaza: the gates of hell
• global travel shot: yangykala canyon in western turkmenistan

United Arab Emirates

• the 5 untold treasures of abu dhabi and sharjah
• global travel shot: homeboys in dubai

Uzbekistan

• the spectacular treasures of samarkand
• why tashkent needs to be in your travel bucket list
• shakhrisabz, tamerlane’s home town
• top 15 memorable things to do in bukhara, silk road’s legendary trading post
• khiva: pearl of the great silk road and khanate of khiva
• zoroastrian khorezm: the ancient viloyat of uzbekistan
• the golden journey to samarkand

Vietnam

• a travel guide to the vietnam war
• 72 hours in ho chi minh city
• vietnam’s capital hanoi, stories told and untold
• travel guide: hue, capital of vietnam’s last royal dynasty
• travel diaries: in search of champa, vietnam’s ancient hindu kingdom
• travel shorts: dragons of the unesco-listed ha long bay and trang an landscape
• global travel shot: hanoi’s train street
• photo essay: hoi an, vietnam’s unesco-listed city of lanterns
• caodaism — vietnam’s home-grown religion of kitsch, pluralism, and unity

EUROPE

Eastern Europe

• praha, the royal bohemian city of 500 spires—photo essay
• 36 hours in krakow
• global travel shot: remembering auschwitz
• once upon a time, there was a fairy tale called buda-pest
• empress sisi’s vienna—today
• medieval squares of eastern europe
• hiking in the tatra mountains

England

[In September 2008 I moved to London for a year to study further. The posts in this section comprise my travels within London and England during that period.]

• beautiful wells and mystical glastonbury
• blenheim, churchill and me
• historic york
• the prettiest castle and grandest church in england
• circles of stones—part 2—avebury
• circles of stones—part 1—stonehenge
• cambridge, the university town
• medieval winchester
• warwick—old town and castle
• georgian bath, roman bath
• brighton: sun, sea, pebbles and george IV
• stratford-upon-avon, the place shakespeare called home
• of verulamium, romans and saints
• oxford, city of dreaming spires
• cotswolds—minster lovell and burford
• cotswolds—a sheep’s pen in the hill

… with London

• south bank: my favourite walk in london
• trafalgar square to westminster palace and abbey
• george III and the kew gardens
• fitzrovia, piccadilly, the strand
• london’s ‘square mile’
• 3 famous places and 1 personal favourite in london
• hampstead village, kaif, and keats
• the london underground—part 2
• richmond to hampton
• tower of london—flirting with the beefeaters
• london’s dlr and docklands
• the london underground—part 1
• it is pronounced ‘greenich’, my dear
• bloomsbury, fitzrovia, and my favourite place in london

Greece

• post-byzantine monasteries of meteora and thermopylae
• roman patras and delphi, navel of the earth
• olympia, home of zeus and the olympic games
• epidaurus and nafplio, greece’s first capital
• ancient corinth and mycenae
• pericles’ athens—an education to [classical] Greece

Italy

• renaissance florence and medieval siena
• from genoa to florence, across the tuscan green
• verona, milan, and lake maggiore
• venice, la serenissima, the most serene
• monastic umbria and the churches of assisi, ravenna, pomposa
• roman pompeii and isle of capri
• italy and the italian … young country in an ancient nation—part 2
• italy and the italian … young country in an ancient nation—part 1
• top attractions of roman, renaissance, baroque, modern rome
• eternal roma and the vatican

Russia

• the top 11 cultural highlights of tsarist, imperialist, communist moscow
• photo essay: st. petersburg, where the pragmatic met the poetic
• travel diaries: moscow to vladivostok, sleepless on the trans-siberian railway
• karelia: when russia met finland
• travel shorts: jewelled eggs and quirky surprises fit for a tsarina
• travel guide: the five untold unesco-listed treasures of western russia

AFRICA

Egypt

• a guide to islamic cairo
• a guide to the egyptian museum and coptic cairo
• alexander the great’s alexandria and coptic wadi-el-natrun
• majestic karnak and valley of kings—luxor
• waset, hundred-gated thebes, al-uqsor—luxor
• temples of philae, kom ombo and edfu on the nile
• the nile cruise
• ramses II the great’s temples of abu simbel
• pyramids of saqqara and giza
• pyramids, houses of eternity

Morocco

• photo essay: marrakech, stories told and untold
• top 15 memorable things to do in fes, morocco’s cultural and spiritual capital
• the 5 untold treasures of rabat, morocco’s medieval and modern capital city
• meknes: the story of a bloodthirsty sex-addict sultan and his beloved imperial city
• 8 hours in casablanca
• discover ancient roman volubilis through a self-guided walk
• the forgotten kasbahs and ksars of morocco’s high atlas mountains
• travel diaries: hiking through the todra gorge
• photo essay: in search of the sahara desert
• 36 hours in essaouira, where europe meets africa
• 8 reasons why hassan II mosque tops the casablanca travel bucket list
• the story behind chefchaouen, the blue pearl of the rif mountains
• global travel shot: uninterrupted storytelling in djemaa el-fna

South Africa

• travel resources—where, what, why, how
• kruger and the big 5
• the ‘panorama’ journey
• gauteng, johannesburg, the place of gold
• durban—sun, sea, sand and the indian connection
• kwazulu-natal adventure—from sani pass to its game reserves
• kwazulu-natal history—from rorke’s drift to kamberg to shakaland
• kaap staad aka cape town, the most beautiful city in the world
• cape peninsula, the company of nature and wine
• the 4-day scenic garden route
• port elizabeth, victorian england in africa

AMERICAS

United States of America

• why the carnival mexico cruise tops america’s must do travel list