Snapshot: Carnaval de San Martín Tilcajete, Oaxaca Mexico

Located around 40 minutes outside of the city of Oaxaca, the small town of San Martín Tilcajete is best known for its iconic yearly carnival.

Residents cover themselves in thick, tarry paint from head to toe and wear elaborate headdresses while dancing and chanting in the street. Joe and I somehow happened to be in the right place at the right time this February and joined in one of the world’s most bizarre street parties!

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Culture trip has a more in-depth article about the Carnaval de San Martín Tilcajete

Snapshot: A halt on the Bohinj Railway, Slovenia

One of the most unexpectedly fascinating journeys I’ve taken was travelling by train from Venice to Ljubljana. 

Despite being connected by direct rail lines, the only way to travel from Italy to Slovenia by rail is on foot. Our train took us as far as the Italian border town of Gorizia, where we had to walk two miles, cross the border, and finally catch another train at Nova Goricia. We knew the second leg of the journey was going completely different from the first from the moment the ancient graffiti covered train pulled into the station.  The empty train creaked and groaned as it hauled itself up into the mountains. This photo was taken moments after clearing a particularly long tunnel, when we were greeted by our first sight of snow on this cold Spring day.

I’m planning to write more about how to travel between Venice and Ljubljana (and also cram in a visit to Lake Bled) in a future post. 

Snapshot: first light at the Hoi An fish market, Vietnam

It was one of those dreaded 5am starts that you only agree to before fully grasping the implications of what you’ve just agreed to. We were on our way to see the My Son ruins, which are around an hour out of Hoi An. On the way our guide offered to take us to the local fish market, so we parked up our motorbikes to explore the early morning scene. From the moment we entered the crowd we were lost in the flurry of activity. A woman hurls a large container of fishy meltwater over my foot as another carrying a large basket of small silver fish elbows me out of her way. For the first time in Vietnam we were invisible.

View fullsize

View fullsize

Snapshot: the other side of the Taj Mahal

The less photographed Northern side of the Taj Mahal is a world away from all of the glossy travel brochures. The Northern banks of the Yamuna River house the village of Kachchpura, which is one of Agra’s poorest slums despite being meters away from one of the world’s most visited tourist attractions. I visited back in June 2009 on a sticky pre-monsoon evening. We hired a tuk-tuk to take us on the long crawl through Agra and across the river to the Mehtab Bagh gardens, where we were promised an incredible view of the Taj Mahal. Built by Emperor Babur, the grandeur of the once lavish Mehtab Bagh gardens has now faded, but the view is no less spectacular.

Snapshot: a lunch date with Mt. Cook

I'll never forget the Hooker Valley track.  We set off early in the morning to the from our campsite at the base of the Hooker valley accompanied by the rumble of distant avalanches. In early summer the start of the track passes through lush meadowland with dense patches of beautiful white flowers. This garden-like scene quickly gave way to dense glacial moraine punctuated by milky lakes and rapidly flowing rivers. 

After a two hour hike we reached the end of the track: the rapidly retreating Hooker Valley glacier. We sat on the lake side and ate our hastily prepared ham sandwiches as the clouds cleared to reveal a pristine view of Mount Cook. 

View fullsize

One of the many wobbly suspension bridges

View fullsize

Almost there

Snapshot: Tian Tan Buddha, Hong Kong

Tian Tan Buddha is just minutes away from Hong Kong airport and accessed by a precarious cable car ride up Mt. Muk Yue Shan.

If you’re hungry you can by a ticket to eat in the Po Lin Monastery kitchen which serves tasty, reasonably priced vegetarian food. Make the most of it, vegetarian food is somewhat of a rarity in Hong Kong!

View fullsize

View fullsize