(Distant Xinjiang – Part 4 of 6) – Part 3 of 6 here 6 August 2015After exploring the beautiful Kanas nature reserve we paid a visit to the Tuwa/Tuva (圖瓦) villages around the area. The Tawa/Tuva people or Tuvans (圖瓦人) live in three villages around the Kanas nature reserve, i.e. in Kanas Valley, Hemu (禾木) and…
(Distant Xinjiang – Part 3 of 6) – Part 2 of 6 here 5 – 8 August 2015We started our journey from Urumqi (烏魯木齊) at 11am, going through oil city Karamay/Kelamayi (克拉瑪依) with a stopover at Karamay Devil’s City(烏爾禾魔鬼城), an interesting landscape with wind and rain eroded earthen mounds before reaching quaint Burqin/Bu’erjin (布爾津) after nightfall…
(Distant Xinjian – Part 2 of 6) – Part 1 of 6 here We left Urumqi at 11am on 5 August and made our way to Xinjiang Kanas National Geopark (喀納斯國家地質公園) in the far north to stay for 3 nights. En route there and back we stopped to take a look at the interesting and very…
(Distant Xinjiang – Part 1 of 6) “Who would go to Xinjiang?” my boss asked and sounded baffled when I appealed for my 11-day leave to be approved. He had initially rejected it as he was rather unhappy that I would be taking another holiday not long after my 3-week break to the UK in…
I’m back! Feeling stimulated and inspired (though tired) after getting away from it all and letting the wanderlust take over for 11 days. 3 August 2015After months of talking about it our most anticipated trip of the year was at long last here. My good friend May, her daughter Emma and I made our way…
The wintry country air was fresh and invigorating and it was blissful to be out and about in the garden and enjoy what the nature has to offer at a leisurely pace. As Victor only bought the place last summer so he has yet to find out the full extend of the plants planted in…
After spending a considerable length of time going through Victor’s cacti in the desert garden, I moved on to other plants in the huge greenhouse. I enjoyed the few flowering plants that were blooming at the time and I could see that when the weather gets warmer in the coming months with the plants coming…
When you are stressed out with the daily grinds of life and need to get away from it all, go and spend time in the garden, talk to the trees and the flowers, get close to nature and get lost in the serenity. During my recent trip to the UK in March, I had the…
It was a really chilly morning when Joan and Stuart took me to Darlington train station to catch the train going north. I was bracing myself for colder weather up north in Scotland as the temperature normally tends to be a few degrees lower than that in England and wetter but I was very surprised…
Before my one-week stay with Joan in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire was out we explored a few more places around the region. Sedgefield (19.03.2015) It was a lovely sunny day when we stopped at Sedgefield town, County Durham, for lunch at a cosy little tea house before continuing our journey to Durham. It was the first…
Colourful Threads of Life 