Spider Sense

Silk-wrapped nuggets from the web of life

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My last #travelthrowback post of 2019! A train departs over the historic Pamban Bascule Railway Bridge to the mainland town of Mandapam from Rameswaram, the island where the Bay of Bengal meets the Indian Ocean in the Palk Strait. Every evening, tourists line up on the Pamban road bridge beside the railway bridge to witness this spectacle, making this one of the most photographed bridges in India. #tamilnadu #rameswaram #island #pambanbridge #mandapam #bridge #bridges #sunset #oceanview #sea #train #railway #railroadphotography #railwayphotography #igrammingindia #igramethical #goldenlight #travel #travelmoments #travelmemories #iphonography #shotoniphone https://ift.tt/2QbLTZC

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Probably the last in this #travelthrowback series before the year winds down. This one goes back to April 2013, on a squall-swept evening at Hong Kong Harbour. I remember how much I was taken in with the infectious energy and enthusiasm of this city, its ‘midweek weekend’ party culture, and the lovely street food. I also sensed with some alarm how Chinese Democracy was seeping in, and the palpable resistance in the air. Today, my heart goes out to embattled Hong Kong. It’s truly a protest we can learn from. ___________ #hongkong #hongkong🇭🇰 #asiatravel #travelmoments #travelmemories #travel #travelalbum #solotravel #solotraveler #throwback #ig_travel #igramethical https://ift.tt/2SBn5Mh

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Arguably one of the most picturesque coastal vistas and therefore one of the most photographed beaches in the world, Anse Source d’Argent on the island of La Digue in the Seychelles is pure camera fodder. With its shallow made-to-wade beach and spectacular granite rock formations fringed by slender coconut palms, this seascape is irresistibly inviting. The Diguois, as the islanders call themselves, have kept motor vehicles to a minimum, preferring bicycles and ox-carts to commute around their tiny island. La Digue is also home to the endangered Black Paradise Flycatcher, called Veuve or The Widow for its mournful black visage. This #travelthrowback is one I treasure for many reasons, not least for the lovely friends I made on this trip that have become extended family, complete with its own WhatsApp group and political bickering, but where love conquers everything! Merry Christmas to found families like these! @gustaspjerooirani @gustaspirani @lakshmisharath @aswinikrishna163 lots of love to you! —————— Read an account of this memorable trip on my blog. Link in bio. #travel #beaches #ladigue #ansesourcedargent #seychelles #lifesabeach #christmasfeeling #travelphotography #travel #throwback #travelmoments #travelmemories #igramethical #ig_seychelles #ocean #islandlife #island https://ift.tt/2Sv0q4a

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A tree swing, a deck chair, and endless sky and ocean — #travelthrowback to a working vacation in the Maldives with @thermalandaquarter back in 2010. The band had one gig and seven days of R&R, per “company policy” of the kind sponsors. Seven evenings of life’s a beach, sunsets like these, all-day ocean watching with gin and tonic, and oodles of Vitamin D. And enough tuna to make you swear off it for a lifetime. A trip made incredibly memorable thanks to @bruceleemani @flutterbydesign @josephdivya @smitamp et al #travel #ocean #beach #vacay #throwback #travelmemories #maldives #indianocean #sunsets #traveldiary #travelmoments https://ift.tt/2tJE84C

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Another #travelthrowback to April 2015. On a windswept morning at Seal Bay on the southern coast of Kangaroo Island, South Australia, I was witness to an elemental spectacle. A squall loomed imminent over the beach, bringing the first rain in months to this dry island of mallee and brush. The sea foamed and seethed. A pod of Australian Sea-lions lounged languidly, even as a half-rainbow asserted itself on the edge of a cruddy skyscape. Read a story I wrote for The Indian Express Eye. Link in bio. #travelmemories #traveldiaries #traveldiary #travel #throwback #australia #southaustralia #kangarooisland #beach #windswept #rainyday #rainbow #skyscape #seascape #ocean https://ift.tt/2Mc82F5

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Today’s #travelthrowback is to October 2013, and a visit to the iconic Deeg Palace near Bharatpur, Rajasthan. The architecture of this extravagant palace, the Jal Mahal, reflects the glory of the Jat kings, who tested the might and patience of the weakened Mughal rulers of Delhi repeatedly during the early 18th century. Some of the adornments in the palace grounds include loot plundered by the Deeg rulers from Delhi. The story goes that Suraj Mal, who had won a significant battle against the combined forces of the Marathas and the Mughals, captured Delhi and carried away an entire marble building, with each block numbered, and reconstructed it at Deeg! #travelhistory #travel #history #architecture #architecturephotography #deeg #rajasthan #traveldiaries #traveldiary #heritage #ig_india #indiagram #indiatravelgram #latergram https://ift.tt/2M01XLP

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More #travelthrowback. The southwestern tip of the Arabian peninsula is where the monsoon comes to die. From July to September, this coast by the western Arabian Sea is windswept. The sea roils. Clouds hang heavy in the muggy air. This rainy season is known as khareef, and the cool climes draw throngs of visitors from across the GCC states. On the rocky coast of Mughsail in Salalah in the Sultanate Of Oman, the moisture drifts in as a heavy fog, greening the desert inland and innervating it with a burst of life. The sea smashes and pounds away at this coastline of jagged limestone cliffs, nibbling and clawing at them as it carves caverns and grottos. Sea water spurts in jets many metres in the air through blowholes, making this one of the most theatrical coastlines in Arabia. In August 2014, I visited Salalah on the invitation of Oman Tourism. I wrote about the frankincense trail in Salalah for @outlooktraveller. Link in bio. #arabia #oman #sultanateofoman #salalah #khareef #khareef_salalah #monsoon #rainyseason #coast #coastline #sea #seacliff #choppyseas #blowhole #travel #panasoniclumix #fz28 #travelgram #traveldiaries #throwback https://ift.tt/2LRXxql

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Another #travelthrowback to August 2014. Soaring above this glittering spectacle of water straddling the borders of two of the world’s largest countries in a helicopter revealed its immensity and grandeur. The larger of the three falls — Horseshoe Falls, to the right of the picture — is situated in Canada. The Niagara Falls and the smaller Bridalveil Falls to the left are situated in the United States. This ‘fossil water’ — remnants of the last Ice Age — gushes from this mammoth waterfall that is neither the world’s tallest nor the widest. But tipping over the edge every minute are a million bathtubs of foaming turquoise, rushing in a deafening blur and leaping 50 metres into a plunge pool nearly as deep. So rapacious is Niagara’s erosive appetite that the falls have receded 11 km in 12,000 years. Read my article for @outlooktraveller via the link in the bio. #travel #travelphotography #travelmemories #travelling #traveldiaries #traveldiary #throwback #canada #ontario #ontariocanada #niagarafalls #waterfall #waterfalls #river #northamerica #horseshoefalls #ig_canada #igramethical #aerialphotography #aerialview #viewfromabove #viewfromthetop https://ift.tt/2t7oRKJ

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December is my #travelthrowback month, in which I rummage in the vault of memories and take a break from the bugs, birds and beasts that have dominated my timeline of late. In August 2013, during my fecund but impoverished stint as a travel writer, I visited Appenzell, the northeastern canton of Switzerland, on assignment for @outlooktraveller. From Hoher Kasten, a towering massif in the Alpstein (with a storied WWII past) that overlooks the Rhine, I gazed into Austria and Liechtenstein. This pretty bench, in bold Swiss red, is an invitation to take in the... whew! #travel #traveldiaries #traveltheworld #throwback #mondaymotivation #switzerland #switzerland🇨🇭 #swissalps #swisslife #swisslandscape #travelgram #latergram #igramethical #ig_travel #travelmemories #appenzell #view #mountains #alps https://ift.tt/2DBUjCG

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Where has the monsoon gone? Over the weekend, @wannabe_traveller @shashankjayaprasad & I went looking for the monsoon that has been evading most of Karnataka. We found it, with diminished vigour, in the hills and rivers of the Western Ghats. Here, over the Tunga River near Tirthahalli, the sky makes a great show of power and beauty, but without the quota of rain that this season must bring. #travel #traveldiaries #monsoon #river #riversofindia #karnataka #karnatakapictures #travelkarnataka #roadtrip #rain #monsoon☔ #monsoondiaries☔ #igramethical #skyandwater #weather #travelmoments #landscapephotography #landscapes #shotoniphone #iphonography https://ift.tt/2GcR6eE

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It’s trekking season, and my feet are itchy! I spent the last weekend writing a newspaper feature about a trek in the Great Himalayan National Park that I made with my friends @somasekharansandeep & @wannabe_traveller from The Green Ogre in May 2012. It was the last of my wild-camping trips to the Himalaya. I was smitten with these mountains since I first set foot in them in 2001 when I joined @bruceleemani & @taaqadiddle on an impulsive trip to Manali. Since then, thanks to friends not on Instagram, I have been fortunate to trek in the Valley Of Flowers National Park and walk part of the Curzon Trail in Uttarakhand, among other adventures. I’m older now and my body hasn’t been tested for five years or more. Maybe it’s time for another one. #trek #trekking #outdoors #greatoutdoors #himalaya #himalayas #wildcamping #wilderness #mountains #adventure #adventuretime #india #travel #wanderlust #ghnp #ghnptrek #mountaintrail http://bit.ly/2X62UoY

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Burning in the light Summer infinite Silvered negatives Of unremembered days ___ #karnataka_ig #ig_karnataka #karnataka #hoysala #somanathapura #blackandwhite #monument #history #historical #stone #heritage #india #travel https://ift.tt/2JcsvKC

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The final frontier. #kutch #kutchdiaries #travel #postcard #landscape #landscapephotography #desert #sunsets #sunset #igramethical http://bit.ly/2rQAt0C

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Into the great wide open! #travel #desert #kutch #ig_birdwatching #ig_travel #instatravel #hdr #iphonephotography #iphone6 #landscape #landscapephotography #gujarat https://ift.tt/2QvOEqy

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Plantation Life - Travel back in time with these well-thumbed periodicals from twenty years ago. #plantationlife #timetravel #chikmagalur #sakleshpur #coffeecountry #karnataka #news #magazines #travel https://ift.tt/2z2n9u9

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Sentient. Senescent. The grand old man of the woods. This elderly orangutan at the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre in Sarawak, Borneo won my heart with his expression. The orangutans here and their descendants are refugees —beneficiaries of a rehabilitation programme in a land where rich, bountiful rainforests have been felled and replaced with monocultures of oil palm. The palm oil is purchased by food and cosmetics manufacturers. The orangutans are free to roam the grounds, but they are dependent on the park officials for their food. Truly wild orangutans are hard to find, and they mostly occur in Kalimantan, eastern Borneo, on the Indonesian side of the island. #wildlife #orangutans #borneo #sarawak #endangeredspecies #endangered #ape #greatapes #rainforest #conservation #malaysia #throwback #travel #traveldiary #travelmemories #igersmalaysia #ig_malaysia #ig_borneo #borneowildlife #semenggoh #kuching #igramethical https://ift.tt/2I5oV0S https://ift.tt/2O4fMuK

[spider-sense]

Sentient. Senescent. The grand old man of the woods. This elderly orangutan at the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre in Sarawak, Borneo won my heart with his expression. The orangutans here and their descendants are refugees —beneficiaries of a rehabilitation programme in a land where rich, bountiful rainforests have been felled and replaced with monocultures of oil palm. The palm oil is purchased by food and cosmetics manufacturers. The orangutans are free to roam the grounds, but they are dependent on the park officials for their food. Truly wild orangutans are hard to find, and they mostly occur in Kalimantan, eastern Borneo, on the Indonesian side of the island. #wildlife #orangutans #borneo #sarawak #endangeredspecies #endangered #ape #greatapes #rainforest #conservation #malaysia #throwback #travel #traveldiary #travelmemories #igersmalaysia #ig_malaysia #ig_borneo #borneowildlife #semenggoh #kuching #igramethical https://ift.tt/2I5oV0S