Category: TRAVEL
LOST IN ISTANBUL
By Ida Rastini My daughter-in-law visited Istanbul for two days recently, a stop off on her flight from Singapore to Saudi Arabia, where she will join my son, who is currently working […]
My first week in Istanbul
As I arrived at the Grand Bazaar, something happened that left me feeling uneasy. For the first twenty minutes as I walked through the outer Grand Bazaar, Hussain the rug seller stalked me into his gallery to view his rugs collection…
Walking in the footsteps of Irene Koppl – Step 1
Walking in the footsteps of my grandmother Irene Koppl, I begin the first chapter of my journey in Greece. Although she never set foot here during her lifetime, her experience of arriving alone in a foreign land echoes through my time in Veria. Over three months, I sought not only to lose myself but to rediscover her story — a story marked by displacement, resilience, and the courage to begin again. Among refugees, volunteers, and a camp filled with both hardship and hope, I began to understand the vulnerability she must have felt, and the strength she carried.
Odessa, Ukrainian Hedoism… and Russia’s failure
Once downtown, my first impression is that Odessa has regained a certain pre-war joie de vivre, the one of the early 2000s. European, Turkish, Georgian, Israeli and even Belarusian tourists are already present in large numbers even this early in the season. The cafes and restaurants are full and the Ukrainian flag, blue and yellow, floats peacefully everywhere. There are no longer soldiers on the streets, roadblocks or pro-Russian graffiti. The s
The Afghan Athletes & the Ski slope Champion
These homoerotic hoardings, designed to catch the eye of every passing bodybuilding fanatic, are all the more surprising in a land where any kind of sport is often decried as un-Islamic by the many holier-than-thou who consider it morally corrupt and too ‘Western’.
Tile Giant
Explore the fascinating connection between art and tiles in Afghanistan’s historic tile factory, where craftsmanship meets spirituality.
Afghanistan: a burqa for Barbie
The burqa has been ‘on trend’ here for hundreds of years. Like the local equivalent of a Hermès scarf or a Louboutin red heel, it first became popular as a status symbol, with the impractical billowing folds of the upturned shuttlecock clearly signalling that the wearer was a wealthier Metropolitan woman who’d never be seen dead working in the fields like her poorer Afghan sisters.
Sri Lanka: Lady Di & The Miner
n Sri Lanka’s legendary “jewel country,” Amaranth—lean, fearless and full of hope—descends each day into the earth in search of sapphires like the one that once adorned Lady Diana’s ring. Between superstition, danger and dreams of fortune, his story reveals a world where faith, sacrifice and the chance of a life-changing discovery shape every moment underground.