All aboard the Varanasi time machine

  Of all the current nations in existence, it is perhaps India that has the best claim to an uninterrupted link to its ancient past. Both Egypt and Iran lost something of their origins in their conversion to Islam, as did Greece and Rome with Christianity. China certainly retains real connections with two millennia ago, in its written language and philosophies such as Confucianism for example, although communism did reject and try to suppress some of what its leaders saw…

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Hot Hindu Hardcore Temple Action

Taking a good, hard look at India’s erotic, temple carvings. Many would imagine that liberated sexual attitudes are much of a modern creation but Hindu history has a bit to say about that. While contemporary India is known for relatively conservative values, this is more a result of the preceding 500 or so years of Muslim and British colonial rule, that were much more squeamish about any public reference to the possibility of sex actually being something enjoyable. Muslim artistic…

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The art of Kolam

Brightening up the roadsides of some of my travels around southern India were a multitude of colourful, geometric patterns that appeared around the time of festivals such as New Year or Pongal, Tamil harvest festival. These decorative, religious images are an ancient, Hindu tradition designed to invite the goddess Lakshmi to bring prosperity into the home and protect from evil spirits. Traditionally they were made of edible materials such as grains, rice, flour and vegetable dyes, as they would provide…

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Hit me with your rhythm stick part 4 – the gardens of Japan

Recent travels had alas, taken me nowhere near the destinations mentioned in Ian Dury’s classic tune, hit me with your rhythm stick to further my pointless quest to visit all of them. Although Japan had always been on my somewhat nebulous list of places I ought to get around to visiting one day, I’ve never been a Japan obsessive, as many who celebrate particular aspects of its culture can be. However, being in the region made it a more reasonable…

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Cock fighting in the Philippines

    On a hill overlooking the small town of Banaue in northern Luzon sits a rickety shack, cobbled together with random timber left-overs and a corrugated iron roof. Improvised wooden seating around two sides of a hard packed, dirt floor arena hold an eager crowd of local men, anticipating today’s action in the cockpit, as the cock fighting space is known. Naturally there’s more to the event than just the sport, or Sabong as it’s known here, it’s a…

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Being dead is a serious business in Vietnam

  The dead may be gone, at least from this earthly plane, but they certainly aren’t forgotten. Death is a transformation rather than an end in traditional Vietnamese culture. Ancestors continue to play an important role in everyday life and if you don’t treat them well they are liable to make your life extremely difficult. The most sure way of upsetting the dead, so that their displeasure manifests itself in the world of the living by dishing out liberal portions…

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Dawn in Hanoi – the calm before the storm

  To truly appreciate the early morning calm of dawn in Hanoi you really need to endure the full frontal assault of the night before in the old city. It is here that the full gamut of bars, restaurants and nocturnal services endeavour to lure the abundance of tourists and locals alike into wallet emptying rapture. Terms like hustle and bustle don’t do justice to the relentless hard sell from personnel stationed outside each venue. Menus are thrust under your…

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The forgotten tourist hot-spot, Swat Valley and NW Pakistan

“So when did you last see a tourist”? I asked the man, a resident of Battagram, a Pashtun town in NW Pakistan. “Ummm….” he pondered, eyes to the sky, deep in thought, “15…..17,18 years ago, when I was at school”. His answer probably explains the slack jawed gawping from just about everybody l passed in the street. Needless to say, those who managed to stop staring were incredibly friendly. A few days earlier in the small Swat Valley town of…

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Want to know the meaning of hospitality? Come to Pakistan

A simple list of the things I was given by locals in one day of walking on the streets of Multan in the Punjab, Pakistan will give you a very clear insight into the generosity at the heart of its culture. 1 Orange 1 Fruit juice 1 Bag of pickles 2 Cups of tea (several more refused due to risk of overdose) 1 Gigantic poppadom 1 Chicken Biryani 1 Bottle of Coke 1 Veggie Samosa (obliged to turn down a…

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A truck is never just a truck in Pakistan

The art of commercial vehicle decoration in Pakistan Other than for little boys and peculiar breeds of adult nerds, the appeal of commercial vehicles to the general public rarely transcends the mundane in the West and on the occasions they are customised there is little chance of the owner risking the dents and scratches of commercial use or letting any of the proletariat getting their greasy paws all over the immaculate bodywork, unless it was a trusted mechanic. For Pakistanis…

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