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I believe staying in a traditional ryokan in Japan is the quintessential Japanese experience. It is one I’ve had twice and would thoroughly enjoy again. I’ve read that ryokan (the traditional name of Japanese Inns) have had to change some to keep up with the times or satisfy the Western...
The efficiency of Japanese trains are legendary. I learned recently on a trip to Japan that the trains live up to their reputation. The legends are true. They are clean and quiet and some of them have a very cool look. We had an opportunity to ride on both the local trains and the Shinkansen...
Greetings from Susan, your travel blogging friend. I’m going to be pausing a bit with DesignDestinations.org because I’ve been on two major trips (Silk Road and Japan) and have hundreds of images to edit, process, sort and transform into blog posts. I will get back to posting every...
If you have been following my Facebook, Instagram or occasional and very random texts to friends, you might be aware of fact that I recently took a Photo Tour of three of the five “Stans.” Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. It was a great trip. Lots of photo opportunities,...
In October, I got a proposal for a Photo Workshop in Paris over New Year’s and my gosh, I wanted to do it. Capturing Paris when it isn’t crowded with tourists would be so cool. A special New Year’s dinner all organized. Put together by a well known and excellent Street...
I was in India three years ago this month. This is a post about that trip and one of the true joys of visiting this vast country–having an early morning Chai. Reposted from May […]
This was originally posted June 2015. I’ll long remember architecture and ornamentation in Bhutan. Most notable to me is the consistency. It’s not surprising since the country was isolated from the outside world until until the 1970s. Only slowly are influences of the...
Reposted from January 2016 Our car pulled up in front of the elegant Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok in the middle of the night. Groggy from some some 24 hours of traveling I appreciated the serene elegance, the smiling staff in traditional Thai attire bowing and welcoming us, the...
Originally Posted in 2019 When you sign up for a tour, sometimes there are places on the itinerary that you might not choose to visit. Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, an area in the northwest part of India, is one of those places. I couldn’t really see why we were visiting this remote destination...
Originally Posted in 2019 Jodhpur—the second largest city in Rajasthan–has always intrigued me. Not sure why. The color? The name? A whiff of exotic? Last fall I had a very short visit there and was able to see why it has lingered in my mind. Yep, it is blue. The reasons...