Latest

Country Canals.79

Hadn’t seen this little enterprise on past visits, so when my colleagues asked (during a walk in the camps two weeks ago) if I wanted to pay for the adventure I took the chance. I wanted to help this guy do the pulling, but he was too proud. It was hard work for him and mildly unnerving for me when the little raft rocked a bit, but a new experience, and it seemed the onlookers enjoyed it as well. Given the landslips I saw during the walk, including reports of a few lives lost in some of these, I worried very much when overnight and the next day or two much heavier rains came. One ongoing goal for me is keep reducing my carbon footprint as much as possible, given the frequency of all these extreme flooding, heat and drought events I feel like I’m seeing everywhere.

Signs of the City.99

Coasting.109

Small Wonders.249

All from a walk to stretch my legs during my first morning in Dhaka before I flew on down to Cox, already three weeks ago.

City Views.239

Some street & city scenes from Cox. One of my first posts during this recent visit showed you a few new graffiti panels in Dhaka, and here you see more of this flourising and colorful new graffiti art which I’m told sprang up rather spontaneously after the sudden departure of the PM in early August. I’ll share more from Dhaka itself, later.

Urban Entrances.139

When my train arrived in Vlissingen back in late May, I was struck by the frankly rather grandiose station building. Given that it’s quite literally the end of the (train) line in Zeeland, I guess the city felt a grand statement was important. Middelburg, very slightly more populous and the ‘capital’ of Zeeland (least populous of NL’s 12 provinces), went with a more utilitarian building below.

Ah, Royalty.39

The Belvedere at Berlin’s Charlottenburg Palace.

Lake Living.39

One wfh-morning, a week or so before I flew to Bangladesh, I decided that I really did need to finally go for a swim across the street, before the weather got continuously cold and rainy again. Why wasn’t I doing this every sunny morning all summer????

Longest Beach.39

l arrived home late Friday in Amsterdam, and am posting here the first aerial shots I recall ever managing to take that actually show the Coxs Bazar beach from the air. The skies were wonderfully clear, my seat in the plane perfect aside from one fleck on the window (which you’ll only see in one or two of the gallery below, because I’ve mostly managed to crop the photos to eliminate it), so these are photos as the plane flew southward from this northernmost shot to the final views, at the bottom, as we banked east then north for the return to Dhaka on Tuesday last week.  There’ll be more seashells and others to come before we run out of our stock, but these will help you imagine those tiny shells in their larger context :-). Oh, and the selfie is the first time I ever succumbed to the most-common trope for people landing in or departing from Cox: everyone takes a selfie. Most folks visiting Cox are tourists, mostly Bangladeshi honeymooners and families. So I’m smiling, because the weather was nice, the visit lovely, and I was finally doing that most stereotypical of Cox airport things, the selfie.

Mountains.49

I’ve a feeling that’s a ski area peaking out from behind the clouds over Colorado during the May flight, and below are a few last ones from either eastern Utah or Western Colorado, same flight.

County Views.149

Last of the Sonoma County shots for now 😦
Image

Country Canals.78