Travel

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy. All Rights ReservedMany Western pundits, talking heads and the like believe that Islam is more or less homogeneous and is monolithic...but nothing is further from the truth. It's not my intention of going into details in this post, but the wide difference between the devotional expression of faith in Srinagar's various Sufi dargahs and at Moin'Uddin Chisti's Ajmer shrine could not have been more dissimilar.In Srinagar, the devotees were calmer, more introspective, and more contemplative than their brethren during the Urs commemoration of Moin'Uddin's death in Ajmer. The latter expressed devotion to their faith in a very muscular fashion, noisily and did so unashamedly.Granted, the Ajmer event was a huge religious event, and is hyped to encourage such manifestations of faith...the more the better kind of thing, while in Srinagar there was no special religious event.It would be interesting to return to Srinagar during the public viewing of the Prophet Mohammed's relic at the Hazratbal shrine. I was told that it rivals the Ajmer Urs in its intensity.I'm still editing and refining my photo essay of the Moin' Uddin's festival, but it will certainly include my views of the sacred and the profane from the event.Subscribe to The Travel Photographer ©2012 Tewfic El-Sawy

Halong BayThe whole purpose of coming to Hanoi was to see Halong Bay..The bus picked me up at 0800 hrs collected a few others and we headed off to Halong Bay before 0900 hrs. It was slow progress as there was lot of traffic moving slowly.after an hour and a half we stopped at an artists39 center. There were a lot of statues of great quality and also a hadicrafts emporium and jewellery making w

Even after travelling in different parts of the world the airport security never ceases to amaze me. Every airport is slightly different you can never fully anticipate what what you exaclty need to do. May be that is intentional to keep those targetted guessing I don39t know. Some places you can keep your computer in the bag other places they have to be scanned seperately. Some require you t

Today39s hike up to the volcanic crater rim of Gunung Sibayak was quite tame compared to yesterday39s burner up Gunung Sinabung. Both are manageable day trips from Berastagi where I have based myself since flying from Malaysia to Indonesia last Saturday. I arrived in Medan North Sumatra 1100 a.m. local time and immediately began plotting my departure from the furnace that is coastal Indon

Photo: joshjanssen Teacher and coach Dustin Johnson recently completed his first ultra marathon and is training for the September 2013 100-mile Pine to Palm endurance run. An ultra marathon (“ultra,” for short) is technically anything beyond the marathon length of 26.2 miles. A respectable ultra is on rough and uneven terrain and is 50 miles or more…so I am still in the minor leagues so to speak, having just completed a 31.1 ultra. But I have a 100-mile race through the Cascade Mountains in my cross hairs. Lord Hill Regional Park, Snohomish, WA – It’s noon on February 24th and I’m three hours into a 31-mile race, the first Evergreen Trail race of the 2013 season. I run to the aid station and fill my water bottle, grab a salt tablet, take a banana muffin, a handful of gummy bears, and a GU packet…vanilla flavored. Stuffing the GU packet in my pocket, I cram the gummy bears in my mouth with the salt tablet, holster my water bottle, and fist the muffin in after the gummies as I take off running, black and yellow New Balance 1010 trail shoes spitting up mud behind me. Get a gym. I started my training at the tail end of August 2012. On my July road trip across the US with my grandfather Ben, I ran short distances as we stopped along the way. I ran in the Badlands of South Dakota, on the beaches of North Carolina, with the fireflies of Mammoth, Kentucky, along the muggy streets of Mississippi, and in the desert canyons of the Southwest — all in one month. My gym is Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, WA. Built in 1897, Fort Worden is flanked on two sides by stony beaches skirting large unstable cliffs. The park has large wild grass fields, surf-battered beaches, and a central bulge rising above the surrounding landscape. On this heavily forested hill are dozens of old concrete bunkers and long-since dismantled large artillery batteries. The whole park is probably four or five square miles and webbed with trails. The fort, strategically placed on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, was part of a three-fort system that was the first line of defense at the entrance of the vast Puget Sound, my home, my living gym, and my perfect training ground. Mile 21. At a slow pace I approach “Oh Lord Hill,” the highest point in the race, for the third time today. I’m on my third lap of the 10-mile loop course, my final time up “Oh Lord.” Beyond the muddy hill, my legs registering full objection, I’m 23 miles in and stepping into terra incognita — I have never run this far before. Eat and run. It’s 8:15pm and raining. There are two choices: Take the eggplant and pesto pizza out of the oven, let it cool a bit, cut into six sections, pour a generous glass of wine, and sit down for my dinner. Fold the pizza in half to make a pesto-pizza-taco-thingy, put on my running shoes, zip up my raincoat, and go running while I eat my dinner. I did ¼-mile hill repeats for 45 minutes whilst eating my pizza-pie taco. Every step sent a drip of pesto down my wrist; these I lapped up like a dog. The ol’ “fold the pizza and run” technique is one I borrowed from Dean Karnazes, the most famous ultra-endurance runner of our time. Such measures are necessary when running nonstop distances of 35, 50, 75, or 100+ miles. But I learned fast that it takes more than a squished pizza to fuel such feats of endurance. My right side is cramping from heel to butt, scolding my left side for still running so smoothly and setting the pace for my whole body. Calf muscles protest as I devour the banana muffin. My lungs are happy but can’t find a song to sing like they did on laps 1 and 2. “If you run on the Earth and with the Earth, you can run forever.” This is a Tarahumara saying and my mantra, and I repeat it dozens of times. A runner with fluffy golden hair and a bright green shirt paces past me. I passed him about 10 miles back. We exchange a salutation of “nice work”… “you too”…. Should I try to keep up with him?

Today we have arrived in Jaipur the pink city. Our drive was relatively long and provided us with a very intimate look at the lives of locals. Driving here is like taking your life in your hands at first then you sort of adopt a fatalismtrust in the clusterfuck of a tornado you see on the roads. It39s madness but it works as our driver informed us you must have four things to drive in Indi

The Taj Mahal is a dream come true. Set in the city of Agra aka the city of love this mausoleum built by Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife is truly one of the few sites around the world that lives up to the hype. Built of beautiful marble the Indian people work diligently to ensure its beauty remains. You39re required to wear booties over your shoes and they don39t allow outside

This is the first motel I stayed in that had a hot tub. I sat in the hot tub instead of writing my blog. Will update when I get a chance.

First and foremost HAPPY 42ND ANNIVERSARY LES AND CAROL CONGRATULATIONS Thank you for sharing your special evening with us xxxDespite the odds with the weather over the last few days we made it to the Atlantic Ocean tonight We are not quite to St. John39s yet or the easternmost point of Canada and North America Cape Spear. We will save that celebration for tomorrow. We are privileged to b

Dog on roof?Dog on roof!