Chambers at Large

Thanks to Queen Victoria’s son Jaipur is known as the Pink City. The Prince of Wales, (later King Edward VII) visited in 1876 and was...

Once in a while when travelling I come upon places that take my breath away. When touring north India I came across two such places....

Shimla, in the foothills of the Himalayas, is the capital city of the province of Himachal Pradesh in northern India. It is a colourful...

I was told on the day we were to leave for Shimla that the train would be leaving at 8am, thus I set an early morning phone call for 5am...

I was on a night flight to Delhi from London and having secured an aisle seat I was quick to order a couple of glasses of red wine, knowing that after having imbibed, I would sleep. Well, that’s what normally happens, but NOT on this occasion. It was impossible to get some shut-eye due to the persistent ding, ding, ding of the call bell, accompanied by a blue light overhead, which flashed in my peripheral vision. What people were demanding from the flight attendants was be

My fellow travellers and I arrived in Amritsar late afternoon and, having booked into our hotel, our first port of call was the Golden...

As a teenager I read voraciously many a novel set in India, thus the Taj Mahal was one of the top places I wanted to see when I compiled...

One of the most beautiful islands I’ve ever visited is Madeira and being only four hours on a plane from Ireland it’s my go to spot for...

The port of Paracas on the shores of the Pacific Ocean was my penultimate stop in Peru and I wish I’d had a couple more days there to...

I visited Peru earlier in the year, but there were many reasons I wanted to return and one of them was to see the mysterious Nazca Lines,...

As I’ve stated in a previous blog it was only when Paddington The Movie came out in 2014 that the people of Peru realised my favourite...

Peru has to be one of the most diverse countries I’ve ever visited and I must say on several levels made me realise I’m living in...

I’ve been a fan of Paddington since I read the books as a child, not too long after the first was published in 1958. It came as a bit of...

The summer in Ireland this year has been horrendous. Rain almost every day. A cheap all-inclusive trip to the sun was called for and I...

Situated on the Mediterranean coast the city of Barcelona is a delight with plenty to see and do. I was only there for three days and...

I first came across Angkor Wat in the film Tomb Raider starring Angelina Jolie and have wanted to visit the site ever since. I can...

The horrors of the Kampuchean Communist Party under Pol Pot in the 1970s was brought vividly to life by my guide and when visiting Tuol...

Having experienced the queues for customs in Hoi Chi Minh City airport twice I was glad I was not flying into Phnom Penn, but taking a...

It was whilst watching Apocalypse Now when I first encountered mention of the Mekong Delta. Although the movie was filmed in the...

The Vietnam War was at its height when I was only an infant, but by the time I reached double figures I can recall asking questions about...