Magu Bee at World's End

A travel blog of one crazy Magu Bee traveling the globe.

Christmas time is the only time I really love Brussels. Actually, I fall in love with it every day anew.

My memories of Lamalou, a small town in the south of France around 1,5hrs west of Montpellier, will always have the taste of goat cheese and honey. 

One of the things you can find in the area of Myvatn Lake is an impressive and quite surreal lava foundation. Actually, lava foundations, as there's the field near the Krafla volcano with formations created during its 1984 eruption and the 18th century moss covered ones at the foot of Mt. Hverfjall.

Lake Myvatn area is a volcanic zone located on the boundary of two tectonic plates Iceland lies on. The plates steadily move apart, at a rate of about 2 cm a year, so volcanic activity in the area is considerable and thus it has become one of the main points of interest for anyone visiting this part of the world.

As we were walking away from Mt. Hverfjall, Antoine was telling me about this one time he was travelling with some friends and decided to sleep on one of the islands on a lake they were next to.


I happened to get on the volunteering staff at the Roskilde Festival.


I must admit I somehow expected more from the Malaysian capital. Never had a clear idea about KL in my head, but the bits and pieces of information I'd heard and the images I'd seen formed a rather loose vision of a great bustling city.

I must admit I had my hopes up after the delicious soup on Friday night and couldn't wait for the main festival day to begin.



After spending some time in Dalvik itself and eating loads of fish during the festival, it was time to stretch the legs (and full stomachs) a bit.

I would have never decided to go to Dalvik, had I not read an article about the annual Fiskidagurinn Mikli (The Great Fish Day) shortly before leaving for my trip

The first place anyone comes to when flying down to Iceland is Keflavik. 



I'm in love with the space I slept in last night, wanted to share its bits and pieces with you. Hope you like it as well.

Bali has many enchanting places and this one will stay in my memory for a long time. 

Roskilde was my first music festival and I must admit in a lot of ways it surprised me. Mostly on the negative side.



Tanah Lot is one of the most famous temples on Bali. Well, Pura Tanah Lot is the temple, Tanah Lot is the rock formation it's on, as it translates into "Land [in the] Sea".


Cairo was the second leg of my Autumn in Indonesia journey - I arrived here after a couple of days spent in Paris with my friend Salah. 

One of tourist and local must do's alike is a visit to Al-Azhar park before the call for an evening prayer.

I was in the middle of a short road trip around Bali when I spent one night in Lovina. 


Gili T is like no other place, that's for sure!

Ever since I heard of Beneficio I felt this more or less conscious need to go there. Not that I'd want to live in the place, but I saw it as a kind of a social experiment, a piece of an antropologist's research.

One beautiful Thursday morning we drove to Orgiva. It's a little town in La Alpujarra, a mountainous region south of Granada.


The truth is I'm not quite sure where some of those pictures are from... 


Everyone you talk to praises Alhambra like they praise nothing else. 

One of the many things I loved in Granada was its street art.

It took one walk to fall in love with Granada.


Many people told me Nerja was beautiful, so I made sure I had a bit of time to see it before I boarded my bus to Malaga.

One thing I haven't mentioned yet about Frigiliana is its smell. 


After seeing Frigiliana during the day, I couldn't wait to walk its narrow streets at night. 


Am very much short of time but I simply needed you guys to take a look at this place. Enjoy the photos.

I left Malaga after two days and headed to Frigiliana, where I spent last night. I made a small detour on the way from Nerja, to stop by the nudist beach in the Natural Park in Cantarrijan. 

After seeing some of the city on my first day, I decided to hit the surrounding mountains for a short trek on the second. Spent some time wandering about, took a nap on the hill and went back to walk the lovely streets of the city some more.

Today was a long one so let me just show you some sights from Malaga, without much of the written word.


This Sunday was basically the last chance I had before leaving India to spend the day downtown. 

Another afternoon out on Juhu beach with my camera, my Hindi book and my journal.



A couple of images from the lively streets playing home to Mumbai's art and handicrafts festival - Kala Ghoda.

After a sleepless night found myself at Victoria Terminus to start my journey to Nasik for Sula Wine Fest, an annual wine festival with some cool concerts.

"We are launching a project around the forthcoming Cricket World Cup in India.

We have got together 6 Captains who have won the Cricket World Cup and are using them as Role Models of the game through an Ad campaign thats going to be on TV shortly. This is the 1st time all 6 of them are coming together."

Delicious food, huge crowds, joyful atmosphere and live music. What more could one ask for?

The first puja I went to, I didn't get to see the beginning of the ceremony so can't really comment on the differences between a Punjabi and a Gujarati wedding.

The first function I went to was baraat. Traditionally the groom arrives on a horse and I was super excited to see that but unfortunately he came in a car instead. It was still fun, though!


Shaadi is the wedding ceremony that took place the next day after mehndi and sangeet

Another attraction of my short stay in Egypt was visiting the capital's citadel. It was cute to see how worried Ehab was when I started climbing its walls. The poor guy almost had a heart attack...

 

I had a blast!
The evening before the actual marriage everyone gathers to celebrate together during a function called sangeet.

I failed big time. 
Was having too much fun to be clicking away... 


Batur Danau is the widest lake in the island, very nicely located with Mount Batur in the background.
It was one of the main points in the itinenary during my road trip through Bali.

Ehab agreed to take me to a very poor part of the city, what he called 'The garbage city'. 

I came back to Bali after my Lombok trip mainly to go to Ubud and see a show of Balenese dance - Legong. Ubud's known as Bali's cultural center and is described as THE place if you want to experience the traditional arts.

Legong is one of Bali's traditional dances. 
It's been considered royal entertainment ever since it originated in the 19th century. Danced by two rigorously trained adolescent girls, it tells one of the stories from Malat, a collection of heroic romances. 

 

One of the very few places I visitied on Java while  spending time with my friend Marianka, was Borobudur. It is a 9th century Buddhist monument, decorated with over 500 Buddha statues.



Here goes my last, most chilled, day in Goa. I spent it mostly on the Palolem beach or in one of its cafes.