A Travelling Lens

On the third leg of my Indonesian trip, we stayed just North of Ubud, Bali. It was such a different Bali to the one I expected – it was full of life, colour and tradition. One such tradition I witnessed was Ngaben , a Balinese Hindu cremation ceremony. The village of Gentong held a Banjar Cremation which is a mass cremation that only occurs every five years. The deceased of the village are temporary buried until the ceremony. Anticipating sombre atmosphere, I was amazed to see the excitement accompanied by the (repetitive-but-cheerful) tune of a food cart. As I later learnt, the ceremony is as much about life as it is death. This is because the cremation allows for the deceased spirit to be reincarnated. Getting ready for the cremation takes hours and one of the first steps is for the deceased bodies to be excavated.  I haven’t been particularly close to death before but, sitting at the kuburan (cremation grounds) surrounded by the stench of corpses and sim...

Next to Totland, a village on the Isle of Wight, is the beautiful beach: Totland Bay. I visited in August and stayed in the youth hostel in Totland. I witnessed a couple of breathtaking sunsets and those coupled with a crumbling pier lead to some excellent views:

Photo by  Rock'n Roll Monkey  on  Unsplash From replacing workers in factories to driving buses, there are many worries surrounding the advancements in the robotics industry. These concerns are not entirely unfounded as many processes are becoming more and more mechanised. There are even robot rock bands! The worries seem to stem from robots having the ability to carry progressively complex tasks; The Henn-na Hotel in Japan is the world’s first hotel to be staffed by robots. These robots speak many languages and aid in the checking in and out processes, they are able to store luggage and carry it to the guests’ room. Facial recognition software is also used as a room key replacement. Loss of jobs seems to be a large area of human concern. In fact the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) have recently warned that robots will replace a third of the UK’s jobs and a study conducted in 2013 by Oxford University estimated that “47 percent of total US is at risk...

After reading mixed reviews about the festival in Chiswick gardens, I was somewhat dubious about visiting yesterday and what to expect. Well I loved it. It was absolutely amazing, the displays were beautiful and of brilliant quality. To be honest I didn't know that such huge and intricate displays could be made out of lantern.  I liked the link to the theme: the Silk Road. This means I travelled the globe in an hour and a half- I particularly loved the displays of flowers, cacti and Aladdin's palace.  The Silk Road is an ancient trade route linking the East and the West. Coined because of the transportation of silks made in China to the Roman Empire. Silk production was so valuable in these times that the Chinese emperor tried (and failed) to keep the secrets of manufacturing the material, with the knowledge then spreading westward. These routes were now discovered and used to transport all sorts of goods for example precious stones, spices, other textiles and...

The USA's #1 beach in 2015 definitely lived up to it title. A beautiful beach with sand made from Quartz meant that it was white and powdery. Quartz also has low heat conductivity allowing for the sand to keep cool, even in the hottest of Florida's weather - it's lovely that your bare feet never have to experience that pain of having to hop along the beach! Despite the practicality, sunsets and all round beauty of the beach, the thing that I've decided to post is the birds. There are pelicans that frequently dive into the sea as well as countless seagulls and sandpipers. I took many a photo of the animals - here are a few of them:

This weekend I went to Bushy Park with my friend Poppy , we received quite a few inquisitive looks from passers by, but I got some photos I'm happy with...