Out of Norm Travels

UPDATE: I did a video collation of the various timelapse taken during my Nepal trip:  MagTY Video_We will Rise Again Prayer Flags of Nepal  For many, travelling is a sort of ala "Amazing Race" with the maximization of the limited time in a particular location by going from point A to point B. Well, for the first time in my life, I gave myself the luxury of time by signing up for a 4 days yoga retreat in Nepal in early March 2020. Mind you, I am neither flexible nor a yoga fanatic so I was definitely doing something that scared me.   What is Yoga?  For those unaware, Yoga is an ancient philosophy and practice of health and well being. The practice emphasizes the quality of health and life with diet, physical acts, posture, breath, mental, rest and meditation, In the modern world, it has somewhat gained momentum with emphasis on the physical aspects.  Yoga retreat Booking I booked my retreat  via  bookyogaretreats.com   ...

As I wrote this, I had already finished my last bits of  Skyr, Iceland's famous low fat yogurt  and with that last bit, all my lovely memories from a land I had visited in early February 2016 started flooding back.  This land is located some 12,680 km/7,878 miles away from home and took me some 16+ hours over 2 airlines before I finally landed on  Keflavik   International Airport ,  Iceland's international airport located in   Reykjavik, which is also Iceland’s capital. Reaching Iceland has been nothing short of a dream with my travel into extreme cold where "normal" means 0 degrees or less. For me, Iceland is a country of contrasts where Fire meets Ice, Water claps hands with the Earth, Skies says hello to the Earth and the Land where Giants, Trolls and Elves used to roam.  Our travels across this vast land first brought us towards  Kirkjufell  (West Iceland) on the nor...

List of trips taken over the years  2020: 1. Nepal - Kathmandu, Pokhara  http://outofnormtravels-magty.blogspot.com/2020/03/out-of-norm-travels-2020-yoga-retreat.html 2019: 1. Feb  Italy  Venice - Carnival with Ugo Cei and Robin Yong  http://outofnormtravels-magty.blogspot.com/2019/03/out-of-norm-travels-2019-venice.html 2. Feb Italy Florence and Cinque Terre  3. March Indonesia Batam Nikon School Singapore Photo Fiesta 4. April Malaysia Penang  http://outofnormtravels-magty.blogspot.com/2019/04/out-of-norm-travels-2019-penang-food.html 5. May Australia Astrophotography 6. August - Japan Lake Biwa & Okinawa  http://outofnormtravels-magty.blogspot.com/2019/11/out-of-norm-travels-adventures-in-japan_21.html 7. Nov - Japan - Karatsu & Saga http://outofnormtravels-magty.blogspot.com/2019/11/out-of-norm-travels-adventures-in-japan_97.html & http://outofnormtravels-magty.blogspot.com/2019/11/out-of-norm-travels-adventures-in-j...

My photo-adventure tour for 2015 was to this seriously exotic location which is synonymous with Genghis Khan . The Inner Mongolia  (Chinese:  内蒙古 ; pinyin:  Nèi Měnggǔ ), officially  Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region  or  Nei Mongol Autonomous Region , is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Located in the north of the country, it contains most of China's border with Mongolia with a small section of the border with Russia, its capital is Hohhot, with Baotou, Chifeng, and Ordos as its other major cities.  (above info extracted from Wikipedia) Map from  http://www.chinahighlights.com/inner-mongolia/map.htm With almost one-third of China's grasslands stretching some 1,490 miles (2,400 km) across northern China, it has the bucket of r olling hills as far as the eye can see. L arge areas of rich grassland provides pasture for sheep,  goats, cattle, and the famous Mon...

Unique Cafe hopping experience in Bangkok that came complete with some interaction with Cats (love them Grumpy Cats) and Dogs (Huskies)...and Witches ;)  The cat cafe at Caturday Cafe was lovely as the cats were all over the place across tables, up above you and hidden under the chairs. I was thrilled to be surrounded by them and they were basically doing their own thing ie sleep and walk around. Cats being cats don't bother you if you don't bother them. one thing I was pleasantly surprised was that the food there was pretty decent (something I can't say for a lot of the cat cafes I have been)& the cats seem contented being around the area (instead of wanting to go back to their hidden area - which was our experience at the Cat cafe in Penang). Caturday Cafe  Thailand The dog cafe of Neverland Huskies on the other hand were simply majestic. Imagine being surrounded by a pack of some 20 huskies in an area. They were beautiful and had the space to just be aroun...