The Secret Map
Travel Essays by Simon Slater
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Tag: adventure
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Tana Toraja is a land where ancient beliefs about the spirit world and the after life are still clearly evidenced during funeral season.
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In the Spring of 2013 I took a two week trip through Burma (Myanmar). After half a century of strict military rule, a new president and a fresh democratic political climate had made it a safe and exciting new destination on the Asian travel circuit. Things are far from perfect in these early days of democracy.…
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Beyond the tourist crowds, the Hindu island of Bali remains a spectacular highlight of Southeast Asia. The fusion of intoxicating spirituality and invigorating natural beauty make it a destination that will leave it hooks in you long after you’ve left it’s shores. The Island of the Gods is truly magical. See…
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Two years after taking one of my favorite photographs, I travel back to see the girl in the picture, with a surprise in store.
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A journey of the soul through the heart of Cambodia. Shot in and around Kampot and Kampong Cham province. Model: Reyna Resognia.
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Too often on the increasingly congested highway of the Southeast Asian banana pancake trail, you hear of some ‘amazing’ place that people have just returned from. Some wide-eyed European backpacker will excitedly drop this adjective with a, eye-rolling, head-bobbing conviction as if they’d been to heaven and back. I was in Sihanoukville, a rapidly touristed…
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Gwanghwamun Square, central Seoul. We were engulfed by a sea of yellow jackets and riot shields, some marching, others running. Most were strategically cemented in formations. It was a national holiday, ‘Liberation Day’, which marked the freedom from Japanese occupation. The massive presence of authority hardly echoed the day’s sentiment. We were passing through when, in the blink…
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“Chemistry is the study of matter, but I prefer to see it as the study of change. It’s growth, then decay, then transformation. It is fascinating, really” – Walter White, Breaking Bad These were the prophetic words spoken by a then-chemistry teacher Walter White to his students. It preceded his lung cancer diagnosis and subsequent leap…
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Kansai is a region that stems from the metropolis of Osaka and spreads out to the the prefectures of Nara, Kyoto, Kobe, Wakayama and more. I’d missed the area and it’s people since my last visit a year prior. The following photographs were taken over a week on the turn of 2014. To begin the…
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Just the other day a homeless man entered a restaurant I was eating at. I was in Suwon, a city just outside of Seoul, where the sightings of vagabonds are few and far between. In a country of burgeoning wealth, the man’s entrance had been a surprise. Homelessness here is usually visible in a collection of…
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“Cut off from direct experience, cut off from our own feelings and sometimes our own sensations, we are only too ready to adopt a viewpoint or perspective that is handed to us, and is not our own.” The first novels I ever read were by Michael Crichton. Jurassic Park, The Lost World and Congo transported my imagination…
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Genesis “Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.” Voltaire For the open-minded traveler, this planet provides a diverse pool of beliefs to dip into and test the water. While sightseeing can be the carrot on the traveler’s stick, immersing yourself in a festival or two can give a…
The Secret Map 