u/Plantimoni

As I read this, I tried hard to adjust my experience with what was being described by Venus Wong.
She lures readers in by describing herself: "I’m mostly naked," then continues,
"...save for a cotton sarong wrapped around my torso, when a monitor lizard ambles into my line of sight. Above my head, I can hear yellow-beaked hornbills rustling in the tree branches. Just a few moments earlier, I’d seen a romp of otters scuttle across a swamp in the far distance as I was rinsing off in an outdoor shower.

Monitors, yellow beaked hornbills and a romp of otters, all on one beach walk on humble Langkawi? I'd have expected her on some deserted Sumatran shore to bag that lot. Although Venus does term Langkawi an "under-rated beach escape." Read for yourself and see whether you agree this piece isn't lazy writing playing to armchair travellers.

I've walked around Shimla so often in the past I thought I knew much of it. Yet getting out to the suburbs and villages nearby revealed plenty never seen. Even a new perspective of The Mall, which makes it seem quite fresh.

>"Foreign visitors to Bali have almost tripled in the past 15 years, with almost 7 million foreign tourists visiting the island last year. More than 1.5 million of them were Australian.

>Bali also received 9 million domestic tourists, with tourists generally creating far more waste than the average resident.

>About 3,500 tonnes of waste is being created on the island every day, with about 65 per cent of that organic waste and 15 per cent plastic."

While depressing, the end of this piece shows how local people are keen to find answers to the trash problem.
Full article

by Devesh Chopra, BBC

These women work with the local forest department to track and protect the snow leopard species

In one of India's coldest and most remote regions, a group of women have taken on an unlikely role: protecting one of Asia's most elusive predators, the snow leopard.

Snow leopards are found in just 12 countries across Central and South Asia. India is home to one of the world's largest populations, with a nationwide survey in 2023 - the first comprehensive count ever carried out in the country - estimating more than 700 animals, .

One of the places they roam is around Kibber village in Himachal Pradesh state's Spiti Valley, a stark, high-altitude cold desert along the Himalayan belt. Here, snow leopards are often called the "ghosts of the mountains", slipping silently across rocky slopes and rarely revealing themselves.

For generations, the animals were seen largely as a threat, for attacking livestock. But attitudes in Kibber and neighbouring villages are beginning to shift, as people increasingly recognise the snow leopard's role as a top predator in the food chain and its importance in maintaining the region's fragile mountain ecosystem.

Full story.

The Shingo La (or Shinkula) is a mountain pass on the road to Padum in Zanskar. It's around five thousand metres (16,700 feet) above sea level.

In earlier years, reaching Padum was an extended trek needing a crossing of a river on a "flying fox" ropeway. Now, owing to the military importance of the region (the pass crosses into the Kargil region of Kashmir, site of many shellings from both India and Pakistan), there is a good road right through.
Most of the Indian visitors here are interested only in the snow! They sit in it and play with it like kids.

OK, it's mostly "dad dancing" but everyone was enjoying the spectacle. I saw this event over two days and on the third one simply sat listening to the sound of drums and horns drifting on the mountain air. It's a spring festival, where the village "gods" are brought out.
Sorry about slight blurring - the light wasn't any better than allowing 1/30th exposure.