Marty Mellway Photography

We had a great trip last weekend to the pacific Rim National Park near Tofino. We took the ferry to the Island early Saturday morning and arrived at our campsite near long beach by 11am which gave us the whole day to get out and do some hikes. I was testing out my new film camera which turned out to work great. There are some really incredible landscapes around the park, my favorite would have to be the bog. Ill let the pictures and videos say the rest.

 The Spiti Valley was beyond all expectations. The Spiti valley is located in the North eastern part of the Indian State Himachel Pradesh.It is a desert on the roof of the world,a shangri-La of legend, cut off from the outside world by soaring himalayas and deadly mountain passes. A land where fifteen years ago no foreigner was permitted to enter. Close to the politically sensitive India/Tibet border the Spiti valley has been a restricted area since the forming of India. To this day all vistors must apply for a permit to enter in the mountain village of Rekong Peo, a small town surrounded by tall mountains in the Kinnaur valley which you must go through in order to enter the Spiti valley. When I traveled to the Spiti valley I was in the company of Jeanette and Philine, Jeanette and I were on our big India Nepal trip and we met Philine in Manali who decided she would also like to try to make the trip to the Spiti valley. We met in Shimla, the old summer British capital back in ...

Looking ahead I see the tall gates of the temple compound towering above the busy street. Vendors selling incense and idols tout over the sea of heads as the crowd moves slowly through the gates. Crossing the street I quickly slip through the gates using my usual tout avoidance tactics.  As I enter the complex I see before me the great monument of Boudhanath. A great mandala shaped Stupa with the eyes of the Buddha, the awakened one. On each of the four side the great pairs of eyes watch as the devote Buddhists below as they circumambulate the stupa clockwise. Many prostrate themselves on the ground measuring the length of their bodies as they go around, most just walk and pray, counting their prayers for peace on the beads of their malas. At once upon entering this place I feel at ease, hundreds of minds simultaneously contemplating the end of human suffering can have an interesting effect on the atmosphere of a place. The air is static, charged with some unknown essence, some en...

We are in the mountains of Tamil Nadu in the south. We will be leaving he today to go to Trichy, another city in the state of Tamil Nadu. 3 years sure goes by fast... makes me miss family. I have a couple of videos of our travels which I will be uploading soon and also some more photos. We have been having alot of fun and staying safe except for one experience. Likely the most near death experience of our lives. We were camping up in the mountains and no one told us there were wild bison and that they are dangerous. As soon as dark came a herd of bison started coming down the mountain toward us and the bull (8 feet tall weighing anywhere up to 3300 pounds!!) was not happy that we were there and he was protecting his family. Nothing like deer or moose, our fire and lights didnt deter him. He came straight for our camp destroying stumps with his huge head and horns as he came. When he was about 30 feet away we hid in the tent. The fire was low so we could just barely see them. The bull...

We arrived in the small city of Allapuza, Kerala, India on the 14th of February about two weeks after arriving in India. We had no idea what to expect in the backwaters of Kerala and the mystery had grown from all the stories we had been hearing from travelers along the way. We were told of a land of rivers, canals and lakes. Thousands of kilometers of waterways stretching along the inside of the coast. A safe haven for thousands of kinds of birds and other endangered species. A rich traditional culture existing unchanged along side a progressive education system and political structure. The effects of which were clearly visible when we arrived in the small town of Allapuzha, which is the starting point for the Backwaters of Kerala. Kerala is located is the most south western state in India, its coast line on the Arabian ocean has been a major trade route for thousands of years, even the ancient western civilizations had active tradin...

Hello everyone, The Chinese government has blocked facebook because protesters have been using it to show Chinese brutality, or so the story goes. Getting around it wasn’t hard but it doesn’t work that well. China Has been great, I'm teaching at an EF again here. I have tons of spare time and this city is definitely interesting. Dongguan in business is know as the factory of the world, the majority of Chinese exports move through here in some way. There are thousands of factories closer to the city limits. Living downtown I don't see them but you always know they are there. The majority of the corporate offices in the city are here to help support the huge number of factories. The city has a good amount of culture even though it is very new and modern; by new I mean it has only been developing in this way for 20-30 years. Before that it was just a little town. Now there are app. 9 million people living here and 7 million of them have immigrated from different pa...

To travel is human.  Everyone longs to see the world and experience the wonders it holds. We all seek to remember and understand what our ancestors knew long ago. How to be in touch with nature and remember that we too are just another species in the evolutionary chain. We are linked to the earth in ways that we can only begin to comprehend. Ninety-nine percent of our history as a species was spent on this earth as nomadic hunter-gathers, always moving and living in step with the natural world. Only in the past ten thousand years have we suddenly stopped moving as a result of the agricultural revolution. Over the course of the past few thousand years, mainly the past few hundred years, we have managed to totally sever our connection with nature. And yet there is still within us all there an ancient desire to move like we once did because it's in our nature. To know the world is to know one's self. I believe that the great emptiness felt by most in the modern world is their l...