Photographic Journeys, Vol. 2

By Scot Walker

The author continues his photographs of his trips around the world, including the Pantheon, the Amazon jungle, an African safari, the Great Wall of China, Lhasa, and Samarkand.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scot Walker
• Release date: Jun 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463178577

Scot Walker

Mr. Walker has won a Flannery O'Connor Award for A Slow Bus Ride to a Shallow Grave; a Thomas Wolfe Short Story Contest award for Earsounds;a New Century Writer Ray Bradbury Fellowship award for Watched; a Kernodle New Play award for Kenu Hear the Wild Birds Sing?; A McLaren Memorial Comedy Play Writing award for, Screeches from the Zoo; an L. Ron Hubbard award for The Ruler of the Elves, and he has twice won awards in the Writer's Digest Competitions, once in the Stage Play Category for Abide with Me, and again in short story competition for La Mer. He's a member of the Dramatists Guild and his plays have been performed throughout the USA and Europe. You can email him at [e-mail] or search the internet. Be sure to go to Smashwords—and look for his latest publication: Amazing Stories, which includes 80 of his award winning and published best.

Book preview

Photographic Journeys, Volume 2

© 2020 by Scot Walker

A Smashwords publication.

This book is dedicated to my King’s College class of 1966, with special shout-outs to Gail Saunders Simone, Ron Igrasin, David Cossey, David Van Sciver, Merle Fisher, Bob Dayton, and Donald La Crosse (who graduated in three, instead of four years.)

And a special thanks to Linh P. Pham for his assistance with the graphics and for designing the cover of this book.

Table of Contents

Chapter Ten: The Pantheon

Chapter Eleven: Manaus and the Amazon Jungle

Chapter Twelve: An African Safari

Chapter Thirteen: Angkor Wat

Chapter Fourteen: The Great Wall

Chapter Fifteen: The Galapagos Islands

Chapter Sixteen: Lhasa, Tibet

Chapter Seventeen: Samarkand

Chapter Eighteen: Aswan, Karnak, and the Valley of the Kings

About the Author

Selected Awards

Published Poetry Book

Literary Magazine Publications

Published Short Story Book

Other Works

Smashword Publications

The Tiger Cries at Midnight

Chapter Ten: The Pantheon

2013

October 25. ROME. We walked leisurely around Rome, from the the Metro to the Spanish Steps through the fashion district to the Pantheon and then on across the Tiber to Hadrian’s Tomb and the Vatican. It was a long walk but we stopped for lunch near the Piazza Navona.

The walk was definitely worth it because the Pantheon is still one of my favorite sites. We stood there gazing at that mammoth structure built nearly 2,000 years ago, then walked around viewing the tombs of King Vittorio Emanuel and the artist Raphael. After that, we listened to a group of thirty women as they spontaneously broke into song, singing acapella, enrapturing us by their voices, in the glorious acoustics of this marvelous domed temple to the gods, filing us with joy.

When you go to Rome, block out plenty of time to sit and take in the majesty of the Pantheon!

The Tomb of Raphael.

Chapter Eleven: Manaus and the Amazon Jungle

2000

February 17, 2000. Manaus is 3 degrees south of the Equator, 100 feet above sea level and 1,000 miles from the ocean so it is always hot and to me that’s wonderful because I love warm weather. So I felt at home here at the Tropical Hotel Manaus, a mammoth 5-star hotel resort, located directly on the Amazon.

There’s a zoo complete with jaguars and pumas, a three-story atrium in the lobby housing tropical ducks performing tricks, and there’s a magnificent pool complex with waterfalls gushing over rock cliffs. I tried all three of the restaurants: with a barbecue buffet at poolside, a candlelit gourmet restaurant with a jungle Samba show that evening and a lingered over a cold drink at the coffee shop. There is also a helicopter landing area, tennis courts, a jungle hiking trail, saunas, lounges, and even a small shopping mall—this was my first stay at a resort and I couldn’t have chosen a better place in a great jungle location with marvelous food and fantastic entertainment.

In the afternoon I went on tour and saw the Manaus Opera House Teatro Amazonas where I listened to a rehearsal for Beethoven’s Leonora.

Teatro Amazonas was completed in 1896 and not only did the Russian ballet perform here but the legendary Jenny Lind sang here, as well.

The opera house was designed in the Italian Renaissance style, took 17 years to build and cost $3 million and was erected here in the steamy Amazon rain forest. It’s built entirely of materials imported from Europe, with the exception of the wood which is 100% Brazilian.

The wrought iron skeleton was brought from Scotland, the stone from Italy, the 60,000 domed roof tiles glazed in Brazil’s national colors and made in France. The Verona marble doorways are topped by busts of popular Brazilian artists and the stage is 100 by 45 feet.

I especially enjoyed the backdrop which was painted to represent the Meeting of the Waters. Long before air conditioning, Manaus’s inhabitants would flock to the theatre and with temperatures in the 100’s and humidity to match and the women would bake in their furs, preferring opulence to common sense. Little has changed. The orchestra pit, operating on a hydraulic system, can be raised or lowered 10 feet. Upstairs is a ballroom consisting of 12,000 pieces of Amazon mahogany.

The fact that this gem was built in the middle of the densest jungle on earth with some of the profits made from selling rubber amazed me. I pictured those grand ladies sashaying into that fine theatre, wafting their furs around their shoulders as they pulled out their lorgnettes scanning the