Japanese Sushi, originally uploaded by laurenz.

eaten together with a portion of “bif-tan” (that is how it appeared on the menu, actually the Japanese version would be “Gyu-tan” and the English one “beef tongue”) as set menu in a Matsushima restaurant.
I preferred the sushi.

The souks of Marrakesh (Marrakech) are said to be the most extensive ones in Morocco. In the maze of alleyways and small streets, it is difficult to tell whether this is true, but I am sure that I could spend ages there and still discover new things all the time.
One of the most picturesque parts of the souks are the “dyer’s souks”. If you want to actually see the dying process, Fes is a far better place to go. However, in Marrakesh you come across brightly coloured leather, wool and cloth drying in the sun a truly beautiful sight!

More about Marrakesh (or Marrakech) at Wikipedia
Impressions by other bloggers: http://photosaroundtheworld.wordpress.com/tag/photos/africa/north-africa/morocco/
http://fcandi.com/1998/06/10_tage_marokko.html (in German, fascinating photos)
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheCasablancaMarrakechPhotoblog.aspx

Christmas dinner was dragging on in the otherwise good restaurant of the Tikida Garden Hotel (Marrakesh / Marrakech).
Obviously, there were far too many guests for the service, so I tried to kill some time looking at the pictures I had taken with my Lumix that day.
Then it occurred to me to point it at the flame of one of the candles.
As you can see in the above photo, the result was so bad, I immediately deleted it.
The next course still was not coming.
I unscrewed the lid of the salt dispenser, held it in front of my lens and took another shot.
This version was much better (below)
Thinking that I might share this, I retook the original version for comparison (above)

Note: no digital retouching other than a slight crop and resizing to a web-compatible size.
With digital cameras, such experiments cost nothing - and may be quite entertaining.

I took this picture inside Kibble palace, a world-famous glass-house in the Glasgow Botanical Gardens, back in 1993. When I revisited the botanical gardens in 2005, this attraction was closed for restoration.
One more reason to return to Glasgow some time later and see what this great building looks like now!

Bodhgaya is maybe the holiest place in Buddhism as Siddharta Gautama (the historical Buddha) is said to have attained enlightenment here.
The tree brightly decorated at the Mahabodhi Temple is said to be a direct descendant of the actual one under which Buddha was meditating when this happened.
Bodhgaya itself is a pleasant small town, remarkable for the different temples erected here by the various Buddhist denominations. A very good chance to come and compare…

A dancer in a dance show in Calcutta (India).