Travel Stories

TRAVELS IN THE TIME OF COVID #1 (2022): Time to fly

20 Feb 2022 | 2 min read | 2

Nobody has called us crazy, stupid or full of arrogant disregard. However in this increasingly angry climate I'd expect all those accusations to be leveled. And worse. That's because we're leaving for Sweden, Britain and back home via Singapore. Travelers in the time of Covid. Our reason is the same as many trying to get home: family. My wife has a niece and her baby in Bristol;... > Read more

McCloud, California: You are what you eat

25 Apr 2021 | 4 min read

This is just an opinion: but nowadays it seems more difficult to find a really bad meal than a good one. That is unless you are in McCloud, a small town at the base of photogenic Mount Shasta in northern California. McCloud isn't on too many tourists' agendas---it is well off the highways and seems to be at the end of long dead-end road---and that is probably just as well if the kitchen... > Read more

Jerash, Jordan: A city of goats and ghosts

14 Mar 2021 | 3 min read | 1

The Bedouin boy smacks a stick on a bleached rock and his small herd of goats, alarmed, leap forward a few metres then begin again fossicking for weeds and tufts of grass in this parched landscape. As the late afternoon sun creates long shadows and the blue sky turns a watery orange, you might wonder how often – over thousands of years – this same scene has been acted out... > Read more

Guangzhou, China: The sour smell of respect

18 Jan 2021 | 3 min read

When you travel to foreign parts it is good to be respectful of local customs, and usually they are common courtesies or pretty obvious: you don’t wear shorts or a halter-top to St Peters -- or in various Muslim states -- and you should always take your headgear off (or put something on, depending on the faith) when you enter a place where people communicate with their God. In parts... > Read more

Natchez and the Trace: Historic horrors and natural beauty

9 Jan 2021 | 4 min read

As we stood looking at the classic ante-bellum mansion surrounded by cypress trees draped in Spanish Moss we both had the same thought: there are few more pretty, historic and interesting towns along the mighty Mississippi than Natchez. Here is a place with a tragic history however: it was built on the back of the slave labour in the cotton fields across the river. But Natchez is also... > Read more

London, England: Soane's shopping mall of cultures

21 Aug 2020 | 2 min read | 1

For the young aspiring British artist or architect in the early 19th century, the Grand Tour in Europe was essential. Over there in more ancient cities, the churches and museums were objects to be studied, drawn and learned from. At least until wars intervened, the despised French occupied Rome and closed the city to English artists, academics and aristocratic fops drinking their way... > Read more

New York City: Fortune's Smile

21 Apr 2019 | 3 min read

The streets of midtown Manhattan were melting in the late summer heat. I'd already walked three blocks too far in search of something which obviously didn't exist: an internet cafe. Being used to travelling in Asia where such places are on every corner I hadn't even considered New York might not have them in equal abundance. But after tramping down Sixth Avenue for half a dozen blocks I was... > Read more

Dallas, Texas: The shots heard around the world

22 Nov 2018 | 3 min read

A simple wrong turn and the pressure of traffic forced us to carry on down the road, looking for an exit. But then, through a set of traffic lights, we were there. "This it," I shouted. "Look. This is it." I drove on as slowly as the urgent traffic would allow but we looked around at the slow dip and curve of the road, so recognisable from that famous piece of... > Read more

Bern, Switzerland: Just another day by the Kindlifresserbrunnen

15 Jan 2018 | 4 min read

The day dawns bright and clear as the train glides out of Gare de Lyon, coasts gently through tower-block suburbs and past the graffiti and indecipherable tagging which seems generic to railway sidings everywhere. Within a few minutes the speed increases, the factories and warehouses giving way to farmland. We are travelling south towards Italy -- but before then have decided to... > Read more

Frankfurt, Germany: Reach for the sky . . .

15 Dec 2017 | 2 min read

Those of us lucky enough to travel – and given the crowds at airports everywhere that seems just about everyone these days – have our list of common complaints: delays, queues, longer and longer walks to the gate (has anyone ever had Gate 1?), kids running around the baggage carousel, important but inaudible announcements . . . Usually people grumble quietly to themselves... > Read more

Prague; Czech Republic: Wipe that smile off your . . .

4 Dec 2017 | 3 min read

The pleasant middle-aged woman at the private museum in central Prague looks baffled by my simple question. I don't need one, but I ask again: “Do you have a toilet here?” I haven't seen a bathroom as I've walked around, so I'm just curious. But therein lies her confusion . . . because here there's no shortage of toilets, chamber pots,... > Read more

Arizona, USA: Into the valley . . .

26 Nov 2017 | 4 min read

Kayenta is little more than a wide spot on the highway through north east Arizona. There’s not much worth reporting: a chainstore outlet, a small and somewhat pitiful town which shimmers in the dry heat, a few motels and a Holiday Inn. Kayenta -- not far from Four Corners where Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico meet -- offers no reason to stop, unless you are looking for a... > Read more

Prague; Czech Pepublic: White Light, White Heat ...

26 Sep 2017 | 4 min read

Deep below a park in an outer suburb of Prague – some four narrow flights down a circular stairwell – is an extensive warren of chilly tunnels and bare rooms. This was a nuclear fallout shelter built during the Cold War of the 50s and, as the largest of a few around Prague, was designed to hold at least 5000 of the local civilian population when bombs dropped by the... > Read more

Holmenkollen, Oslo, Norway: Up, up and away . . .

2 Sep 2017 | 2 min read

Aside from a couple of gentle coasts down a few small, snow-covered hills, the closest I've come to skiing is watching Eddie The Eagle. For those who missed that gentle, funny and mostly true film, it followed the story of a try-hard and decidedly un-athletic English bloke Eddie Edwards who decided he would become a ski jumper so he could enter the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.... > Read more

Sarawak, Borneo: Hotel Headhunter

5 Mar 2017 | 8 min read | 1

In these minutes before you realise how foolish you are being, you could imagine yourself as Martin Sheen going up-river to seek out the mad Marlon Brando: the prow of the longboat pushing through muddy water; humid jungle steaming its way down to the riverbanks; bowing branches and vines hanging so low you sometimes have to duck beneath them . . . The sudden and unexpected clearings,... > Read more

Stockholm, Sweden: Reach for the sky

25 Feb 2017 | 3 min read

Atop a sheer bluff northeast of central Stockholm, overlooking one of the city's unglamorous port terminals on the far shore, a massive statue of Poseidon – holding a huge fish — takes in the view. Nearby a winged Pan plays a strange flute and behind them both a glowering, bull-headed figure from Swedish mythology sits menacingly astride a muscular horse. Over there the... > Read more

Copenhagen, Denmark: Walking off the art

26 Nov 2016 | 4 min read

Make no mistake, this art stuff can really take it out of you. It can get your step-rate up, the wind in your face and your aorta working overtime. Especially if you're in Copenhagen and choose to visit two different galleries — one south of the city, the other way north — and start your day with a couple of beers. Which is what I did. In my defense, the breakfast... > Read more

Copenhagen, Denmark: Beer, the breakfast of champions

30 Oct 2016 | 4 min read

Here's what we know about a tour of a brewery, vineyard or distillery: The interesting bit — the only important bit, unless you are into fermentation or like digging your paws in hops — comes at the end. In the tasting room. Five'll get you 10 that no one who's done the tour of the Guinness factory in Dublin can tell you two facts about the brewing process of this gold... > Read more

Christchurch, New Zealand: A suite fit for a king-in-the-wings

12 Oct 2016 | 4 min read

Because it was late in the season and we were the only guests at Hall and Miles' luxury lodge, they put us in the suite where Charles and Camilla had stayed a few years ago. Just to press home the point of what that means . . . we remind you Charles is the fellow who is going to be the next British king. So he doesn't slum it. Our suite at Otahuna Lodge, about 20 minutes south... > Read more

Dubai International Airport: Aww mama, can this really be the end . . .

3 Sep 2016 | 5 min read | 3

If a bug no bigger than a pinhead flying into your mouth is a memorable moment in your day, then your short time on this earth is being frittered away needlessly. Such a bug flew into my mouth as I needlessly frittered away a precious day. Only a crazy person would want to spend 24 hours in an airport, even a fancy one. But by circumstance then choice, that's what I did in Dubai... > Read more