To label Iranian people as ‘fundamentalist’ would be an absurd generalization. It carries as much truth as the flipside proclamation; that western culture is inherently evil and immoral. The governments and media of the nations in question are content to propagate these stereotypes, given that from an authoritarian perspective it is highly desirable and useful to establish a created enemy. For the West this serves to vilify Iran and justify murderous sanctions, financially motivated military conquests and corporate intrusions; and for Iran it serves to justify archaic and oppressiv [View Full Entry]

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[My apologies for the previous, incomplete entry. Telecoms were playing up in the southwest corner of Rwanda where I was loading this at the weekend, and clearly some of the text and the photos in the original suffered. Sorry for adding to your inboxes!] Only an hour or so after I’d arrived, I was scribbling delightedly in my diary, “Oh, I love Bujumbura!” Mind you, as I rapidly admitted to myself, it doesn’t take much. I’d found myself in the most charming, centrally-located and funky hotel, the Saga Residence, with an imaginatively-designed semi-sunke [View Full Entry]

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Day 14 (Thursday, September 10, 2009) After eating breakfast, we settled our bill with Le Petit Versailles and sadly went on our way. We had immensely enjoyed our stay at Le Petit Versailles and our time in the Dordogne region. It was by far my favorite area of France, and one that we will come back to again in the future, probably renting a house for at least a week. Today was another long day of driving, with our final destination being the medieval town of Carcassonne. Along the way, we stopped off in two other towns. The first was [View Full Entry]

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To skip over the boring bits this is how we got to Ko Pha-ngan from the 4000 Islands in the south of Laos. We left 4000 Islands on Tuesday morning by boat, then mini van, tuk-tuk and bus to Vientiane. Then we took a public bus to the border of Thailand. Then another across the border and a tuk-tuk to the train station. Then an over night train to Bangkok and that night another over-night train to Surat Thani. Then bus and a ferry to Ko Pha-ngan. So that’s 3 buses, 2 tuk-tuk, 2 train’s, 2 boats and 1 mini-van. We [View Full Entry]

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We left Shanghai middle of June 2009....few months ago to move to our new dream place, Bangkok. I come back for few days every month to the city where we spent few years. So the main question was...do we do a blog on this week-end in Shanghai? This is a blog about friends, friends and friends. Few nights in Shanghai to celebrate Hugues and Jia Jia wedding, for Claire's Birthday, but also to attend our usual "thursday club" at Abbey Road and have dinner with our friends on friday at Bella Napoli. We had few challenges on this trip. I did [View Full Entry]

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The next stop on our journey west through Bolivia, was Sajama National Park, home of the eponymous volcano, Bolivia’s highest peak. For some reason this beautiful area receives relatively few visitors and therefore has no public transport links. Or perhaps more likely, the lack of transport explains the lack of visitors. Either way, we’ll be surprised if this situation continues for much longer. To get there, we needed to board a La Paz bound bus from Santa Cruz and ask to be let off at the small town Patacamaya, from where we could charter a taxi for an hour or so [View Full Entry]

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I went to Lourdes because I wanted to visit the caves and to a day tour to the Pyrenees as mentioned online. However, when I arrived these (and nearly all other attractions) had closed 4 days before I arrived. Apparently 'through November' doesn't actually INCLUDE November. But that's okay because it was interesting eing in a tourist town when there are no tourists. Usually people flock here on a pilgrimage to see the Grotto where Saint Bernadette supposedly saw 'the immaculate conception' appear to her eight times. (I find it astounding that a whole towns prosperity and trade is still based [View Full Entry]

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1st March '09: I got drunk last night. Well, not “falling down” drunk - more like four pints, or the equivalent in Euroland measures. Now I could pretend I need ten pints to feel tipsy, but why bother lying? I can’t drink, and that’s the end of it. Namibian’s almost the same, unless whisky is involved. So, more than one beer, and Namibian and I are awake like old men at five in the morning, bemoaning the big night out. I might have to contain drinking, in future, to a small finger of port after lunch - then perhaps allow myself [View Full Entry]

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