Yesterday was Ronda, one of the white villages clinging to the side of a steep gorge. It rained quite a lot while I was there, which put a damper on things (literally), but I did manage to see a couple of things, including the Municipal Museum (bit kiddified, with loads of rather tame audio visual aids) and the bullring and bull fighting museum. I know sod all about bull fighting, but the vull ring and museum were really interesting. At the entrance to the museum is (what I think is) the head and horns of a pre- historic bull. By the [View Full Entry]

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Arrived in Cordoba this morning. Is a journey of less than an hour, but had to go through rigourous security checks at the train station, having my bag x- rayed etc. Cordoba fro Seville is on the line to Madrid, which is where the bombings happened a few years back, so imagine that´s had an impact. Cordoba is really lovely, and I much prefer it to Seville. The little back streets have been designated a World Heritage Site (or similar), and you can see why, especialy in the Juderia. The lanes are narrow and cobbled, with white, islamic influenced buildings and, [View Full Entry]

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Hello. Writing this from an internet ´cafe´, that smells of wee, and is situated down a little back street, behind a cake shop, on the Avenue de Constitucion. Arrived in Seville yesterday evening. Sped through Customs - I´m used to long queues, shuffling forward slowly to a booth where some hatchet faced, gimlet eyed, stalinist uniformed bod scrutinises my passport for a frighteningly long time. Smiling and looking innocent of all misdemeanours is useless, as I´ve never had a photo taken yet that didn´t look like something off Crimewatch, and my passport photo is no exception. Anyway, ther [View Full Entry]

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Back in Chiang Mai after spending a few days in Mae Sariang. MS is lovely - a really rustic little town. I was in a guest house on the river, and was nice to sit out on my littl (actually quite large) teak veranda, reading and watching the local farmer herd his cows through the river on the opposite bank. I had hoped to pick up a trek from there, but it's low season, and most of the guides appeared to have packed up and gone on to more seasonal employment elsewhere. However, there were a couple of little villages within [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday morning did a mini solo trek to a couple of the Akha villages within walking distance of Mae Salong. Tea is a big thing around there, and passed several pickers, all wearing their straw cone hats, working in the fields. Made a decision to avoid the Karen (long necked women) villages, which were a bit further afield, as it just seems a bit tacky- passed a couple of posters on the drive up to mae salong, advertising a couple of karen villages, and they looked like circus posters. I have also chickened out, so far, of spending a night under [View Full Entry]

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Hello Again. Spent the last couple of days in Chiang Rai, visiting the night market, a couple of temples and the Hilltribe Museum, where I watched a film about how tourism is deteriorating hill tribe culture. This was intercut with footage of a British guy who, along with his Burmese wife, were trying to set up an eco tourist lodge in Burma. I think it's what they call ironic, tho' possibly unintentionally - he was a very nice, politically correct type, who shook hands with village chieftans, and spoke solemnly about mutual benefits, and how he was sure he'd learn more [View Full Entry]

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Hello. Am in chiang rai, in northern thailand. Getting used to unfailiar keyboards again, so please excuse occasional finger- slippin' typo. Has been a bit touch and go as to whether I'd actually make it, what with the state of emergency being called and my bank freezing y bank acount four days before I was due to fly out because of what they thought was 'suspicious' activity (ie all my money seems to have gone missing). Am staying at this funky little hotel called the Mantrini. Got here about an hour ago, after about thirty hours of no sleep, incorporating a [View Full Entry]

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The plan yesterday was to go to Moulay Idriss, one of Moroccos most important pilgramage sites Has apparently only been open to non Muslims for the past 70 years. It is about half an hour in a shared taxi from Meknes. Unfortunately, no one else seemed to want to go to Moulay Idriss yesterday morning, so I had to negotiate and hire a grande taxi for myself. According to the Book, it can sometimes be a little difficult to get back to meknes from MI, so I arranged for the driver to wait a couple of hours, while i looked around, [View Full Entry]

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After breakfast this morning, I caught a shared taxi to azrou. According to my LP book, once a week, in azrou, there is a big souk, where all the locals come to haggle over their berber carpets. The once a week is a tuesday, and, as today happened to be a tuesday, off i went. azrou is on the road to fez, and it took us about an hour and a half in the taxi. I think i perhaps got there a little late in the day - altho was there before 11- as the souk seemed to consist of a [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday, in Marrakech, walked thru the souks to get to Musee de Marrakech, which is this rather funky art gallery/ museum in an old palace. Massive building with courtyards and little rooms, with ancient qrtefacts jostling for wallspace with photographs of what looked like saharan motorway service stations. The hammamms were particularly atmospheric - was a great use of the space. Included in with the ticket to the Musee was entrance to the Merdersa, the old theological college built, according to LP, in the14 century and restored - initially, at least, i think its probably been done agai [View Full Entry]

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