After the initial shenanigans regarding re-booking my flight I have to say it was an event-filled week or or so in the metropolis. Istanbul, certainly worthy of the New York accolade 'the city that never sleeps'. In hindsight, as I suggested in a previous post, it was mostly about connecting with people, both fellow travelers and residents. I mentioned the thoughtful Ayse with whom I had corresponded with over the interim period between visits but neglected to say anything of the staff of the Stray Cat hostel where I stayed for the 9 nights I was in the city.There were four residents of Istanbul who worked the reception: Ur and a youngish girl, both Turkish; and Mhede and Hamet who were Iranian. The latter were both trying to get to Europe, France specifically, but had been ... read more

So I had a bit of a whinge in my previous post and I apologise if I lost any readers as a result... BUT my points stand :) Mostly though I am the idiot. Travelling without a gadget these days is a bit like having a passport without any pages. You are going to find yourself in difficulties at some point, particularly if you are dependent on the technology for blogging, travel bookings, flight changes etc on the go. Lesson learnt. As I mentioned it is a year down the line and here I am back in Europe's largest city, or the Mıddle East's depending on your defınition of the geographic boundaries. What has changed? If anything it seems more frenetic this time around. I checked into a hostel last Thursday near Taksım and have used ... read more

Back in Hout Bay the guys were getting ready for night of revelry at Sean's bar, Forex. I don't know what inspired it, perhaps a suggestion from Martin or another Dutch intern, but it was King's Day and that would be the theme that night. Still, that wasn't happening till later in the evening and we had a few hours yet. The day passed one way or another until the four of us, Sean, JP, myself and Legend, headed out for a walk up to Chapman's Peak. As I think I mentioned the Chapman's Peak road was visible from Sean's patio. It ascended in a series of gradual inclines and bends from sea level at Hout Bay itself to a few hundred feet a.s.l. at a point opposite the mouth of the bay where there was ... read more

I departed Sandton, Johannesburg, as I had arrived: on the airport express service. The train breezed eastwards through suburbs, industry and intervening golf courses to Oliver Tambo International. I disembarked and scurried down the escalator to a help desk. "Where is the domestic terminal?" I asked of a young woman behind the desk. She pointed back upstairs in the direction I had seen various other people from the train heading. Feeling a bit foolish I took another escalator up to the next floor and found the SAA desk. I skirted the self check-in which I still find intimidating and joined a queue. It was being held up by a family who were taking advantage of the free cling-wrap service or whatever they call it, whereby your bags are wrapped in layer after layer of cling-film, allegedly ... read more

I can't recall how exactly we located our new lodgings in Taghit. As I mentioned before, I was happy to entrust the logistics to the others. Apparently Mustaffa, the restaurant owner, had arranged things. We were to stay in the house of a local man a few kilometres north of the town. Like a typical desert inhabitant he had a dark complexion. He was slight of stature and it was hard to gauge from his neutral expression how pleased he was having us inhabit his home. I was unsure how much we were paying but Sofian assured me that the price was negotiated beforehand. The house was a modern structure, one of half a dozen or so on either side of a dusty street beyond which was a large expanse of dusty flat-land and the main ... read more