A meal in CoCoCo, a top St Petersburg restaurant? One featured in an episode of TV chef Anthony Bourdain? Would I be blowing a week’s travel budget, just to get a few outrageously little servings, then need to fill-up on pizza anyway? After a few… Read more
All posts tagged “Travel”
‘Woman with nails in both sides of skull’ – the Nanjing Massacre Memorial
Arguably, the most shocking part of Iris Chang’s book ‘The Rape Of Nanking’, comes in its Epilogue. During my 12 months living in Nanjing (sometimes written Nanking) , what struck me was a disturbing lack of even slightly old buildings. There are some old treasures… Read more
Uganda – Hell-train to Kasese
As I lowered my arse out the door of the moving train, with my trousers and undies around my ankles, I saw a terrifying sight. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. I had a vague plan to get to South Africa, kind of over-land. Starting in Nairobi, Kenya, I had… Read more
When Corals Lived in the Mongolian Gobi
Corals in Mongolia – is there a better example of dramatic Earth-change?! The Gobi Altai -the mountains flanking the Gobi Desert, are far from the sea. They are semi- arid, bitterly cold in the winter, with lots of bare rock and virtually no trees. Nomadic… Read more
Tourists and War-Graves in Taganrog, South Russia
The man in the Taganrog Park spun around and said something at us. The only word I made out was ‘anglesky’ (‘English’)- the Russian had heard us speaking. Taganrog is well off the route of the average Western tourist in Russia. We were in Taganrog… Read more
Nomadic Women’s Underwear – in Greek Tanais on the Russian Don
You’ll see the chick with red and green silk bloomers at Tanais… The River Don is one of Europe’s big ones. Even if you haven’t heard of it, the sound should be somewhat familiar – there’s Danube, Dnieper, and the Dniester. They all contain the… Read more
How to see the Porthole Dolmens of Russia’s Caucasus
Travelling in Russia last year I got a chance to see some of it’s famous prehistoric ‘Porthole Dolmens’. Now there is a solid dollop of ‘Atlantic facade’ DNA in me – i.e. Ireland and Scotland, and one of my pet fascinations is for the ‘megalithic… Read more
When Frequent-Flying Becomes Insane-Flying
I loved my Singapore Airlines ‘Elite Gold’ card. Suddenly, International airports transitioned from being places where food and drink were wildly overpriced, to …. free. When I stuffed-up and missed flights, or political rules changed and I couldn’t board an aircraft – instead of costing… Read more
The Lost Forests of Southland, New Zealand
Forests that have disappeared so completely that you would hardly believe they really existed, have long fascinated me. When I left my home in Alexandra for university in Dunedin, I took with me a facsimile map my mother had given me. It was a mid… Read more
New Zealand’s Hawks Crag Breccia – prelude to the drift from Gondwana
The New Zealand road network has some seriously quirky idiosyncrasies – little things we locals take for granted, but can cause some alarm to the ever-increasing number of tourists. There are, for example, hundreds of ‘one lane’ bridges. And about these, I was once asked,… Read more