“Only First-Class!” Well darn, that wasn’t in the script – there were no other berths on the train from Poltava to Odesa. I had tried to be organised, and buy them earlier in New Zealand. Buying Ukrainian railway tickets on line is essentially quite straight… Read more
All posts filed under “Travel stories”
Australia’s Bunya Mountains and Alternate World Histories
Could the Bunya Mountains be the one place to turn your preconceptions of human nature on its head? *** I recently finished Bruce Pascoe’s book ‘Dark Emu’. It’s an accumulation of the abundant evidence that Australian Aboriginals practised what was, by any objection definition, agriculture… 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
St Petersburg – 200 years of Russian Chick Selfies
Women, so I’ve read (and seem to observe), are significantly more likely to take ‘selfies’ than men. It doesn’t seem to matter where I go now, but there are crowds, struggling under the weight of a selfie-stick, with some digital apparatus on the end of… Read more
In Mongolia any fool can drive, but…
In five years or so in and out of Mongolia, I’ve criss-crossed thousands of kilometres by 4WD Landcruiser. But I’ve only taken the wheel once, and that was for a short hop back to a village when my driver wasn’t well. Let me explain. Technically,… Read more
The Log Cabin at the Heart of St Petersburg, Russia
The most famous ‘little log cabin in the woods’ is probably the one in which Abraham Lincoln grew up in Kentucky. It was built in 1808, but unfortunately, no longer exists. However, in St Petersburg, Russia, there is to this day, a log cabin built… Read more
Once a Vast Forest – Motatapu Track, New Zealand
Early on a cool Sunday morning I sipped my latte outside Relishes Cafe, Wanaka, and thought the immediate view could be better. In a somewhat typical urban New Zealand fashion, the lake is cut off from the cafe not just by a road, but a… Read more