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Posts tagged "travel" (Page 4)

Annoying travel personalities No.2: The Country Counter

More shameless insults hurled at travel personalities. Given my lowly place in the nether regions of the travel blogging world I haven’t got much to lose by slagging off some of the popular heroes of the travel world, as well as some of the targets more worthy of derision. But lets start with the type of country counter most of us will probably agree are totally tedious aresewipes. Thankfully this breed is relatively rare but if you’ve spent a bit…

Who are the Yazidis?

Visiting Lalesh in Iraqi Kurdistan Some people make the headlines for all the wrong reasons, usually for doing something awful to a nice bunch of people. For others it’s only because the awful things are being done to them. Such is the fate of the Yazidis for whom persecution is so much part of their history that a list of 72 persecutions, principally carried out by the Ottomans, is an established aspect of the faith, though presumably it’s now 73…

Finding Allah in the ceilings and doors of Tunisia

If you forget to look up in Tunisian buildings you could be missing out on some spectacular craftsmanship and even the humble door often has as much, or of not more merit than what lies behind it. In these days of mass production and ruthless efficiency it’s easy to forget that once, people put love and pride into everyday things in a way that is often, now lost, even for many who can afford it. For Muslim craftsmen there is…

Travel blogger or Israeli assassin?

As a middle-aged white man it’s not often that I get the honour of a spot of racial profiling but one of the joys of travel is that you get to stand out from the crowd and at times attract a lot of unwarranted attention, instead of being only notable as just another lanky, speccy git back home. Possessing the aforementioned profile of middle-aged white man in Tunisia is altogether quite a different proposition to any Arab in the reverse…

Bored shitless in Morocco

How can you be bored with Morocco? I hear you say. It’s got ancient medinas pulsing with a myriad of sights, sounds and smells; mountain peaks and precipitous canyons; sweeping desert dunes and sun drenched surf; ancient history and modern nightlife; you can even get a beer if you really want one. Many people would quite justifiably demand far less of an ideal holiday destination, but I am not really an ideal holiday destination kind of guy, as regular readers…

Thank God for the kids

A positive new year message In these times of grim uncertainty, facing permatanned presidential lunacy on one side and black flagged killers on the other, amongst all the other gloom ridden headlines, we could do with something positive to start the new year off. I may be able to do little to help us fend off the perils of the turbulent year ahead of us but my travels in recent years have at least given me one source of hope…

Annoying travel personalities. No.1 The Presumptuous Opportunist

The first in a hopefully short series about the annoying bastards I encounter travelling This first character, the Presumptuous Opportunist is most prevalent on the African continent and will always be the kind of friendly, chatty guy that normally is a pleasure to encounter in the street, as they can offer an insight into people’s lives. Their true nature will only become apparent when it’s time to pay the bill, when it’s evident that they never had any intention of…

Fuck you Ethiopia!

Dear Ethiopia Actually, why am I starting with the word dear, when what I really want to say is, “fuck you”! It’s difficult to hold anything dear about a place that has institutionalised the ripping off of visitors and does so with a level of contempt that may well be unique. If it was just me that had similar thoughts, I’d keep my whining to myself and any other embittered travellers for when we’d had a few too many beers,…

The hand painted, shop art of Somaliland

It often takes time to dig up the real cultural differences when you cross borders in Africa but sometimes evidence leaps out at you immediately, such as in Somaliland: neighbouring Ethiopia and nearby Sudan are almost devoid of the brightly painted shop fronts that you see on many streets in Somaliland. Such art can be found elsewhere in Africa but each region has its own take: sometimes modern and stylish but often crude, or what some in the art world…

The Tea Ladies of Sudan

You won’t get very far on a street in Sudan before you run into a sittet shai, a tea lady providing essential hot refreshments to passersby: tea, sometimes laced with cinnamon or mint; coffee, with flavours like ginger, cloves or cardamom; karkadeyh – hibiscus tea. Whatever the choice it will come totally saturated with sugar. Crouched on little chairs behind their paraphernalia and a charcoal burner with a steaming kettle, these ladies are an essential part of everyday life. Over…

Tag: travel

Annoying travel personalities No.2: The Country Counter

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Who are the Yazidis?

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Finding Allah in the ceilings and doors of Tunisia

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Travel blogger or Israeli assassin?

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Bored shitless in Morocco

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Thank God for the kids

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Annoying travel personalities. No.1 The Presumptuous Opportunist

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Fuck you Ethiopia!

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The hand painted, shop art of Somaliland

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The Tea Ladies of Sudan

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