West African Memories – The Conclusion Part One

Hi folks. Well, today my series on my 2006 trip to West Africa begins to wrap up, this being the penultimate post. After leaving my readership hanging (never to happen again!) in Bobo Diolosso in mid-February 2006, I was home early March and yet didn’t post until the second half of May to tell the …

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Sunday Spotlight – Samarkand

Welcome to the sunniest of Sunday Spotlights, concluding this week’s look at Central Asia. Samarkand is a city full of rich history and beautiful Islamic architecture. Bukhara has a more clear distinction between old and new cities, but Samarkand’s ancient treasures seem to be weaved into the modern city a lot more than the equally …

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City Rumble – Dubai versus Astana

Boom! The City Rumble is on again and today the contestants are two cities with an eye to the future and some of the world’s most ambitious architecture. In the red corner, from the UAE in the Middle East, weighing in at a population of 2.1 million is the glitzy Dubai reaching high for the …

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Travel Video – Kazakhstan

Come with me on this little (well, 17 minutes) video of my time in Kazakhstan, entitled ‘Curious Kazakhstan’. It’s been a while since I posted on Central Asia, but I still look at it very fondly. It’s one of the most rewarding places a solo backpacker can head in my opinion. In this city you’ll …

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Sunday Spotlight – Krakow

Poland has a number of great cities, but I think it’s pretty hard to go past Krakow in the country’s south as the best city going around. Which is why the Sunday Spotlight is shining straight at this lovely city, filled with alleyways and hills, with a stunning central city square where everyone congregates and …

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West African Memories – Niger into Burkina Faso

Continuing on with my flashback to 2006, we start this week in a country many people don't know much about - Niger, a giant, desert-like country north of Nigeria. Tuesday, February 07, 2006 A way away Well a post has disappeared.... It wouldn't save a few days ago and now it's gone.... I noticed In …

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Scammed in India – Mumbai

How quickly would it take on my second visit to India to be in strife again? Well, as it turned out, not long! The flight from London was, to say the least, ‘bouncy’. I’d taken dozens of flights in 1999, but somehow I must have missed any sort of decent turbulence. Not so in 2000-01, …

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