City Rumble – Shanghai versus Tokyo

Yes, back again with two Asian heavyweights in the ring is this week’s CITY RUMBLE. We have the centre of commerce for China, Shanghai, and Japan’s mega-capital, Tokyo lining up against each other. Both are amazing cities in their own right, both attract a lot of tourists, both boast a host of attractions and things …

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Feature on Urban Duniya

Hi everyone! Just a quick post today - I've been featured on a wonderful travel blog by Tim Blight who writes on Australia and Pakistan mostly. I did an interview where I had to choose a city and talk about it - I chose Almaty. Please do check it out! Andy Loves Almaty Ok, I …

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Teaching English – Georgia versus Japan

Today, teaching English as a second language in a foreign country is one of the most popular ways of working overseas for speakers of English. I personally have done this in two countries – the Republic of Georgia and Japan. The former for three months and the latter for 2 full years. I enjoyed them …

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Travel Video – Dogon Trek, Mali

In keeping with the Saturday series I've been writing, here's a video - quite a longish one - I compiled of my trek to the Dogon Escarpment. At 28 minutes I think it's the longest travel video I've made. Interestingly I clearly made a mistake with one of the first captions. It says 'Ouigouyah to …

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Seven things to do in Melbourne in Spring

Welcome to a new regular-ish segment on my blog called ‘Seven on Sunday’ where I’ll talk about seven things to do or see in a place… well something like that. There’ll still be a Sunday Spotlight now and again as well, but I thought it was time to diversify from the rigidness of the same …

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Marching into Mali

Today Mali isn’t really the first place you’d go in West Africa. It’s had militant problems and Islamists controlled part of the country for quite a while before French intervention, but I have been on the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree forum and I see the odd tourist is still going to Mali. It’s quite sad …

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A Georgian Wedding

When travelling there are lots of different events you might like to attend from festivals to Eurovision. No seriously, it’s awesome and why wouldn’t you? But I think there’s something incredibly special about attending a wedding when travelling. I’ve attended at least three (off the top of my head) when travelling, two in Germany for …

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Travel Video – Burkina Faso

Monday's travel video this week is, in keeping with my Saturday post, from Burkina Faso 2007. I return to the scene of the 2006 with a mate and a happier attitude. The video is twelve minutes long and it features Ouagadougou (the capital) and Ouhigouya, on the way to the border with Mali. There's a …

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Sunday Spotlight – Yokohama

Welcome to Yokohama, Japan’s ‘Bay City’, a place with a hellovalot going on to keep you entertained and interested for days. Yes, the spotlight is shining Japan way and Yokohama is in the centre! The visitor to Yokohama might be justifiably overwhelmed when first arriving. In some ways, though far bigger, nearby Tokyo is easier …

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The West African Return!

For the last series of Saturdays I have pulled out some old blogs and reflected on my first journey to West Africa. You might think that after contracting malaria in Burkina Faso and the difficult time I had during the trip in general, I’d be sworn off the place. You’d be wrong! After my 1999 …

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