Train Journeys – Darjeeling

Most of the train journeys I have written about so far have been longish journeys, overnighters, epic stories of survival (ok that’s an exaggeration) but not all worthwhile train journeys in the world are like that, in fact some are quite short. Take the seven-kilometre toy train journey from Darjeeling as a prime example. It’s …

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Train Journeys – Cairo to Aswan (Egypt)

There’s no doubt that Egypt is a stunning and unforgettable place to travel. With such large distances between places, and little but desert between them, apart from flying trains are probably the best way to get around. It was 1999 when I went to Egypt, and the country was a lot happier than it can …

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Sunday Spotlight – Astana

Every week I get to Sunday and I have to put up my ‘Sunday Spotlight’, and I gets to thinking, then thinking a little more and then, yes, a little more. No, it’s not that there are no cities left, but that there are so many interesting ones out there that it’s so hard to …

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Gateway Countries – Cameroon (West Africa)

  Welcome to another ‘Gateway Countries’ blog, this time I am heading to West Africa. Please note – WEST Africa. I haven’t been much to the rest of Africa, bar Ethiopia, and I’m sure as an introduction to the whole continent, there are easier countries to start with such as South Africa for example. West …

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Foto Friday – Smiles in Mali

I thought I would do a regular, short Friday spot where I would present one photo and let people comment. 2007, I went trekking at the Dogon Escarpment in Mali. Stunning place, where the Earth shifted at some point dramatically and there is a giant cliff in the middle of nowhere. Villages on top and …

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A Day at Fujisan (Part Two)

After the excitement of crawling through a tunnel created by lava, we headed around to the Sakik Iyashi no sato NENBA, as the brochure says. In Englished, it calls the place the ‘Thatch Roof Village’. Today it is a basically an open-air museum costing around 1000 yen to enter. You can go from thatched house …

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