Two months of travelling around the western half of Russia and talking to people gave me an insight into life ignored by the news coverage, with a few surprises and some surprisingly normal aspects. If you’re old enough to retain images of Russia from the forlorn queues of the latter days of the Soviet Union or the grim economic distress of the 90s, modern Russia is going to come as a bit of a shock. Finding even a hint…
In Egypt, bread is so much more than something to eat, it is life itself and plays an essential role in Egyptian culture. Most days on Nasr street you can find a few old ladies begging and they are always polite and grateful for whatever modest offering I leave them. One morning recently, I apologized to one lady I’d given to before that I didn’t have any change to offer, but as I was going to the stall at the…
Friends and the fragility of life for the long term traveller The life of the long term traveller isn’t all cocktails by the pool, surrounded by beautiful people. In fact, on my budget it’s never about that and besides, the last thing the beautiful people want is some shabbily dressed, ugly old git like me hanging around cramping their style. Not that I’m trying to say it’s a shit life but after six years mostly on the road, the prospect…
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…
Another taste of slum life in Burkina Faso It’s all very well luxuriating in 5 star hotels but you aint gonna learn much about a country or its people sipping fine wines and chomping on Lobster flown in from some distant sea. Sometimes you’ve just got to get down and dirty. So, I was only too happy to go back to the muddy shacks of Jongo, on the outskirts of Ouagadougou, the shabby capital of Burkina Faso, to see my…
Let me take you away from the headline grabbing suffering in Africa and go down to the simple realities of everyday existence, to my friend Mamadou’s home: a one room mud brick shack with a corrugated iron roof, in a small town a few km outside the capital of Burkina Faso – Ouagadougou. Apart from a lucky few who could afford concrete blocks, all houses are built like this, so every rainy season brings some new collapses. Here, where I…
