In search of the shit things about Colombia

No doubt you’ve all heard wonderful things about Colombia, so there’s no point in me repeating them all here is there? So, at great effort and minimal  expense I made an intrepid search to discover all the rubbish bits about the country that other blogs won’t tell you about. The tragic failings of paper tissues   Whoever it was in the Colombian, paper serviette design department, they didn’t get the message that the whole point of the object is to remove…

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The secret of a great hostel

With the internet’s wonderful ability to distribute our opinions to all and sundry, no matter how ill informed or deluded we may be, maintaining a truly shit hostel has become an almost impossible task. Try hiring a sex pest to work behind the desk or cultivate a family of cockroaches in the bathroom and you’ll tend to find your establishment slipping down the rankings on hostelworld.com fairly quickly. Back in the halcyon days, before even the Lonely Planet had written…

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Toilet of the month

A celebration of Ethiopia’s most notable cultural heritage. Once in a while, a piece of toilet architecture stands out head and shoulders above the competition, sometimes enough to make a whole month of dragging yourself around UNESCO World Heritage Sites and unique geological creations somehow worthwhile. This glorious example tucked away in the back-end of Abozo in southern Ethiopia will surely soon be turning this quiet little village into a major tourist hub, as the masses flock to get a…

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Indonesian toilet inspirations

In the glamorous world of international toilet design the Indonesians are beginning to make a name for themselves with the kind of commitment to ethnic diversity you could only find in a nation of over 17 000 islands. A firm support for ancient traditions is complimented by visionary, yet measured steps into the modern world. The primary factor distinguishing Indonesia from the two giants of Asian toilet design, Tajikistan and China, derives more from differing cultural understandings. Simply, many more…

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China vs Tajikistan: the toilet design challenge

Few competitions can be as eagerly awaited as this, so wisely, the start had been rescheduled so as not to clash with that only marginally less popular international fixture: the Football World Cup. How would the plucky newcomers, tiny Tajikistan, whose performance I laid out recently in Top 10 toilets of Tajikistan – http://insideotherplaces.com/2014/06/19/top-ten-toilets-of-tajikistan/, fare against the might of imperial China. Would this be a foregone conclusion or an epic battle of David vs Goliath. Lets view the evidence from…

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Top ten toilets of Tajikistan

I would normally be reluctant to offer you the much over used format of a top ten for travel experiences but certain subjects offer such a profound insight into a culture that they are impossible to ignore and warrant all means of publicising their grandeur.  Back home the humble toilet may be dismissed to the realms of dull functionality but in Tajikistan they represent the pinnacle of rural architectural expression, rendered even more poignant by the Tajik people’s own inability…

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Some quirks of the service industry in the Caucasus

When confronted by a hostel manager reluctant to discuss the price of a room but insisting on serving up tea with bread and jam, you tend to be suspicious as this is quite possibly a prelude to charging an extortionate rate, having made it awkward to  walk away after such hospitality. This was the case in Zugdidi, Georgia, but was followed by the insistence that the room was, “no good”. Could this be some reverse psychology tactic to make me…

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Either end of the West African food chain

I have been checking out the local wildlife, not to look at, but to eat though, principally agouti, which is a like a huge plump rat but actually of the porcupine family and a common bush meat in West Africa. The first time I tried it there was an overpowering, rancid stench which was a tad off putting, but I later discovered that this was just the way some country folk preferred it: once killed you leave it sitting around…

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