Dear friends, Yep, I'm travelling again. This time to spend a few days in Zanzibar with a friend and then on to Madagascar to explore the National Parks for a couple of weeks. I flew from Bangkok to Zanzibar via Nairobi and Kilimanjaro which afforded me some magnificent views of Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Meru rising above [...]
Dear friends, Just a 40-minute drive from my house is one of the best-managed elephant camps of the many, some 60 in fact, in the area around Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. As part of my own continuing education about the welfare of captive elephants, I spent the morning there, observing, talking with the [...]
Dear friends, It was an exciting couple of weeks at the end of November / early December when I launched my new book "Portraits of Myanmar. A celebration of Work, Play and Prayer", first in Chiang Mai on my birthday no less - what a great way to celebrate, and then 10 days later in [...]
Dear friends, My final story from Oman comes from the wonderful southern city of Salalah where we spent three days in and around the city, visiting the beautiful coastline where there were more camels than people on the long white beaches, learning about the ancient trade in frankincense, seeing the tombs of holy men, relaxing [...]
Dear friends, This day our voyage in Oman continued with a magnificent and for some, a nail-biting, drive through the mountains from Nizwa back to Muscat. The views were magnificent, the road challenging and the village of Bilad Sayt nestled under the barren crags very charming and photogenic. From one of the highest vantage points, what [...]
Dear friends, We spent a couple more days in and around Nizwa and Al Hamra in the interior of the country and visited the magnificent 17th Century Jabreen Fort, palm plantations and Wadi Nakhr, the hanging villages of Al Aqor and Al Ain on the Sayq plateau, walked along the ancient irrigation (falaj) channels and [...]
Dear friends, After the fascinating morning at the goat market I wrote about in the last blog, we also spent time in the wider market and then visited the Nizwa's Round Tower Fort. Later, we walked through a fascinating hillside village and then settled into a wonderful 'eco-luxe' hotel for the night called 'The View', [...]
Dear friends, When your day starts at 4.30 with a hot coffee in the dark hours just before dawn, the stars above and only the silence of the desert for company, you know it will be a busy day, and so it was. A couple of hour's drive across the desert to the city of [...]
Dear friends, The day we made the Wahiba Sands crossing was wonderful - the stark beauty of the desert, a few camels, a little excitement and thrills as we did some 'dune bashing', sunset on the dunes, dinner under the stars and a full moon, with music and chilled wine. Ancient and modern, practical and [...]
Dear friends, Driving eastwards from Muscat we passed through villages, wadis and towns, sometimes right along the coast, at other times flying along a smooth modern highway. We walked a little in Wadi Tiwi and also in the old port of Sur, and we arrived at the Raz Al Jinz Turtle reserved as the sun [...]