501 Places

This topic has me scratching my head. I still don’t get it and it leads to far too many uncomfortable moments. The many charts and tables that people have produced in their blogs and articles don’t really get to the root of it. Why is it done? And most importantly (and am I alone in [...]

This is proof that I have been to the Pyramids of Giza. And it’s just as well that I have the photo. 16 years on, and I have little other recollection of that day. An early arrival at Port Said; a long bus trip (escorted by police) into Cairo; 40 minutes in the National Museum [...]

This is one of those pictures that makes an open and shut argument for digital photography. If I’d seen this image at the time, I would have deleted it. But it was 2000 and I wasn’t going to see how bad it was for another two months. The drink in the hand doesn’t help my [...]

Being in a place I’ve never been, not knowing anyone around me and having no idea what’s going to happen next. That, in essence, is what I love about travelling. The unpredicability, the spontaneity, the surprise encounters and incidences. Occasionally of course, there might be unpleasant moments, and rarely things can go seriously wrong. I [...]

The girl in this picture was a life-saver. Ok, I’m exaggerating wildly, but she did prevent a long walk with cold wet feet. And our encounter with her is a great example of the joy we can all experience from meeting local people who are only too often very eager to help. We had been [...]