Monthly Archives: August 2012
A Bit of Green Without The Greenwash
Out of my ever-expanding portfolio of “THINGS ON THE INTERNET THAT MAKE ME REALLY SHOUTY AND CAPS LOCKY”, my current number one has to be greenwash. Because, oh boy, there’s a lot of it about. Especially in the blogosphere. But also in resort holidays and, umm, adventure holidays packaged as ecotourism. Which is why I [...]
Ballooning in Cappadocia – Photos!
Call me an optimist, if you will, but I only remember that I have vertigo as the alarm bursts into life at 4am to wake us for ballooning. Ballooning in Cappadocia! Despite my best efforts, I am still phenomenally bad with heights. And, you would think, ascending 500m with only a thin polyfibre canopy between [...]
Göreme, Cappadocia — Definitely Worth It
It’s around 6am when we get into Göreme, Cappadocia, and I have that baleful air that’s only acquired after a long and painful overnight bus journey. But, as I open my eyes for probably the hundredth time that night and try, yet again, to shrug the ache out of my back and shoulders, I hear [...]
Pamukkale, honestly, took my breath away.Trundling through the plains and mountains of Central Turkey, a vast white slope emerges from nowhere, as if a giant hand lifted up a ski slope and deposited it among Anatolian farmland. But this frozen world isn’t made of snow. In Turkish, Pamukkale means “cotton castle”, and the calcite-rich waters [...]
A Spotter’s Guide to a Turkish Waterpark
Who’dathunkit? Turkey has some seriously amazing waterparks. Yet they also have some, ahem, unique features… Here’s a handy, cut-out-and-keep spotter’s guide. 1: The Putin-Alike Should you have an aversion to busload upon busload of Russian package tourists, then Turkey’s Aegean coast is (whisper it!) not for you. At least, not during summer, where, after stiff [...]
“Hey. Let me take that for you,” a voice comes from behind me. We live our lives, Zac and I, out of a backpack each – with a camera bag and tote bag for daytimes/flights/bus journeys – and, FUNNILY ENOUGH, my pack always ends up being the one with all the really heavy stuff in. [...]
The Seven Deadly Sins of Blogging
Now, it would be lovely to think – and quite easy to believe, from some of the location independent crap currently floating around the blogosphere – that bloggers just sit in a little fluffy cloud writing nice stories and taking pretty pics in between trips to marvellously exotic locations. Y’know. Blogging. It’s like a holiday, [...]
Well, That Was Just Plain Stupid
If the Middle East prepares you for one thing, it’s travel craziness. Y’know. Lebanon won’t let you in with an Israeli stamp, or even an exit stamp from the wrong Egyptian or Jordanian border. Israel, in its turn, can get a bit arsey about letting you in if you’ve been to Lebanon (or Sudan). Syria [...]
How To Entertain A Ruined-Out Child #1
After Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, it would be fair to say that my spawn is a little ruined-out. The Middle East does that to you, you see. In the same way that after a few months in South-East Asia, you’re pretty much over wats, and approaching max tolerance for jungle and fascinating tribal peoples, or [...]
Old Friends and Dog Collars
It’s a strange and wonderful thing meeting up with a friend you haven’t seen for a while. Ten years, in this case. There’s that mild anxiety. Will we have things to talk about? Will the conversation flow? The more neurotic worries… Will we even recognise each other? (Umm, yes, obviously.) And, of course, the age [...]
