Travelogue
Trat - The City of Half-a-Hundred Islands - 14 April 2025
The road from the Cambodian border to the eastern Thai city of Trat is a great drive. Vehicles in Thailand drive on the other side of the road (the UK side) from Cambodia where I’d come from, so closest to you on the left (the passenger side) are the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Thailand and to the right, the hills and jungle of the Cardamom range which form a natural border between the two Southeast Asian neighbours. The road is squeezed between these two features with a good surface, little traffic, and gentle bends. A vehicle can clip along at a fair rate, a contrast from the current state of some roading infrastructure found just across the border. Sharing the road with little other traffic in Thailand being a good thing: the country having the deadliest roads in terms of fatalities per 100,000 population in Southeast Asia (over 30 whereas in the UK it’s two). It's not hard to see why with the habits of the country’s drivers including: multiple lane changes, following too closely behind, looking at their phones among other poor driving habits all conducted at excessive speeds including in adverse weather conditions like monsoonal downpours.I was left at the Thailand-Cambodia border crossing by the rest of the bus passengers crossing over to the Kingdom of Smiles, though to be honest I’ve always felt that Cambodia was more deserving of that particular moniker. By chance, a minivan was turning around having dropped off a load of passengers going the other way
Phnom Penh to Koh Kong - 8 March 2025
Roads in Cambodia have come a long way since my first visit in 2004. The main land entry point from Thailand at Poipet for example, was along a dirt road badly rutted, virtually impassable in the wet with rudimentary one-lane bridges comprised of bare metal frames laid roughly across waterways. Vehicles inched on to them one wheel at a time
The Road from Koh Kong in 2006 - 22 January 2025
I’ve traveled the road between Koh Kong and Phnom Penh several times over the years in both directions starting in 2006. The first time was from the Thai border to Phnom Penh in a Cambodian taxi the durability of which was testament to Toyota’s engineering skills. Last month I made that journey again in the opposite direction starting in
Kampot and Kep - Salt ‘N’ Pepper - 20 December 2024
I’ve been to Kampot in southern Cambodia a few times over the years but this was my first trip back there since the pandemic. I was interested to see what had changed and more to the point what had not, because Kampot has historical charm that you wouldn’t want to see gone. What you would want is that charm maintained and hopefully restored in
The Aswan High Dam and the Temples of Philae - 10 November 2024
The city of Aswan in Upper Egypt is home like many of that country’s cities to much ancient history. Aswan though has something different, something other Egyptian cities do not have; a monument of more recent times which, like those from antiquity, is an equally awe-inspiring feat of engineering. I find some examples of engineering fascinating
The Valley of the Kings and George Bush - 1 September 2024
My first visit to Egypt was to the Sinai Peninsula a journey down the coast as far as Sharm El Shiekh. The second trip a couple of years later was across the Suez Canal to the largest city by population in Africa, Cairo (if you count its neighbour Giza) and from there south to Luxor one of the oldest most continuously inhabited cities in the
George of Tahir Square and the Pyramids of Giza - 28 June 2024
The Suez Canal is just 193kms long and one of the world’s key waterways, a strategic asset, and also a choke point, a bottle neck. The canal connects the “Med with the Red” seas and separates two continents, Africa from Asia. The canal saves maritime traffic the 8900kms journey around Africa which takes most ships on average about 10 days, quite
Dahab, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Meaning of Cool - 30 May 2024
The Sinai Peninsula is a land bridge between Africa and Asia and is the only part of Egypt in Asia. Originally called Arabia Petraea it sits between the Mediterranean and Red seas and was once called Rome’s Arabian Province when annexed by the emperor Trajan. Trajan was famous for pushing the Roman Empire to its greatest territorial extent
Newcastle-upon-Tyne - 2 April 2024
I once spent time living in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the very north of England. What is today the city of Newcastle and the surrounding area of Northumbria has history going back centuries. It was under Roman occupation for 300 years marking one of the northern most extremities of Roman rule, the remains of which can still be seen today. Later
