Travelogue
'Our' Man in Tokyo, Richard Sorge - 8 December 2020
This Travelogue piece follows on from Richard Sorge; ‘The Spy from Baku’ and ‘The Spy in Shanghai’. Richard Sorge was a master of bluff and a manipulator extraordinaire as well as being a great actor, important for a spy. Being a spy also made him a born liar, the two sharing similar traits, and as with all spy stories the lines between truth, lies, fact and fiction are never quite what they seem. His forte was reading people to gain any advantage, recognise any opening, and to see any opportunities all the while with his eye on the prize. A master organiser able to develop spy networks and maintain all the moving parts even in the face of exposure and risk of death. As a spy he was able to stay ahead of those skilled in the art of counterespionage: the German SD (SS Intelligence), the Gestapo, and the Japanese military police, the Kempeitai (sometimes Kenpeitai both a military and secret police and modelled on the Gendarmerie Nationale, part of the French armed forces), ruthless adversaries but none caught him despite numerous attempts and for all their suspicions. Working for Stalin also meant the threat of purge from his employers and death at the hands of the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, the NKVD. Sorge thumbed his nose at Hitler and General Togo (“Razor Brain”), Stalin and his chief henchmen; Genrikh Yagoda (a poisoner, he killed his own boss and allegedly poisoned the writer Maxim Gorky), Nikolai Yezhov (nicknamed the “Bloody Dwarf”)
The Spy in Shanghai - 18 November 2020
This piece follows on from Richard Sorge, Part One, ‘The Spy from Baku’. Richard Sorge was arguably the greatest spy of the 20th century. Ian Fleming, a spy who become a writer, called him the “most formidable spy in history”. John le Carré, a spy who wrote books and later a bestselling author of espionage once called Fleming’s chief
Richard Sorge - The Spy from Baku - 7 October 2020
Richard Sorge had one of the greatest impacts on the outcome of World War Two of any individual, yet most people have never heard of him. He was not a politician or a diplomat, he didn’t command troops, fly planes, captain battleships or even fire a gun, and he never fought in any of the battles. What he had was access to key inside information
Milford Sound - 2 September 2020
Milford Sound lies in Southwest New Zealand in the Fiordland National Park, the largest and fourth oldest of the country’s 13 national parks, the fifth largest park of its kind in the world and part of the Te Wāhipounamu (Greenstone) World Heritage Site. It has been judged the world's top travel destination in an international survey, and
Australia versus North Korea in Phnom Penh 1965 - 1 July 2020
In 1965 Cambodians witnessed one of the more unusual footballing events; World Cup playoffs on home soil not involving their own country. The two matches between Australia and North Korea were played in Cambodia as neither country had diplomatic relations with each other and Cambodia was the only country with diplomatic relations with both
François Bizot's 'The Gate' and the Spirits of the Dead - 3 June 2020
I had never read François Bizot’s seminal book ‘The Gate’ but had always seen it for sale. Then a friend gave me a copy. It is said it should be numbered among the great post-Second World-War memoirs of incarceration and is noted for ‘its intense dignity, by its unexpected attention to beauty, and by a discretion which never shades into
Flying High with the Bolivian Air Force - 6 May 2020
Travelling in Bolivia is a challenge of world-renown, one of those destinations your mother warned you about. The roads are rough, few are paved. The terrain is intimidating with high mountains and deep gorges best described as lethal. Transport infrastructure is rudimentary or was when I went in 1991, especially air travel. Safety leaves much
Aeroflot Skies - 4 April 2020
Back in the day in the early 1990s, the cheapest way to fly from Europe to Asia was on Eastern bloc airlines. Polish Airlines (Polskie Linie Lotnicze-LOT)) was one option, while Aeroflot was another. After the Berlin Wall came down LOT, previously known as Aerolot and one of the oldest airlines in operation, began moving back to using Western
Poipet - In a Galaxy, Far, Far, Away - 25 February 2020
The border crossing between Aranyaprathet in Thailand and Poipet, or Krong Poi Pet, in Cambodia is marked by a dying waterway, the Nam Sai, choked and putrefied with the detritus of modern life. The Nam Sai (which ironically means “clear stock” as in soup, in Thai) roughly marks the border. In some places it is the border, while in others it
