Travelogue
Working Out in the Kingdom of Wonder - 31 July 2025
One of the things about travel is the chance to experience what’s different about a place: it’s people, customs, their behaviours, and habits. Some of the different approaches people take are interesting. Some can make you think, and some others can be a little irritating and exercise gyms are no different. But let’s face it, if everyone and everything they did was the same, the world would be a pretty boring place. My experience of using weight gyms in Cambodia goes back over the length of time I’ve been going there; from my first ever visit over 20 years ago to the present day. Much of what I compare gyms in Cambodia to is what I’m used to back home where admittedly, I trained during off-peak hours where often I was the only person there or it was me and two other blokes often older than me. There were no crowds, you didn’t have to wait for equipment, there wasn’t much unwanted noise (apart from the music), no one filming or posing, and no skimpy outfits.On my first ever trip to Cambodia I recall walking down Monivong Boulevard, the main drag in Phnom Penh, nearby to where I was staying at Boeung Kak Lake and seeing a weight gym. It was on the corner in a rundown building so there was view through one side and out through another. It was open-air there being no windows. It was crowded, full of people sweating in the hot season with temperatures well into the thirties and high humidity. Being used to an altogether more temperate climate, I couldn’t imagine pumping iron
Ayutthaya by Train - 29 June 2025
I’ve been to Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya (or just Ayutthaya) before by road on a tour booked out of Bangkok’s less than salubrious Khao San Road, the backpacker mecca (or ghetto as some refer to it), the area that made a living out of the “little yellow bible”, Lonely Planet’s guide to Southeast Asia, the original budget guidebook. This time I went
Jomtien Beach - The Quiet Neighbour - 15 May 2025
Jomtien is the quiet junior partner of its noisier more crowded neighbour, Pattaya. It caters to those not wanting the nightlife, the traffic, flashing lights, pumping music, and the crowds. It’s a second home for affluent Thais wanting to escape Bangkok 100kms away for holidays and at weekends. It’s home to expats who retire for the warmth, the
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
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
