Travel

Three of the group made the 6-30 am trip to the Taj Mahal but one told me that, far from seeing the dawn change the colour of the dome, he could not see the top from the base such was the habitual morning fog. The rest of us chose to lie-in in anticipation of a 5 hour coach trip. Coach has the [...]

We left early at 7-45 am for Agra to see the Red or Agra Fort and Taj Mahal. Both were Mughal monuments built by Emperors as Agra was their seat of government. The fog covered the whole four hour journey smothering any view of the countryside. At Agra we experienced the first polarity of poverty [...]

Most of the party from London did not arrive till midday. However the smog and air purity – worse than Oxford Street – made our own tour in the morning uninviting so we waited for the afternoon one organised for the group. We saw some old faces from the Cape Town tour at the midday [...]

Looking back and over my life I have when forced into them made a series of successful judgements but equally have had a plotted course blown off track by what Harold MacMillan called “Events,dear boy, events” or as John Lennon observed “Life is what happens between events”. [...]

It’s now a week since I set off and I feel in a better position to share impressions of Thailand. One must always be mindful that as a tourist you have only a limited perception of a place as you are constrained by the location, people you meet and time you spend. It’s certainly an [...]

I am doing some consultancy work for the Thai tourist board and tied my visit with that of Bob who is staying  off Phuket and Grania and Polly who are further down the coast at a elite training camp for athletes. Bob kindly invited us all to spend the day with him. His resort is typical of many [...]

In my travels I have tended over the years to focus on Europe and North America with little experience of the Far East. So I have put this right with a trip starting in a resort in Thailand at Phuket. It involved a long flight and I had been recommended Emirates as a carrier. I did find their [...]