Monthly Archives: August 2017 Papua New Guinea is not the easiest place in the world to get to. I was starting from Australia, a near neighbour and – for almost 60 years – the former administrative head of PNG. Even so, limited flight options into and out of the capital Port Moresby are only available certain days of the week, making travel […]  Isn’t it wonderful how a particular song can take you right back? Back to the time and place you were when you first heard it? Music makes connections – across people, across continents, and across time. The first time I attended the Byron Bay Bluesfest, back in 1999 when it was still called the East […]  India is a sensory feast: a multilayered tapestry of sights and sounds in colours that pulsate, wrapped in a rich weave of smells, where the aromas of flowers and cardamon battle with the stink of dust and refuse and the unwashed. Even the air has tangible depth. Nowhere is this better epitomised than in Chandni Chowk, one […]  Think of Mongolia, and you think of nomads. Nomads on horseback, driving their herds of goats, sheep, cattle and horses across the vast, rugged expanses of Central Asia, are still an important feature of the Mongolian landscape. In spite of a 2.78% annual rate of urbanisation (according to the CIA World Factbook), Mongolia still has one of the smallest urban populations in […]  I love driving into Thailand’s green, jungle-draped mountains, where the clouds hang so low they look like snow patches, and the sun traces the outlines of dark post-afternoon rainclouds and glints off the golden Buddhas and bejewelled temple rooftops. If you turn off the highways, however, it is not long before the ornate temples – and […] |
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