London:

Stand or Walk?

19 May 2013 | Culture

In New York recently I was musing how nobody seemed to walk on escalators and whether it was a cultural thing if you stand or walk? I’m an impatient person and also I reckon I could always do with some more exercise, so I will almost always walk. If there’s the option...

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Across Asia on the Cheap

2 May 2013 | Media

It’s coming up for its 40th birthday in October this year, the very first Lonely Planet guidebook resulted from the trip Maureen and I made across Asia in 1972. We drove an old Minivan from London to Afghanistan, sold it in Kabul and continued by whatever form of ...

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Up the Arcelor Mittal Orbit & in an Anish Kapoor Mirror

20 April 2013 | Culture

The Arcelor Mittal Orbit is the weirdly twisting tower constructed for the 2012 Olympics in London. The whole Olympic Park is in the process of being redeveloped so hardly any of it is currently open to the public. You can visit the tower and zip up to the 80 metr...

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Conrad, the Otago & Incat

10 February 2013 | Places

Joseph Conrad – author of Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness (the literary inspiration for Apocalypse Now) only had one ship command during his nautical career. In 1899 the sailing ship Otago put in to Bangkok when its captain died. Conrad assumed the command and sailed t...

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Time Flies at the Taj

17 January 2013 | Living

Maureen and I arrived at the Taj Mahal in Agra, India on our first wedding anniversary on 7 October 1972. We'd driven from London to Kabul in Afghanistan where we sold our car and were continuing east on a trip that would eventually end at Sydney in Australia. And lea...

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