Russia:

I’m Not Going There Anymore

24 April 2025 | Living

The boring, too often repeated, questions I field all the time are ‘what’s your favourite place – followed by what’s the most dangerous thing that’s ever happened to you – and then where do you never want to go to again.’ Recently I’ve been hearing from friends who ha...

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Kodiak, Alaska – my first stop on the eastern side of the Pacific

20 July 2023 | Places

▲ After our seven day Pacific crossing from Yokohama in Japan we finally made landfall in Kodiak, an island off the south coast of the state of Alaska and at the eastern end of the long string of Aleutian Islands. I’ve been to Kodiak Island once before, back in 2009 w...

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Ukraine – why Russia is unpopular

31 March 2022 | Places

It’s now been well over a month since Vladmir Putin despatched his incompetent army to invade Ukraine. We already knew Putin was a murderer – innocent English bystanders when he decided to poison people in Salisbury, innocent Australian tourists (and 9 other nationali...

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Transnistria, Baron Munchhausen, Salisbury, Russian & Saudi Ineptitude, Paveway Bombs

16 October 2018 | Living

◄ Baron Munchausen at Benderry Back in July I made a brief (ie 24 hour) visit to Tranistria – that curious sliver of a nation sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine and recognized by nobody in the world except for Vladimir Putin and his friends. In my Transnistria ...

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Pakistan-Bangladesh, Russia-Australia – observing, watching

8 September 2017 | Living

Yogi Berra, that famous source of folk wisdom (I think he played baseball as well), noted that ‘You can observe a lot by just watching.’ You certainly can, I felt that over and over again on my Silk Road trip from Bangkok to London earlier this year. None of the Centr...

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