TRAVEL MEMOIRS

MAYANMAR SPECIAL: When dawn broke, the gardens were a spectacle of utter devastation: royal palms chopped in half; bougainvillea trellises collapsed into the swimming pool; hundreds of ridge tiles shooting off the roofs and crashing into the pool and as far as the lake. The lake itself appeared through the dawn like an ocean, with waves streaking across it as the cyclone circled overhead. full story >>>	POLAND It was the beginning of February and the weather was predictably Polish; snowing and –10 degrees C. It stopped snowing on my arrival at the small town of Oswiecim, which was a quaint and isolated town for most of its 700 years history until the twentieth century when it gained notoriety by its German name, Auschwitz. full story >>>
ENGLAND On a rainy morning in June 1922, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, dressed in full military regalia complete with a ceremonial sword, returned to his home at 36 Eaton Place, Belgravia after dedicating a war memorial. He was about to enter his house when two armed gunmen approached him from behind and shot him nine times. Sir Henry died on his doorstep. full story >>>	ETHIOPIA It’s wedding season in Abdurafi, Ethiopia. Wedding season comes but once a year, and lasts for two months only. Raise a flag, kill a goat, beat a drum, invite the neighbours and get yourself a wife! Tastefully photocopied scrap-paper wedding invitations pile up on tukul doorsteps, well fattened goats become harder to find, and the nights are filled with the throbbing of drums as wedding processions parade through the village. full story >>>
SAUDI ARABIA How did I get to that lonely desert highway in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia? Who was I, this foreign western woman draped in a long black robe sitting on the backseat of the cab? What was I doing there? The answers I prepared in my mind for the Saudi police were simplified and well rehearsed after one year of living and working in the land of oil and sand. full story >>>	ROME We wander through the vast Forum. It looks like an archaeological dig, with its mounds of dirt and randomly scattered monoliths. Its ancient, imposing edifices are resplendent under the sun. Despite the majestic glory surrounding me, I can’t help musing about the pathologies of the ancient Romans. full story >>>