Author Archives: Julie Paterson
Fun things to do in Vietnam
Vietnam is a fantastic country to visit and really does tick all the boxes when it comes to food, climate, hospitality, scenery, culture and history. If you are thinking of going to Vietnam, DO IT – but here are a few tips on things you really should do! Go to see the Water Puppets in […]
A fascination for the Sahara
Sahara is the Arabic word for desert. Visit a desert or two, and you will find out that the desert is a magical, ever-changing landscape and not just a huge pile of sand: huge golden dunes, flat packed desert, a moonscape scattered with strange rock formations or craggy and colourful mountains. If you care to spend a few days […]
2015 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,000 times in 2015. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people. Click here to […]
Code of Conduct
I am a Kiwi and a Sagittarius, which means honesty comes naturally to me (truth is… I am such a bad liar, I have no choice). All opinions on this site are my own. Any products found on the site have either been tried and tested by me or my friends or clients and discussed and reviewed […]
It’s Christmas: still no room at the inn
It’s quite hard, I find, to enjoy a cup of tea at someone’s house when you can hear gunshots being fired outside. It was late in the afternoon, and I was at Hashem el-Azzeh’s house in Hebron, Palestine. My friend, Sophie, and I had just spent an interesting and moving day walking around the settler-occupied neighbourhood […]
My favourite books on my favourite place: Morocco
Morocco is a mystical, mysterious and exotic place. It’s a magical blend of Arabia and Africa – from the Atlas mountains to the Sahara desert where the warm, timeless desert breeze touches your soul, to the ancient cities of Marrakesh, Fez and Casablanca, whose protective city walls drip with secrets of days gone by. It’s also a […]
My top 10 fiction and non-fiction books to read on Vietnam
A list of interesting, insightful and above all true-life or true-to-life books on Vietnam. If you are going to Vietnam, these books will make your journey more meaningful. If you haven’t been yet, or don’t even plan to go, they will still enrich your knowledge about a beautiful part of the world with tragic recent history.
My top 10 most insightful books to read on Cambodia
Recommended Reading: Cambodia Cambodia has to be one of the most moving places I have ever been to. Their tragic recent past still haunts the population today in the form of landmine victims, psychological trauma, lost family members and mistrust. However they struggle on with life – because after all, it could not be worse […]
Four things I ALWAYS travel with
I often get asked for travel tips, or what I would NOT leave behind when I go travelling, so here goes. (Just click on the picture for more information and prices): It is really important to have a decent shoulder bag! I gave up wearing money belts years ago! YUCK! I got tired of having that […]
Zen and the art of relaxing …whilst taking on a scarey, new challenge
It is winter in Dahab, Egypt, but the sun still shines every day. Dahab is surrounded by a backdrop of caramel-coloured, desertous mountains which contrast nicely next to the turquoise waters of the Red Sea. As a busy person, I come here for the winter, not to grind to a halt, but for some “downtime”
Adventures of Venus 