Category Uncategorized

Ramadan in the Sinai

I have just spent my first full month of Ramadan in the Sinai, Egypt. In the past I had experienced snippets of Ramadan before in other Arab countries, but never been here for the full length, so was kind of excited to see how things progress. Here is a little bit of background and a […]

HOW TO TAKE TIME OUT FROM LIFE

Ever worked like a madman? For years I had a ridiculously manic work life, working 6 days a week in tourism and up to 12 hour days. At the end of my “paid work day” in an office, there was all the shopping, cooking, cleaning, socializing, emails, and hobbies (if there was any time for […]

Oman -why I fell in love with it

Oman… I wasn’t quite sure what to expect before arriving, not having done much research. Saw a few pictures, heard it was nice, that’s about it. And then I arrived and it all fell into place…

The Sinai Trail – a 220km hiking odyssey across the desert

The Sinai Trail is a 220km epic walk accompanied by Bedouin guides through the mountains and desert of South Sinai

Hiking 200km through the desert: the Sinai Trail – part 1 – Anticipation

You know that feeling of needing a soul-stirring adventure? A little challenge to get your pulse up and give you that “alive feeling” again? That was me, stuck in my office a few months back. Bored and flicking through Facebook I found something that rang my bell: the opportunity to hike 200km through the Sinai […]

Addicted to Morocco

Why Morocco is one of my favourite countries to travel 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 […]