Tag: travel
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A Totally Impractical Guide to an Intellectually Dirty Weekend in Nanjing
I often (well, once every few months, which is technically often in geological terms) get emails from people asking me for advice on what to do in, say, Random Chinese City I Mentioned Once In a Post. Although I feel slightly honoured that someone actually thought I might have a clue, I usually have to…
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What’s my Age Again? 11 Notes on Age and Decontextualization of Travel and Expattery
In a few weeks, I’ll be on the wrong side of my mid-30s. You know, the over the hill and halfway down the other side end. The one with the great big pile of Sisyphean boulders stacked carelessly at the bottom. The unfashionable end. The one traditionally lacking in glitter and shiny things. The end…
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The Ridiculously Awesome Cats Who Run Morocco
Morocco is, from what I have gathered over the past month of fairly intensive travel around the country, governed exclusively by cats. People are there, sure, but they are peripheral when it comes to internal politics. I have a feeling that this feline governance is what keeps the country so tidy, calm and aesthetically pleasing.…
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Sometimes… Sometimes I just HATE travel: Notes on, er, just that (with cute cat pics!)
Note: this one is long. If you’re not up for a long one, I’ve added cute cat photos from Morocco. Enjoy. Sitting in a pleasant little organic cafe at Charles de Gaulle airport, with a lovely mini bottle of quite decent white wine and a proper plastic wine glass (it even has a stem! Oh,…
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Making You Jealous in Tangier, Morocco
So, Tangier. We came here because Doug was sick as a doug dog in Chefchaouen and we needed to go somewhere less strenuous than our previous intended destination, which was the freaking southern desert area. Camels and Bedouin and all. Not good when you’re ill. Especially not good when it’s both summer and Ramadan. Because,…
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On Ramadan, Tummy Bugs and Food Porn: Notes from Chefchaouen
I’m not even going to bother writing an impractical guide to Chefchaouen. It would consist wholly of stifling hot bedrooms, baking hot terraces, rumbling tummies, fevered brows, the same stretches of empty and well-trodden lane, closed doors, silence. You’d have to be floored with a ferocious tummy bug and exhaustion to truly retrace my footsteps.…
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Making You Jealous in Chefchaouen, Morocco
We are now in Chefchaouen, Morocco. If anyone has a spare million dollars or so for me to buy my own riad here, I’d be much obliged. I really need to live here. Seriously. This edition of Making You Jealous is going to be a bit understated. There will only be one food porn shot…
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Making You Jealous in Fes, Morocco
Perhaps after my last Fes post you might think I’d be skipping the jealousy series for that city. But no, that would be absurd. Fes is gorgeous. It’s just hard sometimes to see the forest for the touts. There is plenty for me to torment you with when it comes to Fes. In my previous…
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Notes on Travelling in Fes, Morocco During the First Few Days of Ramadan
This was going to be two posts originally, one about Ramadan in Fes and one about trying (note the emphasis on trying) to be an independent traveller in Fes. The more I made notes (I couldn’t do my usual silver-shovel unedited, quickly posted word-dump as we were without internet for 4 days), the more…
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A Totally Impractical Guide to Morocco: Casablanca!
I’m not just here to give you completely useless information about China, no. Every so often, I do get out and go to other countries. Today, I’m in Morocco. Yes, just like that. I’m sneaky that way. Ladies and gents, I give you the most useless guide to Casablanca, ever. (NOTE: Wanna see my etchings?…
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Making You Jealous in Meknès, Morocco
So, we are now in Meknès, about 3.5 hours by train from Casablanca and ever so much more likeable. This is the Meknès medina where we are staying. And after we arrived yesterday noonish, with the sun blazing down with peculiar ferocity, we retreated into the cool, sheltered laneways of Meknès to find lunch. We ended…
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Making you jealous in Casablanca
I was going to write a long, thoughtful post about arriving in Morocco and getting terribly, terribly lost in Casablanca today. I was going to make joyful noises about the realization that my French is still very much there, somewhere under the surface of the usable parts of my brain, so much so that every…