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Ras Al Hadd, Oman Normally I would blame Hamed as, like the rest of Mankind, whenever I make an error it is always someone else’s fault. However, on this occasion, the error was clearly mine. Mine because, quite simply, I have not tried harder to become proficient in Arabic. It was well after dark and at Ras Al Hadd, the most easterly tip of the Middle East, where the sun rises first in all of Arabia. Hamed, my local Omani guide had said, “No problem. When I find turtle you come onto[...]

Assiut, Egypt Somehow I do not think I am a talented self-marketeer. I know I write a lot, talk a lot and travel the world like crazy. But I have missed out on the one item that others seem to proffer at any opportunity - the business card. Big ones, small ones, muticoloured and traditional monochrome. Egypt is full of them. “Here is my card”, “Can I have your card?”, “Can I send you an email?” or even “Can I visit you in England?”. I have lost count of the number of[...]

Al Minya, Egypt The problem with Egypt, I have now discovered, is nothing to do with its antiquities. Nowhere else on the planet can better them. It is everything to do with the police, the security and, to put it simply, the weaponry they have on display. It does not help being ex-Army but wherever I have gone since my arrival, and I write this 200 kilometres south of Cairo, anyone and everyone in uniform appears to be tooled up. There are weapons being waved about like confetti. Actually, it is a[...]

San Francisco, USA Please, someone, give me a logical explanation why anyone should spell the word “color” without a U? Yet here in San Francisco, right in its very centre, so many of its signs show my native language has been adapted in a way that defies explanation. Some say the Americans have got it right and we Brits have it wrong. Far from losing a U, in America the English are accused of adding one. Despite this, somehow, our two nations like one other, each fascinated by the other’s ways. It[...]

San Francisco, USA Each time I travel I pretend I am immune and each time I journey it catches me. Most call it jet lag. I call it, quite simply, brain/time disconnect.Travelling to San Francisco is a classic. Eight hours, yes a full eight, of time difference exists between Brit and Yank. Night becomes day, day becomes night, and my body hasn’t a clue. The hotel’s gym demonstrated this perfectly in a way that perhaps I had best explain.The other morning, two days into my US trip, I awoke from what I was sure[...]

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia I sense the time is right for a new classification of hotels. Forget one-star, two-star, three-star and beyond. Forget recognition by travel and motoring organisations with the granting of rosettes, badges, pyramids and other art forms. I suggest we start by dividing hotels into one of two categories; those where wet bath soap stays on the bathroom shelf and those where it simply slides off. My hotel today, in the heart of Addis Ababa’s Bole District, is a slide-off not stay-on establishment. In fact, there are two shelves in[...]