In 2009 I experienced one of my favourite ever journeys. Istanbul to Ankara by the Dogu Express, on to Adana on the Toros Express, bus to Antakya, and finally taxi over the border to Aleppo in Syria. The journey started with a frog march from our hotel to the port to catch a ferry across […]
On the last full day of my Luzon journey last year I headed south from Manila to the fishing town of Tagaytay. Fishing is however not what Tagatay is best known for. The Taal Volcano sits on an island in Taal Lake. The volcano has erupted countless times, most recently in 2020. Over the years, […]
The Afrosiyob is a wonderful name for a train. It derives its name from Afrosiyab which was an ancient site in Northern Samarkand, present day Uzbekistan, that was occupied from c. 500 BC to 1220 AD prior to the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. I travelled on it between Bukhara and mythical Samarkand in 2018. […]
Kyoto has many must sees – the Gion Geisha District, shrines, temples & beautiful gardens aplenty, the Fushimi Inari Taisha Sembon Torii (temple of 1,000 gates) and the bamboo forest amongst them. A lot to cram into 3 days. With a couple of hours to fill before our Shinkansen train to Hiroshima, I hot-footed it alone […]
As somebody reasonably well travelled, I am often asked my favourite countries visited. This is pretty impossible, so diverse are they. I will give it a go. However, if you ask me again next week I am pretty sure the list will change! Japan I am just back from a fabulous two week trip. Fuji, […]
It has been a long held ambition of mine to take the world’s first commercial Maglev train from Shanghai Airport to Longyang Road Station in the centre of the city. A chance recently presented itself when we flew via the vibrant Chinese metropolis to and from Tokyo. A top speed of 430k/mh, though slightly disappointing […]
I am just back from the land of the rising sun. It was a magical trip where we saw Fuji San and experienced Sakura (cherry blossoms). Here are some pictures combining trains with blossom. And here is Fuji San taken from the train.
This week I took my first ever bullet train from Mishima to Kyoto. 300kmh. Japan is developing a maglev network to go even faster – I need to come back!
This is actually a picture from today. We are in the Hakone region, which on a good day affords views of iconic Mount Fuji. Unfortunately today is very rainy so that view is left for another day.
In late 2019 I made a trip to Azerbaijan by train from Tbilisi. Whilst there, my travel companion Hamish and I made back to back overnight journeys to the city of Sheki from Baku. Sheki itself was a little gem with a Silk Route caravanserai (now a hotel), plus winter and summer palaces.
