Vibrant Vietnam

A little video for you all. 2011, March, the main part of the trip started in Vietnam. Will be visited in a 'Short journey', probably next year.

Motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh City

here is the link:

Vibrant Vietnam


Don't forget:

Dhaka to Dakar

Videos of Ethiopia

Addis Ababa

Back in 2009 I took what was an amazing trip to Ethiopia with two friends of mine. This will be the subject of the very first book in the 'Short Journeys' range, coming in around a month's time to a Kindle store near you (also know as Amazon).

Today I am very happy to be able to share with you two videos I made of that journey.

The first, Extraordinary Ethiopia, sees me visit the capital Addis Ababa, Lalibela, Gondar and Bahir Dar.

The second video remembers the trek through the Simien Mountains, a national park which was truly spectacular. One of the highlights of all my travels.

Please enjoy :)

Free Kindle chapter!

Hello everyone!
Just a quick blog to say that I have a promotion going on Amazon for the next five days. The very FIRST chapter of Dhaka to Dakar is available - Malaysia and Singapore. Yes, I didn't start the Dhaka to Dakar journey in Dhaka, strangely enough. So if you'd like to take a look into the book, this chapter (Chapter One overall, and first chapter of 'Journey Across Asia') is now FREE for download for five days!

Link here:

Dhaka to Dakar: Malaysia and Singapore

And for more info on the book and ALL the chapters:

http://dhakatodaker.webs.com/

More on the new writings and videos in the next few days! Take care!

Kazakhstan Videos

Everyone, in lieu of the new books I am working on, I am also working on some short videos of my time in different countries. Today I present one I just finished working on last night. This is a short summary of my time in Kazakhstan where I visited:

1/ Almaty and Medeu
2/ Semey
3/ Astana

It's shot with my old Canon video camera which used mini-DVD tapes. In particular it features some performances from the Museum of Kazakh Musical Instruments in Almaty which was great, and you can see a lot of the strange and wonderful buildings in Astana. Shot in June 2011. Enjoy!

Curious Kazakhstan

Short Journeys

Hi everyone.
I have started work in earnest on my next batch of ebooks, called 'Short Journeys'. They will chronicle my travels in different countries across Asia, Africa and ex-USSR.
I am working primarily on 'Short Journeys - Ethiopia' at this stage, and also have 'Short journey's - Kazakhsatn' in the pipleline. More information will be forth coming! I have visited many places that aren't covered in 'Dhaka to Dakar', so it was about time I started working on them! Incidentally, here'e the webpage again I made for Dhaka to Dakar:

Dhaka to Dakar, the book!

As for the new series, 'Short Journeys', I hope to have the first out by the end of October, and one or two more out by the end of the year, followed by maybe 6 or so next year. Eventually they will be available in three bigger volumes. Anyways, to whet you appetite, here are some photos from countries which will feature in the 'Short Journeys' range :

Ethiopia

Kazakhstan

Cameroon

Uzbekistan

Estonia.

Ishinomori, manga and boats

Space design for the museum.

It’s great to find a new place to explore, isn’t it? Just over a week ago I headed with my wife and friend to Ishinomaki, a coastal city around 70 km from Ichinoseki, and we saw a movie and had dinner. Three days ago I returned to this city to find out a bit more about it and see a couple of things.

In fact I thought it was a really nice place. It lies very low, with hills appearing here and there. This part of Japan I am told dropped something like a full metre into the ocean after March 11^th 2011. You can believe it when you visit Ishinomaki and see how high the ocean reaches in high tide. Ishinomaki was devastated by that tsunami. The before and after shots are horrific. Yet today,  two and a half years later, it seems to be doing ok. It’s a pretty busy, happening place.

We visited the Manga Museum. Ishinomaki is famous as the birthplace of Ishinomori Shotaro, who was a hugely successful creator of manga, including a story involving cyborgs numbered like British secret agents. I have to say, their 007 isn’t as cool as James Bond. The museum is housed in what on the outside looks like a space ship, not quite a flying saucer but flying saucer inspired. A section underneath opens out and anime figures, rather

small, pop out and music plays. Thankfully inside the museum was more interesting! (we were left underwhelmed by this)

Inside the girls dress up in some sort of space uniform, and on the second floor there is a display which is probably not worth the 800 Yen admission (the rest is free) but nice all the same. One part is examples of manga, some in English, as people continue on with his cyborg stories. The other part is slightly more interactive, angled at kids of course. There were lots of helmets from a TV series based on one his characters, and various other examples of characters from his work. Unfortunately cameras were not allowed for most of level two.

Level three had a couple of food shops and a library, and the first floor had the entrance and gift shop. We were also able to watch a 15 minute anime short which we both enjoyed.

The museum was hit but the tsunami. It’s on a small island in the bay, and must have born the full brunt of the thing. The island can only be about 400-500 metres long and 100 metres wide, and we were able to see before and after shots at the museum (in a photobook) and we could see there were a number of buildings on the island pre-tsunami. Today I think there were three. The museum survived, although a massive cleanup was needed and glass had to be replaced afterwards. Elsewhere on the island a much-smaller-than-the-real-one Statue of Liberty stands, missing part of its plastic exterior. It’s very eerie.

There is a Spanish galley moored in the harbour, next one along that is. It’s about 8 kilometres from the museum, and this particular harbor is really beautiful. The water was very still, the boats hardly moved moored in the bay. The San Juan is an immaculately maintained and restored galley from  Spain back when Europeans were trying to convert the Japanese – about three centuries ago. It looks brand new today, although the museum was closed and we couldn’t go on the ship, rather take a photo from a gate 30 metres away.

Outside the San Juan museum and centre it said the opening hours were 10-4pm. To be honest I don’t know if it’s reopened since the Tsunami. People were hard at work near the boat where they seemed to be constructing some of shaded viewing area. I wondered how much damage was done to the ship by the tsunami too. It’s a very strange feeling to stand next to the bay knowing what happened there in 2011. I was happy though that life seemed to be continuing for the locals. A lot of new houses being built, but still some people are living in emergency accommodation that we saw.

From the outside it appeared a fair amount normalcy had returned to Ishinomaki. But, who am I to judge that? I can’t comprehend the effect on people’s lives the tsunami had, and still has today. I was glad though that I was able to visit.

Hawking around

Howdy all
Just checking in with everyone to say hi! It's the first day of Autumn in Japan but it's been hot again. C'est La Vie I gues! Nevertheless I think we'll be seeing a cooling down over the next few weeks. School is about to go into exams, and I have started working on a new book, so more info on that soon. I will be revisiting my time in Ethiopia in the first of a new series called 'Short Journeys'.

Amazing birds

Yesterday I journeyed down to Ishinomaki to go and see a movie (Star Trek: Into Darkness) which I very much enjoyed. I'd heard bad things but I was happily surprised. I ventured down with a friend, Kevin, and we met my wife at the station (she had been in Sendai). It looks like a really nice interesting place, it was devastated by the tsunami in 2011 but we didn't head to the coast.

A hawk in flight!

The road we took to get there though was quite treacherous, on the top of a cliff high above a river on a road that was broken in parts and sloping down towards the river in others. We were lucky that on that stretch of road we didn't pass a single vehicle. Actually, the condition of the road was probably why no-one was using it.
A bit further on and we saw a bunch of hawks swooping around beautifully in the sky. It was quite a sight. Big, beautiful birds.

Ishinomaki harbour.

At Ishinomaki we had dinner at 'Big Boy', an American chain I have never visited although there is one here in Ichinoseki too. Their salad and soup bar was good value, as it was all you can eat. We also briefly visited the harbour for a quick snap! Took in the movie and went back via a different route. The heavens opened and kaboom! We were well and truly dumped on! The rain was so heavy it became very dangerous, and yet people in this part of the world don't seem to think they should stop tail-gating or turn the high beams off! Well, that's driving in Japan for you!

Bog boys at Big Boy!

Next week I hope to return, because the place looks interesting and there is a Manga Museum there I am keen to see. So stay tuned.
AND if you have any interests in my travel writing, don't forget the website now up and running.
The writings detail the journey I undertook from Dhaka to Dakar (Bangladesh to Senegal)  and you can buy the twenty chapters individually for Kindle via Amazon, or it's also compiled into three volumes -Asia, Europe and Africa. If you like the blog, please consider!
Thanks!

Dhaka to Dakar the website