Back in the Day
Reminisce with Mark about his days as a young backpacker, and enjoy his stories of what it was like travelling 'way back when' ...
Back in the day: Visiting Rakhine State in Myanmar (Burma)
A look back on one of our early trips to Myanmar when we visited the temples at Mrauk-U and the tattooed Chin women Every now and then I like to write a blog post about my travelling days when I was in my early to mid-teens, which was around twenty-five years ago! If...
Visiting North Korea in the early 2000s
What it was like to visit North Korea as a tourist nearly twenty years ago? Mark looks back at his visit to this Hermit Nation in the early 2000s.
A journey through pre-civil war Syria
Photographs of pre-civil war Syria. In the autumn of 2005, six years before the start of the civil war, I spent ten days travelling around Syria.
Getting some satisfaction on Ko Phi Phi in the early ’90s
One of those backpacker stories that will endure for a long, long time … Back in 1992, I visited Phi Phi island whilst island-hopping in Thailand.
Postcards from the Past: Asia
This post is part two of a mini-series and features postcards I sent from my first backpacking adventures #backintheday. The first part included cards I sent from my first trip to Europe way back in 1988! This second part features my first independent travels to Asia,...
Postcards from the Past: Europe
We were back in the UK recently and while rummaging through one of our numerous boxes of stuff that my parents allow us to keep in storage at their house, I came across a batch of postcards that I wrote over twenty years ago. My father collected all the postcards and...
An epic train journey from Iran to Pakistan
An epic journey by train to Pakistan. I arrived in Zāhedān in May 1995 to catch the twice monthly train to Quetta in Pakistan.
Friday Flashback | Arg-é Bam in Iran: Once the largest adobe structure in the world
Bam in Iran: Bam is a small desert oasis town in the southeast of Iran. Pre 2003 it was to see the Arg-é Bam, the largest mud brick structure in the world.
The Aga Khan’s Helicopter: Travels in Northern Pakistan in the early ’90s
An epic travel story of travelling in Pakistan in the early 1990s: I arrived in Pakistan under a hail of falling rocks, lightning and torrential rain.
Friday Flashback | Yangon then and now | Myanmar
A photographic look back at Yangon then and now. When you compare these two photos, how much has Burma (Myanmar) changed over the years?
Friday Flashback | Shooting a Kalashnikov rifle in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier
Shooting a Kalashnikov rifle is an unusual tourist activity but one I experienced during my travels in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier.
Friday Flashback | The Old Town of Kashgar | China
Kashgar is an oasis town in China’s northwest province of Xinjiang. The city is home to Uyghur people, fat-tailed sheep, and one of the best markets in Asia.