After arrival into Jeddah for the Saudi Arabia Hotel Show in April 2018, I got a taxi to my hotel from the main international airport. It was my first time in Saudi Arabia and was a business trip on a 10 day adventure. We were staying in the Al Hamra district which is pretty close…
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After my Saudi Arabia adventure, I headed to Oman for a few days to “chill out”. But in travel, at least in my life, chilling out doesn’t ever really happen. I have to explore a place when I’m there and see as much as I can. In Oman, I stayed at the cosy Hotel Naseem…
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On day 6 of our Saudi Arabia adventure we headed North from Jeddah and Taif to the city of Hail. Looking like the English word Hail, it is pronounced “Hi Eel” and commonly spelt Ha’il. We arrived after a bumpy internal flight from Jeddah. We flew with Nesma Airlines, which covers EgYPT and Saudi Arabia.…
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“One more step along the world I go” Jeddah is a huge beast of a city and we have managed to visit a few interesting parts of the city during our time here away from the Hotel Show Saudi Arabia 2018, where we were working. While I am here on a business trip with Young…
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“I’m in Jeddah baby, I’m in Jeddah, woah!” Inspired by a 1980s documentary called 80 Days Around the World, whereby Michael Palin circumnavigated the globe without flying, I remember his visit to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In those days, backed by a huge BBC budget and a less strict government, Palin’s visa was a piece of…
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“That’s me in the corner. That’s me in the spotlight. Losing my religion” – Rapid Eye Movement. When I was backpacking Bahrain in 2015, I made a trip to the Saudi Arabia border and it was something I always meant to include in my World Borders series, yet always forgot about it. The reason I…
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I recently made a long awaited return to Belarus. It was originally one of the first 25 countries I ever visited, back in 2007 when I was attending the Belarus v. Northern Ireland women’s match. At the time I got my Belarus visa from the Embassy in London. On that trip I also backpacked through…
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2018 meant a welcome return to Belarus after a gap of 11 years. While my 2007 adventure took me to Babruysk and Minsk, here in 2018 I backpacked Grodno after another gruelling visa struggle at the Belarus Embassy (in Warsaw this time). Grodno is a cool city in western Belarus. Its only about 20 minutes…
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The Middle East holds so many tourist memories for me. While I personally love the region, I still don’t like (or understand) the term “middle east”, which should really include Mongolia right? It’s pretty middle! And pretty east!! Yet Mongolia escapes this moniker or bracket. But let’s call everything in the Middle, and East of…
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There are always a few tough beasts to crack in the visa world as we backpack it hardcore. Russia is a tough enough one to get, and with the 2018 World Cup looming, many more people will be heading there come June. I have been to Russia years ago (2007) as well as two transits…
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