On weekdays I provide essential and informative travel tips, with a different subject each day!
“The air coming up to the boil; rubbing up against walls and lamp-posts trying to get rid of it. Old women clack their tongues in the shade of crumbling concrete bus shelters” – Jarvis Cocker (Pulp – Sheffield: Sex City). Sheffield FC are widely regarded as the oldest club in world football that have been Read more about My Twenty Season Gap From Sheffield: A Football Return[…]
“I stare at the sky and it leaves me blind” – Manic Street Preachers. Backpacking Centurion was supposed to be a hat-trick, a trilogy. But Jonny Blair’s 100-country journey had too many stories for that. These are the uncut ones, or should I say the “cut ones”. They were left out for a reason and Read more about Finally Released: Backpacking Centurion: Volume 4 – The Black Volume🖤🩶❌[…]
If you have read any of my books, you will find that they have a “Wactionary” at the back of them. These are words that not everyone reading will understand. This is either because they are Northern Irish slang, my mates slang or just words I invented down the years. I needed to invent words Read more about My Wactionary (Wacky Dictionary): Jonny Blair’s Dictionary[…]
“Alone on the beach, on my own, out of reach and you just passed me by” – Noel Gallagher. Before this trip to Pakistan (my final Stan), I got my Pakistan visa online (not exactly an easy visa to secure) and arranged to fly into Lahore and out of Karachi. From Lahore, I’d also visit Read more about Pakpacking In Pakistan🇵🇰: Top 9 Sights In Karachi[…]
“My tea’s gone cold, I’m wondering why” – STAN! (By Eminem Featuring Dido) Firstly this is no raconteur rhetoric, it’s just a reflection of a journey which took me 17 years from the first Stan (Stansted) to the last Stan (Pakistan). Yes, Iran-borderic Pakistan 🇵🇰 was the last of my FIFA ðŸŒðŸ†⚽️Stans when I finally Read more about Backpacking In Stan: Completion Of Them – I’ve Been To All My Recognised Stan Countries[…]
“Baby you’ll be famous, chase you down until you love me” – Lady Gaga. The twenty years away from my homecity passage was less inspiring than I could have thought. It was more boring than a Sunday afternoon doing my ironing watching Arseandall versus Manchester Untied. Spot the cynical Cherry in your undreamt desert Oasis. Read more about Backpacking Sliding Doors Moments: Aftershot Snippet[…]
“Maybe maybe it’s our nowhere towns” – Brett Anderson. In April 2018, I headed to The Hotel Show in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with the Young Pioneer Tours crew. To get the visa that time, we were supposed to be “working” there. It was a really difficult visa to get, easiest the hardest visa getation of Read more about Backpacking in Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦: Seriously A Visa On Arrival in Dammam😂[…]
How To Get An Online Tourist Visa For Pakistan 🇵🇰 The more I travel, the more countries I swallow, the harder it all gets. That’s the way it goes. It doesn’t get easier. Don’t kid yourself. The reason for this uphill struggle is that usually the toughest visas to get are the ones left until Read more about How To Get An Online Tourist Visa For Pakistan 🇵🇰[…]
“But it’s too late, baby, now it’s too late” – Carole King. “Forever, ever delayed” – Richey James Edwards. “It’s a black fly in your Chardonnay” – Alanis Morrisette. Glory days unloyal here. Not everything in this life works out. We forfeit, we miss, regret and this was one. You see in September 2023 I Read more about Finally Backpacking In Abu Dhabi🇦🇪: 15 Years Too Late For “GlobCom”[…]
“Instead of stressed, I lie here charmed” – Placebo. My first stop in Pakistan was Lahore. After the online visa application (rather taxing), I was booked in to stay at The Rose Palace Hotel in Lahore. From here I would backpack the sights of the city, head out to Wagah for the famous border parade Read more about Pakpacking In Pakistan🇵🇰: Top 9 Sights In Lahore[…]