Some potted travel guides
I'm not really that much of a world traveller, but I've been lucky enough to live, work or travel to a number of different parts of the world. I'll talk about the various places I've been in more or less the order I went there.
Ireland
Lonely Planet Guide to Ireland
Lonely Planet Guide to Walking in Ireland
This is where I'm from. I haven't lived there for since 1990 now and I'm pretty out of touch with what's going on there.
I read the letters page in the Irish Times regularly which lets me know what the country thinks, or at least what the sort of person who writes letters to the editor thinks.
Ireland is a small damp country which used to be poor but full of friendly people. Caint, Ceol agus Craic, as we used to say. Now it's the Celtic Tiger, full of people making money, racial assaults on people with darker skin and an underclass of people distanced from the IT revolution wondering just who is involved in this Celtic Tiger thing everyone keeps talking about.
England
Lonely Planet Guide to Britain
I lived and worked in England for over six years after I left
university.
England, or more specifically, the south east of England has lovely countryside and some very nice people. It's also got plenty of mindless racist yobs, an apalling rail system, far too much traffic and the weather sucks.
Stay out of the cities and the towns are very nice. Everywhere you go has its own local ale, too, which can make for great reasons to go visit another town.
There's a huge amount of history in England, and any town of note will have historical ruins or buildings. Maybe it'll just be in the way the streets meander down to the river, or the names of buildings, or maybe it'll be the way the village market was opened by King John.
Bill Bryson writes very well about England from a foreigner's point of view in Notes from a small island.
France
Good food, nice wine, crazy drivers, beautiful scenery, infuriating people (sometimes).
Saudi Arabia
Lonely Planet Guide to Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Gulf States
I worked in Saudi (near Ras Tanurah) for a few months in 1993. That's quite close to Dahran. This was a few years after the Gulf War, so there were still lots of troops in the area. It's a bleak place, but fascinating sometimes.
There is no tourism in Saudi, but there are some very old cities on the East coast which may have been inhabited since the dawn of civilisation. The eastern part of the country is close to the UAE and Bahrain.
Hong Kong
Lonely Planet Guide to Hong Kong
I live in Hong Kong. I've been here since March 1997 and still
find it a good place to live. Contrary to most people's impressions
of the place, there's a lot of greenery here. Over 40% of the SAR
is Country Parks and very wild.
The air quality is terrible and workaholism is a real problem. A decent quality of life can be a struggle to obtain as bosses just want you for your output and place no value on the welfare of their staff. Of course, I may have just been unlucky.
some Hong Kong Links.
Thailand
Lonely Planet Guide to Thailand
I've only been to Thailand very briefly; I went to Bangkok for a long weekend in 1998. Interesting place, lovely people, great opportunities for photographs, although the locals don't seem to like being photographed.
The Grand Palace in the middle of the city, by the river, is a magnificent edifice. You can't wear shorts in there, as it is disrepectful to Bhuddha. Bhudda doesn't seem to like medium format cameras either, as they're forbidden too.
Nightlife? There are some good bars with live music there. The Metal Pub and the Rock Pub spring to mind, although only by reputation.
Not that nightlife? Well, the food is great and dirt cheap. We fed a table of six for about 80 Hong Kong Dollars one night.
Oh, the other nightlife... Ask a farang who lives there.
Beijing
Lonely Planet Guide to Beijing
Beijing is big. Go to the Forbidden City, Tianenmen Square, T'iantian. Use the bicycle taxis to get around.
Unlike Hong Kong, you really need to speak a little Chinese (Mandarin, in this case) to get around.
Guangdong
The province in China adjacent to Hong Kong, Guangdong is one of China's richer provinces. It can be reached by train or bus from Hong Kong and visas are easy to obtain from China Travel Services. If you don't have a British passport, you can get a visa at the border, but make sure you go to the right counter. In Lo Wu, the China visa is in a different room from the Shenzen visa.
Recently, 17/10/2001 to 19/10/2001, I went to the city of Kaiping for a short break. Read my account of that trip here.
Guangzhou
Guangzhou is the principal city of Guangdong province and has a long history. It was the original trading point with Europeans until they settled Hong Kong in the 1840's. Places of note are the island in the centre of the city and the Worker's Palace.
Shantou
Shantau was China's first Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and is a very well developed (and clean) Chinese city.
Hui Lai
Hui Lai is near Shantou and is my wife's home town. I went there at Chinese New Year 2000 to meet some of my relatives.
Hebei Province
Hebei is the province which surrounds Beijing.