Cambodia Photos
Cambodia
This page is a bit of a cheat really as the photographs are of only a few square kilometres of the whole country. But these few square kilometres contain one of the top ten historical sites in the world. Most people just think of Angkor Wat but actually within this area are about a hundred temple complexes built over a period of a few hundred years (9th to 14th Century). Of these I’ve included photos of just four: Angkor Wat…
Central Highlands
22 Dec 2001 For our second bike trip in Vietnam, me and Alan decided on the Central Highlands. Like up north we were expecting to meet many ethnic minorities, or Montagnards as they were known here, and although we knew they didn’t wear the flamboyant clothing of those up north they did live in some interesting houses. Also the landscape promised to be impressive and hopefully not as cold. Rather than waste a couple of days driving down the very…
Weekend to Ninh Binh
One of the joys of living in Hanoi was the ease of getting out. I often used to hop on my Minsk for weekend trips into the countryside and this was one such trip. My ultimate destination were the caves and rivers of Tam Coc but much more important was the journey. Although in winter, northern Vietnam can often be miserable but this weekend the sky was clear and the air fresh as I headed South West from Hanoi on…
North West Loop
3 Nov 2001. I’d been in Vietnam for almost two months. I’d bought my Minsk motorbike and now was its first big test – the North West Loop. The plan was to leave Hanoi and go west to the village of Mai Châu. It was a popular weekend getaway and a place that I had been to before. Then head North West past Son La to Điện Biên Phủ, a place scorched into the collective memory of all Vietnamese –…
Mosques of Cairo
Medieval Cairo was one of the cities of “The Thousand and One Nights” and unlike Baghdad and Damascus many of its buildings from those times are still there, mostly hidden among the narrow streets and alleys of the old town. I spent many weekends searching them out to find some of them in terrible disrepair and others in remarkably good condition and still being used today. On this page I have included photos of just a few either because they…
Cairo today
Here is a collection of snapshots of Cairo (and a couple of Port Said) – streetlife, vistas of the Nile and some of the more modern architecture that reflect what an amazing city this is – and one of my all time favourite places. Click on the thumbnails to view full image.
Ancient Egypt
Below are some photos of a few of the more important pyramids that lie not too far from Cairo along with a few exhibits from the Egyptian Museum. I took loads of photos of many other ancient Egyptian temples which can be seen on either side of the Nile all the way up to the Sudanese border almost a thousand kilometres away, but unfortunately most of these have been lost. Zoser’s step pyramid at Saqqara when constructed in 27th Century…
The desert
All the photos on this page feature Siwa Oasis – one of the most picturesque and idyllic places in Egypt. Lying in the middle of the Western Desert, it appears pretty much like the proverbial mirage. Of course being in Egypt it is famous throughout history, not least because Alexander the Great took some time out from conquering to visit the famed oracle at the temple of Amum. Also Cleopatra bathed here in a pool named after her. It is…