Bongiorno from Roma, This visit to Italy serves more than one function. Apart from the obvious, it affords me the opportunity to revise and properly reconstiute my attitude to Italians in general, forged in the formative years in Wollongong. Being schooled with and mixing with many others from Italian backgrounds, I believe I …Read More
Bula from Fiji, Fijian men represent something of a sociological conundrum. This observation may well be the result of judging a book by its cover, with a western bias. I do have the advantage here of knowing many Fijian blokes from my rugby playing and refereeing days. big and burly Typically they’re big and burly, …Read More
Ni hao from Hong Kong, Hong Kong looks like a thriving modern metropolis, blooming and gleaming in the brilliant sunshine against the backdrop of blue harbour and steep, green hills. But there’s a sordid side to the gleam and glitter and on Sunday it’s all exposed to the sun. Sunday is the day off for …Read More
Hola from Buenos Aires, Sometimes one gets a bit exasperated with late flights. Aerolíneas Argentinas is famously a bit lax on timetables and punctuality. But sometimes a traveller can be supremely thankful for their tardiness. This happened on exit from Caracas. Not in possession of the exit tax, I had great tribulation extracting sufficient money …Read More
Bom dia from Colonia, Uruguay, South Americans certainly take their politics seriously. After catching the ferry across the Río de la Plata from Buenos Aires, hiring a scooter and investigating the cobbled streets of Colonia, I quickly became aware that an election was imminent. You can tell this by the number of signs, banners and …Read More
Hola from Venezuela, Sometimes it’s better not to know what danger you might have just avoided. Who wants to know that a shark just brushed their surfboard? Or, that a train derailment occurred on the track you just came from? Bush walks don’t normally entail danger but in Venezuela, it’s apparently not a common practice. …Read More
Hola from Venezuela, When Hugo Chavez led a daring coup against an undemocratic, deeply unpopular government in Venezuela, it had to be aborted. When arrested, Chavez requested two minutes on national television so he could alert the conspirators to the coup’s failure. At the end of his televised speech, he uttered two crucial words which …Read More