“Three days. Three days of being monitored. Three days of being chaperoned, guided, led to see only what I was supposed to see, the very best of what the North Korean capital is prepared to divulge to sceptical foreign eyes. Three days of eating where I was told and when I was told. Three days of being surprised, being impressed, being awed… Three days of a surreal buzz the likes of which I’ve never experienced before.”
“The bridge, what’s left of it a well preserved and a popular tourist attraction, ends abruptly in a mass of twisted metal about half way across the river, a abundance of Chinese flags, piped revolutionary music and a huge screen looping Korea War footage there to accompany you as you peer the rest of the way into the curiosity that is North Korea, the world’s very last Stalinist dictatorship.”
“It’s people getting in my way, always in my fuckin’ way, as is their want; it’s their country, after all, and I’m the impostor. It’s barriers and mass crowd control. It’s a very visible police presence and people in officialdom… seemingly standing around doing absolutely nothing while actually policing subjugation and overseeing mass societal conformity…It’s basically the same as it always was, the ever-present push to modernise aside, on this my 7th visit to the capital of the world’s superpower wannabe…”
”Conscious that any visit these days could be my last, I’ve made a point on this sweaty saunter down memory lane of revisiting & photographing places & landmarks that I’ve photographed many times over the years. I’ve also gotten acquainted & photographed landmarks that weren’t even around when last I was. Dynamic Seoul – a city slogan – indeed.”
Centre of the historic Silk Road, a country full of dust, unbelievably hospitable locals & even more unbelievably audacious Islamic architectural showstoppers.
From killing time in the capital Bishkek, a tree infested Soviet-era architectural nirvana in the Russified north, to enjoying the true Central Asia gem of Osh. A look at travel in Kyrgyzstan, the only visa-free ‘Stan.
Recapping a winter trip to Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s largest country, including cosmopolitan Almaty, the leafy former capital, & Astana, a.k.a. the Dubai of the Steppes, the futuristic capital on the northern windswept Kazakh steppe, the new petrodollar boom capital for the Central Asian region.
The meaning is rarely in doubt but the translation leaves a lot to be desired. A collection of humourous signs encountered on a recent trip to China.
Recapping a sixth visit to mainland China – including the capital Beijing & the two largest cities in the northeastern & northwestern extremes of the country, Harbin & Urumqi respectively – en route to pastures new in Kazakhstan & Central Asia.
