May 032017
 

This is another one of my new favourite places in the world; Vernazza, in Italy’s Cinque Terre. It’s a small village connected to the other villages in the area by hiking paths and the train tracks you can see in the bottom right of this photo.

vernazza with train tracks church and castle with view of ocean

May 012017
 

On my first day in Provence I took a drive down to the little seaside town of Cassis. We arrived late afternoon and I think we were pretty lucky to find parking. However, it seemed like the bulk of tourists were on their way out so before long it wasn’t too crowded.

cassis water showing harbour with boats and buildings with blue sky

Apr 292017
 

On our first day in Sa Pa, it was so foggy you couldn’t see five feet in front of you. As a result, we decided that it wouldn’t be the best weather for hiking in the surrounding area… so we found a small bar full of people who had reached a similar conclusion and we spent the day enjoying the local beers.

The next day we woke up to find pretty much the same thing. But, it was our last day in the area so we decided that we should find a guide and check out the terraces that make Sa Pa famous. Luckily, as we descended into the valley we dropped under the clouds and could take in our surroundings. I still don’t have many photos from the day as there was still plenty of fog about. Here you can see some of the local water buffalo grazing on the terraces.

sa pa rice terraces with water buffalo

 

Apr 272017
 

The first time we went on the food tour in Marrakesh we discovered that they had a few surprises up their sleeves. Like this neighborhood bakery where they prepared everything from bread to whatever the local residents brought in to bake for the day. There were a lot of trays of sardines about.

I looked into a back room and this guy was in there eager to demonstrate how they form the small loves of bread I’d been eating with every meal.

man making bread in marrakesh morrocco

Apr 262017
 

So, the lights came on inside the military hospital I started telling you about yesterday, and we went from being in a creepy dark hallway to standing in the middle of a horror movie. At this point you become very aware of the fact that you’re deep underground, inside a mountain, surrounded by nothing but bare concrete and a knowledge that the rooms coming off it were filled with wounded Viet Cong soldiers.

This wasn’t helped by the fact that my travel companion was a nurse, who casually took guesses at what each room was used for. This started as the lights came on when she decided that the two rooms in front of us were likely used for triage. This reached a peek when we entered a room with stone counters and drainage that she guessed was probably the morgue. The last room was a large hall, with bare cave walls and roof that led to a heavy locked metal door. I never found out what was on the other side…

bare concrete rooms and corridor very creepy like a horror movie viet cong military hospital on cat ba island