Category: TRAVEL
LOST IN ISTANBUL
Second, third and fourth weeks in Istanbul By Ida Rastini My daughter-in-law visited Istanbul for two days recently, a stop off on her flight from Singapore to Saudi Arabia, where she will […]
My first week in Istanbul
As I arrived at the Grand Bazaar, something happened that left me feeling uneasy. For the first twenty minutes as I walked through the outer Grand Bazaar, Hussain the rug seller stalked me into his gallery to view his rugs collection…
Walking in the footsteps of Irene Koppl – Step 1
Walking in the footsteps of Irene KopplStep one: Greece and the new ExodusBy Simon Tabak My grandmother arrived on one of the boats that Churchill requested cross the channel to collect the British […]
Odessa, Ukrainian Hedoism… and Russia’s failure
Once downtown, my first impression is that Odessa has regained a certain pre-war joie de vivre, the one of the early 2000s. European, Turkish, Georgian, Israeli and even Belarusian tourists are already present in large numbers even this early in the season. The cafes and restaurants are full and the Ukrainian flag, blue and yellow, floats peacefully everywhere. There are no longer soldiers on the streets, roadblocks or pro-Russian graffiti. The s
The Afghan Athletes & the Ski slope Champion
These homoerotic hoardings, designed to catch the eye of every passing bodybuilding fanatic, are all the more surprising in a land where any kind of sport is often decried as un-Islamic by the many holier-than-thou who consider it morally corrupt and too ‘Western’.
Tile Giant
By Simon Urwin “Working with ceramics every day is like a form of worship for me, it helps me feel closer to Allah,” Omid announces proudly. This is not the kind […]
Afghanistan: a burqa for Barbie
The burqa has been ‘on trend’ here for hundreds of years. Like the local equivalent of a Hermès scarf or a Louboutin red heel, it first became popular as a status symbol, with the impractical billowing folds of the upturned shuttlecock clearly signalling that the wearer was a wealthier Metropolitan woman who’d never be seen dead working in the fields like her poorer Afghan sisters.
