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Although I travel a lot, I never really learned to embrace the experience of traveling. I find it tiring, boring, wasteful, dangerous and thoroughly unpleasant. Occasionally though, “stuff” happens that stops me dead in my tracks in disgust, shock, amusement or plain disbelief. This blog is about telling some of these travel stories, which are largely true but with a certain degree of embellishment on my part.
Bahrain: Early morning scene on an airport transfer bus: Friend (optimistic): Excuse me, do I know you? MP (puzzled): I don’t know! Friend: Are you in the insurance business? MP (wearily): No, sorry. Friend (determined): you look familiar though, are…
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There is a glitzy 5-Star hotel in Qatar that boasts Swarovski Couches in the lobby; they know who they are! The management is determined to offer legendary service; whether you want it or not. The hotel is way over-staffed at…
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We once had an indifferent and borderline rude service at a restaurant however; the food itself was quite good. It was my treat that day so, I paid the bill exactly as it stated on paper and omitted to leave…
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If you are travelling to Jordan, a nice country to visit, do yourself a favour: don’t leave any valuables behind on the plane. You will get it back, but not before your nerves are stretched to just before snapping point….
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I had suffered a very nasty bout of flu while in Canada during my Christmas break visiting a girlfriend and her family. I was looking forward to returning to normal life in a relatively warmer weather so, finding myself sitting…
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I had a long-term assignment with a company based in Brussels. Living in the UK meant I had to take the short flight on Monday mornings to the Belgian Capital and back to London or Birmingham on Friday nights. I…
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I cross the border between Jordan and Israel about twice a year for business purposes; I have done this for the last 5 years. Being a keen mathematician, by my reckoning, this makes roughly 10 crossings one way and 10…
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Cairo: I once had to travel from Jordan to Algeria but, the only available route that day was a connection via Cairo Airport. The travel agent in Jordan helpfully checked me on line and issued two boarding passes: Amman to…
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Jerusalem: My very first ever air travel was pre 1967 when half of Jerusalem was part of Jordan and it had its own little international airport. I was a thin and lanky teenager whose idea of travel did not extend…
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Yemen: When you land in a country for the first time, you have no reference point to fall back on, everything is unfamiliar and your brain requires time to adjust to the new surroundings. Arriving at Yemen’s Sana’a Airport on…
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