Category: Expert Travel Advice

by Caroline Sandes

The most immediate thing on my mind as the plane touched down at Iman Khomeini International Airport was at what point were the other women on the flight going to don their hejab? The plane taxied to the gate and stopped. Only then did women start casually flinging on headscarves and coats. I did likewise but already felt both self-conscious and an amateur in the art of keeping a headscarf in place…

I needn’t have worried, of course, because after a few hours in Tehran it was clear that hejab was about as loosely observed by some as it could be given the circumstances – coats barely covering backsides; scarves so far back on heads that I wondered if it really counted as wearing one (and how did they keep them in position anyway?); women wore make-up; coats and headscarves were colourful; couples held hands, and things seemed relatively relaxed.

So, welcome to Iran. I was finally here after years of wanting to come, and months of planning. Having cleared immigration, I was soon in the front seat of a taxi whizzing through the dark and almost deserted streets of early-morning Tehran to the sound of Iranian pop music. The elderly taxi-driver slowed only to enthusiastically point out the huge green-lit mosque dedicated to Khomeini, looming up from the darkened suburbs like some sort of space-ship. Continue reading Welcome to Iran: first stop Tehran.

Author: Jess Williams 

We had just a day in Delhi. Both of us live London so we weren’t particularly excited by big cities and I left with no great fondness of the place. This was down to a couple of factors. First, many Delhi hotels have bedbugs and ours was no exception. They appeared when it was too late to find somewhere better so it was an itchy night. Second, we had not toughened up and could not say no to a taxi tour of the city. We handed over money for the day and got taken to the best sights. The Red Fort was nice, and I particularly liked the squirrels that live there. They take nuts right from your hand. The place where Gandhi was assassinated would have been more interesting if we had known what it was: our guide did not think to tell us. In fact he was much more interested in taking us to shops. They have these bazaars, you see, where you are sold carpets and sarees and scarves and statues and jewellery and… and the taxi drivers get commission for taking us there. When we said we didn’t want to go to another shop, he got all grumpy and wouldn’t take us anywhere else. He wasn’t our friend.

The next day was the must see of India. Agra and the Taj Mahal. You must get sick of hearing it but people do not exaggerate about the Taj: it is simply breath-taking. It is a perfectly symmetrical, glowing white structure that seems to grow suddenly, halfway through the elegant gardens. A trusty audio tour give you the whole romantic story about a mourning husband who lost the love of his life. It is interesting that his is the bigger tomb though.

It’s not all awe and beauty though. A little comedy comes from the hordes of visitors walking around in baggy white socks, like a mop hat for the foot. May as well get the tourists to buff the marble: it’d cost a fortune otherwise.

And then there is the constantly bewildering fact that many people are more interesting in taking pictures of you than this stunning monument that is behind them. We somehow have several group photos with complete strangers. It was like being famous…it’s a hard life Continue reading India: From Delhi to Pushkar

In the final post of her blog series on India, Isobel Wilson Cleary talk of the many perks of volunteering abroad.

All those places you want to go? There’s a very good chance you’ll be able to find a volunteer opportunity to suit you.  Before I heard about Development in Action and Deep Griha Society, I’d never really thought about going to India. Now, I’m thinking of ways I can go back both to visit DGS and to all the places I didn’t get a chance to see!

No experience necessary

There is no specific skill set for volunteering. The most important skill to have is enthusiasm.  Sure, DGS encourage specific skills to help with current projects that need technical skills they can’t find or afford locally, but with several programmes covering a range of awareness and education issues, I found there wasn’t much that couldn’t be put to good use one way or another if you’re willing.  As a volunteer there is a certain level of faith people put in you, value is placed on your opinions and you’re encouraged to use your creative skills to suggest new ideas. At times this can be a little worrying as you’re not necessarily more qualified than the staff themselves, but it’s also quite exciting to brainstorm ideas and you can’t help but feel like the world is your oyster.

The challenge

Moving somewhere new whether it’s to the next city or a thousand miles away is always going to be a challenge but there’s definitely a lot more to get your head around when you have to breach that language barrier, navigate through new social norms, (I miss eating with my hands!) and the big one…. Adjust to the difficult situations and realities the people you work with face everyday that are largely, not something you can relate to. You can’t change things overnight or even in a few months but you can contribute to the continued and sustained work local people are doing in these areas to help empower and build awareness in whatever area you’re working in. And let’s not forget, in spite of these difficulties… Continue reading Isobel goes to India Part 5: Thinking of volunteering abroad?

Maggie Murphy  shares with us her personal must-sees in the fabulous city of Paris.

Gertrude Stein once said, “America is my country, but Paris is my home town.” Having spent almost five months in the City of Lights, I understand her sentiment. Paris is the type of place that stays with you, whether you spend 10 minutes or 10 months there. In this, my first blog post, I am sharing my favorite walk through the city in the hope that it may inspire you to visit Paris. This stroll does not contain all the world-famous landmarks; instead, I think it shares a more personal view of the city …  my view. I have laid out this walk in a Google map, which can be found at the bottom of this post.

Begin at the Panthéon in the 5^th arrondissement. It opens at 10 a.m., but you don’t even have to go inside to marvel at it. It was said that designer Jacques-Germain Soufflot had designed the “perfect” structure. However, he died in the middle of construction, so the building will forever remain unperfected. I love this area in the morning, with all of the students bustling around in front of the massive white stone structures. I usually grab a coffee from one of the numerous cafes down rue Soufflot and proceed into Luxemburg Gardens.

Luxemburg Gardens is, for me, the most beautiful park in Paris. Parisians escape from the city, lounging here with friends in green chairs underneath the park’s trees. Make your way through the park and exit to rue Bonaparte, heading to Boulevard Saint-Germain. This historic intersection hosts some of the most famous cafés and brasseries in Paris, including Café de Flore, Brasserie Lipp and Les Deux Magots just down the street. This neighborhood has always been a hub for creative people and is now a very posh part of the city. Walking straight through toward the Seine River, you will come across one my favorite places in the city: Ladurée Continue reading My Essential Stops in the City of Lights

Author Charles Davis on the challenges of climbing La Maroma in the Sierra Tejeda in the Axarquía comarca of Andalusia.

The Spanish have an unjustified reputation for being anarchic individualists. They’re certainly anarchic. What other nation could make so much of a concept like Anarcho-syndicalism? But it’s the syndicalism that betrays their true nature. They are not so much individualists as inveterate members of groups.

One of the key words to understanding Spanish culture is convivencia or ‘living-together’. No Spanish teenager, for instance, would be seen dead in a disco without at least forty friends; Spanish infants of all ages love a good club, all the more so if it comes with a silly uniform; affiliation is so important that, in this very conservative and very Catholic society, gay couplings, including full scale wedding services with everyone in attendance, are literally ‘all part of the family’; living on top of one another, formerly in higgledy-piggledy villages, nowadays in flats, and always across the generations is a quintessentially Spanish custom; even their hermitages frequently cluster together in small colonies! Continue reading Gregarious Spain – Walking in Axarquia

Matt and Sharon Ward have spent the next stage of their journey exploring the delights of Da Lat in Vietnam. Here’s what they had to say about the area from a his and hers perspective…

Another 4-hour bus journey, this time in a 25-seater mini bus, took us inland and up the bumpy mountain roads to Da Lat. True to Vietnamese style, the bus was packed. Luggage crammed into the aisles so nobody could get out, cardboard boxes everywhere and just when you thought they couldn’t fit any more people on, they did. The scenery however, was spectacular and we arrived safe and sound at the Pink Villa, Da Lat.

His Guide:

We received a very friendly welcome on our arrival at our accommodation. Hik showed us a map of the area and explain all the things worth seeing and doing. As we hadn’t planned on actually coming to Da Lat, we never really looked into the place too much. That evening we took a wander down the hill and into the town centre. The first thing that stood out to me was how much quieter it was from any other places we had visited in South East Asia. Just what the doctor ordered. Continue reading His and Hers Guide to the Globe – Part 7: Da Lat, Vietnam

There are a lot of amazing festivals out there: Steve Davey should know, he has just finished a book detailing 500 of the best cultural celebrations around the world. 

You don’t have to head to the far flung and dusty regions of the world to find vibrant festivals and see the faithful displaying tremendous religious fervour. In the days leading up to the 24^th and 25th May the tiny seaside village of Saintes Maries de la Mer in the Camargue region fills up with caravans as Roma Gypsies gather for one of the most atmospheric festivals in Europe.

The Pélerinage des Gitans is a pilgrimage to honour the two Saint Maries who gave the village its name. Saint Marie-Jacobé and Saint Marie-Salomé were believed to have fled across the Mediterranean from the Holy Land following the crucifixion, bringing with them their maid Sara, who later became the patron saint of the Gypsies.

On the first day of the festival, great crowds flock to the massive stone fortified church for a mass. Statues of the two Saint Maries are lowered from the loft high in the roof of the church, and then processed around the town by hundreds of gypsies with an escort of the gardians: the cowboys of the Camargue who ride the famous white horses.

The lively procession is accompanied by musicians and eventually sweeps down the beach and into the sea, much to the surprise of the holidaymakers. The gardians follow them into the sea, their horses leaping around as the waves wash into their nether regions. Blessings are made before the dripping wet pilgrims carry the statues back to the church. Continue reading With Cowboys, Bulls and Gypsies

Jess Williams continues her blog series on India, travelling from Bodhgaya to the temples of Khajuraho, and on to Shimla, the old summer capital of the British Empire in India.

The next stop on our Great Indian Voyage was to Bohdgaya for all of a day. It’s not a big town but full of tourists and touts. However, there is a certain calm amidst it all. I guess that comes with Buddism, the serene stone face of the giant statue of Buddha (where we met a Burmese priest who was very excited to have his photo taken with us), and the sound of prayer wheels at the temple. This temple is the place where Buddha achieved enlightenment- I spent my time watching the fish. We’re on a similar level I think.

We were lucky enough to meet a young Nepali man who was visiting an orphanage he had helped set up. Mikku took us to meet the children of Elizabeth Children’s Home that evening. We were greeted by handshakes and a song. These kids have been taken in from the street and given an education and I felt very lucky to meet them. Mikku and his colleagues do such great work. To put it in the most clichéd way possible, I was humbled. Continue reading India: From Bohdgaya to Shimla

Author Charles Davis on the charms of walking in the mountains of Costa Blanca.

Read any good-life, back-to-basics, season-in-the-sun farm yarn about expats moving to Spain, and you can be fairly sure there will come a moment when the narrator takes to the mountains for a walk that proves to be a state-of-the-heart experience in which engagement with the landscape aspires to a quasi-spiritual empathy.

It’s a rite of passage, as vital to the format as encountering the crafty peasant with a heart of gold, losing your rag with the local building fraternity, having an amusing mishap with the domestic livestock, being duffed up by the elements, and displaying a comic ineptitude when confronted with the sort of quotidian challenges that generations of illiterate country dwellers have prevailed over with apparent insouciance.

Such clichés exist for a reason and it’s not simply because they happen to sell books. Like all clichés, they come of observable truths. Settle in Spain and you probably will bump into the wily old boy with a winning glint in his eye, be confronted by a belligerent chicken, and be battered about a bit by the big weather. For the most part, these experiences are the preserve of those who uproot themselves, but the mountains are something else. Continue reading Climbing into a cliché- a better Costa Blanca