Travel stories, quotes and fun facts

Jordan's Petra is carved, not built

The Nabataeans cut Petra's facades directly into sandstone cliffs and engineered a water system that supported thousands in the desert.

Only those who risk

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

The last train to Kyoto

We ran the length of the platform and made it with four seconds to spare. A salaryman already inside held the door with his briefcase, then bowed slightly, and neither of us mentioned it for the next forty minutes.

The Dead Sea keeps dropping

The Dead Sea surface falls around a metre each year as the Jordan River is diverted, exposing sinkholes along the shore.

Israel has three seas

A traveller can swim in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Dead Sea within a single day's drive.

Vending machine dinner

Everything closed at eleven and we ate hot corn soup and a boiled egg from a machine on a residential street. It was the least romantic meal of the trip and the one we still talk about.

Ithaka gave you the journey

Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey. Without her you would not have set out.

Jerusalem's old city is tiny

The walled Old City covers less than one square kilometre yet contains sites central to three world religions.

Lebanon has cedars on its flag

The Cedars of God grove holds trees over a thousand years old, remnants of forests that supplied ancient Egypt and Phoenicia.

The convenience store test

A local told us you can judge a country by its convenience stores. We ate egg sandwiches from a Tokyo konbini at midnight and understood immediately what she meant.

Syria's Aleppo souk was vast

Before the war, Aleppo's covered market ran for roughly 13 kilometres of vaulted alleys, one of the largest in the world.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind

Keep Ithaka always in your mind. Arriving there is what you're destined for.

Cherry blossom in the rain

The petals came down with the rain and stuck to everything. Nobody left the park. People simply opened umbrellas over their picnic blankets and carried on.

Saudi Arabia had no formal borders for years

Parts of the Saudi desert frontier remained undefined into the modern era because the sand simply had no landmarks.

Dubai's tower needed new pumps

Pumping concrete 600 metres up the Burj Khalifa required specially developed mixes that would not set in the pipe.

Onsen etiquette lesson

An older man wordlessly demonstrated the whole sequence: stool, bucket, scrub, rinse, then in. Then he nodded once, satisfied, and did not look at me again.

Abu Dhabi's mosque holds one carpet

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque contains what is considered the largest single hand-knotted carpet in the world.

Ask that the way be long

Hope your road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery.

Oman has no skyscrapers by design

Building height rules in Muscat keep the skyline low and white, preserving views of the Hajar Mountains.

Silence at the temple gate

The cemetery has two hundred thousand graves under cedar trees. A monk walked past at six in the morning and the only sound in a kilometre of forest was his sandals.

Qatar is mostly desert and coast

Qatar has almost no natural fresh water and produces most of its drinking supply through desalination.

The land of literature

A person susceptible to wanderlust is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation.

Bahrain means two seas

The name refers to fresh springs bubbling up within the salt sea, once the basis of a famous pearl industry.

The ramen counter

Eight seats, one man, no menu in English and a paper form with boxes to tick. He looked at my form, changed one box, and handed back the pen. He was right.