Time travel and the adaan
Legend goes the mosque in Shali town, in the Siwa oasis, was the last to use a live adaan. Now, they’re all voice recordings that vary with every mosque. Sometimes, […]
NOTEBOOK
Canter past Patagonian icefields. Sail the tranquil waters of Lake Como in Italy. Sip coffee in a Palestinian village. Listen to the ancient voices of Australia’s Arnhem Land. Climb the mountain paths of northern Albania. Let’s go!
War and Peace (the short, Austral-Egyptian version)
The blog is quiet: I’m stuck inside working all week. Really, I could be anywhere, not in the raucous hype that is Cairo. The only difference is the phone is […]
Open for business
There’s a bunch of boys outside my window clapping along to the beat of a drum. They couldn’t control themselves – football-mad Egypt just beat Italy in the Under 20s […]
The post-feast hangover hanging over Cairo
Well Ramadan has ended, and so has Eid el-Fitr, the three day ‘small’ feast that follows. It’s back to work, though the first day was a lot quieter than a […]
Wraps off the republic
Battling hijab hair and the basic black wardrobe, fashion is flourishing in Iran. Click here for a link to this story in the Sydney Morning Herald’s travel section…
Cash cows vs cash crisis
I’m taking a jump from markets in Morocco to a global wage comparison survey just released by UBS. The annual survey finds that Zurich workers are the best paid in […]
Sold on Marrakech
Marrakech’s streets are so full of markets and shops you hyperventilate with the desire to buy everything, all at once. Long strips of brightly coloured woven fabric made from aloe […]
Luxury trademarked:La Mamounia
Hotel porn: I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe the new La Mamounia. It is an absolute privilege to be able to test drive a hotel before it opens […]
The beating heart of Marrakech
Djamma El Fna is pumping. Smoke from the grill of stand 29 pumps out across the square, putting a mystical haze across the snake charmers, fortune tellers, monkey pimps and […]
First look at Morocco’s revamped La Mamounia
The orange Hermes everywhere! The brass chandeliers! The bed that could fit a football team! The incessant petit fours at every turn! The pillows, the linen, the Dedon furniture on […]