Now, if you’re a control freak, this is like a gift from heaven.  If you’re a control freak in power (yes, that includes you Jacqui Smith) then it’s even more wonderful, because it hands you a whole ton of power.

Like everything, of course, it’s not all bad.  There are plenty of good reasons for speed limiting cars, trucks and even fire engines.  That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good idea.

How The Pro Speed Limiters Present Their Argument

Slow, yet also lethal - public domain image with thanks to Wikipedia

There are currently a lot of fears in society, especially Western society.  We’re scared of global warming, the economy, terrorism, and dying in a fiery ball of fire when some chav in a misguidedly tuned Vauxhall Nova comes careering head-on towards you as a result of massive overconfidence and a lack of skill.  Throw those arguments into the air and you have some pretty strong arguments as to why we should introduce speed limiters.

Here’s a quick list of their key points:

• Safety - you’ll hear this a lot.  And it’s true.  Go slower and if all else is equal safety will go up.
• Economy - by being forced to go slower, you’ll drive more economically and be able to save the world from Global Warming at the same time.
• Reduced need for thirsty, fast cars - true to a degree because what’s the point in a big V8 if you hit speed-limited wall at 70mph?
• Reduced load on drivers - no need to think about speed, or worry about speed cameras.
• It’s optional, there’s no need to fit a speed limiter if you don’t want it.
• If you do have it, there’s an override button for those rare occasions you may need to go faster than strictly legal.
• If only a minority of cars have this limiter, the effect will be to slow down others without it.
• Lot’s of people are killed or injured daily, and anyone arguing against speed controls must be in favour of those deaths.

The arguments are mostly presented by different types of organisation.  You have the emotionally irritating Brake, and the more calm but government funded (don’t forget this fact, they may sound independent but they aren’t) Motoring Forum, the UK Commission for Integrated Transport, and various other safety campaigners.

I can’t find a quote from Jacqui Smith on this subject, but I’m sure she’ll be along soon.

And The Argument Against

Well there has to be some rational argument against this, but unfortunately we’ve only got Safe Speed getting all the media attention on the other side.  Holy Fucking Shit.  I mean, really.  Have you seen them?  You wouldn’t trust these people to decorate your house, so why would you trust them with setting the agenda on speed limits and motoring policy?

Instead, why not get a psychologist who’s studied driving onto your show?  Or, at a stretch, someone from the Institute of Advanced Motorists?  But no, instead you get to listen to a  muppet from Brake arguing with a muppet from Safe Speed.  I suppose there’s only so many pundits to go round and the radio and TV stations pick the easiest ones they can find.

Sheesh.

But here we go - this is other people’s arguments, don’t forget.  Mine come later.

• It’ll encourage zombie behaviour, which is almost certainly true - in the US where freeways were once limited to the mind-numbingly dull speed of 55mph, you get to see a lot of this.
• It’s a symptom of control-freakery - yep, almost certainly.
• Speed doesn’t kill, it’s inattentive driving, which kind of cycles back to the first point.
• It’s the thin end of a wedge which will end with all cars having compulsory speed limiters.
• It probably won’t affect KSI (Kills and Serious Injuries) rates in the positive manner the pro side would like to see.
• Slowing down can cause more accidents.

Thankfully, spokefolk from the RAC, AA and the likes are occassionally wheeled out to discuss such issues and they tend to be a bit more rational and thought out.  But they’ve become rather dysfunctional resellers of insurance and recovery services these days, rather than the clubs and associations that they originally started out as.  Consequently they have to toe a fine line between keeping customers (many of whom are the unthinking fools I worry about) and not upsetting the government (filled with the misguidedly thinking fools I also worry about) into adding more restrictions to both their customers and their businesses.  So they tend towards making statements rather than take the risk of getting involved on radio or TV.

Of course, avoiding radio or TV is a sensible move for many.  I’ve listened to myself on Radio and I’m clearly a rambling buffoon who doesn’t know when to shut up and who talks over others.  Heaven knows what would happen if I found myself on TV.  Of course, it’s not totally bad to be a buffoon - look how well Boris Johnson’s done out of it.

The best argument against this, so far, comes from the easy to respect Derek Charters, from the Motor Industry Research Association, who believes limiting speed automatically could cause accidents.

“The last thing you need is one car to be overtaking and then pull back in, in front of the cars in front, because that braking event will then cause everybody to start to slow down, which will then compress the traffic, which then causes an incident.”

The Dave’s Attempt to Think on this Subject

• Oh Jesus, do we need the government controlling us just a bit more?
• Would government controlled GPS units eventually be used to track our cars’ every movement?
• A world full of cars doing identical speeds is so horrifically soporific that I suspect we’d be having massive pile-ups in no time.
• The unthinking are the worst people to get this technology - they’ll just turn into motoring zombies.
• Going faster is fun.  Sometimes it’s good to be able to have a bit of fun, you know, even if it does make the world ever so slightly less safe.
• All speeds are dangerous - being crushed to death by a 2mph Audi Q7 isn’t much fun either - stop people from realising how dangerous cars are and boom! more dead people.
• It’ll probably mean the end of the fantastic Top Gear show.
• It’ll make moving to South America far more appealing.

The key arguments for or against this idea are really just noise.  The question we should be asking is at what point should drivers give up responsibility for the movements of their cars?  Lane sensing technology has matured enough that you could conceivably place your Honda at the beginning of the M6 and drive all the way to Scotland without touching the wheel, brakes or throttle again, coming to a stop when the traffic in front does so, and accelerating to a set speed when it’s possible to do so.  I remain to be convinced that all this is a good idea, but at least it’s entirely within the control of the driver - he can choose what is and is not switched on, and where.

GPS technology is constantly improving, as are sensors.  It’s only a matter of time before we can simply climb into our cars, shout “take me to work, autocar!” and climb into the back for a nap.  Sounds like a wonderful idea to me and I wouldn’t care what speed the car travelled at so long as it woke me up on arrival and neatly parked itself while I go for a pee.

Partial implementation, on a wide scale, of speed limiters or even smart cruise control could be lethal.  Each car would end up driving at ever so slightly different speeds.  Overtaking moves could be measured in miles, and it wouldn’t matter if you didn’t have a speed limiter - you’d be stuck behind those with them fitted.  And those who choose to have them fitted would be sitting in a smug pool of self-superiority, knowing they’re driving at the maximum safe speed.  They’d be wrong, of course.  70mph is safe when it’s clear and dry.  It’s safe even when it’s wet.  But in a deluge it’s lethal.  But having given up the act of thinking about speed they would just keep their foot mashed down on the carpet.  Until they eventually plough into the back of the car in front that they couldn’t see.

And that’s why this topic has made it into the Campaign for Thinking.  Full automation is a good thing, it means you can go and think about something else.  But a world full of drivers who believe thinking about speed is only for the government… God preserve us!

Now, could the government get on with thinking about things they could help us with?  Infrastructure, international security, the economy, tax… that kind of stuff?  The big, hard problems that they have the power to do something about?  3,000 people a year die on the roads.  60,000 people a year die from murders in South Africa.  And providing assistance to unstable or impoverished countries could save the lives of millions.  Unfortunately it’s hard to get elected on the promise of saving the lives of AIDS stricken Tanzanians, but you could save or dramatically improve the lives of more than 3,000 of them with the millions spent on speed limiter studies.  Yes, I know it’s a straw man argument, but a little sense of perspective on the point of all this would be useful.

Linkage

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7803997.stm

http://www.cfit.gov.uk/mf/index.htm

http://www.mira.co.uk/

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/

http://www.cfit.gov.uk/

http://www.dft.gov.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_in_Africa

Gall Peters Projection

The Gall-Peters Projection (often known just as the Peters Projection) of the map of the world, also known as a cylindrical projection, is one that’s become popular with many socially aware groups. Mainly because it helps to reassert that the world’s poorer countries take up rather more of our land mass than many people realise.

Although the distortions are a little odd, especially east-west as you near the poles, the map does help to provide a truer picture of the size of many countries than most flat projections.

Mercator Real-Area Map

The better real area map, at least for taking measurements from, is the sinusoidal projection (shown below), but that’s harder to look at. In reality, no projection of a globe onto a flat surface can be perfect.

Google Earth

Now Google is a big commercial company - powerful on the internet, and sometimes not that wonderful, but generally they’ve so far been a force for good. And one of my absolute favourites of theirs is the Google Earth application. I’ve spent many a happy hour zooming into countries and cities, checking out locations, and enjoying the ability to see some of the world’s sights from my computer. It’s an incredible application and I can recommend it to anyone. You can download it from http://earth.google.com/ and it works great on most reasonable computers.

Alternatively a globe makes a great piece of interior decor and doesn’t break when the internet goes down….

Credits: Peters-Projection care of NASA/Wikipedia and is in the public domain and can be used by anyone. Sinusoidal Projection care of Wikipedia and is a creative commons licensed image. Please visit the Wikipedia site for more information.

Not unless you’re especially keen on travelling on extreme lean budgets - which if you are, you won’t be in Cuba anyway. Travelling on a tight budget in this country is surprisingly tough thanks to the split economy. If you’re staying long enough and have a good command of Spanish you can buy and use Cuban Pesos as opposed to the tourist money - the Cuban Convertible Peso (or CUC for short) - but you’ll find that unless you can prove you’re Cuban you won’t necessarily get the low prices that locals might enjoy. You’ll also not be allowed in many trucks, taxis and buses where carrying foreigners is illegal.

It makes sense - if rich tourists are going to turn up, you want them to help your economy along. If they go round spending thruppence-ha’penny a day they’re doing bugger all to help. And you don’t want poor tourists anyway - they smell bad, make the place look untidy, and bang on about getting to be one with the locals. Which usually involves trying to find out what drugs they’ll sell them, and then taking them. Fair enough, really - but Castro needs money coming into his country more than anything else. So you’re going to end up spending the equivalent of about 1USD for every ten kilometres travelled - several times what you’ll spend in Peru for example.

Buses

For tourists, the best buses are provided by Viazul. They run a range of routes:

Habana - Santiago de Cuba
Trinidad - Santiago de Cuba
Habana - Viñales
Habana - Holguín
Habana - Trinidad
Habana - Varadero
Santiago de Cuba - Baracoa
Varadero - Trinidad
Varadero - Santiago de Cuba

There are plenty of intermediate stops too - check out their website for more information, prices and times.

Viazul’s coaches tend to leave on time, are reasonably clean (but on a bad day the toilet might smell worse than Swampy) and generally comfortable. Take warm clothes though because given air conditioning Cubans will run it at maximum.

Trains

The information we had was not to bother.

So we didn’t. Which means I can’t really do any more than pass that information on. Apparently they’ve improved a bit, with some new rolling stock from France, but it’s still an unreliable and slow way to travel.

Planes

Again, we didn’t use any, but there are planes connecting some of the major centres, and prices don’t seem to be too bad.

Cars and Taxis

Car hire isn’t cheap, but if you want to get to some out of the way places it can be a great way to travel as the roads are largely empty. You can also pick up plenty of hitch-hikers. The smell might be bad when you discover they’re carrying an enormous fish they just caught. But otherwise it can be an interesting way to meet locals. Obviously, the usual caveats apply - if a guy is standing there foaming at the mouth, holding a large machete, and dressed in bloody rags then it might be best to drive on.

It’s not all perfect though - some roads simply disappear into dirt-tracks with no notice, there are bridges that they clearly lost enthusiasm for part-way through (blame the fall of communist Russia for that one), and pot holes that will swallow your car whole.

And if you drive at night you’ll be able to play chicken with unlit cars, horses, and, erm, chickens.

Taxis should be relatively affordable, and most are metered. If they’re not, they probably aren’t allowed to take foreigners on board and will be taking a risk carrying you - especially in more heavily policed areas and they may ask for payment in advance of any risky places, or will drop you off before checkpoints at which point you’ll have to walk past and possibly find someone else to carry you. Almost anyone will act as a taxi in Cuba, so be careful, and check prices in advance of getting in. Most drivers are chatty and interested in you, and some of the classic cars in use are beautiful - though they won’t sound it as they often run on old Japanese diesel engines rather than big tasty V8s.

Trucks

I mean… just don’t. If you could afford to fly to Cuba you can afford not to take chances with your life and health. Having said that, it’s about the only way to get to some places if you can’t afford a hire-car or taxi and don’t feel like hitching.

Queues are managed by men in yellow outfits, known as ‘Amarillos’. They will make sure you go to the right place, but may not allow foreigners on board. A tip may work wonders….

Local buses

You’ll need Pesos, not CUCs, and a strong backside.

Summary

Overall, Cuban public transport is limited and can be quite pricey for tourists, but stick to the main routes and you’ll be fine on relatively good metalled roads. Only if you visit more remote locations will you find the need to get inventive.

Useful websites:

British Foreign Office Travel Advice for Cuba
Viazul buses

But even better is, after a bumpy ten hour flight, to discover that this hotel is a five star all inclusive affair. Nothing beats the realisation when you arrive at the bar that they don’t want your money. Everything is included. A few hours later, drunk and happy, we decided to stay an extra night while we planned the rest of our trip.

And now, in a couple of hours, we have to find our bus to Havana. It may be tropical here, but we’re taking warm clothes as we’ve discovered that when a Cuban gets air conditioning there is only one setting… 16C. After all, if you have air-con you may as well make the most of it. You enter your hotel room to an icy draught. Cars are super-chilled, and basically you find that your UK clothing is just fine and dandy.

Ta-ta for now….

Why? Because first of all they worked well with easyJet - with a combination of popular holiday and business routes with low prices the combination proved irresistable. As a frequent traveller myself I was delighted to get away from the obtuse pricing of British Airways (cheap returns were OK, it was the lack of flexibility and cost of singles that grated) and the extra costs of travelling to Manchester Airport.

Anyway, I was travelling through this airport again on Thursday evening and spotted this picture which summed the airport up nicely - named after a famous Beatle, and popular with a wide range of traveller:

Why not? Good question. Perhaps because it’s a little personal. I’ve lived there, loved there, and so on. To talk about it in depth may reveal me more to the world at large. Although I present an open face on this site, I keep my personal and social life as private as possible. However, after a bit of thought I’ve realised that I can still write about the city without actually blowing the gaff, as it were.

Festival des Inrocks

For those that don’t know - this is a festival held annually in France, primarily Paris, by the rock magazine Les Inrockuptibles. I wangled my way in to the various shows this year thanks to carefully blagged passes and was treated to a wide range of music. A lot of it British, curiously enough. Seems a long way to go to listen to Brit-rock, but heck, it’s a nice environment to do it in!

This year’s line-up included Lily Allen, Jarvis Cocker, Guillemots, The Kooks and many more - some you’ve heard of, some you haven’t. A lot of the groups headlining were British, so in effect I’d travelled all that way to watch UK acts. Ah well… there were some good French acts too. In particular Rock & Roll, a punk-rock group (watch out, my music terminology is generally off-kilter) who put in a huge amount of energy and effort. Not my kind of music, but I could enjoy the act. And one of the lead singer’s plectrums flew off, hit Romana on the head, and was promptly bagged by me as a memento!

We also accidentally stumbled into a show by Etienne Daho. We hadn’t heard of him, but reckoning that he was one of the biggest names on the list he must be good. So we were a bit shocked when he came out on stage and acted like it was still the eighties. The music, the clothes, the dancing…. I mean, I know the French music scene is a bit mixed up and not as leading edge as in the UK, but this didn’t seem right.

Eventualy we discovered it was something like Rick Astley getting a gig at Glastonbury. Those that were of a certain age when he was about would love it and enjoy it, but anyone who didn’t realise it was a one-off comeback would be left baffled.

The City of Paris Itself

What is so hard about Paris is that it’s been written about by most of the finest writers in the world. How can I expect to add something new to the mix?

And here’s the answer… I can’t.

There is little left to write about, yet so much too. I’d rather create an entire new site for Paris, than try to sum it up in one article. After all, it’s home to millions of people, with a tightly packed centre full of museums, secrets catacombs, alleys, shops, dreams, nightmares and passion. One page here does the city no justice whatsoever.

But I’m not one to give up quite so easily. So in fact I will sum up Paris in one sentence:

It’s a better city to live, love and work in than it is to visit as a tourist.

I’m struggling, actually, to give words to this country. Usually beautiful, sometimes ugly, almost always friendly…

The Statistics:

3200 miles driven; 3 new dents on the car; about 100 gallons (378 litres) of petrol used; highest speed travelled - daren’t say but speed limiters may have been touched; speed cameras triggered: 1; chats with police officers: 1

The Places - In (very) Brief

Milan

Nicer than expected. Friendly folk. Food ok. Lovely but pricey hotel in the centre appears to be something of a secret. Shall I keep it that way? Ask and I might add the name… heheh!

Parking in places could be challenging, like many Italian cities, and expensive, but at least the city itself proved easy to navigate and we found the hotel quickly.

Verona

We stayed in an astonishingly pretty campsite in the fortress overlooking the city. Food excellent where available but watch out - it would seem late eating isn’t a big thing here.

Taking a walk through the narrow streets at night is enchanting, and in the day you can visit the balcony where Juliet reputedly greeted Romeo. A lot of people rub the breast of Juliet’s statue, in particular her left breast which shines golden compared to the rest of her body. I’m still not sure why but I guess it brings luck, love, or just horniness to those who touch it.

Venice

So pretty, and (mostly) doesn’t smell as bad as some had suggested after all. Food good in one place, distinctly mediocre in another - so pays to search out a place that’s obviously popular with locals. Campsite turned out to be next to the runway at the airport - as are many of the other campsites. Watch out. Pricey too, at £20 per night including a car.

Bologona

There was something strange about this town. It was almost deserted, car hostile, and difficult to navigate. We couldn’t find a hotel in the centre that looked even vaguely approachable late at night and ended up resorting to the Holiday Inn near the airport - expensive rack rates so use Amex or a similar travel service to phone ahead and get a decent price on your room.

We discovered that it’s a student city, which may have explained the summertime desertion. Perhaps it’s vibrant in term time?

Tuscany in general

I can see why people fall in love with this area. It can be cheap, but the combination of good weather, good food, friendly people and varied landscape make it irresistable. Throw in pretty villages and girls and you have a region that begs to be explored. Sedately.

Watch out for travelling packs of Americans and middle-class English retirees who may sniff at you getting noisily drunk in their unspoilt bit of the country.

Lucca

I’d never even heard of this town before coming to Italy, but a barman recommended it to us… so why not? And it’s great! Best bet is to park in one of the reasonably priced car parks outside the old town then take a cycle to travel around the town - either hired or, as with some car parks, take a courtesy bike. You can also cycle around the city walls. Great little place, though packed with tourists so it can end up a little expensive and tiresome - but it’s not as packed or overpriced as other cities. And anyway, if there are tourists, there are facilities….

Pisa

If you approach the famous tower from the right angle it looks perfectly straight. Which could be a disappointment if that’s all you came to see. It was British engineers who stopped it falling over, apparently, and for a moment you might think they did too good a job. The plaza the tower is in (it’s the campanile for the Duomo) is very beautiful and although the tower is the reason people come, it’s a little bit more than just that. However, it’s also true that few people explore the rest of this city. We didn’t either. I feel a little guilty.

San Gimignano

This little gem of a town has a lot going for it and must have been something of a medieval Manhattan. It’s very pretty, full of towers, and has an awful lot of tourists. Lacked the charm of Lucca, but well worth a visit.

San Miniato

We stumbled upon this very pretty and friendly little town and we asked in an osteria for a room. It was at this point we learned that an osteria is just a type of restaurant. But this is Italy so phone calls were made by the proprietors and before we knew it we were checking in at a charming little B&B in the town centre. Anna makes a wonderful host - but she doesn’t speak a word of English, so take your time with bookings.

Siena

We accidentally turned up on the day of the Palio trials. The Palio is a crazy bare back horse race in the main square of the town - quite possibly the most ancient and yet least professional horse race in the world. Shame we missed anything exciting, but the main square is beautiful and ancient.

Florence (Firenza)

Florence is beautiful but, for me at least, not something that I found as beautiful as expected. What it is good for is art galleries. You can see some incredibly famous artworks in the city’s art galleries.

Genoa (Genova)

Don’t bother! Never seen quite such an ugly mass of concrete building. There are beautiful parts, of course, like most Italian cities, but they’re not necessarily easy to find. The guides say the city has a ‘gritty realism’ which I always think is travel guide speak for “you’ll be lucky not to get mugged.”

But on the whole - what a great country!

Driving in Italy

Driving in this country is actually a great experience. The road surfaces are smooth, the drivers skilled, and the weather generally good.

But there are things to beware of.

Speed bumps appear to have been randomly placed on the autostrada. Some people claim it’s down to subsidence or lorry damage, but I think it’s just to keep you awake.

The distance and direction markers towards towns and cities were the inspiration for some of Heisenberg’s greatest work. You might see that your town is 25km away. The next sign, 1km down the road, will say 20km. Then it’ll revert to 25km and you may well conclude that you’re going round in circles. Or getting closer, because as you continue the next sign will say you’re 18km away. The actual distance may be less. Or more.

If you park in the wrong place you’ll get a ticket, but working out how to pay isn’t simple so I’m ignoring my ticket and waiting to see what happens. Anyway, parking places are colour coded - white means you can park there freely, except when the signs say you can’t, yellow means you can park there freely except when the signs say you can’t and blue means…. well you get the idea. I think blue is pay, white is free, and yellow is residents but the reality is that you need to check as different towns have different rules.

Italian Food, In Italy

I’m a vegetable, as many of you know, so obviously can’t eat meat. Italy at least has a good range of vegetarian food available so there’s no need to spend too much time scrutineering the menus.

The food itself range from great to mediocre but there was nothing so amazing that I’m going to make a special mention. I did enjoy the white truffle and artichoke tagliateli I had in Verona - something I’ve never had before and which was delicious.

Next Time

It’ll be Rome and the south. And more slowly - the furious pace we set meant we covered a lot of ground, but it was tiring sometimes. Still… we had a great time.

Last night our request for two “GeenToneecs”, as listed on the menu, provoked an explosion of confusion with the staff at “Ellens House”, a bar round the corner from our hotel. After a few minutes two large glasses, with about 250ml of vodka arrived.

We pointed out the problem… that a G&T usually has gin in it. And tonic. The glasses were taken away, four bar staff held a conference, and they returned with… two glasses of vodka with a dash of sparkling mineral water. I took a gulp and my taste buds immediately caught fire. Another return… this prompted more confusion and they came back to say they were just nipping to the shops for a bottle of “agua tonica”. Ok… they were getting the idea. And then we got what I still think was vodka, with a dash of sparkling mineral water… and a dash of tonic. We gave up. Angelique had also failed to drink her “Baylez”… a cheap and eye watering version of Baileys.

Peruvian service is often like this. They do their best, bless ‘em, but sometimes they’re caught out by their own menus. They then utilise a Just In Time system, as popularised in Japanese factories. This means having stock arrive just in time for manufacture - so saving on inventory costs and storage space. But for restaurants that just means that your entrée may well arrive after your main course because some of the ingredients involved sending a member of staff to the market with a shopping list in his hand. Still, the food at these restaurants is often surprisingly tasty - just don’t arrive hungry….

Salty and meaty.
Egg based.
Dangerous.
Salty and fishy.
Scary.
Salty and vegetarian.
Touristic.

Lomo Saltado is one of the classic dishes - fried and salted beef, served in a big pile with gravy, vegetables and chips - all mixed together. There may be some salad on the side.
Dangerous food can be summed up as pretty much anything raw.
Scary is roasted guinea pig - poor little thing has it’s claws on show still and it just looks wrong. Heart kebabs are also a bit offputting.
Touristic is largely edible, but expensive. It revolves mostly around pizza and pasta, but it’s not bad.

There´s a surprising number of vegetarian restaurants and they vary in quality. There’s a chain called Govinda run by Hare Krishnas and although the food is ok (and salty) the service was slow and the atmosphere utterly non existent. We’ve resisted trying another branch. Other vegetarian restaurants, especially in Cusco, can be excellent.

Breakfasts are a barely understood concept. A fried egg, a couple of rolls of bread and some jam, along with juice and tea or coffee and that’s about it. Sometimes you need more to set you up for the day.

I won’t bore on about the history of this place, but instead I’ll say that it’s one of the most beautiful locations in the world. Vertiginous too - if you’re not keen on heights you won’t want to get too near the edges of the town. It gets worse if, like us, you decide to climb Huanay Picchu (I think that’s the name, I’m not checking notes right now) which is the peak you always see in front of Macchu Picchu in the pictures. For this you have to take a quite frankly dangerous path (especially if it´s been raining) up the side of a very steep mountain. Quite often all you can see is a one mile drop to the bottom of the valley. I clung on and did my best in spite of my well known fear of heights. In the end though I saw an alarming enough section to refuse to move any further and simply sat down and waited.

But even where we reached was well worth the effort. I´m soon going to be able to upload pictures to the gallery as I should have more time. First though I’m off to the Crovetto’s beach house for a few days of relaxation after the rest of the troupe disappear. Fiona and Renaud have already got back to Paris, with Soren and Kitt off to Denmark tonight and Angelique, Francois and Romana all flying out tomorrow. So the rest of my travels will be solo :o( The upside I suppose is that I´ll be able to insist on a vegetarian restaurant every night so nutrition might improve a little ;o)

I probably won´t be able to post again until next week… so don´t be too alarmed if it goes quiet!

I’ll say one more thing though - although I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this trip so far a little part of me is missing the home comforts - familiar food, no hawkers constantly trying to sell me things (I reached the point of muttering in English to one kid “Do I look like the kind of f*cking person who wants to buy a doll?” He didn’t understand.)