Go to gate 50

The flight from Malta to Budapest with Ryanair was seamless and I had the whole front row to myself despite only booking one seat. My Uber driver was young Oliver who delivered me to the Intercontinental in about half an…

I met the chaps at a rather unreasonable time as we set off to Gatwick for an early flight to Malta. For some reason my BA silver status is still registering despite not making the grade this time around. It…

Mark and I were on the ship, departing from Dover, within three hours of leaving Beckenham which was probably as record. At Dover station we shared a taxi with two American ladies - Dariene from Seattle and her sister Denise…

I have recently returned from a 9 day trip around Algeria with 15 other curious misfit adventurers. Algeria is a little off the beaten track and not on everyone’s bucket list, but in recent years this North African nation has…

Georgia and I headed off to Cairo after an unreasonable early start. Five hours and two time zones later, we arrived and the airport experience was extremely swift. The visa on arrival was quite amusing. You can apply to an…

We crossed into Kyrgyzstan at around 3pm at 6,500 ft (over 2,000 ft higher than Ben Nevis). For the first time in a month I was experiencing “clouds”. We also had a one hour time difference going east - the…

After our late arrival the night before, we were given a midday departure for our mystery tour. I managed to get details of the mysterious plan and I wasn’t keen. Spending a day with a family at their house with…

The border crossing from Uzbekistan to Tajikistan, was almost a disaster. UK nationals were meant to have a visa. John had one, but alas, I had missed this minor detail. It took about 30 minutes and a few phone calls…

The border crossing into Uzbekistan was smooth and we were met on the other side by Anastasia from Kyrgystan and Natalie from Kazakhstan - both around Georgia’s age. We boarded another 50 seat coach for a 90 minute drive to…

Despite the uniforms, the flight with Turkmenistan Airlines was highly acceptable. The trickiest bit was getting into the plastic cutlery. Others seemed to have no problem with access. I must have taken three minutes to figure it out, and I…