My next stop was Battambang, located in Cambodia’s northwest corner, offering a more pleasant experience for my senses outside the capital. Its history stretches back to the 11th century during the Khmer Empire, and over time, it has been under both Thai and French control. Like the rest of Cambodia, Battambang suffered greatly during the…
It’s a holiday in Cambodia!
Since being a punk fan in my early teens, Cambodia has been on my wishlist because of the Dead Kennedy’s song ” Holiday in Cambodia’. Actually, no, not really. If you know the song, it satirically makes fun of American college kids jaded with the West and how they should go to Cambodia to experience…
Awaiting the Dragon in Ho Chi Minh City
Happy Spring, cadets! Happy Nowruz to my Kurdistan, Iran, Central Asia cadets, and elsewhere. Also, a very belated happy Lunar New Year to those other cadets. I just finished my yearly ” F off February tradition.” For those new readers, my ” F off February” is when I take my big trip of the year….
Silk Road destinations: Meeting the Tajiks for the first time in Khujand, Tajikistan
So, my take on Tajikistan has been a little chaotic. Khjuand was the first place I went to in Tajikistan. We took a Marhsutka from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which isn’t that far over the border. It’s about 3 hours nonstop from Tashkent, but this doesn’t count the passport control between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Also, if you…
Unusual capital city spotting: Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
A few years ago, I wrote about the weirdest capital city I’ve ever been to, Astana, Kazakhstan. Yeah, that one might now be Dushanbe, Tajikistan. I have to revisit Astana to compare notes. We went to Dushanbe after visiting Khujand, Tajikistan. We decided to skip the 8-10 hour marshrutka through the mountains and save that…
Happy New Year from the space cadet!
Happy New Year, y’all! Another year, the same cadet! The bad 2023 was a geopolitical mess and has shown us that media literacy, critical thinking skills, and international cooperation are needed more than ever. I posted my two cents about Israel-Palestine a couple of years ago. My points remain very firm on this. This has…
Silk Road Stops: How to visit the Seven Lakes in Tajikistan
Alright, so change of scenery. Last spring, I spent a few weeks in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, visiting some of the main Silk Road sites. I went to Central Asia for the first time in 2017 but didn’t make it to Uzbekistan or Tajikistan. Today, I’ll write about one of my favourite places: the Seven Lakes…
Other things to do in Suriname and things not to do
In this overdue second part of Suriname, aside from Paramaribo, I will go into the details of where we had the most “screw-ups” on our little trip. My two companions and I are rather experienced travellers. We’re not extreme ” Every passport stamp” type, but we have all been to roughly 60-80 countries each. Still,…
Kourou, Guyane- Home of the ESA launch pad
I couldn’t go to Suriname without stopping next door to French Guiana! Why? Because A. It is an overseas department of France, so I could add entering the EU on a tattered boat to my bucket list. B. Have proper croissants and have my EU data roaming work. C. Visit the Guiana Space Centre aka…
Autonomous Region Spotting: Åland Islands
Happy Summer! One of the biggest highlights of this summer was going to Sweden and Finland to celebrate Midsummer in June. One of the best stops I made was going to the Åland Islands. As you already know, one of my interests and “pseudo expertise” is separatism and autonomous regions. I decided to give one…