SirRichard's VirtualTourist Home Page

I did it, am back from the remote city of the desert. Had a wonderful trip there and back, hot hot hot but exhausting & rewarding, full of experiences. I hope to upload some pics soon, as well as my Travel Diary, even longer this time!

I flew to Dakar and from there to Bamako, Mali's capital. From there, Djenne to visit its famous monday market and mosque, a short trekking to the Dogon country, Mopti and from Mopti a 4x4 trip accross the desert till I reach Tombouctou.

Well, at least one, the first, the INDOCHINA diary. 26 pages of watercolors and some texts in between about my 20 days trip to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.

You can take a look at it at BLURB

More books: CROATIA and ETHIOPIA

Yesterday I was putting in order some souvenirs and I realised how many I had. And that they would make a good resume of my travelling years... This is not a definitive idea, but I thought I could put all my travels together making a pic of some of my dearest souvenirs. Here are not all of them, but is a start...

From left to right, up to down:
Upper part
- The little rock at the very left comes from Namibia (Petrified Forest) and is (was) a piece of wood.
- The 2 figures of men come from Greece, Mycenic and Cicladic periods.
- The third is a Chinese opera character.
- Then comes a Greek mother statue with her child.
- The little black one is Isis, from Egypt.
- The coloured rock is a piece of the Berlin wall (certified, LOL).
- Then comes the "Aladdin lamp" from the Khan el Khalili market, Cairo.
- The Desert Roses come from Tunisia.
- The bereber stone box was bought in the Djema el Fnaa square in Marrakesh

Lower part:
- I bough this Tibetan mask in Kathmandu (Nepal).
- The Gorbachev "matriuska" comes from Arbat Street, in Moscow.
- The Buddha face (all in stone, really heavy!) was bought in Le Louvre museum, in Paris.
- The orange indian man comes from Jaipur (India).
- The ceramic vase is Chinese, bought it in Beijing.
- The Terracota warriors are reproductions of the original Xian ones.
- The flowered "papier mache" vase comes from New Delhi.
Venus face (plaster, lighter than the Buddha) is from Greece.

I have never liked lists, I find them a way to rationalize life, and life should be more than that. But anyway, I admit is a way to put things clear in a short way, so I guess it’s a good trick for the internet, and they also help you roughly clear up your mind, and I’m on the mood for that.

PLACES
“There are places I remember in my life, though some have changed. Some forever, not for better. Some have gone and some remain”:
- Ithaka, Greece
- Conil, Spain
- Palolem. India
- Retiro Park, Spain
- Inka Trail, Peru
- Bristish Museum, London
- Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

SONGS
- A day in the life, Beatles
- Boys don’t cry, The Cure
- With or without you, U2
- Brothers in Arms, Dire Straits
- Hotel California, Eagles
- Imagine, Lennon
- Losing my religion, REM
- Sunday Morning, Velvet Underground
- Camaron, Pata Negra
- Last Xmas, Wham
- Tainted Love, Soft Cell
- Wonderwall, Oasis
- Bend & Break, Keane

BOOKS
- My family and other animals, Gerald Durrell
- La Nausée, Jean Paul Sartre
- The Odissey, Homer
- Lord of the flies, William Golding
- Selected poems, Kavafis
- War and Peace, Tolstoi
- The catcher in the rye, J.D. Salinger
- The treasure island, Stevenson
- Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
- Into the wild, Jon Krakauer

MOVIES
- A night at the opera, Marx Bros
- Manhattan, Woody Allen
- Amarcord, Federico Fellini
- A bout de souffle, Goddard
- Blade Runner, Ridley Scott
- Smiles of a summer night, Bergman

Lately I am considering that the main goal of my trips is not the places I visit but the road itself. Being on the road, changing the backgrounds, changing the characters on your play.
There is no thrill on lying on a Caribbean beach for a week (though it seems like an attractive plan, LOL), I find much more attractive to ride along an african dust trail in an old chicken bus towards unknown places…

All that huge amount of blue is a really unknown parallel universe, yet to be discovered...