The citadel in the centre of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region in Northern Iraq, is reputed to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Built of ochre-coloured bricks it rises some 30 metres from the surrounding city and dominates the skyline.

The citadel is in the process of extensive restoration and once completed, the Kurdish authorities intend to encourage families to re-settle in the refurbished houses. It will become not a museum piece frozen in time but once again a living city. Walking between the buildings on a hot early summer day last week, it is easy to imagine that travel journalists will soon be falling over themselves with hyperbole. [Read more…]

I just got back from a conference in Thailand after an oddly long gap of twenty-four years since I last visited the country. That trip in the late 1980s is still vivid in my memory and I recall at the time thinking that Thailand was one of the most distinctively “foreign” countries I had ever visited. It seemed to have its own very particular character as expressed through its history, food and language that distinguished the Thais more emphatically from their neighbours than they did from each other.

On this trip I was struck by how much has changed since those impressions were formed. The country clearly retains its beauty and charm, but this time I was taken aback – and disappointed – by the inexorable process of homogenisation that seems to have rolled over Thailand. Of course a quarter of a century of tourism and extraordinary economic growth have transformed the country but I was still disheartened by the extent to which Thailand now feels a lot like anywhere else. [Read more…]

Ras al Khaimah sits at the northern end of the United Arab Emirates, close to the border with Oman. The wealth of Abu Dhabi and the glitz of Dubai seem far away. But this quieter – and more normal – Emirate has one thing its more glamorous cousins down the road do not have: mountains.

The Hajjar Mountains rise spectacularly from the coast and stretch northwards to the northern tip of Oman, overlooking the Straits of Hormuz and Iran. At nearly 3000 metres above sea level, this range of mountains is comprised of a series of high arid plateaus and steep-sided valleys walled in by soaring cliffs. Elsewhere these cliffs would attract the attention of the massed ranks of the rock climbing community but during a day walking in these hills last week, we saw only the occasional shepherd whose ancestors have scratched a living from this beautiful but austere landscape for generations. [Read more…]