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Travel

 

Signs of the times

April 2008 – New York is plastered with notices – some of them carrying very obvious instructions. It’s a new kind of visual pollution. Read on

 

Moroccan women in 3-D

My recent visit to Morocco helped to flesh out, in three dimensions, what it means to be a Moroccan and Arab woman today. Read on

 

Out of Egypt

February 2008 – After countless generations not venturing far from the comforting embrace of the Nile valley, why have millions of Egyptians have made other countries their home? Read on

 

Strange journeys home

January 2008 – Going home to Egypt, I cannot shake off the sense of being a stranger in my own increasingly conservative motherland. Read on

 

Cuba II –

From Trinidad to Santiago de Cuba

Part II goes from the UNESCO-protected and picturesque Trinidad to rebellious Santiago de Cuba. Read on

 

Cuba –

High Fidelity and the two Ernestos

March 2007 – Cuba looks to the outsider like the island where time stood still – or, at least, where it moved in a different trajectory.  It is a fabled isle where the fabric of modern legend is woven. It went from being the infamous playground of the rich and famous to the legendary battlefield of revolutionaries, a small land with a mysterious pulling power for the larger-than-life: from Ernest Hemingway to Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara. Read on

 

Flying Norse for the winter

March 2007 – Oslo is a picturesque and progressive city which has put itself at the forefront of attempts to build a better world. But it remains a tranquil and uneventful backwater where nothing much seems to happen. Read on

 

Sicilian getaways

December 2006 – Sicily’s rugged beauty and chequered heritage make it an attractive getaway – in the romantic, not in the Mafia sense of the word. In fact, far from being a shadowy underworld populated by secretive families and deadly vows of silence, this beautiful Mediterranean isle – with its eclectic mix of history, culture, cuisine and laid-back living – is a charming, if often crumbling, retreat.

 

Crimes of omission

Haven for conquerors

The flavours of temptation

The (s)word of faith

Cools cats in Catania

Sulphur-breathing dragons

Frutti di mari

 
Tripping down memory lane

November 2006 – Khaled Diab goes tripping – mentally and physically – down memory lane and discovers the multi-layered nature of reality.

Wafers of reality

Multiversal man

Cultural pie and civilisational mash

Between the reel and the surreal

Back to school

Back to (sur)reality

 
No Moor blues

April 2006 – For people living in cold northern climes, Morocco is the perfect winter escape. Wash away those winter blues with some Moroccan red.

 

Part I: No Moor blues

Part II: Migrating to Marrakech

Part III: ‘Little picture’ spoilt by the movies

 

Encounter with a celebrity saint

December 2005 – Never having believed in Santa as a child, Khaled Diab was surprised to run into the elusive Sinterklaas on a desolate, windswept beach in the Netherlands. Read on

 

Ethiopia’s hidden wealth

July 2005 – Live8 aimed to raise awareness of Africa, but it succeeded in perpetuating the one-dimensional view of Ethiopia as a famine-stricken land with nothing going for it. This complex land, with its rich past and culture, impoverished present and precarious future deserves to be explored on its own terms. Read on

 

Part II – Streams of conscience in Bahar Dar. Read on

Part III – G spells visionary capital. Read on

Part IV – Icons of magnificence and misery. Read on

Part V – From the heart of empire to the margins of history. Read on

Part VI – In the eye of a political storm. Read on. Read on

 

A woman’s handbook to Yemen

By Katleen Maes

July 2005 – In the first of a two-part series, Katleen Maes recounts her experiences travelling alone through the mysterious man’s world of Yemen. Read on

 

Between the grime and the sublime

By Khaled Diab

July 2005 – Istanbul is one of those cities where a sojourn of a few days is simply not enough. In fact, it is the kind of place where one can imagine a couple of weeks expanding into several years. Read on

 

Part IV – Buddhas and dagobas

February 2005 – After a bite of Kandy, Khaled and Katleen check out the Buddhist cultural triangle and Galle – which has since been devastated by the tsunami. Read on

 

Part III – Savouring some Kandy

January 2005 – Khaled and Katleen gaze as far as the eye can tea and visit the centre of Sinhalese national pride, Kandy. Read on

 

Encounter with a celebrity saint

December 2004 – Never having believed in Santa as a child, Khaled Diab is surprised to run into the elusive Sinterklaas on a desolate, windswept beach in the Netherlands. Read on

 

Where Buddha meets Adam

October 2004 – Giving up the noxious diesel fumes of Colombo, Khaled Diab and Katleen Maes head for the hills to follow in the footsteps of Adam, Buddha and Shiva, and discover not only the beauty and magnificence of where the world reputedly begins but also of where it apparently ends. Read on

 

Serendipity and the city

August 2004 – Serendib, Ceylon, the ‘tear drop’ of India all describe Sri Lanka. Despite its turbulent present and widespread poverty, its rich and varied history, its friendly people, and its natural beauty fill this charmed isle with serendipity. Read on

 

Down in the district

December 2003 – Returning to Brussels with some capital ideas about an unusual holiday destination. Read on

 

An air of terror

November 2003 – The suggestion that I could strike fear into anyone’s heart would reduce people I know to quivering heaps of uncontrollable laughter. It’s not that – as a regular gym-goer – I’m especially weedy, but even our cat, who has been known to hide in the washing machine to avoid guests, does not find me intimidating enough to get out of my bleary-eyed path on the staircase in the morning. Read on

 

Uncovering Anatolia’s delights

August 2003 – As an army of holidaymakers mount their annual beach  invasion and thousands – caught in the crossfire between sun, sand and sea – drop onto their towels, we rush the other way to explore the charms of Antalya, the capital of Turkey’s ‘Mediterranean Riviera’. Read on

 

A Belgian paradox on the Nile

July 2003 – Belgians appear to be more determined than most not to let a conflict get in the way of their holiday plans. While concern over instability in the Middle East has kept others away, recent months have seen a rise in the number of Belgians visiting the land of the Pharaohs. Read on

 

Shattered solitude

May 2000 – Khaled Diab shatters his illusions about oases on a quest for refuge in Fayyoum Oasis. Read on And the abbot of the Malak Gebril Monastery speaks about spirituality, monasticism and the meaning of life. Read on

 

Trouble in the Balkans

January 2000 – Indirect flights can be cheaper, but they can also be gruelling. Khaled Diab came from London the hard way. Read on

 

 

 

 

 

ã2005 K. Diab. Unless otherwise stated, all the content on this website is the copyright of Khaled Diab.