After reading the book The Caliph’s House by Tahir Shah, I wanted to see Morocco. I had never been to the country and the history and customs described in Shah’s book made it sound fascinating.
It just so happened that I would be in Portugal in the Fall, so why not take a short flight from Lisbon to Casablanca?
We’re lucky that a friend who lives in Hong Kong, has lend us his condo. Housing is hard to find and expensive in this mass of people: 7.5 million live in this special Administrative Region of China, which measures a mere 1,110 km² (429 mi²). It’s different from mainland China: no need to apply for a visa ahead of time and much easier to enter. Hong Kong is made up of over 260 islands. The major cities are Hong Kong and Kowloon. Most people live vertically: in the many skyscrapers that make up HK’s concrete jungle.
While restricted to local travel during Covid, we were grateful to live a 20 minute ferry ride from varied Vancouver Island. The book Vancouver Island Vs The World compares world renowned locations to spots found on this island, from waterfalls to beaches, from cities to mountains.
We decided to explore the northern part of the island where we knew we would not encounter many other people.
We started by driving as far north as we could: to the town of Port Hardy. After that we would slowly make our way south while making side trips, exploring places we had not visited before and also some special boat trips.
When I was invited to work with students in an international school in Bucharest, Romania we jumped at the chance to visit a ‘new-to-us’ country. I didn’t know much about Romania and we didn’t have nearly enough time to explore the sights and the history of the country. But what we did see was fascinating. Did you know that the fountain pen was invented in Romania? And it was a book, of course, that made the country famous.
After hiking nearly 100 KM on the Via Francigena, and when my toes turned to Fall colours, I stayed in Siena while Kees continued hiking. I had planned a nice little writing retreat in this history city.
It is an interesting place with a unique history. This rocky toe that Spain hesitantly dips into the Atlantic Ocean, at the point where the ocean turns into the Mediterranean Sea, really ought to belong to Spain. History, however, claimed it for the British. Reminiscent of Hong Kong, this strategic harbour was claimed by the British in 1713 already. The local Spaniards we talked to felt that it was a good thing. “Without the British here, Gibraltar would just be another rock in the ocean,” they told us, “Now it is an attraction, an oddity that brings us jobs and a good economy.”
As a child, I often visited family in Rotterdam. My parents were born in that city. I grew up a mere 25 km or so away from it. Of course I was familiar with the horrid stories of how Rotterdam had suffered in WWII. It’s heart had been bombed heavily – entire parts of the city had burned and been destroyed. Yet, having lived most of my life away from The Netherlands, I didn’t really know Rotterdam (named for the ‘dam’ in the river Rotte) at all.
Before traveling to Petra in Jordan, I had read about Nabataeans living here more than 2,000 years ago. How they carved facades of buildings out of the rocks in which they made their homes. About how Romans eventually conquered them by cutting off their ingenious water supply systems. I had seen pictures of the red rock carvings. I knew that the Siq, the long steep gorge leading to the site, was over a kilometer long.
But indeed nothing prepared me for that first sight of ancient Petra. It truly did take my breath away and left me all choked up.
If reading printed matter is not a tradition in your culture, how can you address literacy and promote reading among children? Alif Laila runs after school programs, offers girls a chance to learn computer skills, runs Hobby Clubs and is now expanding to include mobile libraries. Ricksaws, busses and even camels bring books to children across Pakistan, children who love to learn about other cultures and much as I loved meeting them.
