Until a few months ago the large 'Welcome To Marokopa' sign on the edge of this remote village on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island had a smaller hand-painted homemade sign attached below adding "The Home of Hide and Seek". Until the sign was smashed into pieces one night by persons unknown. Marokopa is an idyllic coastal town 250 km south of...

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Long Cheng (also known as Long Tieng) in the mountains of eastern Laos was the busiest airport in the world towards the end of the Vietnam War in the early 1970's. Operated undercover by the CIA using 'independent contractors' flying 'Air America' it was the base for military operations against the Viet Cong as well as Laos itself. The CIA itself called it...

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What would you do if you became a multi-millionaire? Buy a Ferrari, a yacht, maybe a bigger house? Or just buy a massive farm and fill it with gigantic outdoor sculptures by some of the worlds best modern artists and let exotic animals roam the grounds. This is what the reclusive New Zealand businessman Alan Gibbs chose to do.Gibbs made his money wheeling...

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Krakatoa is one of the most famous volcanoes in the world. Its huge eruption in 1883 occured at a time when the telegraph was connecting the world, while the increasing popularity of daily newspapers meant news was becoming increasingly global. The horrors of the eruption became one of the first world events to be discussed at the breakfast table and in the pubs...

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The mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh is one of the more complicated parts of the world. Straddling Asia and Europe, even its name is disputed with the Armenians calling it Artsakh and Azerbaijan (and most of the rest of the world) calling it Nagorno-Karabakh.  ...

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The Stone Fort at Tashgurkan I felt like I was in Tajikistan not China. The clothes, the food, the way people dressed, all were just so Tajik. Yet I was in Tashgurkan, the first Chinese town on the Karakoram Highway which I had been travelling on since Islamabad. ...

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Samoa is not known for its exports, outside of rugby union players, but it has a small but growing industry in producing extremely tasty chocolate.  Samoa is not known for its exports, outside of rugby union players, but it has a small but growing industry in producing extremely tasty chocolate.  ...

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While travelling on Samoa's less populated island Savai’i I headed deep into the interior to visit the Mount Matavanu Crater. Not only can you look deep into the impressive crater whose eruption reshaped the islands east coast, but you will be able to meet Crater Man, the guardian of this volcanic wonderland.  ...

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With rain splashing against my hotel window in the middle of a British winter I was engrossed in reading Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the Victorian bestseller about the horrors that can happen with a split personality. After finishing the book I researched a little more into the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, a Scot who I imagined had lived and worked in a...

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The first (and still only) country to ever refuse me a visa was Romania. The country fascinated me, particularly the megalomaniac building projects of its leader Nicolae Ceausescu. But it was not to be, and I was refused entry by his government.  ...

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Prior to the Second World War, and the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu, Bucharest was known as the 'Paris of the East'. Fifty years of unbridled construction of ugly Soviet-style utilitarian buildings has definitely put a dent in that image, but it still remains a great city to visit with plenty of activities for the visitor. ...

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