I had managed to sprain both my ankles, not easy to do I can assure you, and it requires an expertly timed trip and a twisting fall into a roadside drain. Something a stuntman would be proud of. Unfortunately, I'm no stuntman and the pain meant I could barely walk, and could only just drive. I needed to rest up. Not far away was Halfeti, a place I had heard mentioned as being a beautiful destination on the River Euphrates.
I have travelled to many historic sites, but until recently I had never even heard of the colossal statues of Mount Nemrut in Southern Turkey. It was on a trip to Cappadocia that I picked up an old copy of the Lonely Planet in a cave hotel which had one of the weathered heads on its cover. Since then I have been planning to visit.
Narrabeen is a beachside suburb of Sydney, perched midway between
cosmopolitan Manly and the uber-rich hangout of Palm Beach. Known more for its
famous surf breaks, immortalised in the lyrics to the Beach Boys sixties summer
hit 'Surfin
USA', it has a sleepy feel, which suits me just fine, as this is my
favourite part of Sydney, and is where I have chosen to live.
Dhaka is one of the worlds mega-cities, with a population of over 19 million people, and growing by over 5,00 people a week. Yet with a history going back over two thousand years and being the political and cultural capital of Bangladesh, the densely populated city is one of the best kept secrets in Asia.
When I first moved to Sydney I went to a photographic exhibition one Saturday in Paddington. It was by Sebastiao Selgado, part of an exhibition of prints from his book 'Workers'. There were some stunning shots from around the world, but it was the images from the shipbreaking yards of Chittagong that stuck with me.