The annual Toques et Clochers wine festival is a real treat I realise that I have a lifestyle that borders on the unusual, and for that I am grateful. I am able to wander, see odd and disparate places, meet fascinating people and gather a treasure trove of useless facts with which I can pepper conversation for months. March 2014, however, has been exceptional. It has been a month of flying, North Korea, a stamp auction in Hong Kong and a day in Macau, selling a flat in London, a wine conference and speed tasting in Tbilisi and now a […]

Wine Tourism is fun! I try not to be silent for so many days, but honestly, a combination of Georgian hospitality and the fascinating people of the International Wine Conference have led to a temporary paralysis; one that I am happy to relate is now over, and I am ready to report. It was the second conference that I have attended of the wine genre, and I can think of no good reason for having delayed participation in this astonishing industry for so many years. Wine folks are different; interesting, convivial and enthusiastic, albeit with a curious vocabulary, their deep […]

Georgia‘s capital city of Tbilisi is quirky, charming, friendly and a fabulous place to visit There are dozens of different reasons for travelling, and like the industry itself, can be divided into “pushing” and “pulling”, tourism to Georgia can certainly be counted on for both. Tonight, I find myself in Tbilisi, Georgia, at the beginning of the International Wine Tourism Conference. Now this might sound like a bit of a wheeze, and one has to admit that wandering the planet searching for new and exciting places to operate tours based on eating and drinking might not sound like “real” work, […]

North Korea, the DPRK, is a strange and fascinating land. The problem with image and perspective is that too frequently they are based on an extreme viewpoint of the issue at hand. Consequently, in subsequent discussion, one is tempted or even driven to take a position of equal but opposite enthusiasm on the other side of the scale. And such is my problem with North Korea; it is a nation that draws such invective and hatred, that having seen that it is not all like that there is a temptation to illustrate life in the DPRK in rather more glowing […]

Monumental Pyongyang! It is no understatement to remark that Pyongyang wins hands-down in any contest involving size, number, variety and overwhelming number of monuments; they are counted by the dozen, and each has a remarkable symmetry and attention to numerical detail that starts as interesting and transmogrifies into the soporific. The sheer scope of the DPRK’s adulation of their leaders, pride in their immediate and ancient past, and vision of the future is simply prodigious, and we went to see them all. Some, it must be said, were extremely interesting. In fact they were all interesting in their own way, […]

Pyongyang, North Korea, is an astonishing city to visit The DPRK is, in a word, heroic. One senses this immediately stepping out of the station into an eerily quiet city centre. The population of the city is given variously as between 1 and 3 million souls, but it is always hard to figure out where they are. There are few motor vehicles, and surprisingly few bicycles. North Korea is run to a philosophy of “Juche”, or self-sufficiency, and although they are not terribly good at it, it seems, it is a guiding ethos and one that was to underpin everything […]

Travelling to North Korea on The Beijing to Pyongyang train was a real treat! I love trains, and try to take a long-distance trip as often as possible. The opportunity to have both a long ride, and finish in the mysterious Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea (DPRK) was simply too much to ignore, and so a week ago, I found myself at Beijing’s Central Station trying to find Train 27 to Pyongyang. Actually, that wasn’t too difficult, it left from Platform 2. Two sleeping carriages stuck on the back of a domestic Chinese train bound to the border community of […]

Travelling to unknown destinations like Minsk and the DPRK adds something to my life. It is not often that I wake in the morning with a train ticket bound for a curious destination. I remember such a day some eight years ago when I boarded a train in Minsk bound for Odessa. As I recall, the train was fine, and the ticket looked more like a share certificate than a transportation voucher. Anyhow, this morning I am in Beijing, and this evening will travel overnight to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, more properly known (here) as the DPRK: the […]

Leaving Omalo to travel via Borjomi and Las Vegas to Kabalebo, Suriname! While my journey from Winnipeg to Omalo was an epic of endurance, the return journey, and its continuation into the next two business expeditions, was an epic of intellectual endurance, Georgia is, as you know, a favourite country of mine; after spending a few delightful and fruitful days in Tusheti we clambered back over the pass and down to the lowlands. Sighanagi, a delightful little town, picturesque and adjacent to some wonderful wine country, was our stop for the next couple of days. Work was discussed, plans made […]