Art and Culture, London, Plays

Toneelgroep, Barbican, Obsession, the play

3 Comments

We’ve just returned from tonight’s performance of Obsession, the play with Jude Law, at the Barbican, and we were not very pleased. It is one of three Toneelgroep (“Theatre Group”) Amsterdam productions directed by Ivo van Hove at the Barbican this year. The play is based on a homonymous 1942 Luchino Visconti film, which is itself based on a well-known novel by James M Cain called ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice.’ The movie was adapted seven times with the 1946 version, named after the book, starring Lana Turner and John Garfield being the best-known one. It is not the first Visconti movie that van Hove has adapted for the stage. We watched part of the original film on Youtube after our visit to the theatre and we enjoyed it. The movie is very intense and its title does not need any explaining. We had read about the plot (but not […]

Continue Reading

You may also like

Africa, Morocco, Safari, Travel

Zagora, Sahara desert experience with Camel Safaries

23 Comments

On our recent trip to Marrakech, Ali, the owner of Camel Safaries, offered that we could check out his brilliant Sahara desert camp and camel ride experience, which is part of his two-day Sahara tour (most of his tours are 3 or more days, we just did not have the time). For more about the whole tour, see our blog post here. The camel ride and overnight bivouac in the Sahara desert were the absolute highlight of our trip. We wouldn’t want to have missed it for the world, it was so much fun!    We arrived just outside the desert town of Zagora at 6:30pm (we heard that, especially in winter with its shorter days, it’s imperative for travellers to listen to their guides and be swift at some of the stop-overs along the journey from Marrakesh to Zagora as they will miss the camel ride altogether if they […]

Continue Reading

You may also like

Africa, Morocco, Travel

Two-day tour to the Sahara with Camel Safaries

10 Comments

During our visit to Marrakech we received an invite from Ali, the owner of Camel Safaries, to check out their two-day camel safari tour. Ali’s business ranks #12 of 758 tours in Marrakech on Tripadvisor, and the Zagora, Sahara desert experience was just what we were hoping for!    Tizi n’Tichka Pass Abdoul, our driver and guide, picked us up from our riad in Marrakech at 8:30am in a spacious and comfortable 4WD SUV.    We took the Tizi n’Tichka route. This road is Morocco’s highest mountain pass and reaches 2,260m at its peak, with snow-covered mountains topping 4,000m within view. On the other side, the road descends to the town of Ouarzazate (the name means ‘it’s ok’/’you’re welcome’), which is the gateway to the Sahara from Marrakech. The 350km journey took about 7 hours (pure driving time, not counting breaks).    The roads on our journey were much better […]

Continue Reading

You may also like

Art and Culture, Europe, Food, Travel

Off the grid – Europe’s only Buddhist region: Kalmykia – Guest post by our friend Nils

8 Comments

Mr BSqB is an old friend of mine and has invited me to write about my recent Kalmykia experience. Is Kalmykia travel destination for everyone? Certainly not. But if you’re looking for something off the grid, this might be just what you were waiting for. Kalmykia is the only Buddhist region within Europe. I know about this Russian province because I’m married to a Kalmyk lady. When I first met my wife eight years ago, it seemed a bit fantastic to me that there were a group of Mongolians in Europe for more than 400 years, who lived in their yurts until the 1920s. I googled it and – yes, it turned out to be true. We then visited her friends and family in Kalmykia several times over the past few years, and I gradually got to know this fascinating stretch of land and its hospitable people better. How to […]

Continue Reading

You may also like

Art and Culture, Europe, Food, Travel

Grozny Day Trip – No bazookas, lots of bling – Guest post by our friend Nils

9 Comments

While staying near Elista in Kalmykia for three weeks this April (more on Kalmykia, check out this blog post), I visited the capital of Chechnya, Grozny, a city of roughly 300,000 residents, together with a Russian friend of mine. The 520km ride takes six hours. The bus left at 2am in the morning and arrived at 8am with 30 hungry people, mostly heading directly for the national shashlik competition; Chechens and Ingush are known far beyond their borders for their expertise with lamb skewers. The Kadyrovs, some history and a museum that will blow your mind I’ll come to this later because first we visited the Akhmad Kadyrov Museum. Opened in 2010, with no expense spared, the building is an eclectic mix of Soviet, Renaissance, and other styles with a bit of Graceland thrown in on top for good measure. It is dedicated to the first post-war president of Chechnya, […]

Continue Reading

You may also like