16 Travel

Travel Experiences

I have been fortunate to have experienced travel in many parts of the world, sometimes related to work, sometimes not. I have a travel diary which shows I have been overseas about a hundred times and visited more than 70 countries, some of which no longer exist. I have visited 6 countries while communist, South Africa while still formally under Apartheid, and as described under my chapter on religion, have visited many parts of Iran and Israel. In many of these cases I have not been as a tourist, but have had professional contacts within, who have often led me to seeing countries as the locals, rather than visitors, see them.

Having traveled so often I have many amusing stories, or others of interest, not so amusing at the time, and will add them here from time to time.

1988: Arrested in Zimbabwe

1990: Moscow. The Ukraine Hotel's Breakfast Room.

1994: Moscow. Foreigner Access to Kremlin.

2003: Toronto. The Blackout and another Arrest.

2009: Palmerston North. "Glad it's you and not me!"