Author: Mike Pole

From New Zealand. Traveling the weyward path trying to figure out how the world works. I study fossil plants, past climates, travel, walk, hike, read, take photos, struggle with computer graphics and plant trees.

Turkey/Armenia: Ani – capital on the wrong side of a border

I’ve seen two cities that look like they were comprehensively destroyed. I don’t mean just ruins,  but places where someone seems to have made a comprehensive, and successful attempt to wipe the place out. Warsaw may come to mind – it was practically obliterated in the Second World War, but then it was rebuilt. In Ani,… Continue reading Turkey/Armenia: Ani – capital on the wrong side of a border

Mongolia – Nights under the nine stars of the Pleiades

Erik von Daniken’s ‘Chariots of the Gods’ came to my town when I was a kid. Alexandra, New Zealand was perhaps a bit information-starved. There was one-channel TV, radio of course, and a couple of newspapers. And then there were the ‘Pictures’ (one a week movie screenings at the cinema). So a well-marketed movie about space-travellers once… Continue reading Mongolia – Nights under the nine stars of the Pleiades

Lebanon – Last Gasp of the Cedar Forests

Cedars of Lebanon

Europe to Australasia is long-haul, and if you are not into heroics, it’s nice to break the journey somewhere. I wonder how many travellers consider Lebanon? The big draw-card for me were the famous ‘Cedars of Lebanon’.  This is a highly relictual patch of trees that is all that remains of a once much more… Continue reading Lebanon – Last Gasp of the Cedar Forests

Cheap Eats Nanjing 12 – Sticky Rice Cake and other nibblies

I spotted this little take-away cake shop one evening after getting a cheese fix opposite. Pleasant woman in charge and bunch of nice looking things for sale. I settled on two muffins and a sort of cake. It was very dense, but I had no idea what it was til I cut into it next day.… Continue reading Cheap Eats Nanjing 12 – Sticky Rice Cake and other nibblies

Estonia – the Swamp and the language tree

Estonia was my first-ever experience of driving, by myself, on the right hand side of the road. I tried to keep it simple. All I needed to do was pull-out  from the car hire place (small town, Viljandi linn), negotiate a round-about at the edge of town, then I would be onto a rural road where I could take… Continue reading Estonia – the Swamp and the language tree

Cheap Eats Nanjing 11 – Fried Dumplings

I’ve been making eyes at this place for ages – the dumplings get cooked in an guaranteed eye-catching arrangement on a hot plate on the street by the front door (see Featured image) and inside it’s usually chocka-block with customers.  Eventually I gave them a go for a quick lunch in the weekend. No sitting… Continue reading Cheap Eats Nanjing 11 – Fried Dumplings

Mongolia – “Armour-piercing, mate”

“I’ll have to show these to my colleague”. The security guard at Brisbane’s International Airport took the two objects from my bum-bag and walked off. Oh shit… A few weeks before I had been travelling south through Mongolia’s  South Gobi region. It’s basically a gravelly, rolling desert. In the middle of all this wide-open country,… Continue reading Mongolia – “Armour-piercing, mate”

Turkistan, Kazakhstan, not Tukmenistan

I’m not at all sure I remembered when all those ‘stans’ appeared on my radar. Did I know about them before the Soviet Union fell apart, or did they just appear in the news so gradually it seemed like they were always there? There’s Uzbekistan, Kirghistan, Afghanistan (yes, I did know about that one) –… Continue reading Turkistan, Kazakhstan, not Tukmenistan