Throughout London between May and July 2010 are 250 beautiful, individually designed elephants. Similar to the Cow Parade back in 2002 (but much cuter) the Elephant Parade aims to raise the plight of the endangered Asian elephant. You can even buy them at an auction if you spot one you particularly like - and have loadsamoney. If you're not rolling in it you can buy a miniature version from the Elephant Parade webshop but be quick as they have limited amounts. A side benefit is that the elephants are getting people talking and making them stop, look around and enjoy their surroundings more than they would normally do!

Those thoughtful types at Elephant Parade have even provided a route map to help you. How many can you find?

I was looking back through a diary that I kept whilst I was teaching at a summer school in rural Nigeria in 1998 yesterday. We had found that the students had many misconceptions about England (as expected!) and of course we had misconceptions about Nigeria too, it was a learning experience on both sides that's for sure. We had asked the pupils to write a short essay on their thoughts on what living in England was like, and I found a piece written by a 13 year old girl, which is just lovely:

My name is Ezinne Mba. I am living at Unwana in Afikpo LGA Ebonyi State. I am 13 years old. While I think that England is different to Nigeria is because the white people from England look very smooth and walk as fast as a hare. England is cold and is a paradise, and their flag is quite different from ours. Another thing is because they do not wash their clothes by themselves and do not travel by ten toes [on foot] but travel by aeroplane and their hair is as long as a tail, and England is as beautiful as an angel and their body is smooth as an egg. England is a big country and everything in England is cheaper than ours, for example like rice, beans, tomato, clothes and so on. Our money is in Naira and theirs is in Dollars.

I remember the class had a really good conversation about the differences between where we lived; wages, cost of living, housing, education etc. That whole Nigerian experience was just amazing. I met some amazing people including some who had never seen white people before, saw some wonderous things, ate some...interesting food.

Now I'm getting itchy feet again. Need to plan the next thing! Suggestions on a postcard please!

Because a well-known high street retailer seems to think so! I can't believe that it's not even the end of January and already they have a dedicated chocolate bunny/lamb/Citroen 2CV area. We haven't even had Valentine's Day yet!! Not only that, but they have taken to charging for plastic bags (good idea), yet they are givimg away plastic knives and forks at the exit (doh!). I don't know, it's just that something's not quite adding up for me there....

Well, I've been back from Malaysia for a week now. My tan has peeled off. My posted-on-the-last-day postcards will be dropping onto people's doormats any time now. It's like a dim and distant memory. But what memories!

Amazingly friendly people, gorgeous weather (even the rain was warm), beautiful jungles and beaches. We watched a couple of excruiatingly badly subtitled DVDs - a couple of Japanese horrors (aptly named) - but it was just impossible. Even English DVDs had been subtitled hideously badly. In the film 'Whisper', the simple line "Your move, Vince" came out as "Your muffins" – less 'horror', more 'humour', we thought!

Looking out of the window of the plane as we flew home over England reminded me that however much I might moan about the bad weather and the fact that I don't want to live in the city, actually I love England and I love coming home, to my own space, my family and friends, and my dog.

And for all you fact collectors out there:

• Number of hours spent on planes: 35
• Number of times passport lost: 0 (surprisingly)
• Number of other lost and subsequently found items: 2 (camera case and necklace)
  
• Number of photos taken: 521
• Number of photos that friends/family will be subjected to: 101 (sighs of relief all round)
  

Ok I finally got around to finsihing off this post - looong overdue!

Well I spent most of my first week back after I returned from Morocco not knowing what day it was, so when I discovered quite by accident that it was already Thursday my glee at only being one day away from the weekend already was tinged with a smidgin of worry that I may not have got enough work done this week. How can I have been back for FOUR whole days already?

Everyone keeps asking me what the highlights of Morocco were. I'll give you a brief taster and some statistics for your digestion. Enjoy!

Highlights:

1. Watching the day-time activities in Djemaa el Fna transfer to the night-time madness, and eating BBQ at the meat stalls at night
   
2. The first taste of the madness that characterises the Souks in Fes: think medieval film set, or something from the Life of Brian, complete with full sights, sounds and smell sensory overload
3. The dark and winding alleyways of the cities that seem so foreboding when you first arrive somewhere yet rapidly become 'home'
4. The immense warmth of the vast majority of the Moroccan people that we met
5. The "dancing grandad" Berber - one of the two people I wish I had taken a photo of
6. Mohammed the one-legged taxi driver - the other person I wish I'd taken a photo of
7. The chilled-out Cascades D'Ouzoude
   

Number of hours spent in the air: 7
Number of hours spent on a nice air-conditioned train: 8
Number of hours spent in a hot, cramped bus: 24 (2 with a woman being sick beside me and her child on my lap)

Items lost:

• Shoes (last seen at Cascades D'Ouzoude)
• Passport (last seen at in Fes)
• Scarf (last seen wrapped around my legs in the back of Mohammed's taxi)

Items found:

• Passport (sent from the lovely Mr Chadhli, manager of a museum in Fes to the Honourary British Consulate in Marrakech)
• Chilled out waterfalls in Cascades D'Ouzoude
• One very cool wooden doorstop in Essaouira, bank wouldn't give me any cash though, so I need to make a return trip to buy it!
  

Crikey, where to start?

I caught the train back from Fes to Marrakech, seven hours in a semi air-conditioned compartment. It was pretty luxurious compared to the bus on the way there and MUCH better than South-West trains!

Marrakech seems about ten degrees hotter than when I left it, but compared to the madness that is Fes, it is like a haven of tranquility, in fact I feel like I'm coming home! There was no room at the Essaouira Hotel so I slept out on the terrace again, which was pretty cool, once the Moroccan rap festival nearby had finished.

The next day we visited a few of the other sights of Marrakech, although I feel like I've seen pretty much everything there is to see now. What I wasn't quite prepared for though, was the heart-rending yet incredibly humourous sight of two beggers, obviously both a little bit 'gone', begging from each other! One on the floor, the other leaning over him, with a stick for support. The first man silently asked the second for money, who knocked his hand away before asking the first one for money, before the whole thing began again...

We were planning on getting a bus to the Ourika Valley today but the guide books seem to have got that wrong - no buses go up there so we hired a taxi in the end, after a bit of a row with a surly taxi driver who tried to convince us it would cost 450dh. We negotiated him down to 300dh in the end, but not before a hasty and worried discussion on the relative merits of hiring a one-legged taxi driver for the day. Yes - you heard me right... Anyway, Mohammed the one-legged taxi driver proved to be excellent company and pointed out with very good humour, all the sights we could see on the way up the valley. A good and chilled out day was spent in and around the river and waterfalls of Setti Fatma and we spun it out as long as possible before having to head off back to Marrakech. Mohammed didn't mind either - he was playing cards and smoking with his mates. It turned out he lost his leg 14 years ago - a car ran into him when he was on his way to school and he had to have it amputated.

We piled back into Mohammeds taxi just as the rain started to fall in the valley. I never thought I'd be happy to feel rain, and it made it more poignant knowing that back in the UK the constant rain is becoming a major problem. The day got more and more surreal as it became clear that the cigarette Mohammed was smoking was of the more 'herbal' variety, and that he was slightly stoned! Not only that but he decided that we needed some English tunes on the way home so he put on his 'mix tape' that a friend made him, which turned out to be some kind of happy hardcore dance. We pulled into the centre of Marrakech with Mohammed really getting into 'Zombie' by the Cranberries. The fact that he was joyfully singing the chorus with his eyes shut, whilst he was driving was a slight worry, but we just chalked it down to the incredibly random day but immensely enjoyable day we just had!

What else can I tell you? Hmmmm, well some of you won't be surprised to hear that I finally succumbed to the lure of the pizza last night, and it was GREAT! Others won't be surprised to hear that I have mislaid a couple of items; 1) a pair of brown shoes, last seen four days ago at Cascades D'Ouzoude and rather more vitally 2) my passport. However, no need to worry, it turned up in a museum that I visted. In Fes.... Anyway it's all under control, luckily the musuem curator found it and it's being sent to the consulate in Marrakech. I had to get an 'official' stamp (on a scrap piece of paper) to say that I had entered the country legally despite not having a passport. Needless to say, it took five hours, four taxi journeys and three police stations before I finally got what I needed.... Isn't bureaucracy great?

...will travel...

I'd hoped to write again a little sooner than this but apparently they don't have internet connection in tiny villages next to amazing waterfalls...

So I spent Thursday sweating in Marrakech. Got lost in the souks, visted the Palace Bahia and the Museum of Marrakech, both of which were amazing architecturally as well as the decoration, slightly lacking in the artefact department though, but such is life. Also visited the Medersa, which is the old student accommodation for the Koranic school and watched the sun set over Djemaa El Fna, with it's snake charmers, drummers and the tiny Berber stalls which only come out after dusks sets in. They arrange their wares, which look mostly like strange herbs and medicines on a tarpaulin and sell by the light of a small kerosene lamp.

Friday morning saw a 5 hour trip to the Cascades D'Ouzoude, by bus and shared taxi. Met three really nice English girls and a totally insane Morrocan guy called Sham. Each night at his family's restaurant him and his mates play the drums and Sham is like a cross between Keith Moon and Animal from the Muppet Show. The village was really chilled out, like some kind of hippy cummune, and the perfect antidote to busy Marrakech!

On Saturday we went for a eight hour hike downriver to see some grottes (caves). They were no Cheddar Gorge, but the refreshing dip at the end was worth the walk! For those of you who are wondering, yes I did do the whole thing in my flip flops (Primark - 2 paaaaahnds) and there was no blue nylon rope involved.

Since travelling so far has been pretty much a doddle and I'm not feeling too pushed for time, I decided to spend a couple of days in Fes so today was spent mostly on a bus. The latter half of the journey I spent holding the very cute baby daughter of a Moroccan woman who was badly travel sick, and throwing up violently in a carrier bag next to me. I won't even mention the sheep in the baggage compartment. Today was so hot that I'm sure it came out slow roasted. Throw a few potatoes and tomatoes in there and you'd have a ready made tagine on arrival!

So far Fes is confusing, exciting, a bit scary and the alleyways are very dark and foreboding! I had started to feel really at home in Marrakech (yes, after only two days) so I'm feeling a bit out of my comfort zone here! I'm sure it isn't so scary in the day time but so far there has been a lot of hassle from street vendors. I'm putting my thick skin on! Anyway I'm being very well looked after by the hotel staff, which is great.

Oh yes I have also caught a cold, believe it or not!

Anyway, until next time!

Well I've arrived safely in Morocco! And after a short period of intense bargaining with the airport taxi guys, I managed to get them to halve the fare to take me into the Medina area where I'm staying. Unfortunately for me, the driver decided not to take me to the most sensible (and closest) dropping-off point for my hotel, so I then spent about half an hour walking around trying to find the blessed place. The streets are mostly not signposted, and have many twists and turns...in fact I'd go so far as to say that it's not really even a street, more like a dusty alleyway... Ah well, I found it eventually and settled into my very small, but very clean room.

The hotel itself is lovely. The rooms are all set around a sheltered courtyard with brightly coloured tiles on the walls. There are loads of backpackers here, mostly French and Spanish it seems, though I caught the distinct twang of an Aussie accent when I was buying an orange juice in the Djemaa el Fna.

Lunch was an enormous bowl of cous cous with chicken, carrots and something which seemed to be a cross between a gherkin and a courgette. A lone picture of the Spice Girls hung on the wall, their faces looking cheerfully down at me. I ate as much as I could but had to admit defeat in the end. Not bad for £2.

I've just been for a stroll around the Djemaa el Fna, which is like the marketplace, where it all happens. The smell of incense and freshly squeezed oranges combine with taxi fumes and dust, the calls of old women trying to persuade me to get a henna tattoo "Just a small one - for good luck!!!" and a man asking me to kiss his cobra!! "Maybe tomorrow, maybe tomorrow" is my constant reply (except to the man with the cobra, who got a flat-out "no thanks"!)

I decided to be sort of sensible on my first day and get out of the midday sun and let you all know I'm here and alive and well, in an air-conditioned internet cafe. Yes, for all you Brits - its boiling hot here, not a cloud in the sky! Hurrah! And so begins my eleven day summer - it had better not be sunny in the UK or I'll be really upset...

Just to let you know, typing this has been an absolute nightmare. Not only are the letters mostly worn off the keys, but they are also in Arabic AND western script and the letters aren't in the same order as on a QWERTY keyboard. The things I do for you all eh? (Moan moan moan)

OK, rather than spodding away in an internet cafe. I'm off to rock the kasbah.

So I've booked a ticket to Morocco. I'm leaving next Wednesday. I'm going out there on my own, and people who know me well, know that I'm not that great with just myself for company. So that should be interesting. I'm excited, and more than a bit scared I have to say.

I'm not too sure whether I'm most apprehensive about spending those days on my own, because I'm worried I'm going to be lonely, or because I'm not going to have the safety of a group to fall back on. But I'm pretty sensible, I've been to Egypt and Tunisia so I've got an idea of how things work there and hopefully that will stand me in good stead.

My plans are to land in Marrakech then travel directly to the Cascades d'Ouzoude and spend a day and a couple of nights there. Then back to Marrakech and onto Essaouira for some relaxing at the beach (yeay!). After a couple of days there it's back to Marrakech (again!) to sample the delights of the city.

Cue sleeping on rooftops, snake charmers, haggling, dusty streets, cold showers and taking about one million photos. Yes. It's you guy that will have to be subkected to them when I get home. Book out a good two hours of your evening folks!

Wish me luck!

Pic1: Cascades D'Ouzoude - www.travelwithattitude.com
Pic2: Essaouira Beach - www.travelblog.org
Pic3: Mosque of Koutoubia - www.exploitz.com

A friend of mine showed me a great little link, so here it is again!

This is how many countries I've visited....(22 - which is more than I thought, but only 9% of the total...still got some travelling to do!)



create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

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