Monthly Archives: June 2009

What’s Really Happening In Iran Right Now?

By Tom | Published: June 23, 2009
As I wait in Dubai for my Ira­nian visa applic­a­tion to be pro­cessed, I’ve been watch­ing the events por­trayed in the inter­na­tional media of Iran’s elec­tions and sub­sequent demostra­tions with a cer­tain amount of frustration. I have deeper ties than most to the coun­try. Not only did I spent sev­eral weeks trav­el­ling in Iran last [...]
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The End Of One Journey And The Start Of Another

By Tom | Published: June 18, 2009
Today marks the second anniversary of my depar­ture from my fam­ily home in Eng­land, and my twenty-sixth birthday. “None of us have any exper­i­ence of cycle tour­ing before, so this is really going to test our men­tal and phys­ical endur­ance”, I wrote on this blog on the morn­ing of depar­ture, and a couple of hours [...]
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A Final Push to Dubai

By Tom | Published: June 12, 2009
I got off the bus in Mus­cat and noticed imme­di­ately that the crowds assem­bling to watch me recon­struct­ing my bike were not Omanis. South Asi­ans from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka form a large under­class in Oman, work­ing as labour­ers on con­struc­tion sites and in date plant­a­tions, as mech­an­ics, metal­work­ers and car­penters, and run­ning [...]
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Oman, Land Of Riches

By Tom | Published: June 7, 2009
From the south­ern city of Sala­lah I planned to ride through Oman towards the UAE. Arriv­ing late at night in a new city is never fun when you’re trav­el­ling with a push­bike, and I had the added hindrance of being entirely unfa­mil­iar with what made Oman tick. The streets were sur­pris­ingly busy with ped­es­tri­ans at this [...]
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