Columns & Blogs

This is Kapadokya or Cappadocia (in Turkey), where for thousands of years, whole cities have been built undergound. All this burrowing needs some explaining.

Like so much that is beautiful, it began with extraordinary violence. At first, the brutality was geological. About seventy million years ago, Mt Erciyes exploded, along with two other volcanoes. They smothered the land first in shortbread (properly known as ‘tuff’) and then a wafer-thin coating of basalt.

Across the Guianas, there have been Chinese immigrants since the 1830s. They were orginally brought in as labourers (or Coolies), and even today in Guyana they make up 0.2% of the population.

It's been a curious relationship with the locals. In French Guiana,

For years, it was hard to get to Costa Rica's easterly province, Talamanca. Along its long, sandy, coconutted shore, there are few villages. Before the road came, the only people who’d lived here were BríBri Indians and a few turtle-hunters, who’d wandered over from Jamaica many generations ago. Caught between the jungle and riptides, most people had settled down to a life of ease.

Advertising posted in Guyana Graphic Newspaper in January 1966.

These were popular institutions of that era.

The cost of going to the cinema was
Stalls (aka pit) - $0.40
House - $0.90
Balcony - $1.50
Box - $1.75

The home of a self-styled African king, in South America. This is Castellani House, in Georgetown (Guyana). For many years, it was the presidential home of a man who called himself 'the kubaka' (a Bugandan term, denoting royal status). He was Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham.

Sadly, I am told that the Benedictine monastery near Bartica (Guyana) has now closed. A few years ago, it was a memorable stay.

Before long, I was part of the clockwork of monastery life. There were only two brothers, Pascal and Matthias, and an elderly abbot called Hildebrand (see photo).

Hotels you'll never forget, good or bad. Here are five of my favourites:

1. The Amanjiwo, Borobudur (see photo). I stayed here whilst doing an article on Java for The Daily Telegraph. It was probably the most luxurious billet I've ever been given. This room had its own pool, and all sorts of gizmos. There was ever a set of watercolours in case the mood took you.

You might think it odd to describe a bridge as an object. However, the pontoon bridge over the Demerara River (Guyana) is just than: a moveable, detachable thing. In fact, it's said to be the longest pontoon bridge in the world.

This huge gun is all that remains of 'American Guiana'. By mid-1940, the USA was worried. After years of neutrality, Americans now found themselves being drawn into a new world conflict. Apart from Britain, Europe was almost entirely under Nazi control. Worse, in the Caribbean, Europe’s old colonies were looking decidedly vulnerable.

Not much trace remains of the British Empire in Guyana - but there is this: a statue of Queen Victoria. Her rule broadly coincided with the abolition of slavery, and with one of the most prosperous periods in the region's history. That, of course, had much to do with the value of sugar, and British rule is not much celebrated these days.