Columns & Blogs

I will never forget Lino Oviedo, a character I came across during my travels in Paraguay in 1999. I was there at about the time of an attempted coup, during which a tank rolled into Asuncion's main square and took a pot shot at the legislature (see photo). Lino was thought to have been behind it.

This is old Dutch fortress, built right out in the middle of the Essequibo, in 1744. Back then, the tiny islet was called Vlaggen Eyland, or ‘Flag Island’. These days its called Fort Island.

With few good beaches in Java, many thousands of Indonesians head to Bali, not to mention millions of other Asians and Australians. I stopped by a couple of years ago. It's an unforgettable island, with sights like the vertiginous Uluwatu Temple (pictured, along with its spectacle-stealing monkeys), the Jatiluwih rice terraces, and the famous surfing beaches of Padang Padang and Dreamland.

What happens to a large army's equipment, after it's too old for active service. The US army must produce thousands of vehicles each year.

Yesterday, my train went though Market Harborough (UK) and I saw a field full of old Bedford trucks, in camouflage colours.

This is the map on the wall of the manager's office, on the Wales Sugar Estate, Guyana. For me it's a treasure trove of old names.

I'd been looking for the estate described by a Georgian traveller, called Bolingbroke.

This is the Scottish church in New Amsterdam (Guyana). The Scots, many of them left landless by the agricultural reforms in Scotland, were the pioneers of a new prosperity in this region (building on what the Dutch had begun). By the early 1800s they had an appreciable presence on this coast.

It's not just Guyana that has a large population of Indians. Next door, in Suriname, around half the population are descended from those who came from India. In fact, there are 170,000 Hindus here (37% of the population) plus 18,000 'Indian' Muslims. It's not uncommon to hear the greeting 'Salaam alay-kum!'

In Guyana, you don't need to go far to find towns with a distinctly Indian feel, thousands of miles from the original version. Among my favourites is Springlands/Corriverton/Skeldon, dominated by two mosque minarets (see photo). It's a place of warm breezes, coconut palms, and Hindu prayer flags planted in the sea.

The great Indian diaspora can be found all over the world, particularly in Canada, UK (e.g Southall) and the USA. Their contribution has been inestimable, especially in terms of the professions and business (the most common name for a millionnaire in Britain is now Patel). Over the next few days, I'll be focussing on the Indians who came to the Guianas

Guyana's dreamy capital. The way I see it, from the mouth of the Demerara, a beautiful city, as light as feathers, flutters off down the coast. Perhaps – like its people (Indian, African, Portuguese and Amerindian) – Georgetown doesn't truly believe it belongs here, and so it hovers over the water. Nothing's firmly attached.