Countries
Appreciating other cultures (except Manchester)
Appreciating other cultures (except Manchester)
We are fortunate to live in an age of mass travel. Maybe jet travel will spell the end of humanity as we know it, but it certainly won't kill the planet, just re-shape it.
Affordable mass tourism has already fundamentally changed our society's perception of foreign cultures and begun the long process of humanity coming together as a single bloc to make decisions, as opposed to the current "me first" nation state adversarial system.
In the meantime, I have managed to visit a few places over the years on holiday and on business.
Not as many as Bob Jack (who used to be my sister's partner) who has managed 171 countries, although he has slowed down over the last few years.
Exposure to other cultures is endlessly fascinating, I've never wanted to be the typical insular Brit abroad with his baked bean-filled suitcase, demands for Sky Sports and huge quantities of booze.
I've always been open to adventure: in 1986 my then-boss asked if I would like to go and work in the USA.
I immediately responded "Yes of course, when would you like me to go?" instead of the "I need time to think about it" he would have got from anyone else.
This resulted in 18 months spent living and working in a surprisingly different culture: I had always supposed America was just a larger Britain but it's not, and despite some of my friends narrow and uninformed views of Americans I have come to understand how varied and interesting the States are.
I suppose I've never really got over it (or indeed over my love for the USA. With all its faults it's still the country where anything is possible, and often ridiculously easy compared to most other countries) and it instilled a passion for travel, shared by my wife. Now we're retired we live most of the year in Spain but explore many other countries.
It is important to appreciate that in some cases these countries do things better than we do in Great Britain. So always travel with an open mind.
It would be easy (and great fun to post, but boring to read) smug travel documentaries about the countries below (and I have in the past) but all my travel can probably be summarised with the statement "everywhere in the world is fascinating and worth visiting once".
France 1971, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003
2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
Germany 1990, 2000, 2025
Gibraltar 2019
Greece 1992, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2021
Guinea 2016, 2017
Hong Kong 2017
India 2016
Ireland 2021
Italy 1980, 1998, 2013, 2016, 2018
Jordan 2019
Kenya 2022
Luxembourg 2025
Malta 1973, 2005
Martinique 2018
Morocco 2015, 2016
Oman 2005
Portugal 2020
S Africa 2006
Spain 1972, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022-present
Sri Lanka 2022
Switzerland 1998
Thailand 2018
The Azores 2015
The Bahamas 2019
The Maldives 2015
The Netherlands 1983, 2012, 2016
The Philippines 1999
Trinidad and Tobago 1987
Tunisia 1990
Turkey 2002, 2004, 2011
USA 1986-1988, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002-3, 2004, 2015, 2019
Vietnam 2024