Pearls of the Gulf

Doha is a very different kettle of fish to its more famous cousin along the gulf. In fact it isn't such a bad analogy - it's due to it's history as a pearling and fishing town that Doha has a far more established feel. While there is plenty of construction going on, it seems far more integrated with the current town nestled around the historic harbour.

One of the things immediately comparable between the cities is one of the key focuses of the region - the hotels. The Sheraton in Doha was the pearl of the region for many years, until the hotels of Dubai stole its crown - however, having visited some of the most opulent of the Dubai, my preference is definitely with the art deco grandiosity of the old Sheraton than the rather Las Vegas-ish feel of the Dubai buildings.

Postcard from Dubai

Dubai is surreal - which is probably why some of these photos look it. That's not so surprising I guess, for a city which has been constructed virtually from nothing in the past 30 years - and all due to simple economic policy, rather than resource like so many of it's neighbours. Seeing sights in Dubai really is a parade of hotels, malls and sky-high bars - all populated by a strange mix of characters from all over the world, all there essentially for the same thing: money, and the lifestyle that has been built around it.

On arriving there to meet with my friend Mo, we were greeted with some truly astounding views across the city from the hotel, as the weather closed in over the gulf. With lightning playing around the tallest building in the world, it looked like a scene from some fictional post-apocalyptic future - and while there's been no apocalypse yet, it certainly does feel like this is someone's concept of what the future should look like.

A London morning

It's easy to get the inspiration to take the camera out when you are on holiday, however sometimes taking it along on a whim to capture bits of your everyday is just as satisfying - and some times more so.

On this occasion I was off to a training course on the top floor of a building tucked behind the Tate Modern on Southbank. I got a little side-tracked on the way - but somehow don't feel the worse off for being a little late to the course.

Mí

Every now and again someone asks why I don't put photos up of myself. My answer is that I'm generally at the wrong end of the camera - but sometimes even that doesn't spare you. So here's one. Lucky you.

By the bye, this was in the Argentinian ambassador's house, which I'd managed to get into not through social climbing at the polo, but through the London Open House scheme. It's fairly sparsely but very grandly decorated, and had this gorgeous old mirror in the foyer, which had me a bit entranced for some time.

Turning

Autumn again - and it came pretty spectacularly in the Brompton Cemetery. This is perhaps an odd thing to admit, but this has got to be my favourite cemetery, for a couple of good reasons. It's laid out beautifully, 1 mile around the perimeter (great for a jog - which plenty of locals use it for), with the gorgeous chapel and collonaded walkway reminiscent of St Peter's in the Vatican. It also has plenty of interesting residents, as I found out when there was a tour organised for London Open House, a weekend in which you are allowed access to buildings across the city usually closed to the public - fantastic!

Splish splash

Bath is a place I just can't keep away from. The beautiful location, stunning architecture and incredible history aside, the place is also one of the most photogenic towns I've seen. The soft Bath Stone, from which pretty much every building is constructed, almost has a glow of its own - and when lit up by the sun is nothing short of enchanting.

The last few times I've been to Bath it's been all about the Romans and what they've done for us. However, visiting with my folks (NOT pictured above - apparently I'm far better at taking shots of randoms), with their inexhaustible appetite for, and ability to sniff out, quirky historical tidbits, I found myself getting wrapped up in the more recent history. Dominated by a couple of very colourful characters, it was something of a competitive entrepreneurial renaissance, involving of course plenty of social intrigue, which led to Bath becoming the jewel of the region it is.

A day at Durdle Door

What a way to farewell the Summer! With my friend Laura, I jumped on a train down to Wool of a Saturday and we set off with a map and a plan to get down to the coastline to see some of the famous Jurassic Coast.

Wandering along the public footpaths and bridleways of England has got to be one of the most pleasurable ways to spend an a day - particularly in good company and good weather. We wound our way through fields, woods, past villages and castles and eventually down to Lulworth, with it's beautiful cove and rock formations; the most famous being the Durdle Door below.

Having enjoyed the sun and sand a while, we wandered back up to West Lulworth for a pub dinner and a pint to finish off the day before taking the lazy way back to Wool station (a £5 taxi which slightly cheapened our half-day walk!) and rattling, satisfied, back into London.

Anthills to England

Here was a great day for a great couple - slightly belated (and repeated) congratulations Dogga and Alex!

The lads on form and flying the colours.

Couldn't believe it when the groom made a funny - Alex looks just as surprised.

Lincoln Cathedral

Most arresting...

One of the best things to do as the crowd descends on Dubrovnik is to get the hell out of there. Luckily, the place is surrounded by beautiful stretches of coast and several other countries - one of which is Bosnia and Herzegovina, not too far within the borders of which from Dubrovnik is Mostar.

Famed for its medieval bridge, the Stari Most, this is a fascinating and tragic town. Historically divided into Muslim and Christian precincts by the river, the bridge holds a huge symbolism for the town - which made it all the more potent a symbol during the 1990s conflicts which tore the region apart, for with Mostar proved a flashpoint. It was after the withdrawal of the Yugoslav Army, whose shelling had decimated the town and destroyed many historic buildings (including, according to Wikipedia, a library of 50,000 historic texts) that the Christian Croatian forces, who had fought to remove the Yugoslavs, began the campaign of ethnic cleansing against their Muslim Bozniak neighbours which stains the history of this area so terribly, and as can be seen below, still visibly, with bullet holes and shell craters marking many buildings throughout the town.

The future of Mostar is far brighter than its recent past. Now reconstructed, the town and its bridge attracts thousands of tourists to a town which is fast being restored. In the old centre, the markets, mosques and churches built from local grey stone climb up the walls of the gorge, and from the bridge spanning it divers jump almost 25 metres in a local street (or bridge) performance. In all it was truly on of the highlights of the whole trip, all the more so because of its unexpectedness - eye-opening in lots of ways.

Guess where

The pearl of the Adriatic - or at least it is again now after having being rebuilt from the disastrous bombing it suffered. Dubrovnik was everything it's meant to be - beautiful, unique, tragic and crowded. Spending time in the city was fantastic - until about 9 am when it was made entirely unpleasant by the tourist hordes and cloying heat; luckily there's plenty of islands and interesting locations to escape to nearby. But if you are going to have a city as a base, what a city.

This fella was clearly the local pigeon-fancier (that's a real hobby - look it up). He was playing hard to get at this point, but the way they followed him around he was either loaded with bread crumbs or a very talented coo-er.

A couple more shots around the town - from the incredible walls surrounding the old town.

Make like a banana...

Split was one of those surprise packages - a city for which I had no real expectations, and proved itself brilliant in all sorts of ways, from the very understated, cool vibe through to the incredible wealth of architectural history. Built basically from Diocletian's retirement home, the amazing old town has something new and fascinating around every twist in its alleys. My kind of place.

We spent a lovely evening watching the sun come down on the wanderers down at the harbour, and were lucky enough to run into a few bods we'd met at Plitvice. The luck was well distributed, as they had managed to get in late enough for all the places in town to be closed. So in the spirit of Nazareth, they agreed to stay with the barn animals (well, I'm pretty sure I snored like one after a couple of beers watching the Croatia Euro 08 game on the screens down at the water front). A great couple of days, Split definitely gets on to the return list.

Sunset on another perfect day in Croatia