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Welcome to Travellers' Tales
Travelling is a Bug
........ and I was bitten by it as long ago as I can remember. My name is Liz and I was born in Kuwait. I had lived in five more countries and visited five others by the time my father retired and we returned to the UK, when I was sixteen.
I continued to travel whenever my finances would allow it, even for a weekend, and for a while, to wherever my employer's business took me.
I now enjoy living in Spain and experiencing a very different culture to that in Britain.
There's much of the world I still want to see and I love to hear other people's travel experiences. In the hopes that fellow travel-lovers would like to read mine and others' travellers' tales, I've started this website.
As well as articles about places, there will be information on languages, culture, food and anything else that takes my fancy. Please check back often as I will be constantly updating the site.
If you have a traveller's tale which you would like to have published here, please email me, using the Contact button on the Main Menu.
Enjoy browsing.
Liz Canham
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Because my father worked abroad, I didn't return to live in England until I was sixteen years old. During my Childhood we lived in Kuwait, where I was born (no stories from there - I was too young when we left to remember anything), Dubai, Libya (both Tripoli and Benghazi), Malta, Sharjah and Uganda. We led a fantastic but farely typical expatriate lifestyle so there are a few stories from my childhood in this category.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE)
The Trucial States of the Persian Gulf coast granted the UK control of their defense and foreign affairs in 19th century treaties. In 1971, six of these states - Abu Zaby, 'Ajman, Al Fujayrah, Ash Shariqah, Dubayy, and Umm al Qaywayn - merged to form the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They were joined in 1972 by Ra's al Khaymah. The UAE's per capita GDP is on par with those of leading West European nations. Its generosity with oil revenues and its moderate foreign policy stance have allowed the UAE to play a vital role in the affairs of the region.
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Aboriginal settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia about 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in the 17th century.
No formal territorial claims were made until 1770, when Capt. James COOK took possession in the name of Great Britain.
Six colonies were created in the late 18th and 19th centuries; they federated and became the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. The new country took advantage of its natural resources to rapidly develop its agricultural and manufacturing industries and to make a major contribution to the British effort in World Wars I and II.
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China: Travellers' Tales from China
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For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation.
After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people.
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Posted by lizc on Thursday, March 20 @ 07:19:38 CDT (613 reads)
(Read More... | 1563 bytes more | China | Score: 0)
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France: Travellers' Tales from France
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France lies in Western Europe, bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy and Spain together with Andorra and Monaco. With an area of 547 square kilometres and a population of some 60 million, much of rural France is sparsely populated.
France today is one of the most modern countries in the world and is a leader among European nations.It's presidential democracy, similar to that of the USA, has become resistant to the instabilities experienced in earlier parliamentary democracies. In recent years, France has been central to the economic integration of Europe, including the introduction in January 1999 of a common currency, the euro.
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Posted by lizc on Monday, March 17 @ 09:13:22 CDT (647 reads)
(Read More... | 1423 bytes more | France | Score: 0)
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Greece: Travellers' Tales from Greece
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Greece achieved its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1829. During the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, it gradually added neighboring islands and territories, most with Greek-speaking populations.
In World War II, Greece was first invaded by Italy (1940) and subsequently occupied by Germany (1941-44); fighting endured in a protracted civil war between royalist supporters of the king and communist rebels. Following the latter's defeat in 1949, Greece was able to join NATO in 1952.
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Posted by lizc on Thursday, March 20 @ 10:42:57 CDT (618 reads)
(Read More... | 1622 bytes more | Greece | Score: 0)
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India: Travellers' Tales from India
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The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world, dates back at least 5,000 years. Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. Arab incursions starting in the 8th century and Turkish in the 12th were followed by those of European traders, beginning in the late 15th century. By the 19th century, Britain had assumed political control of virtually all Indian lands. Indian armed forces in the British army played a vital role in both World Wars. Nonviolent resistance to British colonialism led by Mohandas GANDHI and Jawaharlal NEHRU brought independence in 1947. The subcontinent was divided into the secular state of India and the smaller Muslim state of Pakistan. A third war between the two countries in 1971 resulted in East Pakistan becoming the separate nation of Bangladesh. Despite impressive gains in economic investment and output, India faces pressing problems such as the ongoing dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir, massive overpopulation, environmental degradation, extensive poverty, and ethnic and religious strife.
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Posted by lizc on Friday, March 21 @ 00:11:41 CDT (656 reads)
(Read More... | 2026 bytes more | India | Score: 0)
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The Dutch began to colonize Indonesia in the early 17th century; the islands were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. Indonesia declared its independence after Japan's surrender, but it required four years of intermittent negotiations, recurring hostilities, and UN mediation before the Netherlands agreed to relinquish its colony.
Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state.
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Italy: Travellers' Tales from Italy
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Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the city-states of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King Victor EMMANUEL II.
An era of parliamentary government came to a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI established a Fascist dictatorship. His disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany led to Italy's defeat in World War II. A democratic republic replaced the monarchy in 1946 and economic revival followed.
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Posted by lizc on Friday, March 21 @ 02:19:55 CDT (709 reads)
(Read More... | 1268 bytes more | Italy | Score: 0)
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The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about A.D. 800. In 1840, their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain, the Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sovereignty to Queen Victoria while retaining territorial rights. In that same year, the British began the first organized colonial settlement.
A series of land wars between 1843 and 1872 ended with the defeat of the native peoples.
The British colony of New Zealand became an independent dominion in 1907 and supported the UK militarily in both World Wars. New Zealand's full participation in a number of defense alliances lapsed by the 1980s.
In recent years, the government has sought to address longstanding Maori grievances.
New Zealand is probably best known for its stunning scenery and a preponderance of sheep. It's also the place for adventure holidays.
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Spain: Travellers' Tales from Spain
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I hope you enjoy these travelogues from Spain (in which I'm including the Balearic Islands).
Spain is a country of some 505 square kilometres. There are 19 autonomous communities including Balearic Islands and Canary Islands, and three small Spanish possessions off the coast of Morocco - Islas Chafarinas, Penon de Alhucemas, and Penon de Velez de la Gomera, with a population of something over 40 million, 94% of which are of the Roman Catholic faith.
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Posted by lizc on Saturday, March 22 @ 07:05:08 CDT (655 reads)
(Read More... | 1250 bytes more | Spain | Score: 0)
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Tanzania: Travellers' Tales from Tanzania
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Tanzania was formed in 1964, shortly after becoming independent from Britain and is an amalgamation of what were Tanganyika and Zanzibar.
Tanzania has an area of over 945,000 square kilometres and is bordered by Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia. The population of just over 40 million are largely dependent on agriculture and tourism for their living.
As with much of sub-Saharan Africa, there is a constant fight against poverty and disease, particularly HIV/AIDS.
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Posted by lizc on Wednesday, November 12 @ 08:39:40 CST (423 reads)
(Read More... | 977 bytes more | Tanzania | Score: 0)
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Thailand: Travellers' Tales from Thailand
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A unified Thai kingdom was established in the mid-14th century. Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been taken over by a European power. A bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a constitutional monarchy.
In alliance with Japan during World War II, Thailand became a US ally following the conflict.
Thailand is currently facing armed violence in its three Muslim-majority southernmost provinces.
Thailand has a well developed infrastructure, a free-enterprise economy, and welcomes foreign investment.
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Turkey: Travellers' Tales from Turkey
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Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Anatolian remnants of the defeated Ottoman Empire by national hero Mustafa KEMAL, who was later honoured with the title Ataturk, or "Father of the Turks." Under his authoritarian leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging social, legal, and political reforms. After a period of one-party rule, an experiment with multi-party politics led to the 1950 election victory of the opposition Democratic Party and the peaceful transfer of power. Since then, Turkish political parties have multiplied, but democracy has been fractured by periods of instability and intermittent military coups (1960, 1971, 1980), which in each case eventually resulted in a return of political power to civilians. In 1997, the military again helped engineer the ouster - popularly dubbed a "post-modern coup" - of the then Islamic-oriented government.
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Posted by lizc on Sunday, March 23 @ 02:13:17 CDT (630 reads)
(Read More... | 2504 bytes more | Turkey | Score: 0)
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USA: Travellers' Tales from USA
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Britain's American colonies broke with the mother country in 1776 and were recognized as the new nation of the United States of America following the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, 37 new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the North American continent and acquired a number of overseas possessions.
The two most traumatic experiences in the nation's history were the Civil War (1861-65) and the Great Depression of the 1930s.
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Posted by lizc on Sunday, March 23 @ 02:28:16 CDT (571 reads)
(Read More... | 1338 bytes more | USA | Score: 0)
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