Recently I was asked at short notice by Oryx, the excellent magazine of Qatar Airways, to write a little piece about visiting Petra for a weekend from Amman (and here it is in the May edition of the e-magazine, p. 22). I’ve visited Jordan many times, and travelled along the very ancient King’s Highway often, so was able to write it up from previous experience. It’s always nice to be asked to do a piece of work rather than have to pitch an idea, and always good to be able to oblige. And it reminded me why I love travel writing so much: it allows me to retrace a favourite journey in my imagination as vividly as if I were still there in real life.
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Eight Reasons to Visit Belfast (TIME Magazine)
One hundred years since the sinking of RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912 and a new ‘visitor experience’ is opening in the ill-fated liner’s home city, Belfast. I’d long wanted to visit the city – I’d heard such good things about how it had changed since the signing of the Good Friday agreement in 1998 – and was not disappointed. Quite apart from the city itself, which has a proud Victorian grandeur despite its small size (only 270,000 people), the Northern Irish people I met were outstandingly friendly and welcoming. And the new Titanic Belfast building itself is stunning. As the Michelin Guides would say, well worth a detour. Here’s my piece on it for TIME Magazine.
Murals on the so-called Peace Wall, Falls Road
The new Titanic Belfast visitor experience
Giant's Causeway, County Antrim
A Perfect Day … in Oxford (TIME Magazine)
I always appreciate the chance to write about my home city of Oxford, which I thought I knew pretty well after 25 years of (mostly) living there. In this piece for TIME Magazine, however, I interviewed five eminent Oxford women about how they would spend a perfect day in the city. And in doing so, I discovered some hidden nooks and secret crannies that were new even to me …
Port Meadow, Oxford (OxOx, Wikipedia Commons)
Abraham’s Path (Resurgence)
My journey to Palestine last May was perhaps my most productive ever, with five written pieces and three BBC radio broadcasts emanating from this one trip (see previous posts). The last story to appear was in the recent edition of Resurgence magazine, and allowed me to write in depth about the human – and spiritual – experience of walking through this timeless, beautiful and resonant landscape.
© Gail Simmons: "a landscape of rocks and wind”
Northern Exposure (TIME Magazine)
One of my most memorable travel experiences of last year was a day trip from Bergen, Norway, around the Sognefjord area including a breathtaking boat journey on the Nærøyfjord (Narrow Fjord) and equally astonishing train ride on the Flåmsbana, which corkscrewed up and through the mountainside. I wrote about it for TIME Magazine, who now operate a paywall on their website. So if you want to read the whole thing, here it is in PDF format.
Sadly, not my own photo of Nærøyfjord (courtesy of Visit Norway)
More Excess Baggage (BBC Radio 4)
I was pleased to be invited back onto BBC Radio 4′s flagship travel programme, Excess Baggage, which goes out live every Saturday morning to an audience of around 10 million. Last time, in July 2010, I was talking with the witty Sandi Toksvig about my experience on a desert retreat in Sinai, alongside the writer Anthony Sattin (see the ‘TV & Radio’ page of this website for the podcast).
This time the programme’s theme was Palestine, hosted by the charming John McCarthy and with two other guests: the writer of a new guidebook to Palestine and a young circus performer whose troupe of clowns had recently been out to the region to perform to children. I was asked about my experience of walking there: meeting ordinary Palestinians, sharing meals cooked by local women and sleeping in Bedouin tents and village homes. I wanted to give an alternative view to the negative headlines and the stereotypes so often portrayed in Western media, and tell people about the beauty of the countryside and the warmth of the people I met there.
One of my most memorable experiences when in Palestine was hearing a shepherd play the flute to his flocks, which I filmed. Another was hearing the memories of an old Bedouin sheikh, which I wrote about in the Guardian (and added on a previous post) and the life story of the marvellous lady, well into her 70s and the daughter of an Orthodox priest, who runs the Arab Women’s Guest House in Beit Sahour near Bethlehem, which I stayed in and whose profits go towards women’s projects in the area.
And if anyone would like to visit Palestine, and share some of the same experiences, I recommend this not-for-profit organisation: the Siraj Centre for Holy Land Studies, who will arrange a tailor-made trip for you. Other great organisations that offer walking/cultural trips in Palestine are Walk Palestine (or for cycling, Bike Palestine), and Hijazi Travel, run by a professional hiking guide.
Living in the shadow of the Wall (al-Jazeera)
As Christmas came, and carol singers all over the Christian world were intoning the well-loved “O Little Town of Bethlehem“, al-Jazeera English published a piece I’d written when I visited Bethlehem earlier in the year. Sadly, the silence, peace and magic of the city as celebrated in the carol is long gone as the town is now sliced in two by the brutally ugly concrete wall that Israel started building in 2002. This wall has cut off ordinary Palestinian Christians, many of whom make their livings from tourism to the wonderful Church of the Hold Sepulchre, from their means to make a living and is slowly choking the life out of the city. In the piece I wrote about the plight of one lady, gift shop owner Claire Anastas, and others affected by the separation wall. The story ends with some rays of hope, as you’ll see.
Claire Anastas' gift shop, surrounded on three sides by the wall © Gail Simmons
Letter from the West Bank (Guardian Weekly)
This is (probably) my last post of 2011. It’s been an eventful year – uprisings and revolutions in the Middle East have brought many frustrations – but also new opportunities. As well as writing purely about travel I have branched out into more in-depth features: trying to tell the stories behind the news. One of the stories I heard is that of an old Bedouin sheikh who I met in the desert, near Jerusalem in Palestine. He hosted me overnight in his goat-hair tent, and recounted memories from his childhood over sweet tea and bitter coffee. When he dies, a whole way of life will die with him, as the Bedouin are being ‘resettled’ - not only in Palestine, but throughout much of the Middle East. Here, in 500 words, is his story.
Sheikh Ishmael Ali al-Rashayda © Gail Simmons
Oxford City Guide (Daily Telegraph)
After spending the last few years writing (mostly) about the Middle East it was nice to be asked to write an online guide to somewhere a bit closer to home. In fact it is my home: Oxford. It was great to spend a few days revisiting places in the city I know so well, but as a tourist rather than as a resident. It felt like falling in love all over again. Here’s the result.
Bridge of Sighs, December 2010 © Gail Simmons
Journey to the heart of Oman (Sunday Telegraph)
My journey to Oman last year was a memorable one. Not only for the country’s breathtaking mountain and desert scenery, and her warm and civilised people, but because I was stranded there for a few extra days due to the Icelandic ash cloud. Oman Air, who I was flying with, couldn’t have been more helpful and our excellent treatment was the envy of BA passengers also marooned in Muscat. Eventually I arrived home and filed my copy, which was was first due to be published last summer – but owing a revamp of the Telegraph’s travel pages was delayed for a few months. It was then slated to run this January, but the tsunami of uprisings known as the Arab Spring put paid to that … So here, finally, is my story of a journey into the heart of Oman.
