Ten o'clock Thursday night (20 October 2005), Kath my Aussie travelling companion has gone to bed. I walk toward the bridge over to Hanuman Ghat on Lake Pichola in Udaipur. This is the Venice of Rajasthan, an alluring, seductive city built by the Maharajas.

I am not ready for bed and I want some hard liquor to help me kill my cold. I wait for the first auto rickshaw to come along and I hail it.

I had only just arrived in Casablanca - Casa to locals - and decided to get straight into the heart of it. I wandered through the teeming medina, where you can buy anything from sweet dates to leather goods to MP3s of the latest Maroc hits - then out into the city and into a giant slum area. I have to admit I was a bit nervous. I just kept walking like I knew where I was going and eventually found myself near the sea.

On my second day in Casa I call Meki, the cab driver who picked me up at the train station on my arrival the day before. He spoke good English and said he would give me a tour of the city for a price we agreed in advanced.

The tour operator Coex Amazon is specialised in offering adventurous expeditions with an eco-cultural profile. It offers 5 different expeditions for experience Peru’s exotic and wild nature. We break through the jungle by river boats, on the horseback and trekking, tells the owner and manager Oyvind Wesseltoft.

Are you ready for exploring off beaten tracks in Peru? Then the pioneering tour operator Coex Amazon in Peru can offer you something special on its expedition tours. Coex Amazon attended the Norway International Meeting and Travel Fair, Reiseliv, for the second time. According the establisher and owner Oyvind Wesseltoft it’s so much undiscovered in the Peru, especially in the dense Amazon jungle.

Svalbard was presented on the 21st Norway International Meeting and Travel Fair - Reiseliv 08, from 10 - 13 January 2008. On Svalbard genuine adventurers can experience arctic wildlife, glaciers, large icebergs and a surrounding landscape of vast mountains and tundra.

On Norway International Meeting and Travel fair 2008, representatives from Iceland focused on the Vatnajokull glacier. When USA prepared to send men to the moon in the 1960s, the organisation NASA used Vatnajokull as a training ground. Some scenes from the recent James Bond movies have been shot there. A more dramatic landscape can hardly be found in the world!

The dramatic ascent the Italian Franco Mount Franco D'Astassi did was incredible. He knew that Mount Kenya – Mt. Kenya is the second highest peak in Africa after Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, but that didn’t stop him. The mountain is located in the central highlands a couple of hundred kilometres north of the equator. It is here where the Kikuyu god ngai resides. The name of the country Kenya has been known to have been derived from Mount Kenya which was formerly known as Mount Kirinyaga.

I dream about White Christmas song Bing Crosby for over 60 years ago. This dream can be mostly realized in the wilderness in Rovaniemi in Finland. It`s especially fun to drive reindeers. And even more: here it’s great opportunities for a wide range of winter activities. So take your time!

The seventeenth century masterpiece “Portrait of a Knight” painting by Caravaggio will be arriving in Malta on Tuesday on loan from Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti in Florence. This painting is one of the few pictures that Caravaggio painted during his stay in Malta in 1607-1608. It will be on display for public viewing at St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, between the 11th October and 16th December 2007.

On a 3-days tour on a bike in Laos in February 2007 Chris from US encountered many challenges, especially trouble with his motorcycle. Anyway driving around on a motorcycle in Laos is a wonderful way to experience the landlocked country. As Lonely Planet describes the country on its website: Snaking rivers, lush jungle, hectic markets and the UNESCO-listed Plain of Jars. Lonely Planet considers Laos as the highlight of Southeast Asia.

I went up a big rise and began to coast it on the other side, spying a village below. I pulled into the gas/mechanic hut and had them get a wrench to check the oil. The cap was so encrusted with petrified dirt that it could not be unscrewed by hand. The mechanic, an ancient crease-faced man, undid the cap and peered into the smoking oil chamber, which was empty. He shook his head and pointed.

Eventually the road stopped winding and climbing and I rolled into a proper town, or what passes for one in remote areas of Laos. Was this Nakai? Had I reached my day’s goal? The roads were dirt and the whole place covered in reddish dust. It had the feel a frontier boomtown – a result of the work the dam project had brought, to be sure. As I entered the town I noticed a large billboard. In English it boldy welcomed me, but the name of the place wasn’t “Nakai”. I supposed that this was a town not accounted for on the map and decided to press on until I came to the real Nakai.

The Mechanic was a man, though one unsuited for farm work. He was deformed, with shriveled and useless legs. He had matted long hair with bits of wood and grass in it and wore an old army jacket so filthy that I had an impulse to yank it off and burn it. He got around on his hands, which seem longer and broader than usual, but perhaps this was only a result of him ambling about on them for a lifetime.

The first thing I did was stop into the nearest garage and have my mirco-mirrors tightened. Little did I know of how many more Lao mechanics’ garages I would see over the next few days. I would experience a real life Zen of motorcycle maintenance, emptying my mind while watching Buddhist after Buddhist labor over my sad machine.