planxty's VirtualTourist Home Page

OK, the time has come (the walrus said?) and I cannot put it off any longer. Looking at my homepage I noticed that there are portions of it over three years old. Not good enough, I think, and time to sort it out.

Much has happened in my life both personally and travel wise since I started my VT odyssey, although I do not intend to bore you with all that. I remain completely besotted by VT and still find it a great source of information when planning trips as well as a great read for the "armchair traveller" and I hope to be on here for some time to come.

For those of you that I have spoken to before, I still live in London and still find it a great place to be. If any readers have any questions about this great city, please feel free to contact me. I have a good knowledge of the place and, if I don't know the answer, I will be able to find it for you.

Just a quick word about my London page though. In an attempt to be geographically correct, I have split my tips up into the various areas of the city, although this can prove confusing for the VT reader. Due to the vagaries of the system, some areas of London are shown in the Greater London section and some are shown as seperate areas of the UK. Confusing I know.

The photo has nothing to do with this at all, and it replaces another very favourite image of mine and which I took in the County of Kent in Southern England a while back. It is of a butterfly, a photo I am very pleased with and which I took in the wonderful village of Wodbere and which you can see in my tips and travelogues of Grove Ferry. The reason for it being Grove Ferry and not Westbere are explained in the text of the pages.

It just goes to show that Vter's do not have to go far or travel to exotic places, nice as that is. Make tips about what is on your doorstep.

OK, if you are with me so far, and still want to know about London you may want to also look at my Bethnal Green, Eltham, Greenwich, Hampstead, Highbury, Holborn Mile End, and Stepney tips.

For something slightly further afield but still within Greater London, perhaps Richmond might be of interest to you.

The photo is probably my favourite of London showing the Canary Wharf complex from the West.

Well, I have not travelled overseas as much as I would have liked recently, although a change in personal circumstances lately means that I may well have the opportunity to indulge my wanderlust more than I have previously been able.

Every cloud has, as they say, a silver lining, and I have been using my time to explore places much closer to home. Some recent trips include Pickering, Pocklington, and a very welcome return to Whitstable. It really is amazing what treasures there are on your own doorstep if you look for them.

The photo is of the wonderful fish and seafood available in Whitstable Fish Market. It makes me hungry just looking at it, and, yes, it was that tasty!

Having travelled for so long, I really can't understand how I didn't get into photography earlier. I have now been totally bitten by the photography bug. I have bought a Minolta Dynax 5D, and I'm really pleased with it. The majority of the more recent photos on my travel pages (especially the Burma pages) were taken with it. This photo is one taken in Dallah, a suburb of Rangoon and is another favourite of mine

Trawling through VT, it is obvious there are some great photographers here, so any suggestions would be welcomed.

The photograph at the top of my homepage is one of my recent favourites. It was taken on a recent trip to Kent and I was really pleased with the clarity of it, never mind the natural beauty of the creature itself.

You can see some other examples of my photos in the various albums on my travel pages and on this page. Hope you like them.

On beginning my homepage on VT I chose the header line "OK, where to now", and after a few changes, have reverted to it as it is a question always close to my heart. Approaching my 50th birthday rather rapidly, my desire to travel remains undiminished.

Now, I don't think I'm having a midlife crisis, at least not any more than over the last 20 years or so, but I happened to be sitting in a London bar some time ago thinking. Nothing unusual in that, I have to say. I was, at the time, re-reading Michael Palin's excellent Around the World in Eighty Days, which I thoroughly recommend, and found myself taking stock a little about what I had actually done with my life. Before you stop reading, don't worry, this is not a long discourse on matters philosophical. I did, however, and as the title line suggests, come to the conclusion that I have been one lucky man. I have visited somewhere in the region of 40 countries and thoroughly enjoyed them all.

I have seen Angkor and Bagan, walked the Annapurna trail, swum with a dolphin in the wild, bathed an elephant, watched the sun rise over the Himalayas outside Darjeeling and stood on the Equator in Ecuador amongst a host of other experiences too numerous to mention here.

For me, my guitar and my rucksack are almost inseperable, and musically I have played to an entire Nepalese village, headlined a Folk Festival in Norway, played 16 years at the brilliant Broadstairs Folk Week (see my Broadstairs page for details), got horrendously drunk playing an all-nighter with Slovak musicians in and around Bratislava, and so it goes on. Frankly, as long as my health and finances hold up, I can see no reason why I won't be playing and travelling in 20 years!

There are far too many cliches about travel but, like most cliches they are rooted in an element of truth. Yes, travel does broaden the mind. Yes, a journey of a thousand mile does begin with a single step and so on. To return to the beginning, there was a lovely quote in the Palin book, written whilst in Dubai, "Travellers depend so much on people, and have to place enormous trust in them. Strangers become friends quickly, but all too briefly........." I couldn't have put it better myself!

The photo again is purely random, taken in Greece, a country I retain a great fondness for.

As you can see if you check the link on my bio, I am lucky enough to play in a Celtic / country band. Apart from ourselves, obviously ;-)), what music do I like? Well, my musical tastes are fairly eclectic. In my collection I have everything from Marlene Deitrich to Hendrix by way of South American panpipe music and Greek bozouki albums. Here are some of my favourites.

Rory Gallagher. The first gig I ever saw in January 1974 in Belfast. A great musician and sadly missed.

Fish. I absolutely loved (and still do) the older Marillion stuff, but he is now a superb solo artist. I took the photo at a gig in Edinburgh a couple of years ago, and a few of my photographic efforts are on his website now. I also contributed some photography for the last live album Communion, which made me more proud than you can possibly imagine. A really nice bloke, I've partied with him a few times.

It's probably to do with my age, but I love prog rock - Yes, early Genesis, ELP, Fruupp (very good Belfast band) and so on.

I love most 60's and 70's music - Hendrix, the Who, CSN, Neil Young (who just keeps on rocking), Moody Blues, Stones, Beatles Wishbone Ash.

Given my folk leanings, it's probably no surprise the I love folk and folk rock. Favoutrites in this category include Fairport Convention (obviously) , the late Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, Battlefield Band, Wolfstone, Runrig, the Byrds.

I really must also extol the musical virtues of a good mate of mine whom I had the privelege of recording a CD with a while back. He's a guy called Tim Edey and he's one of the most talented multi-instrumentalists in Britain today. I'm not just saying that because he's a mate - it really is true. Check out his website.

Tim Edey

Of more modern artists, I like Coldplay and Travis, to name but two.

To be honest, I could go on and on, but I hope this has given you an idea of the types of things I'm into.

You will have read above about my musical tastes, and if you have checked my external link you will know that I am a musician of sorts. A few weeks ago, my band was priveleged enough to share a stage with three musicians I greatly admire, namely Billy Bragg, Leon Rosselson and Martin Carthy. The whole day was a great pleasure, and Billy was extremely generous to us semi-pro musicians.

The photo shows us backstage during the concert and I really am rather proud of it. In case you are a little confused, I have grown my hair since the profile photo was taken!

If you have read this far, firstly, thank you, and secondly, you might want a few pointers as to what to look at on my VT pages, unless you have something specific to search for.

I always try to write unbiased and objective tips on VT, although sometimes my passion for a particular place perhaps clouds my judgement. I suppose this is only human nature. I greatly admire those VT members who obviously spend a huge amount of time researching before they write. A wonderful example of this is Pure 1942's pages on Bosnia which I read only yesterday. what a wonderful example of how travellers can help each other through this great site. I pick this as one example, there are so many others. Update - the Tallinn page from Mightywease is abother fine example of a well-written page.

Without wishing to sound evangelical, I genuinely believe that VT is an invaluable travel resource, indeed, I have planned several short trips without recourse to a guide book, using only VT tips, and have not been disappointed yet. Keep it up folks.

I have also made several friends through VT that I meet occasionally in person. Take a bow, Bilimari and her wonderful husband and Mariajoy, both delightful ladies, we must catch up soon.

Just another random photo to fill the space, this one is of a rusty old anchor chain!