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What is a Numbers Station
There is a famous quote from a spokesperson in what was at the time the Department of Trade and Industry…
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Spango Valley
Just south of Greenock, in Inverclyde, western Scotland, is a derelict business park called Spango Valley, and an associated closed…
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The Russian Woodpecker
On my visit to Chernobyl and Pripyat, one of the places I was taken to was a site known as…
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Visiting Pripyat
Whenever anyone thinks of visiting Chernobyl, what they think of often isn’t the power plant itself. Rather, it’s the pictures…
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Chernobyl City and the Exclusion Zone
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station was the scene of an explosion in April 1986. It was such a significant event…
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How to Visit Chernobyl
At the time of writing this blog post, Chernobyl has been off-limits to visitors for a number of years. It…
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I Was Born In Year Zero: The Killing Fields
I was born in Year Zero. To be absolutely precise, I was born a few months *after* the Khmer Rouge…
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Why you should visit St Kilda
St Kilda, as far as we know, never existed. The name is likely to have come from the Norse word…
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Apartheid and discrimination in South Africa
When I mentioned about Apartheid on my Twitter timeline, I assumed it was a reference that everyone understood and could…
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West Africa and The Atlantic Slave Trade
I’ve alluded to this before, but remarkably, as Brits, we don’t really learn too much about the British Empire and…
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Nambas & Cannibals: Culture & History of Malekula
Malekula, the second largest island in Vanuatu, is noted in culture for two things, and they’re kind of related, though…
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Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain
I’ve always been interested in history. But history on my own terms, about topics I can relate to, not necessarily…
Dark Tourism
Dark Tourism. A phrase that’s become popular in recent times. Maybe people are becoming more aware of history, or maybe it’s because it’s becoming the ‘in’ style of destination travel.
For me, the concept of dark tourism is linked to my passion for history. I like visiting places with an interesting backstory. It just so happens that much of history is made up of times when people have been … problematic. This could be to other people, or to the environment. I’m also drawn to places where nature itself has made an impact on human history.
From revolution and fights for independence in Timor-Leste, to genocide and dictatorship in Cambodia. From colonialism and the slave trade in Africa, to the effects of bad planning in the Soviet Union. All these sites count as places I’ve visited for dark tourism purposes.
