Cultures, food, heritage and the people who give a place its soul - across Africa, the Middle East and Asia, in the spirit of the old Silk Road.
Start exploring
Cultures, food, heritage and the people who give a place its soul - across Africa, the Middle East and Asia, in the spirit of the old Silk Road.
Start exploring
Hi, I'm Iréné
Rwandan by origin, raised in Brussels, I've spent my life moving between worlds - and I've turned that in-between into a way of travelling. I go looking for the markets, kitchens, languages and traditions that a guidebook skips, and I write them down here.
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New dispatches from the road, roughly once a month. No noise.
No spam — just stories worth your time.
How Dubai Replaced Geneva as the Vital Node of the Modern Energy Silk Road For decades, the lakeside city of Geneva was home to many of the traders who sold Russia’s oil to consumers around the world. But since Switzerland joined the embargo imposed on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine, much of that trade…
Read moreDuring the 18th century in the American colonies, land, enslaved people, and credit were used as a way of measuring, securing, and multiplying wealth. In a world before modern banks, stock markets, or paper money as we know it, wealth wasn't about how much cash you had in your wallet. It was about tangible assets…
Read moreA standout piece in the British Museum’s Silk Roads exhibition is a 7th-century mural from Samarkand, a major Silk Road city. The painting reflects the vibrant cultural exchange and artistic influences that connected Asia, Europe, and Africa centuries before Marco Polo. A small Buddha statue crafted in the Swat Valley of present-day Pakistan and later…
Read moreA small Swahili town on the coast, the Indian Ocean to its right, where Islam and Christianity live side by side - peacefully, without fuss. Few people, much calm: a place for anyone in search of a certain serenity.
Inland lies Arabuko-Sokoke, the largest coastal forest in East Africa, home to rare residents - the Clarke's weaver, the Sokoke scops owl, the golden-rumped sengi.
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