Simon Buckby was a London-based BBC and Financial Times journalist, among other things, before running communications consultancies. He has travelled to well over 100 countries, and recently moved from Hong Kong to Dubai.
There is more to South Korea than the high-tech hub of Seoul. Our main reason for coming was to see the DMZ and the heavily-militarised border with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. But first we started with a relaxing time on the beach at the Republic of Korea’s main summer holiday destination for its own citizens.
Like an onion, the layers of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are too many and too deep for tourists to see what is really going on, especially in the environment of the strictly policed tour that is required to visit the country as a foreigner. But you can pick at the surface, and you will certainly get to know the country as its officials wish to present it to the world, and this is more than sufficiently fascinating to make the accompanying frustrations worth bearing.
First timers to Africa will find Cabo Verde a very easy step to take. Sun, sand, world-class surfing, a little bit of culture, a lot of hiking up volcanoes, but with no need for injections and no threat of violence.
Surprisingly few foreign tourists make it to Punjab, the small state on the north-west of India neighbouring Pakistan. But those who do witness two very different treasures - the Golden Temple of Amritsar and the border ceremony at Wagah - that are among the greatest attractions in the world, never mind the sub-continent.
On this classic itinerary you will see all the famous palaces, citadels and monuments, have your senses assaulted from all sides, and come away with so many talking-point experiences that you will feel you have at least an introductory insight into this vast and complex country.
It is 40 years since Bob Dylan wrote his lovely, catchy ditty; 40 years since independence from Portugal; and, as one of my guides put it, "Mozambique is finally starting to grow up".
Empty Caribbean white-sand beaches baked in year-round sun, with rhum sours and lobster dripping in Creole sauce, five star hotels and modern transport that requires virtually no advanced booking, along with deserted first rate heritage sights, all at the home of voodoo.
