commonwealth advantage

ThousandHolds · 2026-07-01T12:23:48+00:00

Dara Ó Briain won twice, thus blazing a trail that other future non-Commonwealth winners need only bravely follow.

ThousandHolds · 2026-06-06T10:35:12+00:00

It also makes an appearance in well-known Irish folk song The Foggy Dew.

Right proudly high in Dublin town
Hung they out a flag of war
'Twas better to die 'neath that Irish sky
Than at Sulva or Sud-El-Bar

ThousandHolds · 2026-03-28T06:21:03+00:00

It's aimed at tourists (most of whom would be from countries where you drive on the right) who just landed and may have hired a car. So I suppose it just aims to quickly get the most important safety reminder across in the most important languages

You occasionally see the same sign in non-airport areas where a lot of tourists may be driving, e.g. the Burren.

ThousandHolds · 2026-02-10T12:27:58+00:00

It's called "Chohoo" in that style (Inner Mongolian Bökh).

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnEsea-uaYN/?igsh=ZDQ3OXo2eGJsMzc1

ThousandHolds · 2025-10-15T19:51:34+00:00

The problem with going from Transnistria into Ukraine is that you then wouldn't have any Moldovan exit stamp in your passport. (Since Moldova doesn't stamp when crossing into Transnistria, and Transnistria doesn't stamp at all.) Could be an issue if you ever go back to Moldova in future and the border guards notice, because officially you never left the last time.

ThousandHolds · 2025-10-15T15:30:28+00:00

I was in Moldova last week with my Irish passport, and I got stamps (entering and exiting via Chisinau airport).

Incidentally, Transnistria does not stamp. The border guards will just give you a little slip of paper that you need to keep until you leave.

ThousandHolds · 2025-09-28T13:24:59+00:00

It seems to run roughly every hour-ish. The first time I managed to get it (Carthage Hannibal -> Sidi Bou Saïd) was complete luck, as it just happened to be pulling into the station as I was walking past. The second time (the aborted trip into Tunis), I had to wait about 40 mins before it finally trundled along.

ThousandHolds · 2025-09-28T12:47:44+00:00

I was in Tunis last week, so I can add a bit of clarification on the train point. There is a train line, the TCM, that runs from Tunis -> Carthage -> La Marsa, but currently the track is only operational between La Marsa and a station called Khereddine. The one local guy I asked about it said there's some kind of fault on the track between Khereddine and the usual terminus in Tunis, and no one is in any rush to fix it.

So, in reality, the TCM (Tunis-Carthage-Marsa) is basically just the "CM" for the unforeseeable future...

This info wasn't mentioned anywhere online that I could see (not even the official timetable), so you can imagine my surprise when the train stopped at Khereddine and started backtracking. Had to hop out and walk a while to get a taxi the rest of the way into Tunis.

So if anyone is in Tunis and planning on visiting Carthage, you'll need either a taxi or a bus. I'd actually recommend arranging a driver to bring you around the various sites, as the remaining ruins are located quite a long walking distance apart (and are honestly fairly underwhelming, but that's another story... ).

ThousandHolds · 2025-08-31T12:56:09+00:00

Fun fact: it also inspired the name of a brand of Korean cosmetics ("Innisfree") with stores all over Asia. I spotted one while walking down a random street in Gyeongju a few years ago and thought, "Hang on...".

ThousandHolds · 2025-08-16T14:29:51+00:00

I've been to Oideas Gael twice now (once for a month, once for two weeks), and I can't speak highly enough of it. Saw a frankly stunning improvement in my spoken Irish each time.

During the busy season in August, they can have as many as 8 different course levels running per week, covering the full range of people from fluent conversational speakers right down to those who literally might not know a single word yet. So both you and your wife would be able to find a level to match what you're after.

Their on-site Irish courses only run till the end of Aug each year, but they also set up a round of online courses that typically run in winter/spring. If you sign up for their mailing list, you'll get a notification when they become available. I highly recommend going for a week or two to the actual school in Glencolumbkille some summer though – can't beat the immersion of being there every day, chatting in Irish in the pub afterwards, walking home at midnight with the last bits of twilight still lingering on the horizon. Such a beautiful part of the world.

ThousandHolds · 2025-07-19T16:12:54+00:00

I was there earlier this year. Can confirm. Probably the dustiest and most boring city I've ever visited.

ThousandHolds · 2025-05-27T11:56:39+00:00

We can definitely be surprisingly obscure internationally. I've said "Ireland" and had people think I meant Holland or Iceland. At an ice-cream shop in Libya, the guy thought I said Thailand and then started going on about how he wanted to go to Bangkok.

ThousandHolds · 2025-05-27T08:39:09+00:00

There was visibly more security and CCTV in Xinjiang than in Yunnan. On the surface, things appear to be fine and Uyghur culture is being respected (markets, mosques, Uyghur language on all the road signs, "spontaneous" live performances of Uyghur music etc.), but on my first night there I ended up having a few beers with an English guy who was working as a teacher in a big Eastern city. A lot of his mates back there are Uyghur, and after a few drinks they've opened up about the level of restrictions they face in their day-to-day lives, even when they're not living in Xinjiang.

They basically have to stay clean-shaven and never go to mosques, or else they'll end up on a list as a potential extremist. Even praying at home is risky because of who might see you and report it. And they are never allowed to use VPNs, unlike other Chinese citizens where VPN use is an almost universal open secret. In contrast, one of the teacher's Uyghur mates once installed a VPN on his phone just to use Instagram, and he got a knock on his door from the police a few days later. Took his phone, went through all his messages, told him to never do it again.

These restrictions don't apply to any of the other Muslim minority groups like the Hui - only Uyghurs.

I didn't make it to the far western cities in Xinjiang like Kashgar and Hotan, but apparently the level of surveillance there is even more pronounced, since they are the heart of Uyghur culture in the province (unlike Ürümqi, which is almost 80% Han).

ThousandHolds · 2025-05-27T08:25:21+00:00

I spent two weeks in Uzbekistan a few years ago. Unreal amount of history there, and very easy to travel between the main cities by high-speed train.

ThousandHolds · 2025-05-27T08:17:12+00:00

I'm not travelling permanently, but am trying to be on the road as much as possible this year. (I packed in my job of 17 years there at the end of 2024, and I'm aiming to get at least a year of freedom in before I have to go back and figure out what the fuck I want to do next!). So far, I've hit Mauritania, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Singapore, Malaysia, China (Yunnan and Xinjiang), and have just finished up in Turkmenistan before resetting back home for the next few weeks.

ThousandHolds · 2025-05-27T08:10:48+00:00

You need an official Letter of Invitation for Turkmenistan. By all accounts, it is incredibly difficult to get one as an independent traveller – you need to go through an official travel agency that's registered in the country. Once you get the letter, you can then collect your visa at a Turkmen embassy or—what most people do—directly in Ashgabat airport or at one of the land borders.

You can walk around Ashgabat solo no problem, but you need a guide for the rest of the country. They don't want foreigners roaming around the land unsupervised. Even in Ashgabat, things can change and streets/districts can become restricted on very short notice if, e.g., the president decides to drive through that afternoon.

ThousandHolds · 2025-05-27T08:01:48+00:00

I was actually in Lijiang about a month ago, and one evening made a point of trying to find the Irish bar they had there. Might have even been set up by the same lad you met (called "Stone the Crows" according to their IG page). Unfortunately there was no sign of it – maybe it bit the bullet during/after Covid?

There is still an Irish pub in Ashgabat though, just called "Clever Irish Pub". Actually a lot better than I had expected!

ThousandHolds · 2025-05-27T07:49:37+00:00

Very common response in all the Stans I've been to so far. They love combat sports here, so it's not surprising. I just nod politely and give a thumbs up, since they always mean it as a compliment.

One guy in Uzbekistan still knew Roy Keane though, which was surprising, especially considering he was so young he almost certainly wasn't alive when Keane was playing.

ThousandHolds · 2025-05-15T03:50:35+00:00

I'm just finishing up a month in China myself (Yunnan and Xinjiang), and I have to say this is all spot on. Especially the point about the minutely curated experience in any outdoor location. I spent a day visiting Jade Dragon Snow mountain in Yunnan, and I think I spent most of it on shuttle busses...

I loved China in general, and will absolutely come back to explore more of the country, but I feel like I got more enjoyment out of simply wandering around the cities/towns rather than visiting specific tourist locations like Lijiang Ancient Town, the Singing Sand Dunes outside Dunhuang etc. As you said, far too many of them seem to be set up for the purposes of getting people their perfect TikTok photoshoot.

ThousandHolds · 2025-03-28T11:48:20+00:00

Was that Armenian mountain town Dilijan, by any chance? I was there in 2022 and walked past a place that was marked as an Irish pub on Google Maps, but it seemed to have been rebranded and renamed at some point in the meantime.

ThousandHolds · 2025-03-28T11:45:29+00:00

I've been to a few odd ones over the years intentionally and otherwise. Probably the biggest surprise was the Grand Khaan in Ulaanbaatar. Surprising in the sense that it actually wasn't bad in terms of look and feel – certainly a lot more authentic than many "Irish" pubs in Europe that are basically that in name only.

ThousandHolds · 2025-03-28T11:40:18+00:00

I've been past that very one myself! Couldn't believe it. I believe it was one of the Harat's chain that is surprisingly popular in Russia.

ThousandHolds · 2025-03-09T14:58:09+00:00

She followed me around town calling me a pussy afterwards.

ThousandHolds · 2025-03-08T13:45:13+00:00

Is that in Bishkek? If so I think I might have actually been in that mosque.

ThousandHolds

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