In October 2002 I booked a place on a British Museum trip to Yemen departing in early 2003. Yemen had long been a somewhat unstable place and planning to go there eighteen months on from the 9/11 attacks was probably optimistic. And so it proved. First, the trip was postponed until October 2003; then as the situation in the region rapidly unravelled and remained unstable the trip was cancelled in August 2003. Conditions there now are far, far worse and I’m reconciled to the fact that I shall never visit Yemen.
In 1946 Evelyn Waugh published When the Going Was Good, an anthology of extracts from four of his previous travel books written between 1929 and 1935. Richard Watts, in a 1947 review for the New York Times commented, ‘Today, with the once far-reaches of the earth prosaically around the corner and only interplanetary space left for the Burtons and Doughtys of the future, even Mr. Waugh’s comparatively recent wanderings have achieved the beauty and sweet sadness of nostalgia.’ In practice travel is continually shaped by events beyond our control and even recent travels can assume the air of the going once being good as the places are changed quickly by natural and political events.
In November 1996 I spent several days in Christchurch as part of an extended trip to New Zealand. I recorded at the time: ‘…said to be the most English of NZ cities…’; ‘…river and parks… no buildings older than c.1840, enormously wide streets…trams…’; ‘…the NZ Army Band was playing in the Cathedral Square at lunch time…’. An attractive, relaxing and laid back place. On 22nd February 2011 the Canterbury region was struck by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake. The quake caused widespread damage across Christchurch, especially in the central city and eastern suburbs, killing 185 people, with nationals from more than 20 countries among the victims. Many of the buildings I saw and photographed, including the Cathedral spire were reduced to rubble. Photo: Christchurch Cathedral, New Zealand 1996.
I was in Zanzibar in the summer of 1999 and was met with friendliness and charm – I had one warning about ‘bad boys’, but strolled the streets by day and evening without feeling at all threatened – as is so often the case, local people were quite happy to politely ignore tourists. On August 7th, 2013, two men on motorcycles threw acid on two 18-year-old British volunteer teachers, Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup near Stone Town. The motive remains obscure. In 2013, two explosions took place on the twin island of Unguja, near Mercury’s restaurant by the port, and at the Anglican Cathedral in Stone Town. A bomb attack near a mosque in Stone Town killed one person and injured several others in June 2014. In March 2015, three British nationals were victims of a violent robbery in their home in Zanzibar. The FCO travel advice is to ‘be vigilant at this time’. Photo: Stone Town, Zanzibar, 1999.
In October 2000 I visited Cairo, Alexandria the Nile and Lake Nasser with nothing more threatening than over enthusiastic souvenir sellers. Then conditions had returned to nearly normal after the terrorist massacre of 62 people at the Temple of Hatshepsut, Luxor, on 17th November 1997, though we were usually accompanied by more or less discretely armed guards. Since 2000 there have been terrorist attacks on tourists in 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2014 killing at least 128 people. From 2011 widespread civil unrest has revolved around the removal of Presidents Mubarak and Morsi. In 2014 the Islamist militant unit calling itself Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis told tourists to leave Egypt ‘before it’s too late’. The Nile cruise boats are unlikely to be overcrowded any time soon. Photo: Edfu, Egypt, 2000
Trips to Cuba in 1998 and 2003 were among my most enjoyable and memorable travel experiences – fascinating towns, lovely and varied countryside and coast and warm and beautiful people. Yes, there was poverty and some nastily exploitative tourism, but it seemed to be a country filled with hope and pride in what had been achieved, including standing up to the USA, against the odds. Everywhere felt safe and relaxed. In the past 12-17 years much must have changed along with the substitution of one Castro for another and a burgeoning tourism industry. Most significantly though has been the recent change in the relationship with the USA: President Obama met Raoul Castro in April 2015 and in May the US dropped Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. The Castros won’t live for ever and normal relations between the two countries, when restored, will inevitably bring great changes to the Cuba. Photo: Trinidad, Cuba, 1998
On the 8th and 9th of September 2010 I was in staying in Aleppo. I noted: ‘A city of the very rich and very poor – the rich in ornate apartments and houses in new Aleppo, the poor crammed into the old city.’ Aleppo is now a battle ground for rebel groups and the Assad regime. On the 11th we arrived at Palmyra and stayed one night. I imagined ‘…a paradise in the desert at the end of weeks of thirsty camel travel from China…’; and saw ‘…tombs and temples …all marvellous mellow stone shining in the sun, striking vistas and intimations of great grandeur.’ Isis took Palmyra in May 2015 and the world waits to see if it will be (re)reduced to rubble. This case is the most shocking in the human cost, its avoidability and speed with which a welcoming country has been reduced to a place of nightmares. Photo: Aleppo, Syria, 2010. Picture taken through the window of a moving coach – a rather crude visual diary note that now takes on a greater significance.
In reality all the places visited will have undergone changes and the ones described above may be just the more dramatic and newsworthy. Many places will have changed for the better. Whatever the changes, the big events are a valuable reminder of how photographs taken largely on holidays can become historical records of a world continually in flux when momentarily the going was good.