Proving that my blog posts are like busses - you wait for ages and then three come along at once, it was reported in the UK’s Daily Mail over the weekend that British Olympic Athletes have had a clause added into their contracts forbidding any political dissent at the Beijing Olympics.

Mindful of not wanting to insult the Chinese government, athletes have been forced to sign an amended contract stating that they will not publicly comment on China’s Human Rights record, or their shameful invasion of Tibet. The Daily Mail has likened this instruction to the one given to the England football team to give the Nazi salute when playing at an international in Berlin in 1938, and used this picture, previously unpublished in the UK, as an illustration.

Bearing in mind that the Dalai Lama has called for peaceful protests at the Beijing Olympics, over the issue of Tibet, then it seems that the British Olympic Association is siding WITH the Chinese Authorities AGAINST the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet.

Interestingly the British Prince Charles has indicated that he will not attend or support the games, although his niece, Zara Phillips (Granddaughter to the Queen) will be forced to sign the contract if she does attend the Olympics. That could be an interesting debate over the family dinner table!

Most travellers know that possession of cannabis has been decriminalised in Amsterdam, and that you can consume small amounts in coffee shops with impunity, yet most people wouldn’t be so dumb as to try to take some home.

Fewer people might know that the mildly addictive herb Khat (or Qat) that is widely consumed in North Africa and Arabia is also legal in the United Kingdom, yet many people have been arrested taking it from there, to other countries in Europe.

Yet did you know that if you take a common painkiller that contains codeine (which can be bought over the counter all over the world) or certain cold and flu remedies, and then fly through the United Arab Emirates even days later, you can be locked up for a mandatory four years for possession of a banned substance?

The BBC News website is reporting a number of worrying cases where people have fallen foul of the stringent UAE drug laws, which are backed up with very sensitive detection equipment.

Substances - even miniscule amounts - can be found on your person, or even through blood or urine samples! A British man is facing four years in prison for having 0.003g of cannabis stuck the the sole of his shoe - an amount weighing less than a grain of sugar, and invisible to the human eye! Even more bizarrely, a Swiss National is currently serving four years in prison, after three poppy seeds from a bread roll which he ate at Heathrow airport were found on his clothes!

The organisation, Fair Trials Abroad, has a list of pharmaceuticals and medicines which are banned in the UAE. Even if you study this list, and stick to it for weeks before your departure, I would have to say, why bother? With recent studies finding that 99.9% of UK banknotes and 94% of Euro banknotes carry traces of cocaine, then the only safe advice for travellers must be to avoid ALL travel to the UAE, or even changing planes in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, lest you might end up with the mother of all plane delays - four years in the slammer! You have been warned!

Firstly sorry for the extended silence. I have been up to my neck in a couple of new book projects, and have let things slip. This hasn’t been helped by the number of people who contact me about working for them, and expect me to work for free! Seriously! One guy hasn’t got the budget to pay me to write a story for his (very large) magazine, so he expects to be able to interview me for all of the information and write the story himself. Another wants me to act as a consultant for his company in return for lunch. Things have got so bad I have even put a page up on my website to direct people to, when they suggest such things, complete with a link to a fantastic Harlan Ellison You Tube interview.

I used to be a member of the Royal Geographical Society in London. This august organisation was responsible for many of the world’s great explorers before the National Geographic Society was even a yellow border in it’s founders eye. This was where the great explorers used to come to announce their discoveries to an expectant world. In the end I let my membership lapse because I kept missing meetings when I was overseas, and when I was in London I never seemed to get round to it.

Still, there were some amazing speakers, and the sad death of Sir Edmund Hillary last month, reminded me of a talk I attended by the first man to climb Mount Everest. No this wasn’t Sir Edmund, but a mountaineer and author called Tim Macartney-Snape. Not as you might expect a raving lunatic, Macartney-Snape was apparently the first person to climb Everest FROM SEA LEVEL! He started on a beach in the Bay of Bengal, walked all the way to Everest, climbed it without oxygen, then walked back to the coast! This phenomenal achievement was carried out in 1990, and was the inspiration behind his Sea To Summit clothing and survival gear range.

Ignoring the current libel case between Macartney-Snape and elements of the Australian media (largely because despite reading his website I am still at a loss as to what it is all about), I have to say I do have sympathy with his Everest claims. I mean, how far up a mountain do can you start, and still claim to have climbed it. If you fly to Lhasa, and then get a 4WD to base camp, you might still have to do the hard bit, but mountains are measured from sea level after all! If I got helicoptered to within 50 metres of the top of Everest then hiked the rest of the way, would I too be a summiteer?

The deadline is approaching for submission to a writing contest that could give you access to one of the best literary seminars/writing conferences in the world. Aspiring and practicing travel writers will find it particularly attractive. No, it’s not the Book Passage travel writers and photographers conference in San Francisco, although I’m sure that one’s well worth attending, too. But Book Passage doesn’t take place over two weeks during White Nights in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Summer Literary Seminars (SLS) have been running for less than a decade, but have quickly taken their position as one of the most inspiring writing conferences around. I attended in 2006, and heard from professional and beginning writers alike that St. Petersburg gave them the best creative high they’d ever gotten from a writing conference, including revered institutions like Bread Loaf.

From the giddiness of walking around in the midnight sun, to readings from Russian poets; from late nights of chilly vodka shots with the visiting writer to following Roskolnikov’s footsteps during the Dostoevsky Tour, the Summer Literary Seminars offers travelers packed days and nights of a singular immersion experience: that of writing and place. Their mission statement says it all:

“SLS is premised on the not-so-novel idea that one’s writing can greatly benefit from the keen sense of temporary displacement created by an immersion in a thoroughly foreign culture and street vernacular.”

I was lucky enough to take the travel writing class from the fantastic Tom Swick (and subsequently shame myself by almost getting him lost when I was meant to be guiding him through the metro), who unfortunately won’t be teaching this year. But you’ll get the entertaining Stephanie Griest instead (author of Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana).

Since it’s the second year in a row I won’t be able to attend (grr), you won’t see me propping up The Office bar at 2 in the morning, you won’t be getting my walking tour of the Krestovsky Islands, and you won’t get a Russian dinner at my aunt’s apartment. But you will get to hear even more Russian writers read their work; a chance to take the midnight train to Moscow; and coffee-, sunlight-, and vodka-fueled inspiration with some of the most interesting people you’ll ever meet.

The deadline for the writing contest is February 28th, and the winner gets tuition and airfare paid for. Open admission is on a rolling basis, but why not try to go for free? SLS also runs a sister program in Kenya over Christmas, and submissions to the Russia contest are also considered for the Kenya program.

This is not for the particularly health-conscious, but for those who are willing to turn a blind eye to cholesterol count, I recommend a stop at Mac’s Speed Shop (”Beer, Bikes and BBQ”) in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The crowd is a strange mix of buttoned-up business types from nearby downtown — Charlotte is the number two banking center in the US behind New York — bikers, college students and general BBQ enthusiasts.

The food is classic western North Carolina BBQ (with fresh coleslaw on top of the pulled pork sandwiches) plus the usual bar-type grub like quesadillas and wings.  The cup next to the sandwich above is full of collard greens, and they were pretty yummy, along with the deep-fried little round cornbread gut bombs called hushpuppies that you can see mounded in the basket.

The beer?  Local Carolina Blonde, brewed just down the road from Charlotte in Mooresville NC.  It was a most satisfying meal, suggested by Delilah at the Charlotte Regional Visitor’s Authority.  Thank you, Delilah!

Related: 

• A North Carolina BBQ tour on CHOW.com
• A road trip plus NASCAR fun in “Southern Comfort” on Automotive Traveler