Travel Notes
Lessons gathered across borders and on the move.
I spend much of my work life on the move meeting companies, leaders and teams in different countries, industries and cultures.
That constant exposure shapes the way I think and the way I solve problems.
These Travel Notes collect the insights that only emerge when you work outside your own borders: ideas born in airports, conversations that shifted perspectives, and experiences that refined my approach long before they became a method or a project.
Featured Notes
Tamerlane’s Onyx
Samarkand, September 2022. Registan glittered beneath the spotlights of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit. The three madrasas—Ulugh Beg, Sher-Dor, and Tilla-Kari—towered over the square with their turquoise façades, golden mosaics, and black shadows between the arches. In the private rooms, delegates were speaking about cooperation, security, and development. In the corridors, their attendants threatened sanctions, […]
The Gypsy’s Gambit
Gaziantep, August 2016 Çingene Kızı, the Gypsy Girl, is embedded in the museum’s pale stone wall, holding a secret she is in no hurry to reveal. No display case, no glass: just the mosaic, filtered by discreet lights that accentuate its millenary grain. Zeynep Yilmaz stood just a few steps away, facing her. In […]
The Poison Market
Casablanca, February 2026. The city changes states without warning. At night, La Corniche is a dilute solution: lights, music, people mixing without leaving a trace. The Port is a suspension: heavy particles, friction, gravity. Le Triangle d’Or is a supersaturated solution: a single grain of dust can crystallize into a sharpened blade. La Ville Nouvelle […]
The shadows of Zamalek
Cairo, August 2024. At the Outdoors Lounge, Gin Tonics are consumed under the distracted gaze of marble sphinxes. It is a sort of geopolitical incubation chamber, an oligarchic limbo where Cairo’s elite mingles with the ghosts of international finance. Placidly, the Nile flows beyond the balustrade like a ribbon of dark silk. The breeze […]
The Logistics of Chaos
Addis Ababa, November 2021 At the lobby, there was that kind of silence that wasn’t an absence of noise, but rather a filter: behind the thick glasses, the city seemed suspended in a pause. Inside Hyatt Regency, everything moved along as if the war were only a red line running across the screen. In […]
All Posts
Tamerlane’s Onyx
Samarkand, September 2022. Registan glittered beneath the spotlights of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit. The three madrasas—Ulugh Beg, Sher-Dor, and Tilla-Kari—towered over the square with their turquoise façades, golden mosaics, and black shadows between the arches. In the private rooms, delegates were speaking about cooperation, security, and development. In the corridors, their attendants threatened sanctions, […]
The Gypsy’s Gambit
Gaziantep, August 2016 Çingene Kızı, the Gypsy Girl, is embedded in the museum’s pale stone wall, holding a secret she is in no hurry to reveal. No display case, no glass: just the mosaic, filtered by discreet lights that accentuate its millenary grain. Zeynep Yilmaz stood just a few steps away, facing her. In […]
The Poison Market
Casablanca, February 2026. The city changes states without warning. At night, La Corniche is a dilute solution: lights, music, people mixing without leaving a trace. The Port is a suspension: heavy particles, friction, gravity. Le Triangle d’Or is a supersaturated solution: a single grain of dust can crystallize into a sharpened blade. La Ville Nouvelle […]
The shadows of Zamalek
Cairo, August 2024. At the Outdoors Lounge, Gin Tonics are consumed under the distracted gaze of marble sphinxes. It is a sort of geopolitical incubation chamber, an oligarchic limbo where Cairo’s elite mingles with the ghosts of international finance. Placidly, the Nile flows beyond the balustrade like a ribbon of dark silk. The breeze […]
The Logistics of Chaos
Addis Ababa, November 2021 At the lobby, there was that kind of silence that wasn’t an absence of noise, but rather a filter: behind the thick glasses, the city seemed suspended in a pause. Inside Hyatt Regency, everything moved along as if the war were only a red line running across the screen. In […]