Inspiring Travel Writing from Brendan Sainsbury
Hailing originally from London in England, Brendan left home in the mid-90s and never really went back. In between penning travel stories he has hitch-hiked across Africa, taught English in Thailand, dug latrines in Angola and worked as a tour guide in Spain, Morocco and Cuba. He finally came to rest in 2004 at White Rock, British Columbia, after marrying a Canadian doctor whom he had impressed with his Flamenco guitar-playing in Spain. Brendan speaks Spanish and is fascinated by Latin America. His main passions are music, Moorish architecture, being "on the road", and following Southampton football club. Recent writing credits include TNT Magazine, The Morning Star, Student Traveller and The Australian Newspaper.
Articles by Brendan Sainsbury
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Granada: Singing with the Sandinistas
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Brendan Sainsbury
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Spain
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Andalucia
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Granada
Growing up as a young politics student in the 1980s, distant Nicaragua always held an exotic and indefinably enigmatic allure. Caught in the crossfire of my adolescent imagination, I saw a country of impassioned politics and khaki-clad soldiers...
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The Chicken Bus to Antigua
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Brendan Sainsbury
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Antigua & Barbuda
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Antigua
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Antigua
"Amigo," rasps the man in the Panama hat, breathing the strong aroma of Cuban tobacco into my face, "Y'know, there's an old Guatemalan joke." I grimace, as the bus lists dangerously to the right, throws me off balance momentarily and delivers me...
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The Rebel Quintet
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Brendan Sainsbury
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Dominican Republic
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Dominican Republic Region
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Santo Domingo
It's December 1956 in a remote part of Western Cuba. Just off the coast, a group of 82 volunteer soldiers for Castro have just had to abandon their leaking and overcrowded leisure yacht. Scrambling through a swamp and forced to abandon most of their...
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Morocco: The Crumbling Kasbah of Telouet
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Brendan Sainsbury
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Morocco
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Atlas Mountains
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Telouet
Picture a castle, deserted and abandoned, succumbing slowly to the ravages of time. Picture a labyrinth of opulent rooms, wrecked and looted, flickering with just the smallest hint of their former greatness. Picture a ruined old man - the once...
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Angola: The Call-Up
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Brendan Sainsbury
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Angola
Army recruitment in Angola has never been a particularly consistent affair. The rules are what you might call "open to interpretation." On paper the government follows a two-year conscription policy. In practice the process is a little more...
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The Canadian Rockies
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Brendan Sainsbury
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Canada
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Alberta
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Banff
Glacier-capped mountains, sapphire lakes and enough pine-scented forest to fill a country the size of Switzerland: the Canadian Rockies have been drawing intrepid travellers to their rugged, lofty peaks for over a century. Outdoor enthusiasts...
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Hotel Sevilla
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Brendan Sainsbury
Al Capone once booked out the whole sixth floor, Graham Greene used it as a setting for his 1959 novel “Our Man in Havana” and the Mob commandeered it as a base for their North American cocaine racket. Following a full makeover a couple of years ago...
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Palacio de Santa Inés
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Brendan Sainsbury
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Spain
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Andalucia (Granada)
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Granada
The older brother of the nearly Carmen, the Palacio de Santa Inés replicates many of its smaller namesake’s design features – but on a far more accomplished and grander scale. One wonders, in the circumstances, how the two interlinked establishments...
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Cuevas el Abanico
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Brendan Sainsbury
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Spain
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Andalucia (Granada)
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Granada
Located a mere mile or so away from the main cluster of Granada’s popular downtown hotels, Cuevas el Abanico presents a distinctly different feel to the facilities offered elsewhere. Built originally into caves on crags overlooking the steep...
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El Ladrón de Agua
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Brendan Sainsbury
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Spain
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Andalucia (Granada)
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Granada
El Ladrón de Agua, situated on the edge of Granada's old Moorish quarter, is a small sixteenth century palace that nestles beneath the imposing heights of the Alhambra hill. Refurbished in 2001-04 with a distinctly modern sparkle this refreshingly...