For over fifty years in the late fifteenth to the mid sixteenth century, Ireland was not ruled from Dublin, it was ruled from Kildare, by the powerful Fitzgerald dynasty based here in their castle in Maynooth.

After the Norman invasions of Ireland, the land around Maynooth in Kildare that had formerly belonged to the O’Byrne family, was granted by Richard de Clare the leader of the Norman forces to Gerald fitzMaurice fitzGerald in 1176. FitzGerald chose Maynooth to be the capital (known at the time as the caput). Originally it was thought that like many other Norman castles in Ireland, the first defensive structures on site would have been made of earth and timber. However in a recent article for Archaeology Ireland, Professor Tadhg O’Keefe of UCD convincingly argues* the case for the first construction to be of stone.
He notes in particular many similarities with the great donjon of Trim Castle, situated relatively close by in County Meath and suggests that there was sharing of knowledge, architects and builders between the two powerful medieval magnates of de Lacey and fitzGerald.

The keep or donjon of Maynooth Castle

By the end of the thirteenth century, the Fitzgerald’s became one of the leading Anglo-Norman families in Ireland. Their profile was boosted considerably in 1316 when King Edward II raised John fitzThomas fitzGerald to the Earldom of Kildare for his services during Edward the Bruce’s invasion of Ireland. However it was in the late fifteenth century when the fitzGerald’s reached their apogee. Gerald fitzGerald was trusted by King Henry VII to rule Ireland in his name. This brought huge wealth to fitzGerald and it was noted that Maynooth Castle was richly decorated. His son, [also called Gerald but known as Gearóid Óg] was Lord Deputy of Ireland for King Henry VIII three times (1513–34, 1524–28 and 1532–34).

He had unprecedented power in Ireland and jealously guarded his families interests. FitzGerald was summoned to London in 1534 by King Henry VIII, and he left his son Thomas as deputy governor in his absence. Thomas was a flamboyant young hothead, known as Silken Thomas for the silk his men wove into their helmets. A false rumour spread that the Earl had been executed by the King, Silken Thomas was enraged at the thoughts of his father being put to death in the Tower of London. He flew into a rage, and charged into St. Mary’s Abbey where the Kings Council in Ireland were meeting. He threw down the sword of state in an act of defiance, and immediately began a campaign against the Kings forces in Ireland. He had his men cut off the water supply to Dublin and laid siege to the City. The campaign was going well, until the Crown forces realised that Silken Thomas had neglected to defend his own stronghold of Maynooth. The English army under William Skeffington managed to negotiate their way into Maynooth Castle, but once inside they slaughtered many of the inhabitants. Silken Thomas heard of the bloodshed and immediately marched to try and save his family home, but he was ambushed and captured on the way. He was brought in chains to London, where he heard that his father had actually died of natural causes and had not been executed after all. Thomas and his five uncles were brought to the place of execution in London, Tyburn, and brutally executed by being hung drawn and quartered. The castle was thought to have been betrayed by Thomas’s foster brother Christopher Paris. The morning after Skeffington took the castle he offered his thanks to Christopher Paris and paid him for his services, but then ordered Paris to be beheaded, probably because he had shown himself to be a duplicitous character not to be trusted.

The undercroft or cellar level inside the keep has a number of interpretative panels

The execution of Silken Thomas and his uncles marked the effective end of the fitzGerald ascendancy, and by the early seventeenth century Maynooth Castle had started to fall into disrepair. Richard Boyle, father of the famous scientist Robert Boyle, became the guardian of the young George fitzGerald and became his father-in-law when George married Boyle’s daughter Joan. He spent large sums renovating Maynooth Castle and constructed a fashionable Manor House. As part of his works many of the original medieval domestic buildings were demolished. The castle suffered a number of sieges and attacks during the Catholic Confederacy Wars of the 1640s and was largely ruined. Squatters took over the castle and made their money extorting money from travellers by tolling the dirt track that runs through the castle which was once the main Dublin to Galway road. The fitzGeralds left their ancient family seat and eventually made Carton House their home.

The area of Boyle's Manor House with its fine arches

Today the castle is an OPW heritage site and you can you can still enjoy the lovely grounds and a trip around the imposing medieval keep. The lower levels have a number of panels that interpret the story of the castle and guided tours of the keep are available on request. The site is free to enter, for opening hours and further information please visit http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/maynoothcastle/

The surviving gatehouse to Maynooth Castle

I do hope you enjoy our blog, we are trying to cover as many sites across Ireland as we can. Please do consider supporting us as we need all the help we can get and we'd really appreciate it. You can support us by sharing our blogposts or by downloading one of our audioguides from www.abartaaudioguides.com, they are packed with original music by Enda Seery and sound effects to make a fun and immersive way of hearing the story of one of Ireland’s iconic heritage sites. They cost just €1.99 and you can enjoy them from the comfort of your own home or at the sites. If you want to try them out before you buy we have a number of guides available free to download, including the incredible Rock of Dunamase, Kells Heritage Town and an audioguide that describes all the archaeology discovered during work on the M6 motorway between Kinnegad and Galway, it’s the story of a landscape through its archaeology.

If you’d like to receive daily updates about great heritage sites then please consider following us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

*O'Keefe,.T. 2013, 'Trim’s first cousin: the twelfth-century donjon of Maynooth Castle' Archaeology Ireland, Vol 27 No.2. Pages 26–31. 

I was over at Shaw Towers this morning for work and was totally starving by the time I finished. So I figured that I'd go check out Sofra again, a place that I haven't been to in a million years but seem to remember having a decent experience at. I grabbed this hünkar beğendi, which had some super tender cuts of lamb sitting on a bed of roasted eggplant. Yummm...I wolfed this thing down in seconds, especially with that piping hot sesame bread.

Granted, part of the reason why I liked it was because it was of the heat from those chili peppers, which I'm assuming was just an effort from these guys to cater to the local palate. But even without the spices, I would have loved this thing, perhaps even more than imam bayıldı. That reminds me...I think a more proper visit to Istanbul is in order soon. Why oh why did I not get those fish by the river last time??

When I left London in my VW van in 1969 my goal was Nepal. The combined allure of the Himalayas, Shangri-la and Buddhism had been knocking around in my drug-addled brain for all my teenage years. Between Nixon in the White House and American troops in Vietnam, I figured mankind had no future and I better get to Nepal now or I'd never see it. 1969 was also the year I started the long, hard process of kicking drug dependence. By the time I got to Nepal in 1971 I had pretty much kicked drugs-- although, for sociological reasons, how could anyone possibly resist sampling the hash parlors along Hippie Street? I didn't. But after that I really did kick drugs.

Anyway, my 2-3 months in Nepal became part of my personal lifestory and the wondrous tales about climbing in the Himalayas and about how primitive and backward and peaceful and enlightened I found Nepal were things I talked about a lot. A few of my more intrepid friends wanted to go. And some did. Many years later, when I was living back in America, Nepal was as much a dream for Roland as it had been for me when I was his age and it didn't take much for him to convince me that we should go visit Kathmandu. Today when I woke up and saw the violence in the streets I felt very sad for this peaceful, enlightened, beautiful little corner of the world.

It's funny, I remember more specifics about my 1971 visit than I do about the more recent trip! Although a trip to a place like Nepal has always got to be exciting, I think I remember 1971 more clearly because I drove, I had no money-- my van literally rolled down the last Himalaya into the Kathmandu Valley and I had not a cent to my name-- and I had no choice but to be close to the ground and open myself up to all sorts of adventures.

I guess the two most memorable specific events I recall-- both vividly-- fall into this category, even more than trekking to the base camp of Mount Everest! One involved happening on a neighborhood "hootenanny." Each square block in Kathmandu surrounded the neighborhood temple and at night the baker and the candlestick maker and everyone else would come out and play transcendental music on the temple portico into the wee hours. Those nights will be with me forever. Unfortunately, so will the other adventure. As I was driving back to India after a few months in Nepal, in preparation for a return to Europe after a couple years driving around Asia, I had to ford a stream. My van-- which was both my home and my transportation-- started floating downstream. Some truck drivers lasso-ed me and pulled the van to safety.

In the 90's when Roland and I went, we flew and we stayed in hotels. A great time for sure. But... well, nothing is ever the same. We flew into Bombay (now Mumbai) in late November on Delta, which was a decent airline back then (now it completely sucks, ripping off and cheating its customers in a desperate and pitiful struggle to stay alive). We stayed at the Taj, the grandest and most venerable hotel in Bombay. It's laden with history and antiques and it's right on the water next to The Gateway. It was the hub of some kind of upper class social life, although I recall rooms being around $200. At one point the electricity went out for a long few hours, a drag because ac is a must and we were on a high floor. But poor Roland was in the shower when the power went out and suddenly raw sewage started coming out of the spigot. And Roland is a very fastidious person. He'll never forget that; I'll stick with the Nepali hootenannies.

I don't want to make this a blog about India so I'll cut to the chase. We flew to New Delhi, hung out for a few days and then took a Royal Nepal Air flight to Kathmandu. It's a short, cheap flight, like about an hour. The hotel, The Yak and Yeti, sent a car for us. It was a souped up Hyundai-- like a low-rider deal-- driven by a couple of kids playing rock music cassettes. It was already night but it felt kind of like going home for me-- and I could feel how excited Roland was as we drove into town. So different from the first time I was there-- right after they had paved a road in honor of the crown prince's marriage-- but there is still something timeless about the Kathmandu Valley that I picked right up on.

I could only dream of places like the Yak and Yeti when I was a poor hippie in a van. It seemed like a paradise inside paradise. But, although a contender for "best hotel" in town, it's kind of a dump. Durbar Marg is a kind of upscale area but it doesn't have a lot of personality. Fortunately it's an easy walk to anyplace you could ever want to go in town. We had booked in advance and negotiated a bit and I think we paid something like $125 for both of us and got an upgraded room. The hotel doesn't have much character, just mostly a faceless grand Asian hotel... but this is Nepal and nothing is too grand (except the temples). Anyway, it was worth the dough and we couldn't wait to hit the streets-- me to recapture my 70's adventure, Roland to experience first hand what he had heard about for years.

Neither of us got what we were looking for, of course. But it was actually pretty awesome. We headed over to the Durbar Square area which is honey-combed with temples. The streets were dark and empty and we both got right into the exoticness of it. The packs of stray dogs wandering around didn't make us feel that great but we definitely knew we were in a foreign place, a very foreign place.

The food in Nepal is ok-- kind of like Indian food but cruder. We never found anything amazing but it was all ok. I had a recollection of having eaten in a fancy, yummy place called Boris' when I was a kid. I think it is now called the Chimney Room of the Yak and Yeti and it was founded and run by a Russian émigré name Boris. It's neither fancy nor yummy, except by Nepali standards. They serve Russian food of course. The best Japanese restaurant in town, Fuji, is also very modest but the food was decent and it was very inexpensive for a version of fine dining. Other than that we stuck to modest Nepali restaurants and to the hippie expat hang-outs in Thamel. It's not a foodie place.

It is a great, amazing, phenomenal walking around place. And that's what we did for 10 days. December in the Himalayas... brrrrr... right? No. It's in the Valley and very temperate-- sort of like California weather almost. We stuck mostly to Kathmandu, Patan (an ancient suburb) and Bhaktapur, also nearby. Each one was more wondrous and fantastic than the next-- just magical. The whole place is a living museum. The past is still living and breathing and coexisting with today and every narrow alley and every square is a unique and exotic world.

Because I had talked about it for so long, Roland insisted that the first thing we do the first morning was to go to the legendary Monkey Temple. Turns out, only I called it the Monkey Temple. It is actually the most venerable temple in Kathmandu and it is known as Swayambunth Stupa. Its a little out of town on top of a forested hill with hundreds of stairs to the top. When I was first there the monkeys were pretty wild and threatening. They're a lot tamer now. But it's still quite the schlep to the top; there's a way to drive to the top around back but that's for pussies. Supposedly it's 2,000 years old. The place is crawling with pilgrims (not tourists) and the top is temple upon temple upon shrine upon shrine. It's was amazing-- and totally worth the exhausting climb. We went to a million temples in Nepal but Swayambunth Stupa was our fave.

A close second was the temple complex on Durbar Square in Patan. We loved Patan; it's even more remote from western civilization that Kathmandu itself. We couldn't get enough of it. We traded our airline toiletries kits for thankas. Durbar Square has a royal palace, the Monkey God temple (Hanuman) and temple after temple, each one fascinating and beautiful. We flipped over the Krishna Mandir but there had to have been a dozen at least and it was completely amazing and engrossing.

The next day we went to Bhaktapur, a little further away-- not just geographically, but further back in time as well. It was like going into ancient history, even more so than Patan. (By the time Kathmandu was seeing almost cosmopolitan in comparison). It's about an hour from Kathmandu. We took a bus there for less than a buck for both of us and a taxi back for about $5. The Durbar Square there is more open and has less temples but one is amazing-- a 5-tiered pagoda, Nyatapola.

We did some shopping although didn't really buy much. I picked up another Tibetan rug at the refugee center near Patan and we had fun learning about thankas and buying some and trading for some. Mostly we just loved interacting with the people in their environment. One day we took a bus out to Nagarkot for a spectacular view of the Himalayas and some walking and one of the most amazing sunsets I've ever seen. There's a bus from Bhaktapur and it takes a couple hours and costs about a buck. You'll never forget the sights you see from Nagarkot, especially if you hike about a mile out of town to a place where you can see Everest.

When I first heard about this Travelling C.O.W food truck, I didn't really think I would bother with it. Why not? Because I wanted to try Keizo Shimamoto's version in the US first in order to establish a proper baseline for comparison. But then the Wall Street Journal did a story on how these guys set up weekend operations at some art gallery called the U Factory (39 Malan Road), and somehow the idea must have stuck because I ended up coming here for lunch.

The good thing was that it was better than I thought it would be, with those "buns" being easier to handle than I had imagined. The bulgogi inside was juicy and seasoned just right too. Still, I'm not going back for that again, as I waited about 40 minutes for my food...and this was after arriving at 2:45 PM, no less. Perhaps more surprisingly, when I paid for my S$8.90 (US$7) burger with a ten, the guy actually asked me if I had smaller change! (Whaaaaaaatt??)

I ended up telling him to keep the change (though he suddenly seemed to have a lot of small notes after I tried to buy a beer later!). Either way, being in an art gallery clearly didn't put them in a good position to be serving food quickly. And ultimately, that's what I thought of this place, as it was really just a small makeshift exhibit, if you will, rather than somewhere that was really going to churn out food in proper quantities. Man, I wish the Naked Finn were open during the daytime...I'd be there in a heartbeat if so.

When I posted my Antarctic update earlier today I noted that that Ben Saunders and Tarka L'Herpiniere, who collectively make up the Scott Expedition, have now been out on the ice for more than a month. That has not been an easy four weeks for the boys and to get a sense of what they've been dealing with, they released this short video. The footage shows Ben and Tarka at their starting point at Scott's Hut and then gives us a glimpse of what it is like to pull heavy sleds across the frozen expanse that is Antarctica. Bundle up before watching this one, it looks a little cold.

Photo Courtesy Samson Audio
Ay...I hate innovation. Well, not really of course, but a new (and occasionally improved) gadget always turns up a few months after a purchase, and this is annoying. Why can't the stuff I buy stay fresh and on the cutting edge of things all the time?

I'm kidding...sort of. But here's the H1, a new handheld audio recorder from Samson Audio, which may not have the top of the range recording schemes, but is a handy portable stereo recorder at an unheard-of $99 price.

It's supposed to give you 10 hours of battery life on a single AA cell, and can accommodate up to 32GB of removable microSDHC storage. Its microphones are configured in an X/Y pattern for optimum stereo imaging.

At this price (and assuming its performance is as good as Samson claims), it'll be a hit for entry-level multimedia photographers, and perhaps many others. It's available on July 30th, so keep your eye on it if you're in the market for a low cost handheld recorder.

I've read Samson's blurb, but didn't find the accessory on the H1's list that allows it to be set on top of a DSLR's hot shoe as shown in the above photograph. The H1 has a tripod mount on its back, so this doodad connects it to the hot shoe.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Setting up of the Bali: Island of Odalan Photo-Expedition™ has been completed for a while, and the participants will shortly have to advise me their flight schedules. Time flies!!

The photo~expedition is especially structured for established photographers interested in documentary photography, ethno-photography and multimedia, and for those ready to create visual projects from their inventory of photographs, and learn how to control story length, intent, pace, use of music and ambient sound, narration, field recordings and interviews.

As in 2007, the base for this year's photo-expedition is a small Balinese-owned boutique hotel amidst a working rice-paddy in the art center town of Ubud.

Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons are two of my favorite places. This video captrues them in their stunning beauty. Seven minutes of pure bliss from two great national parks. Enjoy.

Primordial ---- Yellowstone / Grand Tetons from Voortex Productions on Vimeo.

MountEverest.net has posted an update on impending summit bids in the Himalaya. There has been a flurry of activity in the past few days, and teams have put themselves in a position to top out soon.

On Annapurna, Camp 2 is firmly established, but low visibilty in BC has forced teams off the mountain, and fear of avalanches, which is always the case on Annapurna, has other teams wary of going higher. Over on Dhaulagiri, several teams have put themselves into position to make summit bids over the next few days, weather permitting. Dodo's Slovak Team is aiming for the summit on Shisha Pangma sometime next week, as long as the weather forcast holds out. Finally, Gavin Bate and his team are in Camp 2 on Cho Oyu, and are also aiming for a summit bid sometime next week.

Good luck guys. Climb high! Climb safe!

My Air France flight from L.A. to Paris was an hour early-- and there's an adequate lounge at De Gaulle with free computer use (Macs, no less)-- but... what lady luck giveth... So, the flight to Dakar was delayed by 4 hours or so. Traveling on a flight-- in this case two-- with a flat bed makes a tremendous difference. I slept a lot on both flights. Still, I arrived in Dakar around 1 AM and the airport was a typical confusion. No need to rush through customs since it took an hour for my bag to come trundling down the conveyor belt.

Luckily for me I noticed on the plane that a young family was split up because of my seat so I offered to trade. I said luckily because my new seat was next to a Montreal guy who's been living in Dakar for a decade. Not only did he offer a wealth of valuable information, his wife and friend picked him (and me) up at the airport. It makes a big differance-- especially in a strange unfamiliar country at 2AM.

I'm staying at a chic boutique hotel, Sokhamon, on the sea in a posh part of town that seems to be a government quarter. There are upscale highrises and gated villas all around and up the street is the National Assembly. The town seems pretty cosmopolitan at first glance and not inordinately foreign for anyone used to Third World cities. It's my first day in Sub-Saharan Africa ever but I feel pretty much at home. It also feels quite safe.

The weather is warm but not hot and if not for the need to sleep with the blanket over my head as protection from at least one persistent mosquito-- who buzzed in my ear all night, eager, no doubt, to give me malaria-- the room would have been quite pleasant.

When I woke up, at 3 in the afternoon, the malarial mosquitos had taken off and I haven't noticed any of the dengue fever (AKA, bonebrake fever) mosquitos on patrol. The malaria guys only do evenings and nights. I wish I had brought some bug spray. I did bring Purell and when I unpacked I noticed it had spilled all over my pack.

The hotel is tranquil and artsy and a little on the posh side, at least attitude-wise. It's around 100 bucks a night, same as the 5 star hotels like gigantic Le Meridien. I tend to prefer smaller more personable, relaxed places. This place has a buiness center with a computer and free Internet access; what more could anyone ask for?

I spent the afternoon and early evening walking around with a friend of a friend from The Gambia. We've been corresponding online for a month or so and it was kind of like meeting a long lost friend. He showed me around town and helped me get a hang for directions and stuff. Tonight I'm going to a live music club called Just For You.

UPDATE: ORCHESTRA BAOBAB

Incredible band, great music; good food. And I met 6 awesome Dutch women driving 3 jeeps across Africa. All during the night, different local musical luminaries got up onstage and performed as guests of Orchestra Baobab. There were some magical moments and it felt very special.




UPDATE: NY Times Goes To Listen To The Pulse Of Dakar

December 6, 2009- I missed Thiossane when I was in Dakar last year but today's NY Times has the lowdown on Youssou N'Dour's nightclub. They point out, correctly, that Dakar is one the most dynamic and "most musically vibrant cities in Africa," only lightly touched by music tourism but rich with its own musical heritage, like mbalax, and "distinct takes on hip-hop, salsa, reggae and jazz." And when N'Dour hits the stage "an ecstatic roar explodes, and soon several hundred bodies are dancing madly. With its fast-driving, interweaving traditional sabar drummers-- rounded out by guitar, bass, keyboards and a rock drum kit-- the opening number, “Less Wakhoul,” is pure mbalax, the propulsive, percussive, melodic pop music that Mr. N’Dour popularized starting in the 1970s and that remains the dominant sound emitted from Senegalese radios."

While we all wait patiently for that big news on Primal Quest, The Gear Junkie reminds us all, with this article in the New York Times that there are plenty of other races to participate in.

The article is a brief introduction to the sport, with the obligatory nod to Mark Burnett and Eco-Challenge, and a look at the athletes who take part in the sport. Traditionally, adventure races consist of teams of three or four people, often co-ed teams are a requirement, who run, mountain bike, or paddle their way through a course in some remote area. The length of the races vary great, with "sprints" taking only a few hours, 24 hour and weekend races taking several days, and "expedition length" races, such as PQ and Eco-Challenge lasting a week or more.

In this article, several races are spotlighted, including Infiterra's eXpedition Race held in Michigan, The Wild Adventure Race Sprints held in Wisconsin, and the USARA National Championships in Missouri.

A lot of people have been lamenting the fact that adventure racing is a dying sport, because it lacks a crown jewel like Primal Quest this year. But really, there are more races than ever and more people racing in them as well. It's just that the focus has shifted toward shorter races that give more people an opportunity to try the sport out.

And for those looking for one of those crown jewels, don't forget about The AR World Championship kicking off next week in Alba, Scotland.

The Adventurist and Blogging Mt. Hood are both reporting this morning that five climbers are stranded on Mt. Hood at about 9800 feet. Jason, over at the Adventurist, says that they are in contact with the authorities via cell phone.

The climbers also have tracking devices and GPS devices, which allows rescue teams to know where to find them, as a resuce attempt will be mounted today. The team was believed to have dug a snow cave to wait out the night on te mountain.

I'm sure we'll be hearing more on this story as the day goes along. For now, we'll just have to watch, wait, and hope for the best. More as it becomes available.

Update: The climbers on Mt. Hood have all been rescued and brought down safely. No injuries and everyone is in good health. The Adventurist has the full story.

A few days back I posted that the 2013 Antarctic season had officially begun with the first team departing Punta Arenas, Chile for the frozen continent. That team consists of veteran explorers Ben Saunders and Tarka L'Herpiniere who collectively make up the Scott Expedition. Over the next couple of months, the two men will attempt to complete the route used by Robert Falcon Scott on his way to the South Pole back in 1912. Scott himself was unable to finish that expedition, perishing on the return trip after discovering rival Roald Amundsen had beaten him to the Pole by a matter of weeks. Ben and Tarka will make that journey in a self-supported fashion as they look to finish what Scott started.

The team flew out of Punta Arenas on Monday and were shuttled to the Union Glacier camp for the first stage of their journey. They then spent a couple of days getting organized, prepping their gear and acclimatizing to the Antarctica. Yesterday they again boarded a plane and were taken to the Ross Ice Shelf, where they are now en route to the Scott Terra Nova Hut, the famous launching point for Scott's expedition. Even though it was built more than a century ago, the hut remains an important landmark on the continent.

When they were dropped off on the ice yesterday, the two men had to ski 32 km (20 miles) just to get to their starting point. They are expected to arrive there today and will likely take a brief rest before they start the real meat of the expedition. Once they're ready, they'll then begin moving south, pulling their heavily loaded sleds behind them as they set off across the Antarctic at last.

Once they're underway, Ben and Tarka expect to make daily – or at least frequent – updates from the field. In fact, as I write this they are a bit over due for their first check-in from the hut. Hopefully that update will come soon and we'll be able to follow them closely over the coming week. You can read those dispatches on the team's blog page.

In the days ahead I'll be following the progress of this expedition very closely. Expect to read about it regularly on the Adventure Blog. Other teams will soon join Ben and Tarka out on the ice, but for now most them look like they're a couple of weeks off yet. Since the lads are making a return trip from the Pole, they had to get a jump on the season. They'll also likely endure worse conditions in the early going.

Such is the life of an Antarctic explorer. Best of luck boys!

The first time I went to an Afghani wedding something very much astounded me-- well, more than something, many things. It was 1969 and it was in a small city southwest of Kabul, Ghazni. I was staying with some college pals who were living and working there and we all got invited to a wedding. The first thing I noticed was a total separation of the sexes. The women-- including the bride, the groom's mother and sisters, etc.-- were in a different part of the house and we never saw them. So the wedding was kind of like a bachelor's party or maybe two bachelor's parties, one for men and another for women-- although not seperate-but-equal. The men were served a sumptuous feast. Servants and dogs were fed after we were done and then leftovers were sent to the women. That was all pretty shocking-- and I know that less than 30 years later our clueless commander in chief thinks he's building a pluralistic, democratic, secular society there (on the cheap... and fast) which is safe for women. That's called arrogance, cultural imperialism and hubris.

But what I saw as the inequality-- and even abuse-- for the women wasn't even the most shocking aspect of the wedding. After dinner the entertainment commenced. There was a small band that had been hired-- and a troupe of young drag queens. The band played traditional music and the drag queens danced. They were pretty bawdy. And many of them were pretty young. Everyone was smoking some powerful opium-laced hashish from Mazar-i-Sharif but many of the guests seemed genuinely disturbed when the groom's grandfather grabbed one of the young boys and dragged him behind a building and had his way with him. Later the boy, straightening his disheveled garb, came back and danced some more.

When I first saw this headline online-- After Drag Queens Are Beaten Up... Villagers Attack Taliban-- my immediate thought was some kind of incident between transvestites and Muslim fundamentalists in NY's Greenwich Village. But it turns out to be a report on an incident in a small town near the village of Adbulkhel, Pakistan, not far from Afghanistan.

The culture of the Pathan tribes on either side of the Afghan-Pakistan border are identical. The border is a colonial construct that has no relevance to their lives except as a sometimes annoyance. When Taliban religionist zealots beat up the local drag queens, shaved their heads and took away their instruments-- they react to nonconformity and music the same way, albeit usually more violently, western religionist zealots do-- the villagers got into a pitched battle, using heavy weapons and rockets, with the Taliban extremists.

The Afghan-Pakistan tribal regions seem like an utterly different world-- or millennium-- from Pakistan's big cities. And, in fact, the central government is engaged in a fierce and probably unwinnable war-- a very bloody one-- against the tribal areas right now. Karachi has different tribes, different cultures, different mores than the traditional-- and very primitive-- northwest. Small town, traditional hijras are very different from drag queens in the westernized big cities.

While we were celebrating the long weekend here in the States, teams of adventure athletes were battling it out in the Mark Webber Tasmania Challenge in Australia. The five-day, stage race featured plenty of running, mountain biking and paddling as competitors challenged each other across a course that was more than 340 km (210 miles) in length. The video below, which includes highlights from the final day of the competition, is a good indicator of what this race is all about.

After five days of racing, the race was won by the team of Richard Ussher and Braden Currie. They completed the entire course in 18 hours, 54 minutes, which was more than two hours faster than the second place team that consisted of Alex Hunt and Mark Hinder. Third place went to Jarad Kohler and James Pretto, who finished in 26 hours, 52 minutes and 2 seconds.

This was the 10th annual Tasmania Challenge and over the year the race has become a staple on the adventure racing calendar each season. With another strong turnout this year, it appears that the race is poised to continue well into the future.

So here's a little something for the mountain biking crowd. Especially the couples who may have met and fell in love while zipping around on fat tires, off the beaten path, and hopefully covered in mud. Has your relationship grown to the point where you're ready to take the next step? Well then, check out these Mountain Bike Tire Rings that are a sure fire way to proclaim your love. Of your bike. Oh, and your significant other.

If anyone knows a single woman in the Austin area who would find these charming, give her my address. ;)

Thanks Go Clipless!

The local team went out to the Taipei Fish Market tonight, where they got such an excessive amount of sushi and seafood that we could barely finish it all. By the time we got back to the hotel though, I just wasn't satisfied with just cold fish and rice in my belly. So I hopped back out of the hotel to see if there were anything interesting around beyond the usual convenience stores.

I found an outlet of Yonghe Doujiang, and thus got this bowl of salty soybean milk. It wasn't anything special, but at least it was a hot soupy broth to warm me back up. And it sure was better than the alternative of getting one of those tea eggs at 7-Eleven.

When you first encounter Kells Priory, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this is a castle given its strong defensive walls and towers, but Kells Priory was a monastery. It is superbly well preserved, and is one of the most striking and unforgettable monastic sites in Ireland. 

The Priory was founded in 1193 by Geoffrey FitzRobert, brother in law  to the famous Strongbow - Richard de Clare, leader of the Norman forces in Ireland. It was given to the Augustinian Canons, the biggest religious order in Ireland at the time.

The site itself was attacked and burned on three separate occasions, by William de Bermingham in 1252, then by Edward Bruce on Palm Sunday 1326, and then by a different William de Bermingham in 1327. The large walls and towers that enclose an area of approximately three acres possibly date to immediately after this turbulent period in the middle to late fourteenth century.

The Priory is situated on low lying ground near the King's River, which probably had a number of mills that provided flour and economic muscle to the Augustinian priors at Kells. The large walls that surround the site are nearly 6m in height, and over 1m thick with regular loops for arrows. It is clear that the Priory would have been well defended. Each of the towers along the walls served both a residential and defensive purpose. The first large enclosure that you enter is known as 'The Burgess Court' and it is thought that it provided a secure place for the lay population to take shelter during attack. The walls surrounding the inner part of the Priory are thought to have been constructed earlier.

The Church at Kells Priory dates to the earlier part of the activity, probably around the early part of the thirteenth century. It appears to have been altered and extended a number of times over its history.

The Priory is truly one of Ireland's hidden gems, a great place to visit and you'll often find you have the place to yourself. You'll find it about 15km south of Kilkenny City, near the village of Kells, signposted off the R697.

There are a number of other great sites in the locality, including the deserted medieval town of Newtown Jerpoint, the Neolithic Passage Tomb of Knockroe  as well as Jerpoint Abbey and Thomastown itself. 

I hope you enjoy this blog, we're trying to cover as many sites as we can across Ireland. If anyone has any suggestions about sites you'd like us to cover please do leave us a comment. If you enjoy information and images of Irish heritage sites then do follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ If you'd like to support us then please consider downloading an audioguide to one of Ireland's wonderful heritage sites. They are packed with original music and sound effects and are a great way of experiencing the story of Ireland. They only cost €1.99 and are fun whether you are at the site, or listening from the comfort of your own home. If you enjoy stories of the turbulent medieval period in Ireland try our guide to Viking and Medieval Dublin, visit us at www.abartaaudioguides.com for free previews and to download your free audioguide to the Rock of Dunamase  or the free audioguide to the wonderful heritage town of Kells in County Meath

86 miles. When I checked my United account in passing the other day, I was surprised to find that I was just 86 miles short of them giving me another two upgrades for next year. I didn't plan it that way. Indeed, I thought that I was going to fall so short of it that I didn't even bother trying to clear the next milestone. But had I realized it earlier, I probably would have just taken a roundtrip on US Airways back to Phoenix earlier this month rather than leaving Mexico via Delta.

Anyway, it would have been a shame to let those upgrades slip through my fingers, especially since they might come in handy next year. So I scrambled to the SQ ticketing office the other day and asked them for the cheapest Star Alliance-accruable ticket to anywhere before the end of the calendar year. It turned out that that was going to be KL, so this morning, on the last day of 2013, I went ahead and bought a ticket for a flight later in the evening. Just in the nick of time!

Now, I've done mileage runs in the past, but normally when I do those, I at least take advantage of the opportunity to explore the local destination a bit. But this time, it was just KL, and I really wanted to be back in Singapore instead. So after walking off the jetbridge in KL tonight, I literally walked right back to the gate to board the next flight back to Singapore. No immigration, no toilet break...I probably didn't walk any more than 50 yards within KLIA. The staff must have thought that I was crazy.

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Granny (also known as Grannagh) Castle is located on the banks of the River Suir in south County Kilkenny, just 5km outside Waterford City. The castle was originally constructed by the de la Poer family in the mid thirteenth century, however the de la Poer's (who later became Anglicized to Power) fell out of favour with King Edward III, and forfeited much of their land.

The castle and its lands were given to the powerful Butler family in 1375 and they are responsible for most of the visible remains. The square enclosing wall with its projecting towers at the south-west and south-east angles has a look of the late thirteenth – early fourteenth centuries. The main tower of the castle appears to date to the fifteenth century and is in keeping with the fashion for tall fortified tower houses, that both served as a means for defence and an illustration of the wealth, power and status of the lord.

The tower-house was a popular style of defensive structure among all of late medieval Ireland with both the Anglo-Norman population and the Gaelic Irish gentry adopting it. It is most numerous in the southern half of Ireland, particularly in Counties Kilkenny, Wexford, Cork, Tipperary, Limerick, Clare and Galway. Tower houses are particularly common in the region under Anglo-Norman control known as The Pale, as in 1429 the English government paid £10 subsidy (a substantial fee at the time) to encourage people to build these defensive structures at a time when many of the Gaelic tribes were becoming resurgent again. The fine oriel (projecting bay) window probably dates to the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. 

Granny Castle is very handily located just off the N24 Limerick - Waterford Road about 5 minutes outside Waterford City. It is visible to the right as you approach Waterford on the N24, just before the M9 Motorway. Take the right hand turn before the M9 motorway roundabout. When you turn onto this road there will be a small lane to the right which leads down to the castle. There is limited parking along this lane.   

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All images © Neil Jackman/Abarta Audio Guides