ALL WORK and no play makes John a dull boy.
When you don't have a ball, sometimes a headless goat will have to do. Kokbaru to the central Asian nomads, buzkashi to the Afghans, this is one rough and tumble past-time.
A bit of sport to relax the mind. Find a dozen or so fierce horsemen, decapitate a goat, and may the best man win.
An archer, possibly from Turkey, at the World Nomad Games, Kyrgyzstan.
Vientianne, Laos. A girl looks for her cue at school marching band practice.
OK, so where in a stilt village built over the water do kids even play soccer? Malaysia.
Large swell powered by an off-shore cyclone enjoyed by a surfer at Coolangatta, Queensland. Surfers' Paradise highrise in the background.
Sri Lanka's famous Galle Fort, which dates to 1588, is the backdrop for some soccer. It also makes Galle cricket ground one of the world's most iconic.
Campers crowd Khao Yai National Park in Thailand for the Songkran holiday.
Kayaking on the Katherine River, in Australia's Northern Territory. Butterfly Gorge is one of the most iconic sights in the Territory.
Moron, a junction town in the back-blocks of Mongolia was the first place I ever saw outdoor billiard tables. I guess they can't be any worse than the ones in Thailand!
A young boy fishes in the Viphya Mountains, Malawi.
In the Tanzanian Usambara mountains, a young lad plays in the pine forests.
All the ol' dears break out a boogie to celebrate the arrival of the brides at a Tajik mountain wedding in Uzbekistan.
In one of Uzbekistan's many old walled cities, Khiva, kids play on BMXs, oblivious to the history steeped surrounds.
In Uzbek mother cares for her child, oblivious to the magnificence of her surroundings, the Sher Dor Madrasah.
A player attempts to block an overhead shot in a game of sepak takraw, by Chiang Mai's Thapae Gate.
Taiwanese baseball is pretty funny. Lots of amateurish cheerleading, synchronised crowd dance moves, a bloke in an aeroplane rising from the stands.
In Mae Sot, northwest Thailand, a school parade through the streets ran the range from traditional to cowboy, brass band to prom queen, and (fake)blood drinking vampire-Goths.
A woman feeds her child as she works in the market of Mae Sot, Thailand, a border town where many of Burma's ethnic minorities have sought sanctuary.
A game of takraw in the grounds of a temple, on the Thai side of the Mekong.
Kids playing on the grounds of the magnificent Hassan II Mosque, Rabat, Morocco.
The gripping final session of the 4th Test, 2004, in which India rolled Australia for 100-odd on a typically appalling Wankhede (Mumbai) pitch.
On the maidan in downtown Mumbai, India, scratch matches of cricket criss-cross and overlap. No room for nurdlers.
If not for the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort would famous in its own right. 90,000 tourists visited the Taj daily (before Covid....) but nowhere near that many visited the fort.
Overland from Scotland to Cape Town, without a TV crew for back-up, Archie and Chris on the home stretch through Namibia. Chris rode the last 2000+km with a broken leg- respect!
I used a few local gyms on Cebu and Bohol, Philippines. For a dollar or two, you get some clunky weights, no air-con, fishing shows on TV if you are lucky, and bad music. Much like home.
A game of basketball in Lobok, Bohol island, Philippines.
An outdoor pool hall, no doubt with plenty of money changing hands, operates in the surrounds of Carbon Market, one of Cebu City, Phiippines busiest.
Before there were X-boxes, there were spinning tops. Kids in developing countries, like here in Banue, Philippines, still pass the time this way.
Burma's Chin State, ground with a view.
A village soccer match in the late afternoon, north of Bago, Burma, in 1997.
We chanced upon a village pole-climbing festival on New Years' Day when we crossed the Bassein River to see the rural side of Burma's Pathein city. Fun!
An old girl giving it up for the climbers!
Another event in the village was the kids' potato race, where they shuttled back and forth til they had all the potatos on their tray.
After a hard day hustling drinks to tourists at Angkor Wat, girls skip inside the great temple.
A driver takes a well-earned break in Phnom Penh.
A rusted on tanker is the perfect playground in the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Thailand's Ayutthaya temples make a great backdrop as athlete's get aerial in a regional sepaktakraw championship.
Thailand's big cities attract nearly all Songkran tourists, but there is much more fun to be had in the smaller towns.
These little picnic shelters are common on Thai rivers, with heaps of great food and drink stalls.