Quixoticguide
Hi, I’m Maarten Van Den Driessche, a curious human, aviation enthusiast, vexillophile, world traveler, and food lover with over 14,000 days of life experience.

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Alone or Together: Two Ways of Seeing the World
— A QuixoticGuide reflection There are two very different ways to move through the world: alone, or in the company of friends. Neither is superior. Both reveal different layers of a place — and of yourself. Travelling alone is the most honest form of movement I know. There is no audience, no compromise, no narrative…
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Samarkand — Where Empires, Astronomy, and Blue Domes Meet
Some cities feel old. Samarkand feels eternal. Set along the ancient Silk Road in present-day Uzbekistan, Samarkand has been a crossroads of traders, scholars, conquerors, and dreamers for more than two millennia. Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Mongols, and Timurids all left their mark here — and somehow, instead of chaos, what remains is harmony in glazed…
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🍃 Tea Nations: Traveling the World, One Cup at a Time
Some countries are mapped by borders. Others, by what’s in your cup. Follow the trail of tea and you’ll discover a different kind of world map — one drawn in steam, glass, and long conversations. From misty plantations to noisy city cafés, tea nations are not just places that drink tea, but cultures that live…
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Countries Without Rivers: Traveling Through the World’s Driest Nations
When we think of countries, we often picture rivers cutting through landscapes — the Nile in Egypt, the Danube in Europe, the Tigris in Iraq. Rivers shape cities, agriculture, trade, and even entire civilizations. But surprisingly, a handful of countries have no permanent natural rivers at all. None. Zero. And yet, people thrive, cities flourish,…
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What Is Grand Faw Port?
Grand Faw Port (ميناء الفاو الكبير) is a huge new deep-water port under construction on the Al-Faw Peninsula in Basra Governorate in southern Iraq. It sits on Iraq’s only stretch of the Arabian Gulf coastline, making it strategically vital for trade and maritime access. The port is intended to be: 📦 Strategic Vision & Economic…
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The Beating Heart of Baghdad: Inside the City’s Garages
In Baghdad, movement begins in the garages. Not the kind with shiny cars and service desks, but vast, chaotic, wonderfully human transport hubs where minibuses, shared taxis, battered sedans, and long-distance coaches all compete for space, passengers, and attention. If airports are gateways to countries, then Baghdad’s garages are gateways to real life. For any…
Where curiosity leads
Travel isn’t about collecting countries, but about understanding them.
These are places that shaped how I see the world — not just destinations, but contexts, encounters, and stories waiting to unfold
Travel Beyond Tourism
- Discover Places
- Understand Cultures
- Travel Better
- Meet the World
- Learn the Context


My Travel guides
- Not instructions, but orientation.
- These guides explain how places work — so you don’t just visit, you arrive.
“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” –
Ibn Battuta
Maghrebi traveller