Travel
Cuba Day 1 – Arrival In Havana
Today is the first entry in my Cuban diary, which I will be publishing every day over the next couple of weeks. Things start off pretty tame in Havana. They certainly didn’t end that way. Enjoy…
Cuba Diary – Intro
I’ve decided, over the next couple of weeks, to publish my dairy from Cuba a day at a time. I’ll be publishing it as a series of blog posts, woo!
Falling into the Grand Canyon
“Okay, follow me.”
I took my tour guide’s hand and shuffled along after him sightlessly. Behind me was a long chain of blindfolded backpackers clinging to each other like a care home conga line. We edged our way along the path, which we knew would take us to the rim of the Grand Canyon. After a minute of feeling our way down the path, a sudden quiet implied we had reached the edge. Our guide, and my friend, a perpetually upbeat Puerto Rican named Nando, carefully positioned us in a line, and semi-joking warned us not to step forward. He gave the word, and we took off our blindfolds. Continue reading
The Night Train
Leaving the air con cool of the hotel, we walked out into the oily heat of a Saigon evening. Our guide, a tiny 57 year old Thai woman called Lek, who seemed to hate everything Vietnamese, hailed a taxi. We climbed in and were whisked through the chaos of whirring motorbikes beneath the infinite mass of telephone lines. We arrived at the train station after dark. Continue reading
A Forgotten Conversation
As you advance through countries, you will find that you assemble a patchwork quilt of memories. There are countless stories and moments which you take in your stride while you’re travelling. Some of them stick with you forever. Many are forgotten, and the memory dredged up years later while flicking through an old journal, jerked out of the subconscious by the scruff of its neck. Continue reading
Fiji Time
Time, and how it is perceived, varies greatly depending on where you are in the world. In the Western culture I’ve been raised in, we prioritise and organise frantically to fit everything into our day. We live and work to deadlines, wake up with alarms and work rotating shifts. In several countries I’ve visited, however, the notion of immediacy is actually shunned, or simply doesn’t exist. Vietnam and Cuba are two countries in which patience isn’t just a virtue but a necessity. The country that takes the crown, however, is Fiji. Continue reading
The Definition of Freedom
I know, right? Intense title for a blog post.
I’ve been around the world a couple of times, and I’ve learned a few things. One of the most prevailing is this: freedom is a completely subjective concept. Some of the most liberated individuals I’ve met have come from countries we view as oppressive. To illustrate this, let’s compare Vietnam with the good old US of A. Continue reading
“I can’t afford to travel” Shut up. Yes you can.
Right. I’ve heard too many people say that they would love to experience the mystery of Asia, or the adrenaline of New Zealand, but they just can’t scrape the money together. Is that how you feel?
*slap!* Continue reading
What To Expect in a Hostel
If you’ve never been backpacking before, it’s likely you’ve never experienced the sweet mayhem of hostels.
If you go travelling for an extended period of time to pretty much any country in the world, chances are you’ll wind up in a hostel sooner or later. Before visiting one, many people (my old self included) picture hostels as grim places – cheap, slept in bunk beds, grimy backpackers, grimier bathrooms, no personal space… and to be honest, that’s exactly right.
The thing is, though, they’re brilliant. Continue reading