Laidback in Laos
In a poetic tale of hedonism, guest writer Aram McLean recounts drunken days & free-loving nights in Laos and still manages time to experience the country’s raw beauty. The way is a mix of clay, mud and manure, making a soup of epic slime. Leeches roam the path. And they jump! Yes, jump. Curling their bodies like some blood-sucking mutant of an inch-worm, they hurl themselves at our bare...
Read MoreStanding at the Bottom of the Top of the World
Motivated by a lecture, guest writer Vicki Dawson, realises a dream by climbing one shallow breath at a time to Everest’s Base Camp. On October 25th 2010, something that had started as a vague idea and then became a full blown obsession, led to me standing at Everest Base Camp crying my eyes out… Armed with 80 wet wipes, two pair of trousers, two tops and some sturdy walking boots I...
Read MoreAround the Airport in 80 Days
Vancouver Airport (YVR) launches a contest to find a correspondent to live, eat and sleep at the airport for 80 Days ~ without leaving. Following in the footsteps of Queensland’s hugely successful viral campaign to fill the World’s Best Job, earlier this week Vancouver Airport launched a web-based contest to find a storyteller who would live at YVR for 80 days and 80 nights telling...
Read MoreWhere Next?
I’m frequently asked two questions: Where’s your favourite place in the world? – and – Where would you go tomorrow if you could? I loathe the first question. It is impossible to answer. There are too many incredible places on this magnificent planet of ours to narrow it down to just one destination. I like different places for different reasons and even then I’d find it hard to narrow...
Read MoreLife Got in the Way
So here I was a couple of months ago humming along quite fine. My life had rhythm, it had structure. I was writing regularly, I was getting to the gym – gaining weight – eating healthily, sleeping well, and challenging myself by learning Spanish here in Guatemala. Most importantly I was content. That was the last time that most of you would have heard from me. So much has happened since...
Read MoreI Didn’t Like the Dominican Republic
It’s not often I don’t like a place. More often I warble between lost-for-words, passionately in love, incredibly inspired and ‘it’s ok but not worth a second night’. I’m predisposed to liking places; I can’t help it, I’m fascinated by the world. Then I went to the Dominican Republic this past December and haven’t been able to say anything nice about it since. To be fair, I...
Read MoreBack to School
Today I went back to school – and my head hurts. As part of my assimilation into Guatemala, my newly adopted country, I’m attending Spanish classes four hours a day, for four days a week. (The standard is five days, but I don’t think this wandering soul can’t sit still THAT long … and let’s not forget about my hurting head.) My goal is to give my pigeon Spanish broader wings and help...
Read MoreMy New Home: Antigua, Guatemala
Even a rolling stone needs to come to a stop at some point. After an incredibly rewarding year of travelling about – spontaneously shifting from Brazil, North America, Europe, and Central America – I am in need of a rest, regiment and some structure. I have set up camp in Antigua, Guatemala. Or at least I’m trying to in between varying bouts of anxiety & fear at having made the right...
Read MoreWreck Beach: Hippie Haven
It was more than 15 years ago that I first experienced Wreck Beach – a long recognised, well-established nudist beach in Vancouver – there’s even a book chronically the beach’s history. A few months ago I returned for a second time to discover a more sophisticated beach – while still retaining its hippie heart – in it’s offerings of mixed drinks alongside...
Read MoreLondon’s Financial Face
I thought I knew London well and had discovered most of its neighbourhoods over the course of many visits, but here in the heart of London was a part of town I’d never ventured through before: The Financial District. Click here for a slideshow of full-sized images When I was in London a couple weeks ago a friend of mine, a television reporter with Bloomberg UK, kindly invited me along...
Read MoreNicaraguan Reflections
My first guest writer, Jerome Parisse, offers this reflective tale of his recent return to Nicaragua. I recently went back to Nicaragua to visit friends. It was 20 years since I had lived there myself, and I couldn’t help reflect on the changes that have happened all over the country. I was 24 when I left Paris for Managua, staying away for two years and coming back changed deep...
Read MoreHunting Polar Bears in Churchill, Canada
Ever since I can remember I have wanted to visit Churchill, Canada. It is the place to see polar bears. A couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to go: An endearing little frontier settlement, sitting on the western edge of Hudson Bay in northern Manitoba, it is so remote it can only be reached by air or rail. For six frenetic weeks each Autumn (October & November) tourists descend on...
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