March, 2011

It was the sort of moment that could only seem normal on the Malecόn. There we were: people watching on Havana’s famous esplanade. It was a miserable day. The threat of rain hung in the air and the angry surge of the ocean cascaded over the sea wall, almost pushing Cuba’s jaunty egg taxis off [...]

After two years of legal hell, I took my neuroses to Kerala in south west India and climbed aboard a converted rice barge to meander along The Backwaters.

Australians don’t deal well with hitchhikers. It’s generally accepted wisdom in this country that hitchhiking is for people who are either a) missing a few screws or b) keen to wind up in someone else’s car boot. It’s fair enough really. Australia is a big country, it takes days to cross and hitchhiking can mean [...]

PART 1: Preparation is overrated Freelance journalist Laura Burgoine writes: This time last year I left Melbourne, bound for Chile, with my laptop and very little else. I had no contacts, zero Spanish skills, no mobile phone, and no real accommodation at the other end. I was armed with a Macbook and the foolish delusion [...]

Carolyne Lee  writes: A friend from London says she often hears her compatriots complaining (presumably after visiting France), “Why can’t France be more capitalist? You have to go to about five different shops to buy your headache tablets, your newspaper, your fish, your groceries, and your bread. It’s so inconvenient.” The people who say this [...]

I’ve decided Andrew, a man in his early sixties, belongs in the ‘in denial’ category of trainspotters. “I’m not a trainspotter, of course,” he opens our conversation, before going on to tell me about the webcam he’s got set up outside his house in northern England pointing up the train line, so he can grab [...]

With it’s labyrinthine streets, hidden plazas and winding subterranean tunnels, the city of Guanajuato in central Mexico may well be one of the most picturesque cities in the world. Inga Ting provides a stunning photo gallery.

Former Busabout tour leader Ben Oliver writes: My body screams for sleep, my mind is a scattered mess and I’m well past the point of breathing without my eyes closing of their own accord. In a never-ending effort to stay conscious, I pinch my leg — harder this time — sending a bolt of adrenaline through [...]