It was the night before the Thai new year festival of Songkran, and we were spending it in the luggage hold of a bus. We…
I’m in the hostel common area and they’re all here. There’s the German solo traveller in sensible outdoor clothes; the bubbly Scandinavian girls who embarrass…
It’s midday and I’m standing in a parking lot across the road from Warner Bros. Studio. Around me I can see families, couples, groups of…
I sit in a rustic wooden house adorned with ornaments from South Asia in the middle of the wilderness in Bulgaria. It is a chilly…
My Spanish teacher in Puerto Escondido dressed like the Fonz and liked to flaunt the collection of selfies on his blackberry. The photos were always edited in really outdated camera…
People travel for different reasons. Recreation, junket, mental health. And many trips are shaped by certain frameworks that guide or sustain a certain version of…
Photo by Karl Fredrickson. I’m an atheist. It’s never normally hard for me to admit that. But last time I settled myself in a city overseas,…
Cover by Takahiro Taguchi Dotombori, 10 pm. The street was neon-drenched and the soundtrack was synthetic saccharine J-pop. I stepped into a bar. “Irashaimase!”, shouted…
I walk into a hostel in Italy and the common room is filled with people for the free dinner. I scan the room quickly. There…
Right now, I should be in absolute shock and wonderment. I’m sitting comfortably in the rental home of three elderly Japanese people, who have just…
I just missed another friend’s wedding. A friend I have known since the age of 10. She sent me the invite months ago. Absolutely no…
A couple of years ago now, Julia Gillard’s “$1000 textbook allowance” and continuous Centrelink payments bought me my flight to Bangkok and funded my Asian…
