The airport taxi drops us just as the ramp falls on the Likoni Ferry, releasing a flood of passengers streaming up the landing in their hundreds, reminiscent of some timeless migratory scene. Only vehicles pay for the short crossing that links the island city of Mombasa to the mainland south, which makes monitoring the exact passenger intake a tough call, I ponder, as we join the herd in replenishing the ferry, almost as swiftly as those departed. We find a lofty vantage point up on top deck and set down our bags. A boy of around ten engages us, asking where [View Full Entry]

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Thanks to Europe’s embarrassment of low fare airlines we were able to do a month’s whistle-stop tour of family and friends without burning a hole in our pockets. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the Ozone layer, but we consoled ourselves as nobody talks about that anymore - particularly since people have started to realize the oil’s running out. But then, we could be forgiven for thinking we’re still swimming in the stuff, if ryanair insists on flying us half way round Europe for twenty pence plus tax (Plus Priority Boarding Fee, Insurance, Credit Card/ELV Fee, Airport Check-In Fee, Checked [View Full Entry]

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About three years ago I walked into an Internet Café in Madras with a terrible affliction. I’d been on the road for most of my adult life and was now free and single for the first time in years, and could see no end in sight. With the last ties now severed, I was cast loose and ‘freedom from’ gave way to the uncertainty of ‘freedom to’. Yet with no clear replacement for the life I’d become accustomed to, the future seemed to lack meaning and direction. Powerful urges accumulate, tempting you to retreat from freedom. Firstly in the small things; [View Full Entry]

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Waking up on our first morning aboard, we hadn’t even had time to digest our first banquet, let alone our thoughts, and we were already at our first destination. The previous few nights roughing it in a tent contrasted so markedly with the onslaught of rich food and warm fluffy duvets that we emerged a little later than planned from our air-conditioned cabin, sauntering out into the full glare of the midday sun and down one of the many boardwalks serving the cruise ships that towered overhead, toward a brightly-colored parody of colonial Caribbean architecture. Life quayside at St John’s, Antigua, [View Full Entry]

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The man whose proper job it is to assist us in finding our lost luggage is attempting to book us into a hotel. I’ve never lost any luggage at an airport before, never had somebody else find me a hotel and I’ve never travelled to a place where the cheapest room you‘ll be lucky to find starts at $100+tax. It’s nearly midnight and most places are fully booked, yet our broker remains jovial. He’s almost apologetic when he lists the reasons Puerto Rico is so damned expensive nowadays… I admire his honesty; he’s a genuinely nice guy in a job where [View Full Entry]

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It's just after midday, the infamous San Francisco fog that had shrouded the city as I flew in seems to have passed. The Californian sun now piercing the azure nothingness as I clamber up the steps of Powell Street station fully laden with backpack/daypack, front 'n' back. I quickly scan the tourist map for the best route to my hostel and decide to make use of San Francisco’s grid patterned streets, negating the necessity to turn more than once or re-consult before reaching my destination. The bustle of street life immediately evaporates, replaced by the sweet sickly smell of baked-in urine [View Full Entry]

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Red sandstone stalwarts rise sheer from Zion’s dappled valley floor. A play of afternoon light draws over the autumnal colors, the likely catalyst to a fleeting thought so loaded my mind reeled at its enormity, detaching me from the corporeal. Flashbacks from the previous two weeks were checked and counter-checked with sentiments and impressions from my years of travel, evaluating and filtering for the confirmation and clarity to quash this treacherous theory. The proposition left me mortified, like discovering I’m George W. Bush’s love child. Is-America-the-most-beautiful-country-in-the-world? I’d always had this romantic notion of travelling the entire world before setting foot in [View Full Entry]

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An eerie orb of light cast over the tarmac is our only lifeline as we race through the night in hot pursuit. The moped’s momentum whips smoke from village fires into surreal meteor showers riddled with mosquitoes which shoot up through the headlamp and into our faces like tracer fire. With no crash hat or visor, the only option is to angle my head down, squint my eyes, and keep a constant vigil for the shadowy signs of roving beasts. The tarmac comes to an end with a jolt, replaced by a tightly packed and deeply rutted dirt road, signaling the [View Full Entry]

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His panic-stricken little face lights up when he receives the information that we’ll escort him home, sending him skipping merrily down the road on an errand to buy potatoes. This is the Palestinian Authority controlled area of Hebron, and as we cross through Tel Rumeida checkpoint to the other side in order to wait for the Palestinian boy’s return, we soon discover the source of his fear. We are confronted by around 100 ultra-orthodox Jews, who are gathered in Hebron to mark ‘Hebron day’, one of whom shouts “You know that Jesus is gay?”. None of us really react to this [View Full Entry]

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The sound of birds singing is drowned out by the voice of an excited little girl "Look mommy there's an airplane up in the sky". Minutes later her village amounts to little more than smouldering ashes, her excitement replaced by a bewildered look of shock and fear. She looks at the people around her, one-by-one their fearful eyes narrow to expressions of hate. "Did you see the frightened ones? Did you hear the falling bombs? The flames are all long gone, but the pain lingers on..." The next minute I'm on the back of a moped anxiously looking up as the [View Full Entry]

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