Guatemala has always me think of two things: worry dolls; Those miniature colourful woven cotton handmade figurines kept in matchboxes and purchasable from the shop ‘Evolution’ “to take away your worries” and my friend Tree whose parents spent much of her formative years working tirelessly on human rights for Amnesty International in this part of the world. That’s it. I know little else about Country Number 2 of this travel adventure…. Leaving Mexico behind and crossing our first border took me further East into the isthmus of Central America. We decided to pay for the privilege of a ‘shuttle bus’ from San Cristobal to Lake Atilan as border crossings can be notoriously challenging and with warnings of the dangers of doing it alone, we wanted the easy option. For a few pesos more, the chicken bus ... read more

"Experience, Travel - these are as education in themselves" Euripides From the miasmic gloom of London town where nearly everyone wears black or grey, looks a deathly shade of pale, misery etched on the faces as they face the return to work (if they haven’t been made redundant) after the Christmas break to the myriad of colour that is the Yucatan Peninsula - Part Two of my 2011/12 travelling adventure has officially begun. SE Asia, you will not be forgotten but now it is time to look to the next 3 months – travelling and volunteering right through Central America with the most wonderful Sandy Maletschek. From Cancun to Panama City – through Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, (possibly El Salvador) Nicaragua, Costa Rica and finally Panama itself – back to the UK to celebrate both our ... read more

“Maybe you are scared to try something new?…Never resist the unfamiliar. Just keep your mind open and suck in the experience” Alex Garland, The Beach If I was any more relaxed than I am at the moment I think my body would just stop working and slowly dissolve, disintegrating atom by atom into the sands of Ao Yai beach. I am on little Ko Chang – a small island on the west coast of the Thai Peninsula where there are no roads, no vehicles, no hot water, no electricity (except when the generators kick in for 4 hrs each night) and very very few people. I’m lying in my veranda strung hammock outside my little bungalow – a mere 30metres from the calm waters of the Andamen sea which lulls me to sleep each night as ... read more

“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky” – Cesare Pavese There are 10 million people living in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Half of these inhabitants own a motorbike/moped/motorcycle/scooter – call it what you like. Throw in the couple of million quintessentially Vietnamese bicyclists with the conical hats and facemasks and you have a city which is heaving and buzzing with life and makes crossing the road an art form. Getting from one side of the street to another is a skill one has to learn early on one’s arrival in this metropolis. Wait patiently at the kerb and you ... read more

Imagine if you will, a village with no tarmacked roads, in fact, no vehicular land transport and accessible only by boat on therusset-opaque waters of the Nam Ou river. A village where the generators that provide electricity hum into life just after sunset for a mere 4 hours of power. No wifi. No hot water. No fridges. Chickens, dogs and barefooted children wander the lanes between flimsy looking bamboo constructed homes. Women bathe in the cappuccino coloured waters of the river washing themselves, their clothes and huge baskets of sticky rice. Men chop bamboo and carry balanced on the shoulders bunches of freshly machete cut morning glory. Imagine that cockerels are the morning alarm clocks and the steady beat of themonks’ drums from the village wat echo every morning and evening – the sounds reverberating off ... read more