mike allen

I used to think this site was great. Now I'm finding it grossly irritating and stupid. It's as clunky as a clockwork chicken. Nagging about 'location not listed'. Who cares? Just publish the stuff will ya? Gosh. If I needed the Spanish Inquisition, I'd watch Monty Python... ... read more

As most of you know, I’ve travelled to quite a few places in my life. I’ve been all over the show: from the magical Ruwenzori Mountains of Uganda and Congo to the fantastic Pantanal and Amazon river in Brasil, from the lovely islands of Indonesia to the ancient cities of Europe, from the spectacular South of Chile to the grandiose North of Iceland. On all these journeys, of course, I have seen some pretty marvelous spots, some of them on my own face. I have a particular fondness for mountain landscapes. There’s just something endlessly mysterious about them for me. Some of the most memorable moments in my life have been staring up at some distant peak and seeing some landscape there that conjured up a feeling of belonging and mythical memory inside me. It’s more ... read more

I wonder if it’s possible that when I changed my plan and took such a large and radical right turn that I splintered a hole through the known Universe, slipped through the slit that appeared vagina-like in the ether and slid in-between into some sort of place just slightly out of sync with the rest of reality. I know this might strike you as slightly far-fetched, hardly the stuff of a plain old travel blog (although if you saw where I was currently sitting writing this, the surreal quality I’m asking for might be far simpler and more plausible for you to entertain) but ever since I’ve arrived in New Zealand I’ve had this same bizarre feeling, as if everything is going on one realm away from wherever I am, as if I’ve fallen into some ... read more

What a strange, even downright bizarre, few days. I’ve become practically a native of Brisbane. After three days here, I know my way around like a local. The city has a huge river weaving and meandering through its heart like a thick, brown snake, and there are fantastic catamaran and other river taxis plowing their way up and down this river. I spent yesterday riding these ferries as the weather slowly deteriorated and the day deepened, thickening clouds adding a layer of gloom to my speculations about the rest of the trip. I was due to leave for South East Asia’s sweaty climes, but a number of factors were interfering with the normal enthusiasm that would normally greet such a plan for me. I asked Antony what he thought I should do since he is not ... read more

The Ghan - part 2 Back in Alice Springs from the Uluru tour, I made the decision to go to the ‘Inception’ movie even though I was a little tired. Nat had warned me that the movie was a little dense - but I was unprepared for exactly what that added up to until about two hours into the film when the dream within a dream within a dream within a dream finally put me to sleep. Maybe I should see it again, but somehow I don’t think it’s going to help. ‘Inception’ might just be a big, doughy, ugly pile of nonsense masquerading as something thoughtful and intense. With disappointment my unexpected companion, filled up with the ludicrously expensive barramundi from the neighboring restaurant, and picking my way gingerly through the isolated but menacing packs ... read more