Archives: Guide

We were escorted by three waiters down a dark, airless corridor, the smell of cigarette smoke clinging to the air. In disbelief 'Welcome to Istanbul' I thought to myself. Only five hours in Turkey and I was in trouble.

We begin our 4.5 hour trek from the Hotel Posada in the Asturian Arriondas hills, with the suggestion from the walking guide to keep an eye out for red squirrels. Now, if I look out into my garden...

The rough road to Pangumbahan Beach was nothing compared to the emotional experience that greeted me the end of it.

Cambodia with its Indiana Jones style temples, bustling market places and beautiful south-east Asian beaches is a must-see for any intrepid traveller.

The Canadian 002 from Vancouver thunders steadily along the steel rails and timber sleepers, cajoling its way through the majestic rocky mountains deep into British Columbia.

When the bus stops at the border, one has to drag one’s bag for about 150 metres to a huge building of the Chinese border security still under construction. Once they examine all the papers — old visa, current visa...

“You? YOU are going to Alicante?” My friends continued to interrogate me in disbelief. “You do realise it’s full of retired British couples with faces so sunburnt you’d think they’d just finished running there from Scotland?”

It was October 2008 and the notes from the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics were still hanging in the air as I began my journey along the grandiosely named "Trans-Sumatran Highway".

The small, blue cockleshell in the reed didn?t look very confident. We climbed carefully into the boats and the boatsmen started. The snort of the ponies died away behind us.

We open the hive and at least 100 bees hit my face like bullets. As the bees dart for my exposed hands, I curl my fingers, feeling flesh swell against the crunch and hum of stingers and bee-wings.