Personal travel stories and narratives
Stories762 curves, one scooter crash (not mine), canyon sunsets, hot springs at dawn, and the best pad thai I've eaten for a dollar.
StoriesFrom a helicopter at 500 meters, the Indian Ocean looked like it was swallowing itself. Then I landed, ate 30-cent flatbread, and hiked a mountain where slaves once found freedom.
StoriesI went to Seoul for neon and K-pop. I found something older, quieter, and served on a market stall counter by a woman who'd been flipping pancakes for 40 years.
StoriesI crossed the street 47 times on Day 1. By Day 5, I was crossing without looking. That's what Saigon does to you.
StoriesJohan has guided the Skeleton Coast for 12 years. He talks about the fog, the elephants, the shipwrecks nobody photographs, and why this is the most beautiful lonely place on Earth.
StoriesChen Wei has lived on the Li River for 40 years. His Guilin is nothing like the one in the tourist brochures.
StoriesI went to Corfu for the beaches. I stayed for the kumquat liqueur, the village tavernas where €12 buys a feast, and a double beach you reach by hiking downhill for 20 minutes.
StoriesA backpacker's journal from island-hopping through Fiji's most remote chain — from the sacred caves of Sawa-i-Lau to the hammock-and-kava rhythm of Waya Island.
StoriesI came for the photos. I stayed for the pesto, the sunsets, and the 382 steps I climbed more times than I'd care to admit.
StoriesHe's spent 15 years guiding tourists through 130-million-year-old rainforest. He's seen orangutans give birth, tourists try to pet proboscis monkeys, and the palm oil industry eat the jungle alive.
StoriesMarie has lived in the shadow of the Mont for three decades. She knows when the quicksand shifts, which restaurant the monks preferred, and why the omelette tradition actually matters.
Stories5:30 AM on the crater rim, 5°C, a blanket around my shoulders, and then the sun broke the horizon and lit up 260 square kilometers of African wilderness below.
