THAILAND | Sunday, 20 Sep 2009 | Views [231] | Video
On the wall of my son's bedroom is a large photo spread from the Guardian newspaper of a remarkable market in Thailand that operates around and along a short but fully operational stretch of track. I have never been but will seek this out next time I'm ... Read more >
Tags: thailand, train, market, design, ingenuity, people
INDONESIA | Saturday, 1 Aug 2009 | Views [215] | Comments [1] | Video
In our younger days one of the great joys of travel was to just wander, to have no real plan except to get lost and see what eventuated. Sometimes it really didn't work and we'd end up in some tricky situations, more often than not it was a pleasing ... Read more >
Tags: bali, volcano, island, beauty
INDIA | Tuesday, 7 Jul 2009 | Views [203]
In December 2008 I headed off to India with my new iPhone, setting myself the simple task to see if I could twitter about my travels as I went. Just as an experiment. As soon as we landed in Mumbai I couldn't even get the thing to connect to any of ... Read more >
Tags: iphone, app store, apple, travel applications, mobile
INDONESIA | Tuesday, 7 Jul 2009 | Views [25]
At pre-school our four year old has been learning all sorts of rhymes and songs in both English and Japanese, and he has the wonderful habit of singing loudly to himself from about 7am or particularly when he is tired. Not being Dyslexic he has no trouble ... Read more >
Tags: dyslexia, ducks, bali, songs, perspective boys, travel with children
CHINA | Thursday, 4 Jun 2009 | Views [162] | Video
It was strange days to be in China. Perhaps even stranger to be reflecting on these moments 20 years on. This is a well written piece about the iconic figure that stopped a line of tanks: http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/rebel.html ... Read more >
Tags: tiananmen, courage, democracy
AUSTRALIA | Monday, 4 May 2009 | Views [221]
This is true. Honest to God. Someone, somewhere in the world has actually put a lump of fried SPAM on top of a ball of rice, wrap it in a piece of limp seaweed and have the temerity to call it Sushi. There should be laws against this sought of thing.... Read more >
Tags: sushi, spam, food, japanese, cuisine, criminal behaviour
INDIA | Saturday, 20 Dec 2008 | Views [273]
3am. Bombay International Airport. I'd just landed and this was my introduction to travel outside Europe and America. I had no guidebook, no idea what to do, where to go or how to get there and was, ahem, totally unprepared. I sat down to ponder my ... Read more >
Tags: slumdog millionaire, mumbai, prostitute, travel
AUSTRALIA | Monday, 6 Oct 2008 | Views [877] | Comments [5]
I have seen the first few of these several times before, but never seen anyone take it so far. Re-posted for your enjoyment:
SOCIALISM: You have 2 cows You give one to your neighbour.
COMMUNISM: You have 2 cows The State takes both and gives ... Read more >
Tags: cows, humour, economics
INDONESIA | Tuesday, 22 Jul 2008 | Views [320]
One of the things I've been considering on this trip is that of all the travel web sites in the world, the one I usually start with is ... Google. Not Lonely Planet or Trip Advisor or World Nomads. These I use to plan our trip and I ... Read more >
Tags: planning, google, sms, internet
INDONESIA | Wednesday, 16 Jul 2008 | Views [320]
"A massage"
"Sarong?"
"a bracelet for your boy"
"Where are you from?"
"A kite mister?"
"You need car?"
Local street hawkers hassle you all the time trying to flog you ... Read more >
Tags: beach, hawkers, hassle, people, children
INDONESIA | Monday, 14 Jul 2008 | Views [273]
4am. Dark. Even the cocks are asleep.
"Yohawaaaw. Awwwwwwwaaaaaahhhhhhhhh. Yohawaaaw. Awwwwwwwaaaaaahhhhhhhhh." The wailing call to prayer goes on and on and on.
We have two enduring memories from Lombok of many years ago:... Read more >
Tags: adhan, lombok, wailing, mosque, sleep deprevation
INDONESIA | Sunday, 13 Jul 2008 | Views [431] | Comments [2]
"Is that it?" Yuki looked decidedly dubious.
The GiliCat was described as the fastest way to get from Bali to the Gili Islands off the northern coast of Lombok, but the boat before us looked tiny. Divided by the Wallace Line , Bali ... Read more >
Tags: vomit, lombok, bali, ferry, disaster, more vomit, travel with children
INDONESIA | Monday, 7 Jul 2008 | Views [304]
After Bali I was slightly surprised at the general level of poverty on Java. Not extreme poverty but the sheer volume of Becak drivers willing to pedal you around for a pitance spoke volumes. Despite the vibrant market along Marlborough Street, there ... Read more >
Tags: becak, beggars, yogyakarta, children, poverty, dilemma
INDONESIA | Monday, 7 Jul 2008 | Views [917]
To walk to the Sultan's Water Palace in Yogyakarta you have to pass through the bird market. As you approach, many of the shops only display bamboo bird cages and it passes through your mind that maybe they have removed all the birds because of the ... Read more >
Tags: bird flu, java, google, indonesia, yogyakarta, doctor, hospital, near miss
INDONESIA | Saturday, 5 Jul 2008 | Views [364]
Years ago we spent so much time on the islands between Timor and Lombok that we had no time left for this part of Indonesia so this is the first time we have ever explored central Java.
Not surprisingly we have chosen to base ourselves in Yogyakarta, ... Read more >
Tags: yogjakarta, java, prambanan, borobudur, temples, becak
AUSTRALIA | Thursday, 3 Jul 2008 | Views [253]
Anyone interested in the complexity of business strategy in the globalised world of the twenty first century should talk half an hour to listen to this fascinating talk by Hannah Jones, Vice President of CSR at Nike. Hannah Jones is responsible for ... Read more >
Tags: csr, nike, footprints, india, hannah jones, corporate, responsibility
AUSTRALIA | Sunday, 29 Jun 2008 | Views [361]
My eldest boy is aged 5 and goes to a nice school here. The kindergarten teacher asked all the Mum's and Dad's to talk to the class about what they did for work, so, since being a 'Director' doesn't mean a great deal to a 5 year old, I went in as ... Read more >
Tags: footprints network, school, children, social experiment
AUSTRALIA | Tuesday, 24 Jun 2008 | Views [272]
Now I don't profess to know everything there is to know about travel, but I have travelled quite a lot and learn't a lot from these experiences which I have started to collate into a single set of travel tips for anyone interested.
World Nomads ... Read more >
AUSTRALIA | Monday, 16 Jun 2008 | Views [522] | Video
The following is taken from an interview with Philanthropy Australia. Simon Monk is a social entrepreneur who embodies a new style of giving. The founder and director of The World Nomads Group, Simon and his team established the Footprints Network ... Read more >
Tags: entrepreneur, footprints, giving, difference, travel, philanthropy, csr, responsiblity
VIETNAM | Friday, 25 Apr 2008 | Views [724]
"Don't drink the ice!" We've all heard it before. But having spent 20 odd years travelling around Asia I have pretty much learned the hard way how to stay healthy and eating on the street is a breeze: Pho for breakfast, Da Chanah (iced ... Read more >
Tags: jetstar, food poisoning, revenge, toilet, accident, cheap airlines, beware
VIETNAM | Sunday, 20 Apr 2008 | Views [398] | Video
Cantho and the nearby town of Soc Trang are the source of some of our strongest memories of the country: being turned away from every hotel because they just didn't have a policy on what to do with tourists who fronted up at the front desk; when we ... Read more >
Tags: cantho, mekong, markets, boats, memories
VIETNAM | Friday, 18 Apr 2008 | Views [611]
Sometime you just can't know how it's going to work out. Today we had planned to get to Cantho, knew it must be possible, but also knew that there weren't any obvious or direct buses, so were going to have to make it up as we went along. This is usually ... Read more >
Tags: journey, experience, vietnam, mekong, hustler, cantho, mytho, cyclo
VIETNAM | Thursday, 17 Apr 2008 | Views [428] | Comments [1]
Why do travellers (tourists?) go on those mini-bus tours everywhere? The only people you'll meet are other travellers or tourists. I know it makes it all so easy but surely far less of an experience? It never ceases to amaze me how far off the beaten ... Read more >
Tags: saigon, mekong delta, ben tre, off the beaten track, travel with children
VIETNAM | Monday, 14 Apr 2008 | Views [417]
We dozed in the back of the shagged out 1940's bus for sleep definitely wasn't possible. Rumble, bump, rattle, and thump, all night long. As the first rays of dawn glimmered outside, I mentally forced myself out of the slumber, as stretching definitely ... Read more >
Tags: saigon, ho chi minh, memories, beggars, traffic, travel with children
VIETNAM | Tuesday, 1 Apr 2008 | Views [467] | Comments [1]
This argument seems to have been around certainly for as long as I have been travelling, with people who define themselves as 'travellers' usually feeling they are somehow superior to 'tourists'. I know Tony Wheeler from Lonely Planet for one doesn't ... Read more >
Tags: tourist, traveller, saigon, memory, dmz, mekong
JAPAN | Tuesday, 1 Jan 2008 | Views [9963]
Travellers often avoid Japan because of it's reputation for being expensive. This was certainly true a decade or so ago, but these days it's quite the bargain.
We visit Japan fairly regularly and go to get our fix of two things: the food ... Read more >
Tags: culture, japan, onsen, hot springs, children, tokyo, experience
HONG KONG | Monday, 3 Dec 2007 | Views [668] | Comments [3] | Video
We were just returning home after six exhausting days setting up the World Nomads China office in Shenzhen and were in a taxi on the way to the airport.
Look carefully and you can see at least FIVE mobile phones in his cab ... most of ... Read more >
Tags: taxi, mobile phone, nokia, nomads, business, china, hong kong, humour, bizarre, dangerous
CHINA | Friday, 30 Nov 2007 | Views [519]
Smell. The first thing you notice is the smell. As you step off the air-conditioned train scents waft up from from bakeries and noodle shops to mix with the odours from the sewers and stale cigarettes.
Actually, in fairness, I find Shenzhen ... Read more >
Tags: work, business, culture, economy
GREECE | Friday, 9 Nov 2007 | Views [610]
While travelling with children has it rewards, sometimes I feel like an Octopus with four mouths. Our energetic boys have just turned 3 and 5 respectively so try to imagine using your hands to read a menu, catch a falling water glass, grab a young one ... Read more >
Tags: travel with children, rewarding, exhausting, Educational Experiences, food, tips
GREECE | Thursday, 8 Nov 2007 | Views [431]
Because of the extended nature of this trip, it has been impossible to take that much time off from work so this is the first time I have really taken it with me. It didn't start out too well, with my wonderfully tiny 12" Mac choosing to die just ... Read more >
Tags: business, wireless, mobile, 3g, nokia, telstra, travel fuel
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