Cost/day: Nimbin is a hard place to spend money. You will find that much of the town is free to browse, the area almost feels like entertainment in itself. We spent around $40 dollars on food and drink but this was out of choice. Nimbin is very backpacker friendly so we were able to park...

Well, I did it! Just barely, but I managed to "conquer" around 60 kilometers (37 miles) on one of the most challenging treks I've ever done. Four days and three nights of difficult uphill, painful downhill, sunburns, rain, aching muscles, and freezing nights in a tent was rewarded with some of the most beautiful scenery...

Image credit I am 15 minutes into my hike down the muddy little stream when a tree carving captures my attention. Sticky with sap and arcing brown across the bark, it seems to have been made recently. I drop to my haunches and run my fingers over the design. After three days of living on...

Cost/day: ~$40 USD (we had free lodging) What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen lately? I don't know that I would say anything was particularly strange, but London has a lot of quirkiness, especially when it comes to street art. The East End is likely the most notable area for street art, and you'll find examples...

Finding yourself tired and achy after a long day’s sightseeing in Budapest? That can be easily fixed by indulging in one of the city’s great experiences—a long soak in the healing waters that residents and visitors have been availing themselves of since Ottoman times. Blessed by its location—it sits above numerous natural springs spouting warm...

A journey is made of milestones. It has to. Without milestones, we would not be able to ponder our experiences, to stop and wonder about what we have accomplished during all this while. One of the most shiny accomplishments of my 6 years stint on the road – on many roads, in many countries, with...

I’m an avid reader. I’ve long made it a practice to choose books that followed my journeys. It’s a wonderful way to add depth and richness to my own experiences and observations, and to see the world through more eyes, more lives, than just my own. Last summer I found myself on parade of bumpy...

We’ve all heard horror stories from our friends—and have many of our own—about certain airline experiences. With the sheer volume of flights scheduled around the world on any given day, it is a statistical certainty that there will be the occasion snafu, and sometimes it’s your flight’s turn to have the bad day, and sometimes...

When it comes to travel on a shoestring - my favorite style - the amount of money you spend or save on accommodation becomes a serious matter. There was a time when travelling to China was very, very cheap, and accommodation options where everywhere. Unfortunately, with China experiencing the economic boom, things have changed quite...

We just finished up a long, slow, six month wander New Zealand. I have to say, it’s been one of the pleasantest places we’ve had the privilege to travel. It definitely falls near the top of our “easy to travel” countries list. Even if you’re a very new traveler, or have special needs, you’re going...

Picture credits: Flickr/Travel Aficionado It’s been in the air for a while, buzzing among the Southeast Asian traveler’s enclave, and making the day of many resolute overlanders. We all knew that the Golden land of Myanmar was changing. After the liberation of Aung San Suu Kyi, punk rockers storming the streets of Yangon, and everyone...

We loved Samalona Island… It's a tiny speck of an island off of the coast of the bigger island of Sulawesi, in central Indonesia. If you find yourself in Makassar, it's well worth a few days of your time, or even a few hours if that's all you've got, to retreat to this little isle...

Twenty two kilometers is a good hike. It’s not a full day’s walk, by any means, but it’s a solid start at a leisurely pace. After a month in Paraparaumu it seemed the perfect way to honor the Kapiti Coast and thank her for the gift of rest, recuperation, and peaceful joy. To walk is...

As I noticed that readers enjoyed my post on China bus travel , I thought to continue giving some extra advice on the Middle Kingdom... Image Credit: Flickr/SBoyd So are you departing from China, right? You have indeed a few border options: Mongolia, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan… or probably much easier: Hong Kong. So many people...

In the past few months, I have complained several times about the current status of travel writing and how it does not satisfy my needs. In this sense, it would have been too easy to just sit there and complain without actually doing something about it. And that's exactly what I did by joining forces...

The following story happened too many times along the back roads of deep Asia. And today, it got me inspired... They offered me a cup full of hot water and they poured some tea leaves in there, too. It was too hot to handle so I put it down first while I kept observing the...

As a first stop during my “charity discovery tour” in India I visited the village of Sujata, just behind Buddhist pilgrimage center – and Tibetan refugee colony – Bodhgaya , in Bihar state. If Bodhgaya is a bit more developed, although desperately poor, Sujata represents a real Bihar’s backwater: the kind of Indian village where...

Tearing up the Silk Road: A Modern Journey from China to Istanbul, through Central Asia, Iran and the Caucasus by Tom Coote Garnett publishing, 2012 ( buy on AMAZON ) With nine weeks on your hands, the last thing you want to do is breeze from Asia to England through the Silk Road and the...

I sat down and tried to calculate how much money I spent visiting India last year, my way: the balance is ridiculously low. India is a cheap country, yes, but this would not have been possible without a few tricks. Here is a lowdown on how I managed to spend 110$ for 6 weeks travelling...

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” --Mark Twain The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It It’s an interesting thing to be a...