How Do You Say “Get my friend to bloody hospital!” In Thai?
They told us to come back with a story – they just didn’t tell us what type of story to come back with.
The countdown for New Years was on. Lief and I decided to head over to the full moon party in Koh Phangan by ourselves. The rest of the gang wanted to have a bit of a quieter night.
The Last Day For The FALL WRITING CONTEST!
This is your last chance to get those stories in! Some of us work better under pressure (me included) so you now have only 12 hours left to transform that memory into a real traveling tale.
Submission will not be included in the contest after Midnight tonight Novemeber 15th and your story will require at least 10 votes to qualify. The winner will be announced on November 25th so to all those TSM readers out there make sure you actively vote on those stories your reading!
Naked in New Zealand
This entire trip I’ve been looking for a great place to go streaking.
Places to Go
Photo: Flickr/Teseum
I was 22 when I embarked on my first proper traveling trip in Europe: the ‘Top Deck Highlights of Europe’ tour. It was an organized trip; 16 days, taking in cities like Amsterdam, Munich, Salzburg, Florence, Nice and Paris. Now let me dispel any visions you might have of a coach-load of pink-haired ladies and obese, tweed-wearing men. No. ‘Top Deck’ trips were the preserve of young, drunken, hedonistic Aussies and Kiwis on their European walkabout (I was the token Irish guy). It was on this jaunt that I learnt of the live-for-the-moment attitude of the typical traveling ANZAC. In fact by the end of the trip I had probably learnt as much about Oz and N.Z. as I had about Europe.
The Vagabond Muse: Two Women of McLeod Ganj, India
Sunita
The first time I saw Sunita she had a baby in a sling, and a red and black checked blanket draped over her head. Her smile was wide and bright, despite black plaque on teeth. As her smile broke open, she broke through. I felt it erupt in me like summer earth, cracked, wanting.
We are in Africa Now, Baby!
“On est en Afrique.”
Loosely translated as “we’re in Africa now, baby,” it is hard to describe the humorous kind of shrug accompanying this wry statement. Used frequently by locals, it is the standard response to every conceivable question:
Two Worlds
Photo : Flickr/Domc
New York, USA : As the sun set over a June Manhattan skyline, golds, oranges and yellows flashing through verdant maple via an internet of brash glass edifices, taxi cabs trumpeting evening, sidewalks straining with purposeful natives and lingering snappers, I hurriedly gorged my way from Gramercy, the Flatiron, Midtown, Times Square onto Ninth, the Lincoln and the Met were waiting. Ballet, opera, I cared not, the opening, rising chords of Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue performing con brio in my mind’s personal orchestra pit. Summer Swing in the city championed banners.
Once inside, the habit of a lifetime clouding judgment, I go for bottled Bud, yet before my transaction had been declared, the neighboring champagne stall, manned by a bright face in a tailored crimson waistcoat, yelled louder than any Bowery beat police officer. I was in New York - the home of my heroes George and Ira, Larry Hart, Bernstein and Runyon - so how could I possibly succumb to boring beer? The decision executed I dreamily stood, heavenly content, on the balcony, bubbles in one hand, a bowl of sumptuous strawberries in the other, as beneath New Yorkers swung and Lindy Hopped until a time when even the locals saw fit to retire.
Bats Like Crazy
One of the wonders of our natural world are the bats. Blind, they are able to maneuver at great speeds due to the power of their sonar abilities. Each night bats leave the protection of their cave, together, and manage somehow to not knock each other out of the air. They zip around on delicate wings, seeing the world through sound, not sight.
Our understanding of sonar itself is also pretty wondrous. Sonar, or Sound Navigation and Ranging, was a technology developed in response to the sinking of the Titanic. British and American military scientists co-opted the technology and quickly developed myriads of military applications for it.
God’s Own Country : Kerala, India
Photo:Flickr/Blackfin2
Walking through the narrow roads in God’s own country, one realizes the true majesty of this state in India. Patched with the parrot green carpet of the paddy fields and the thick stripes of coconut trees, Kerala is truly God’s own country. Among the 14 districts of the state, Pathanamthitta is a hub for many educational institutions and religious places.
Random Shopkeepers Call Me Brother
Photo: Flickr/miiglea
I spend my days strapping Syrian and Lebanese preteens into flight simulators, and fall asleep at night while packs of stray dogs rumble outside my bedroom window. Such is my life in Turkey.
