September 2014

[Editor's Note]: I met Fabio a few years ago on a "Spot the polar bear" expedition in Svalbard, in the very far north of Norway. Being so close to the North Pole, Svalbard is incredibly cold during winter, but we had a great time on the snowmobiles and dogsleds. At his current age of just 29, Fabio has been to an impressive list of 73 countries which includes amazing destinations such as Svalbard, Iceland and Iran, and he is keen to visit North Korea, and.... even New Zealand! A very energetic young man who is now living in Oslo, Norway! [MORE...]

[Editor's Note]: I first met Min during my second trip to Myanmar. He gave me such a friendly welcome and offered great advice about where to travel and what to do. He accompanied me on Yangon's Circular train journey and we hopped off a few times to explore the very authentic fruit and veggie markets. He is a walking encyclopaedia of Myanmar and nobody should plan a trip to Myanmar without first drawing on Min's experience and knowledge of this incredible country. [MORE...]

[Editor's note]: I was sitting on the veranda at the Lutheran Guesthouse in the village of Goroka, Papa New Guinea, when Helen shared with me her incredible adventures in Kurdistan, northern Iraq. What floored me was when she said that she arrived by plane at about 2am at the Kurdish international airport outside the city of Erbil (Arbil, Irbil) and had no hotel reservation and no meet-and-greet arrangement. Furthermore, hotels would not allow her in because she was seen as an alien as it is unheard of for women to travel solo in this part of the world. Many of her stories totally amazed me and since then I always think of Helen as "Kurdish Helen" and "Helen the Brave". Such an incredible human being! Enjoy Helen in conversation with Globerovers Magazine. (Note that 'Helen the Brave' has also eaten chicken ass (yes, an anus!) in Korea and she will never ever forget it. In fact, the experience converted her into a vegetarian! [MORE...]

[Editor's note]: As I walked into John's Cafe in Kashgar, Xinjiang Autonomous Region of western China, I noticed a lonely man sitting at a table staring at his small laptop. I walked up and we introduced ourselves and started with the usual "where you from and where you go". Soon we were joined by Emma. I quickly found that both Greg and Emma were no ordinary travelers. This couple has already traveled all the way from Cape Town at the southern tip of Africa up through dark Africa, through the Middle East and Central Asia, and are now taking a well deserved rest in Kashgar before heading south into Pakistan, India, Nepal, China, and a few more countries before reaching Singapore. Here their long overland journey will come to an end as it is the furthest point where they can travel overland towards Australia, their homeland. We had a long and very enjoyable chat about travel. They convinced me that I should go ahead with my planned Cairo to Cape Town trip, though to date I still have not embarked on this epic trip. They also inspired me to travel northern Pakistan, which I recently did! During their recent stop in Hong Kong we met up for dinner at my place. Was great to get a run-down of their travels since we first met several months ago in Kashgar. What an inspiration these two wonderful souls are! [MORE...]

[Editor's Note]: Chi Ho is one of the bravest travelers from Hong Kong. While most Hong Kong travelers prefer shopping destinations such as London and Paris, Chi Ho always yearns for the unknown. Among the most intrepid destinations he has explored, include rural regions of Papua New Guinea, Syria, Turkey, South Africa, Iceland, New Zealand and Russia. Chi Ho is always planning a next trip and seems like he is always ready with his backpack! He really likes to mix with the locals, in their own language where possible. As a multilinguist he is fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese and English. Currently he is studying Russian and Spanish! We trust Swahili and Zulu are next... [MORE...]