We were looking for a cheap guesthouse, but found a job. Well, almost. Being joined by new travel mates always opens up doors to new ways to travel that I've never even considered. In Padang, our search for cheap accommodation was coming up with nothing but tired feet and sweat stains, so I entered a school to ask them if they knew something useful ( Read more... )

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Ethiopia's people walk the dusty streets of Axum like characters from sun-bleached pages of a biblical picture book. I catch them in mid-stride - fetching water, going to church, carrying wood. The town is big, but almost everybody is traditionally dressed. Dignified elders sit on street benches and swat flies with horse-hair brushes, their ( Read more... )

It there was one church that won my heart in Ethiopia, it was the Debre Birhan Sellassie of Gondar. Stepping into it was like stepping into a children's biblical storybook. Angels adorn the roof and pillars of this truly divine dwelling, while every single other holy character is depicted on the walls in fading, though still vivid colors ( Read more... )

Coming out the gates of Nairobi airport was like coming out to a dying down protest where nobody got what they wanted but still refused to leave until they saw those who they protested for/against come out of the building. Endless banners, held low in hand or propped high on sticks, had people's names and tour company names on them. Make a mistake ( Read more... )

Oh, the boys... the men! It's our own fault for staying in a surfer's hostel and for the past month I've watched nothing but perfectly tanned chiseled bodies walking up and down the halls. It's a good thing my husband is not a jealous man, and it does help that one of these bronzed hunky bods belongs to him. And I... well I have no problem ( Read more... )

It so happened that close to the time of our arrival in Madagascar Perfume by Suskind has fallen into my lap. Thus my own nose, although not as supernaturally sensitive as Grenouille's, was now sharper and more aware - ready to sniff about my new destination. Which, I was surprised to discover, did not smell to me like anything at all ( Read more... )

Equivalent to the Favelas of Rio - Cape Town's Townships where the poor and those who seek refuge in the most developed country in Africa live.


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