Tag: Adventure

On Gulangyu Island 鼓浪屿
CHINA

On Gulangyu Island 鼓浪屿

The repeating mantra seems to weave through the incense-infused air, enveloping everything in a cloak of meditative tranquillity. I take a seat on a stone bench at the entrance to the cave that forms the temple’s main focus of worship. I am momentarily overcome by a wave of helplessness and disorientation and burst into tears. The combination of the heat, the difficulty communicating, the distance from home, and my sheer disbelief that I am actually China again, juxtaposed with the calmness and tranquillity of the temple is overwhelming. But it is only a passing phase: I am too hot and too thirsty to cry. Continue reading On Gulangyu Island 鼓浪屿

Two Feet in Asia
CHINA

Two Feet in Asia

Asia is vast. It spans the world from the edge of the Bosphorus in Turkey to the islands of Japan and beyond: a distance of 11,000 kilometres, or 8,000 miles, or 36 million feet. Someone who lives in Istanbul is as much an Asian as someone from Jakarta or Aurangabad, Kobe or Quanzhou. Nearly four and a half billion people walk on the continent of Asia. And now, my two feet are about to join them again. Continue reading Two Feet in Asia

The Heights of Crib Goch
Cymru

The Heights of Crib Goch

The rock step towers above us. It is very steep, almost vertical, but doesn’t look impossible. We clamber up to the base of a narrow crack between two buttresses. The rock is sound and there are good hand- and footholds in the crack. I volunteer to lead the pitch. Placing my feet against each side of the crack, I reach up past an overhang and feel for a handhold. There is a notch that I can fit my hand into. I make a fist and squeeze tightly, creating a friction hold in the notch. This is the point of no return. Once I commit to this move there will be no going back. I tense my legs against the rock wall and pull myself up and over the outcrop. Continue reading The Heights of Crib Goch

Riding the Silver Lines
New Zealand

Riding the Silver Lines

In his book Riding the Iron Rooster, the American travel writer Paul Theroux described train travel as “a luxurious form of convalescence.” His travel stories The Great Railway Bazaar, The Happy Isles of Oceania, and Riding the Iron Rooster were inspirational in my becoming a travel writer. And sitting here in the enveloping warmth of the train’s cafe car, surrounded by luxurious food and drink I, too, feel as though I’m convalescing, with nothing but my reflection in the big window for company. Continue reading Riding the Silver Lines