Travel

Column: Monsieur Parapluie – March 2020

“I’m a dashing man-about-town! I’m a flaneur! I’m a viscount! I’m John Malkovich in Dangerous Liaisons!” (…..)

Article: Smooth Sailing

An article published in Diner’s Club magazine about a trip with my mother on the splendid Crystal Serenity. (…..)

Column: Strictly come cruising – February 2020

The importance of dancing to the horizon. (…..)

Column: Greek islands, fate and the furious – 18 November 2019

Traveling is like life, and not everyone wants to be happy. (…..)

My favourite place: Uncle Jim’s Hermanus – October 2019

A short place about somewhere I love immoderately. (…..)

Column: Paris in a heatwave – 9 June 2019

The most important survival skill a traveller needs to learn. (…..)

Feature: Joy on the Orient Express – June 2019

Something was going to die on that train, if they weren’t careful. (…..)

Feature: Siberia and the life-saving importance of being bored – March 2019

Vladivostok was a very long way away, and all I could think is, “I’m wasting my life”. (…..)

Column: Valentine in Moscow – February 2019

Oh, what could be more romantic than a weekend in Moscow? (…..)

Column: Visiting Lenin in Red Square – 26 September 2018

A visit to Lenin’s tomb teaches important life lessons in queuing and remembrance. (…..)

Column: Birthday in Andalucia – 5 April 2018

April is the cruelest month, even in southern Spain. (…..)

Column: Spending a penny – 2 April 2018

Your faithful columnist is apprehended breaking into a public toilet in Belgium. (…..)

Column: I blame George Saunders – March 2018

A terribly embarrassing encounter in the lobby of the Burj Al-Arab in Dubai. (…..)

Column: Why I travel – 27 Feb 2018

It took me a long time to realise why it is that I travel so much and so ceaselessly. (…..)

Column: I’m sorry, Lucy Jordan – January 2018

At the age of 37, I tried to give the gift of the warm Paris wind through her hair. (…..)

Column: Zimbabwe and crying in the rain – May 2017

When you are a scared little boy, it’s important to find your travel song. (…..)

Column: Miami and the wrong side of the mirror – April 2017

The Frenchwoman poked at my belly with a disapproving finger.  (…..)

Column: Roger the cabin boy on the Chesapeake Bay – March 2017

Being so useless and superfluous does terrible things to a man’s self-esteem. (…..)

Column: The gorgeous Ganges by moonlight – Feb 2017

Number 16 on my List of Things To Do Before I Die was to see the gorgeous Ganges by moonlight. (…..)

Column: Hamburg and the luckiest man in the world – February 2017

Life lessons can come from anywhere, even a show store in Hamburg. (…..)

Column: How to build a sandcastle like a South African – December 2016

My friend Andre was afraid that his son was going to grow to be a Kiwi. (…..)

Column: Coney island and a slice of in-your-face pie – November 2016

I don’t normally eat out a lot when I travel, and this is one the reasons why. (…..)

Column: Yemen and the art of leaving – October 2016

In Yemen I did drugs with three strange men. (…..)

Column: Joining the mile-high club – September 2016

There’s a particular mile-high club that once you’ve joined, you’ll never want to leave. (…..)

Column: My favourite travel memory – 2 August 2016

My favourite travel memory currently belongs to somebody else. (…..)

Column: The fountain of youth – 28 June 2016

That time I swam in the Trevi fountain on a hot summer’s night in Rome. (…..)

Column: Utrecht and why I travel alone – 26 May 2016

It isn’t easy to travel alone but it has some strange and almost magical benefits.  (…..)

Column: Zimbabwe and being on foot with the elephants – 5 May 2016

You should never go walking in the bush with a crazy Zimbabwean. (…..)

Column: KZN and the time I killed a turtle – April 2016

This is the worst thing I have ever confessed. (…..)

Article: Walking the Mighty Bovey – Spring 2016

A quest to walk the length of the river that bears my name. (…..)

Column: A stray in Virginia – February 2016

A man of a certain age, travelling with his mother, attracts a certain kind of attention. (…..)

Column: Jaipur, a kid and a few dollars less – January 2016

I was chasing a 10-year-old boy through the backstreets of Jaipur, trying to take money off him. (…..)

Column: Rwanda and the wide angle of trust – December 2015

You have to trust people, he said, or nothing good can ever happen. (…..)

Column: Of Devon, a river and a dog – November 2015

Nowhere on Earth is made more beautiful by a tourist. (…..)

Column: St Helena and the art of losing your girlfriend on a boat – November 2015

It was more than an adventure, it was a commitment, and that is the rug on which my best intentions so often snag their feet. (…..)

Column: A Gentleman on a train in Kenya – October 2015

A moving encounter on the Lunatic Express. (…..)

Column: My old man and the sea – September 2015

I did get off the Bluff, but he didn’t. He is still there, sitting on the grey stairs above the Indian ocean. (…..)

Column: Having faith in the hamburger – 19 Aug 2015

Resilience, endurance, art and eponymous eating on a long weekend in Hamburg. (…..)

Column: The Whale Trail and walking in the footsteps of another – July 2015

“Wait,” I begged. “Don’t leave me behind …” (…..)

Column: Asking and receiving in Cambodia – June 2015

Sometimes asking for help is a gift you give other people. (…..)

Column: The wheels on the Orient Express go round and round

Cross my palm with silver, said the fortune teller. (…..)

Column: How I met my mother (in New York) – 30 May 2015

When my father died he had never been out of the country … (…..)

Column: My list of things to do before I die – 20 May 2015

“Number 4: walk on the Cobb at Lyme Regis in a winter storm, like Meryl Streep.” (…..)

Feature: On foot with gorillas in the Mountains of the Moon – April 2015

A friend once told me that after seeing the gorillas she started having terrible nightmares in which she was a little girl taken from her family. (…..)

Column: Hemingway in Cuba: a farewell to armrests

“We’re not Americans,” I said. “We’re your friends!” (…..)

Column: Miami in winter and a lesson in life – 6 March 2015

I arrived in Miami on the coldest day on record. (…..)

Column: Showing off in the Amazon

It’s a bad idea to travel with someone you’re trying to impress. (…..)

Column: Dignity on a Kenyan beach – 6 January 2015

“I asked Professor his thoughts on charity, and I wish now I had written it down.” (…..)

Column: Cambodia, being a spy and the best pool in the world – 8 Dec 2014

You can’t choose what you remember best about a place. (…..)

Column: New York and the city seen for the first time – 5 Nov 2014

You can only cross the Queensboro bridge into New York for the first time once. (…..)

Column: Cold comfort in Istanbul – 27 October 2014

I wanted some ice cream because it had been a hard day in Istanbul. (…..)

Column: Bangkok and ripples widening – 13 October 2014

In Bangkok in the rain I met a small girl. (…..)

Column: The broken heart of Budapest – 25 Aug 2014

“There was a woman I loved but she didn’t love me any more, so I was in Budapest alone.” (…..)