The Pearl River Delta, in the early 2000’s, was a place of heavy industry, pollution, run off, waste and ruin. It was rubble and rebar. Home to factories like Yue Yuen (a company that produces the majority of the shoes for Nike, Crocs, Adidas, Reebok, Asics, New Balance, Puma, Timberland and Rockport) and Samsung, the […]
As a kid growing up in the South, you hear a lot about the Civil War. I was told stories of Generals, of Robert E Lee, a well rehearsed account of what happened, from one particular point of view, the white south. I was seldom taught the history outside of this perspective, it was either […]
On a recent trip to Oaxaca, one of the culinary and cultural hearts of magnificent Mexico, I was lucky enough to experience the wonder, strangeness and joy that is the Day of the Dead (el Dia de los Muertos). I’d always been somewhat flummoxed by the differences between Day of the Dead and Halloween and […]
There was a time period at the end of the 70’s, when rock and roll belched up 15 minute ballads sticky with hairspray, and the efficiency of a 2-4 beat and counterculture got lost in the woods and egos of stadium shows. We ended up with “Paradise By The Dashboard Light”. Fortunately punk rock and […]
Located in one of the sunniest parts of the French Alps, the small town of Barcelonnette (not to be confused with Barcelona in Spain) is home to almost 3000 souls. Barcelonnette is not only a friendly family ski town known to every ski enthusiast in the South of France (only 3h away from Marseille), it […]
Lately I’ve been on the search for the perfect beach, and not because I particularly love beaches. But because I enjoy travelling with my kids, and a good beach is an ace in the hole. Grab a bucket and shovel, and the sand can bring endless hours of creativity and fun. And swimming in warm […]
Imagine Captain Cook’s surprise when, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, he stumbled upon the Hawaiian archipelago and found a thriving civilization. These Polynesian pioneers who would have sailed more than 4,000km from Tahiti, weren’t descendents of some 10th-century version of Castaway or Giligan’s Island. The Professor was clever enough but no one on […]
I like Pete Wells; I like to read his reviews of restaurants in the New York Times. He can be tough and snarky, but at least he is also witty and right. A Pete Wells classic from his review of Per Se: “I don’t know what could have saved limp, dispiriting yam dumplings, but it […]
Dan recently had the opportunity to return to the Arctic circle in Nunavut on the Northwest Passage, to stay with a family we have known and worked with for a number of years, the Webers, a family driven by a passion for the north, for the stark landscape and conservation efforts of a seldom understood […]
“I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow that house down….” As a man with two small kids, I think a lot about the big bad wolf – he and his cronies crop up a lot in the bedtime stories I’ve been reading every night for the last decade. Sometimes I’m surprised at how much […]
I used to watch this man construct a handmade parasol in Myanmar. He was on a long drive from the airport in Heho to Inle Lake in the hill country of the Shan state. He would make the most intricate workings, all out of bamboo and a home smelted blade and lathe, he would perform […]
The Post Office Essays There is a particular magic we humans get to do. We can have an idea then translate it into a series of symbols which others, years later, can read, so that the idea enters into their mind. We can write and create books and essays and letters, and mark down our […]
It’s a rather obvious point to make, but the last 2 years have been a bit shitty. As we sat hunkered down at home for months on end watching the news, it was as if the sense of physical and mental oppression caused by Covid was being exacerbated by the relentless fire-hose of human-caused catastrophe […]
There is a morning each year when the winter starts to shift gears out of the cold and the barometric pressure starts to change: birds begin singing, and if you look closely, buds start to form on the end of the branches. It is the rebirth, the beginning, and after a two-year winter it is […]
The world is forever moving towards complexity, leaving us to face down bigger and bigger questions with every trip around the sun. The world of travel is no exception, and the inter-connected complexities of over-tourism, climate change and now COVID make planning decisions more complicated than ever. Questions abound, and for the more philosophical among […]
I like maps. I like how they help me understand large swathes of land that I am unable to see with my eyes and feel with my senses. I can picture a planet whole. It’s reduced to a handful of parts, for sure, but a picture is formed that helps in understanding. I will never […]