It had been one of those mornings.   I had woken up in some mundane hotel behind the bus station in the rural town of Latur in eastern Maharashtra in India. The water was out. The power was out. I had lost my favourite necklace the previous day in the commotion that is Indian train […]

My friends are often jealous because they think I travel a lot. I have pinned 314 cities in 40 countries on my travel map, marking the cities that I have visited. But still, some people are travelling more than me. I don’t feel that I travel that much, so I keep travelling. I just can […]

Shiva’s story begins on the island of Fiji, in the poverty stricken town of Ba and it’s no coincidence that his upbringing has influenced the direction of his life, as well as his drive to make a meaningful difference. Here he shares his story, from humble beginnings to big ambitions – all in the hope […]

Donna Giliam wandered Australia for years – from the desert to the Kimberley to the tropics and back to the desert again. During this time, she worked and studied hard with her eldest daughter in tow. After years of travel and immersion in some of Australia’s most remote indigenous communities, Donna finally finished her studies […]

Sometimes it feels nice to complain. Let’s admit it, we all do it and some more than others.   I’m not a big complainer at all. Usually I get on with it, and have little patience for unnecessary complaints. But as I said, sometimes it is nice to complain, and in those moments all you […]

Call it a myth, call it a story, call it a sequence of sacred tales. To the Kulung, it is known as Riddum (or Mundum/Mundhum) and since time immoral, these series of memories and fables have been shared orally from one generation to the next to depict the origins of the cosmos – or simply, […]

We crossed a line. That fuzzy, indeterminate, unfixed space between tourist and local. Between outsider and insider. It’s a bizarre, privileged and delicate place to be. When a project or opportunity invites your full immersion, the stakes are higher. The lessons are steeper, your participation in all types of activities is acutely important, and your […]

“Sewa,” says a young dimpled-faced girl as she straddles her schoolbooks close to her chest and walks through a field of tall millet that almost hide her face. Buffalos munch on grass and inquisitively look on with big brown eyes. Roosters crow to the high sun, and a queue of mules navigate the rocky footpath, […]

The moment travel morphs into something more, you know you’ve crossed a line. No longer a tourist or traveller, you enter the world of the expat when you choose to live somewhere new and immerse into a different culture and place.   Shanny Matterson, the freelance travel writer and creative copywriting guru from Rebel and […]

“The constant challenge is to not feel sorry for ourselves,” said Thomas** as we drove – or rather, bounced around Mostar in his hotted-up van with wild suspension and turbo-folk (the name for Serbian electric dance music) blaring from the speakers. More than 20 years ago, Thomas escaped Bosnia during the war and exiled for […]