501 Places

Is there anything you can’t check on the internet? Research a hotel before you go and you can read hundreds of reviews about it, usually ranging from those singing its praises to others saying that they’d rather have slept in a sewer. Look up an airline and you can get reviews of the size of [...]

Drive through many of the villages in the north east of Poland and the eerie silence might lead you to believe there is no-one left to tend the miles of flat farmland, stretching beyond the horizon in every direction. A handful of ramshackle wooden homes occupy well-defined plots along either side of the road. An [...]

  Less than two months after discovering this picture in the blissful air-conditioned cool of the Etpison Museum in Palau’s main town of Koror, I stood by a south London graveside, teeth chattering in the bitter cold despite my hat, scarf, gloves and multiple layers. The two settings couldn’t be further apart, geographically or in [...]

Drive up the eastern side of Palau’s main island and at a certain point you’ll see something that looks completely absurd. Having passed through several miles of lush jungle and seen a handful of modest wooden houses, from a crest in the road you’ll first spot what could easily be mistaken for the mythical land [...]

    It really isn’t a big deal. I didn’t lose any money over the incident and the hotel acted fully within its rights. Yet by a simple action (or inaction) what had been a very pleasant stay ended with us saying that we would stay elsewhere when we next return to the same place. [...]

I’m sure many writers will identify with this. Your story gets published and while you might be pleased with the finished article there’s something that the readers will never know: that what you’ve shared with the reader is only half of the story. Indeed the untold back story to an article is often more illuminating [...]

  Earlier this month I spent four days in Brunei to research a nature-focussed article I’d been commissioned to write. Despite (or because of) my very short exposure to Brunei, its social structures and its people I left the country with many unanswered questions. I entered Brunei with media accreditation and as a result I [...]

Taking in the surroundings of Eneko Island it’s easy to conclude you’ve walked into a photograph on a postcard. Part of the Majuro atoll in the Marshall Islands, the private island ticks all the boxes for a popular view of paradise. White sandy beach, clear turquoise water, palm trees leaning gently over the ocean; all [...]

After 18 days we’ll be leaving Micronesia tomorrow. It’s been a fascinating time and an exposure to a part of the world I previously knew nothing about. We have encountered perfect beaches and dirty squalor, broad smiles and resigned hopelessness, inspiring collaboration and systemic indifference. I’ll be writing much about the many contrasting faces of [...]

Packing for a trip that covers areas with wildly different climates is never easy, and after the first week in New York we were casting off our coldest winter layers, not expecting to use them again until our return to Heathrow. Los Angeles was our next stop, or more precisely Claremont where we had the [...]