Travel stories, quotes and fun facts

Nepal's flag is not rectangular

Nepal is the only country with a non-quadrilateral flag, made of two stacked pennants representing the Himalayas.

Everest grows and shifts

Everest rises a few millimetres a year and drifts northeast as the Indian plate pushes under Asia. Its official height was revised to 8,848.86 m in 2020.

Because in the end

Because in the end, you won't remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn.

The delta by mokoro

Our poler stood at the back and pushed us through reeds taller than the boat. He stopped once, silently, and pointed at an elephant twenty metres away that we would never have seen.

Nepal's clock is 45 minutes off

Nepal runs on UTC+5:45, one of only a handful of time zones offset by 45 minutes.

Bhutan measures happiness

Bhutan tracks Gross National Happiness alongside economic figures, surveying wellbeing, culture and environment.

Stars over the Kalahari

The Milky Way was bright enough to cast a shadow. Our guide named constellations we had never heard of, from a sky map that had nothing to do with Greek myths.

The road is life

Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.

Bhutan absorbs more carbon than it emits

Constitutionally required to keep 60 percent forest cover, Bhutan is one of very few carbon-negative countries.

India has over 120 languages

India recognises 22 official languages and counts more than 120 with over 10,000 speakers each.

Dunes before sunrise

The gate opens at dawn and everyone drives too fast to Dune 45. We climbed the ridge in the dark, sat down at the top, and the desert turned from grey to orange in about four minutes.

The Taj Mahal changes colour

White marble reflects the sky, so the Taj Mahal looks pink at dawn, blinding white at noon and gold under a full moon.

Nothing behind me

Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.

A road with no corners

We drove for two hours and turned the wheel twice. The gravel road went straight to the horizon and then continued. We passed one car and both of us waved.

India's rail network moves millions daily

Indian Railways carries more than 20 million passengers a day across a network of over 68,000 kilometres.

Kerala has backwater buses

In Kerala's backwaters, public ferries serve as school buses and commuter transport across 900 kilometres of connected waterways.

Devil's Pool nerves

The guide swims first to show it is safe, then holds your ankles while you look over the lip of Victoria Falls. It is entirely safe, allegedly, and my hands shook for ten minutes afterwards.

People don't take trips

People don't take trips, trips take people.

Meghalaya grows its bridges

Khasi villagers train living fig roots across rivers for decades until they form bridges that get stronger with age.

Ladakh has a magnetic-looking hill

Magnetic Hill near Leh appears to roll cars uphill. It is an optical illusion caused by the surrounding slope.

Rain in the rainforest

It did not rain, it emptied. Four hours of noise so loud that conversation stopped. Then it ended in about a minute and the forest started making an entirely different set of sounds.

Varanasi is continuously inhabited

Varanasi is among the oldest continuously lived-in cities in the world, with settlement stretching back roughly 3,000 years.

A journey is a person

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.

The lemur that chose me

We were told not to feed them. One sifaka disagreed with this policy, landed on my shoulder, checked all my pockets in about six seconds and left disappointed.