Sleeping over the world – one off the sofa confessions.
May 23rd, 2013
That’s the title of my new book. Well, that’s what comes up on Google translation for my recently released Chinese version of ‘Sleeping Around – A couch surfing tour of the globe’. For my 1.2 billion Chinese fans you can buy it for a special price of 29.8 yuan. For those that don’t know my original book here is the Google translated description:
Who would be happy never met a stranger sleeping in their own couch?
I think I contracted a venereal disease at this hotel.
May 9th, 2013
I didn’t contract a venereal disease from a hotel (or ever, I might add), but that is just one of the great quotes from a review on Trip Advisor. I admit that I use Trip Advisor quite a bit and have stayed in some fantastic accommodation and eaten in some amazing restaurants because of the advice on Trip Advisor. Yes, it’s nice to just wander around aimlessly sometimes to find that ‘hidden gem’, but there is a very good chance that the hidden gem is ranked No.4 for that town or city on Trip Advisor anyway. And they can still be hidden gems, by the way, even if they are on Trip Advisor. On my trip last year to the Philippines… (read more)
My 10-week old and his moral turpitude.
April 28th, 2013
Our little Luca got his passport this week. He now has this passport until he is five – when he won’t look anything at all like his five-week old self. It’s not easy getting a photo of a five-week old. The strict guidelines for a passport photo stipulates that the person must look directly at the camera, have their mouth closed and not smiling and to be able to sit up even if you have absolutely no control of your neck muscles or limbs… (read more)
An orgy of travel writers.
March 13th, 2013
If you want to hear a whole bunch of talented travel writers talking about, well…their travels then take a trip to the Australian Festival of Travel Writing. It runs for three days from Friday the 22nd of March and takes place at the rather appropriately named Melbourne Brain Centre in Genetics Lane (I kid you not) in Melbourne. I’ll be doing a couple of talks on Sunday the 24th which I’m very much looking forward to. My first talk is with Tony Wheeler the co-founder of Lonely Planet where we’ll be talking about… (read more)
Ask Brian and the Leyland Brothers.
January 28th, 2013
For those who aren’t Australian or over 35 probably won’t know who the Leyland Brothers are. Mike and Mal Leyland hosted a TV show from 1976 to 84 called ‘Ask the Leyland Brothers’ where they travelled all around Australia introducing us to fair-dinkum beauty bonza Aussie wildlife and landscapes. Mike passed away in 2009, but Mal is still ‘travelling around the countryside’, and next month Mal will be in Bright, Victoria talking about his adventures at the The Adventure Travel Film Festival. And so will I (except I won’t be talking about Mal’s adventures). In fact, during the weekend of festivities there will be lots of other great speakers and amazing films by… (read more)
Travel highlights of 2012.
December 30th, 2012
It was a pretty good year travel wise, but I can’t include my trip earlier this year to the US and Mexico in my highlights because I included it into my 2011 highlights (the trip crossed over from December into January). Mind you, the few overseas and local trips that I took after that were full of great highlights, including jumping out of a helicopter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand, hanging with some kooky tarsiers, big turtles and even bigger humpback whales and adding country number 78 to my list. So without further ado here is my Top Ten Travel Highlights from 2012 (in no particular order)… (read more)
My NEW book is out just in time for Christmas.
December 9th, 2012
Okay, well it’s not entirely all my book, but I have contributed a chapter to a fantastic new book on Sri Lanka entitled Snapshots of Sri Lanka – Travel tales from the island of serendipity. The book, which is a collection 21 stories about Sri Lanka from Australia’s best travel writers, is the brainchild of fellow Australian Society of Travel Writers member Lee Mylne. Lee met a woman at a travel writer’s workshop she was running who asked her for some advice on a fund-raising idea that she had. This is the result and the profits will go towards building new pre-school in Sri Lanka… (read more)
Hills made of chocolate and kooky critters.
December 3rd, 2012
Sadly the hills in central Bohol, Philippines weren’t made of chocolate, but it was home to one of the kookiest creatures I’ve ever laid my eyes on. After leaving the tropical paradise of Anda I headed inland to the town of Loboc on the the Loboc River where I stayed with Filma and her two children Joshua (9) and Isabelle (6) in another homestay through the Philippines Homestay Experience. This was quite the step up from my homestay in Anda. Filma had a cook and a maid and the shower was inside the house and it was actually a shower instead of a bucket. I spent my time there… (read more)
Where the HELL is Brian?
November 18th, 2012
Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged, but that’s because I’ve been incredibly busy. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I’ve been a little slack and so now I have a lot to catch up on. Most recently I’ve just returned from two weeks in the Philippines where I was doing some research for my new book. Although when you see some of the photos below you might say it doesn’t really look like ‘research’ – more like a holiday in a tropical paradise. Which I suppose it was… (read more)
Vagina soap and other great works of art.
August 31st, 2012
I’ve just got back from Hobart and MONA (Museum of Old and New Art). And what a great coup for tourism in Hobart it has been because people are flocking down to the capital of Tassie to visit this unique museum experience. Its owner, the multi-millionaire David Walsh, has put hundreds of items from his private collection on display, creating what he calls a ’subversive adult Disneyland’. My wife Beth and I absolutely loved it (maybe because we are subversive). I have to say, though, this place is not for the culturally incubated, prudish or sexually inhibited. It is an assault of the senses on so many levels, but this in my opinion is the triumph of MONA. There was graphic life-size scenes of castration, a chilling Nitchke suicide machine, a photo of a dog copulating with a man… (read more)