Travel Stories from Around the World
What would traveling be worth without the stories to tell? Road Junky brings you only the most entertaining tales - from getting high in the Himalaya to chance encounters in New York City.
Browse our latest, then read and get inspired. You will not be disappointed!
Globalisation Means Designer Drugs for Everyone!
Globalisation can mean sweatshops in Asia making your running shoes, villages in China suffering industrial pollution so we can get cheap consumer goods and outsourcing of just ...
Walking in Slums for Fun in Namibia
Almost every developing city has one; a place beyond the grasp of the law. Sometimes it is a crowded district with its own rules, other times it is a ...
Tragedy in Laos
Savannakhet is a serene city in Laos known for its classic French architecture that is slowly disappearing. Each day, young men congregate along the road that borders the Mekong River. ...
Foreign Babes in Beijing by Rachel DeWoskin
I just finished Foreign Babes in Beijing, the hilarious, insightful tragic-comic tale of an American girl who winds up acting in a Chinese TV series about love between East and ...
How to Escape Thailand Without a Visa?
When a traveler gets in trouble with the cops in Thailand and needs to know the best way out, leave it to road junkies to lend a helping hand.
Escaping countries ...
Arrogant American Cops - A Reason to Go Abroad?
I was walking down High Street in Columbus, Ohio with my friend Jeff, a tall, lanky young man with pale skin, a light, scraggly beard and three year’s growth of ...
Asterix, French Comic Hero
The poor old French. Once the dominant world culture with their own empire and the aristocrats of Russia taking French lessons to sound sophisticated at their salon parties, now their ...
Lu Guang's Photos of Environmental Devastation in China
Last year we wrote an editorial in disgust that the Olympiscs were being held in China, the modern day hell. Some suggested that we were exaggerating a little, that ...
Culture Shock in the Philippines
A few days in Angeles, Philippines had left my 18 year old mind reeling in ways that I couldn’t have imagined. My new-found freedom seemed infinite, the entire world at ...
How to Run Your Own Tour Guide Company Abroad
Some years ago when I was close to losing my mind in Rio de Janeiro, I hung around with an extremely sleazy character called Bobby. He was a Canadian ...
Road Junky On Facebook
Road Junky is run by travelers who would rather write poetry on desert dunes in moonlight or smoke a chillum in the Himalayas than sit in front of a computer ...
Zen At Work – Vipassana - An Indian Meditation Bootcamp
It’s 4.35 in the morning. Not a time of day with which I am particularly well acquainted. Outside it’s raining heavily. But I’m indoors, in a large, dimly lit hall ...
A Dose of Couchsurfing
Before couchsurfing came along people still surfed sofas with abandon. A popular joke at the time was:
How do you know when you’ve had a hippy as a guest ...
Waking Up On Crack in Vancouver
I remember it like one of those scenes from the movies where someone who has either died or gone into a coma suddenly rushes back to the light of consciousness. ...
Sick, Miserable and Alone in the Philippines
I received a knock on the door that could only mean one thing- an unwelcome guest. I stood up out of bed in my in my cramped, steamy hotel room ...
The Happy Islands of Oceania by Paul Theroux
The Happy Islands of Oceania or Paddling the Pacific is a masterpiece from Paul Theroux, perhaps even eclipsing Dark Star Safari. The tale begins with Theroux in London ending ...
Rainbow Gatherings 2010 in Europe, US and the Rest of the World
This is a fairly up to date list of Rainbow Gatherings planned in 2010 around the world and we’ll be adding info as we get it so stay tuned…
Brazil Rainbow ...
Backpackers Behind Bars - A Morning In Quito Prison
“Murder, drugs…he´s murder, he´s a gang leader. Drugs, he’s drugs, that guy at the end – he´s off his face now – he was a mule……all the gringos are drugs.”
I ...
Al Ma'asara and Umm Salmuna: Non-Violent Struggle Against the Wall
It’s been 42 years since Israel occupied the West Band and the Gaza Strip and two generations of Palestinians have been living without rights in their home land. The situation ...
Yom Kippur - Heaviest Day in the Jewish Calendar
Wake up in Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur and you could be forgiven for thinking that you’re the lone survivor of a biological attack. No cars are in the ...
Oktoberfest is Crass, Vulgar and Expensive
We just noticed that on the homepage of Digg yesterday was an entry of sexy Oktoberfest girls with 252 comments going wow about Bavarian girls showing their cleavage with ...
Deathwish in the Caribbean
I was in Grenada in the southern Windward Islands, having sailed down from St Lucia in my 28-foot cutter “Pamela’. She was the finest yacht I ever owned – ...
Gazing at the Stars with Google On the Road
When I first started traveling the only people who carried cell phones were drug dealers and to be seen talking on one was a bit of a giveaway.
No travelers ...
The Depraved Tourist Playground of Thamel, Kathmandu
The thing about Nepal is: it’s a theme park. At least, that’s how it’s sold to you. The newcomer in Kathmandu is immediately presented with an exhaustingly long list of ...
Cops in the Caribbean - Shoot First, Ask Questions Later
In most western nations, the crooked policeman is invariably the exception rather than the rule. Unfortunately, however, during the many years for which I have lived in the Eastern ...
To Drink the Local Water?
Drinking the local water was something that I once felt set me apart from the other travelers who all needed their special water in a plastic bottle tapped god knows ...
Travel With a Karaoke Machine and Make Lots of Money and Happiness
Hanging out at the Mauer Park in Berlin, recently, I saw something amazing. An Irish guy had a laptop with a karaoke program running and a good mike, speakers, an ...
Asian Culture in the West
The rain banished the May heat and turned the narrow streets of Florence into death zones with umbrella prongs passing at neck-height. Confused gaggles of tourists made the pavements unpassable ...
The Culture of Tipping Around the World
Let’s come out and say it: tipping sucks.
It’s the residue of ancient class distinctions when one kind of profession was considered inferior to another and the difference had to be ...
Ten Pacific Island Culture Shocks
Rereading Paul Theroux’s excellent The Happy Isles of Oceania, I felt moved to share some of the juiciest cultural oddities. At Road Junky we’re a fan of culture shocks to ...
Bruce Chatwin and Nomads
Bruce Chatwin aspired to write a book about the nomadic instinct but died before he ever managed to put all of his thoughts together. He left behind rambling essays that ...
Learn to Be a Human BeatBox On the Road
Some people like to travel light. And the idea of taking a musical instrument with them on the road just seems like too much hassle. Guitar strings break, harmonicas ...
Some Embarrassing Travel Stories
Naked on a Rooftop
Some years ago I was in Delhi and was pretty sure there was something living in my gut. A book on ayurveda suggested that rubbing some fennel ...
Jerusalem Syndrome - Hold on to Your Bible
Anyone who thought Monty Python’s Life of Brian was exaggerating need only spend a while in Jerusalem to see just how many travelers end up preaching to the ...
From Soldier to Motorcycle Guide in Modern Vietnam
From the roadside on a hilltop overlooking a cornfield and a disused bridge with a large gap in the middle that once linked the two ends, Van’s face grew serious ...
