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!
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 ...
Communism is Alive and Well In Italy
As the band reached its dizzy finale, the crowd went wild as the violinist set down his instrument and began to wave a large red flag with the hammer and ...
Hand to Mouth to India by Tom Thumb- Out Now!
Dear Road Junkies,
So you’ve read half of the book online and I’ve told you the long, complicated story of how the book was written – now the book ...
A Tunisian Pimp
I was walking along the streets of Sousse, Tunisia when a young guy in smart clothes tapped by elbow and asked me something in Arabic.
‘Je me regrette,’ I said in ...
Genocide Tourism in Cambodia is Voyeuristic and Macabre
What happened in Cambodia in the 1970’s is almost beyond comprehension. Perhaps topping the list of 20th century mass murderers for psychopathic flair alone, Pol Pot reduced his country to ...
Crap Desert Tour in Douz, Tunisia
Douz is a scrubby little town in the Tunisian Sahara and a launching pad for the ‘Desert Expeditions’ offered by just about every hotel and freelance guide in town. Gone ...
Living in a Van in America
A flight around the world had changed more than just the culture and climate; it had fundamentally changed the nature of existence. In Asia, I was by some standards wealthy, ...
Kutiman - Thru-You, Israeli Youtube DJ Blows Everyone Away
Kutiman, aka Israeli artist, Ophir Kutiel, released his new project Thru-You to 20 friends. It then spread virally (think Swine Flu on amphetamines) and scored over a million views ...
Satire Alive and Well in Thailand - Not the Nation
The Bangkok journalistic community is scrambling around trying to work out who is behind nothenation.com, a satirical news site taking its name from prominent Bangkok newspaper, The Nation.
One expat ...
The Red Light District of Angeles, Philippines, City of Fallen Angels
As I stepped out of my hotel room door I was immediately surrounded by four hungry-eyed prostitutes. One of them, a very dark skinned Filipina girl whose father had probably ...
Swine Flu and the End of Travel
A couple of years ago Road Junky posted a tongue in cheek editorial about bird flu and we could almost have posted it again crossing out the word bird ...
The Marsh Arabs by Wilfred Thesiger
Having lost the untouched paradise of Arabian Sands to the merciless exploitation of the oil companies that corrupted the Bedouin culture that Wilfred Thesiger so dearly loved, he ...
Disco Dancing in India
I found myself in Pune, my first time in India since 2001 and now I was back to close some circles. I had spent years here on and off from ...
Turks Can't Watch Youtube
As everyone knows, Turkey would like to join the EU.
Thing is, along with torture and repression of minority groups it’s also considered pretty European to have a sense of ...
Where Does a Traveler Belong?
Travel has almost always been a solitary affair for me.
Heading out alone seemed the only real way to encounter myself in foreign lands, the contours of my psyche reflected in ...
The Valley of the Hippies in Morocco
Shuffling out of town along the coastal road, it occurred to me how easily the spell of civilization is broken, and how easily this void is filled. In Taghazoute a ...
Law and Disorder in Johannesburg with Louis Theroux
Louis Theroux takes a BBC crew to Johannesburg to spend some time with the security teams there who have taken over the jobs that the South African police just ...
10 Travel Fashion Tips
On every traveler’s list of priorities, just after avoiding getting mugged, scammed, sick, ending up broke, going insane wondering what to pack or working out where to go when the ...
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 ...
Miss Universe Visits the Guantanamo Holiday Camp
As pressure grows on Barack Obama to go back on killjoy plans to close the Guantanamo Holiday Camp, the Venezuelan beauty, Dayana Mendoza, visited the camp and wrote glowingly ...
The First Annual Road Junky Go to Voltage to Get Voltage Contest
Since we’ve been having a bit of fun here at Road Junky with contests lately we decided to give this one a go. Mountain Dew, the soda that was an ...
Pirate Paradise in Puntland, Somalia
We all grew up on tales of piracy. I remember my wistful reluctance to accept that I’d never get to yo-ho-ho with a bottle of rum and dead man’s chest ...
Ken Tanaka, American Youtube Comedian in Japan
Ken Tanaka is rising to fame on Youtube with his videos about Japanese life and culture. With deadpan irony he speaks English with the accent and idiosyncrasies of a Japanese ...
Baghdad, One of the Worst Cities in the World
We got a lot of fun (and a lot of traffic!) out of our article on the 10 worst cities in the world but really, there are worse places.
Reading ...
The Wanderer and the I Ching
The image of the Wanderer in the I Ching is formed from two images: fire above and mountain below. So imagine flames leaping around on a hillside, never lingering ...
Old People Around the World
“I have 2 sons, they all live in the city now. The oldest is a teacher now, he calls me sometimes. The younger son said he might come visit. The ...
Make Extensive Travel Plans and Make God Laugh
Young travellers often write to ask advice on the journeys they have planned out it always makes me smile. It takes me back straight away to when I was a ...
Kimchi in Korea - the Pickled Cabbage Obsession
Kimchi may indeed be “the cabbage you can ravage with the chilli paste taste,” but, honestly, it just isn’t that great. Sure, taste is subjective and all but kimchi in ...
