Travel

• 

  0

  Moroccan Rhapsody

  First published in the Australian Financial Review (Life & Leisure), August 2018

  At first we’re told the medina has 10,000 alleyways. “It’s a labyrinth,” says our guide, Mohamed. The ancient, walled part of Fès is the world’s best place to get lost, he says. “But have you actually lost people?” I ask. “Four times,” he says in a tone that pleads, “do not make it five.” The next day, Fès local, Khadya, tells us there are 11,000 ...

• 

  0

  3 Ways To Have The Perfect Space Day In Houston, Texas

  First published in AWOL, April 2018

  When it comes to space technology, Houston, Texas, might as well be the world capital. Best of all, the city is only three-and-a-half hours’ drive from Dallas or two-and-a-half from San Antonio. Here’s how to take in three uniquely Houstonian experiences in a one spacey day. Step 1: Visit Space Centre Houston A 30-minute drive from Downtown is the unmissable Space Centre Houston. The NASA Johnson ...

• 

  0

  Norway’s Future Library

  The Saturday Paper, January 2018

  “I have finished writing my contribution to Future Library,” wrote Icelandic poet and novelist Sjón on April 27, 2017. “It is a moment of relief and exhilaration, of exhaustion and joy. From this moment on I have entered the next level of the game, where I must keep a secret to the end of my days.” Sjón had followed authors Margaret Atwood and David Mitchell into an extraordinary durational ...

• 

  0

  Getting high in New York City

  The Australian Financial Review, Life and Leisure, January 2018

  On Seventh Avenue in New York City, 45,000 people walk by the Moxy hotel every day. “Try walking upstream to Penn Station at peak hour and you’ll have a problem,” says the hotel’s managing director, Gary J. Thomas. The big fish at Moxy HQ, a brand launched by Marriott in 2014, have done the sums. The new midtown hotel plans to reel the foot traffic in and ...

• 

  0

  The island advantage

  First published in Wellbeing Magazine, August 2017

  Earth tumbles from the small, slim carrot that chef and farmer Rodney Dunn has just pulled from the ground. He rinses it and hands it over. It’s sweet and crisp; the best carrot I’ve had. “Why did it taste so good?” I ask. “It’s eating it straight after it was picked,” Dunn says. “When carrots get stored, the green tops utilise the sugar in the ...

• 

  0

  Blacken Festival
, 2017

  First published in The Wire magazine, Issue 401, July 2017

  Drive 1,500 kilometers south of Alice Springs and you’ll reach Adelaide. Sixteen hours north is Darwin. These are the closest big towns. Alice (as it is known) is red dirt country – traditional home to the Arrernte people and four hours from Australia’s most famous rock, Uluru. A return flight to Alice from Sydney or Melbourne costs about $700. It’s no casual weekend away but ...

• 

  0

  Nights out in Glasgow

  First published in The Saturday Paper, February 2017

  Pavement and pub fuse in a way that supports the Scotia’s claim to be Glasgow’s oldest. It is close to the River Clyde. The ceiling is low and the wood is ruddy – it’s like drinking in an overturned boat. The pub’s regulars are huddled around a guitar, singing. No sooner does one slip out for a fag, another returns, breathing mist as the door swings ...

• 

  0

  Is Manchester The UK’s Coolest City?

  First published in AWOL, March 2017

  Some clichés about the UK’s biggest northern city are true. Mancunians are football mad. Teenagers strut around in Adidas pants trying to look like they’re looking for trouble. It rains or drizzles an average of 152 days a year, and though it’s only two hours by train from London, Manchester maintains an outsider feel underlined by thick Northern accents. But you knew all that, right? ...

• 

  0

  Dark Mofo, 2016

  First published in The Wire magazine, August 2016

  A mirror hangs from a tree reflecting the clean Tasmanian sky. I’m in the exercise yard of New Norfolk Hospital For The Insane, taking a break from what’s inside. The asylum – originally built for sick convicts – sprawls over both sides of the River Derwent in this small town 40 minutes from Hobart. Many locals worked here; others were family of inmates. The asylum ...

• 

  0

  Taiwan’s light nights

  First published in CEO Magazine, August 2016

  Exotic greenery sprouts from people’s plates. They dip dumplings in sauce, slurp milky-looking soup and line-up for ladlefuls of rice congee. A waiter approaches to offer me coffee and an omelette, which I gratefully accept. I’ll try any food once – but not for breakfast. I’m at a hotel known simply as “the Lalu”. Once, only senior government officials and emperors were allowed here; in the ...