India. Overwhelming, sense-overloading, colourful, wonderful India. Hits you in the face as soon as you arrive and stays with you forever. This is how I felt before catching the night train to Jaisalmer 3rd class. Remember to book in advance or get a tatkal ticket the morning before.
Eyes wide alive as the first battered taxi you take through the streets of Delhi passes cows in the night. The cold is left behind and mosquitos fly at the windows. The air is thick and the smells are sweet and pungent.
In November 2012 I lost my trumpet. Unable to sell myself to the point where I was making enough money to get by, and drowning in a sea of SEO copywriting, I wanted to do something. Naturally, I fled to India with the last of the money I had.
The non profit types have been doing BarCamps for a while now. These shake the foundations of the lecture format many conferences take and asks the attendees what they want instead. I'd like to see the travel industry harness the power of the BarCamp format.
The British government scrapped a rather expensive deal which would have seen Virgin looking after the West Coast Mainline rather than FirstGroup. The Department for Transport's not-too-friendly history with Virgin made me think perhaps breaking the deal was part of a larger conspiracy. Everyone loves a conspiracy.
Social Media Week is interesting because it is for all kinds of people who work online in different industries. It gives people like me, who can usually be found lingering in the travel space, the opportunity to hang out with the non-for-profit crowd and contribute as best I can.
Ever visited anywhere faintly morbid? A cemetery, a site where genocide has taken place, a battlefield? If so, you might be considered a Dark Tourist by the iDTR, a research project on Dark Tourism that now offers an MA in the subject. I went to interview Professor Richard Sharpley.
On this trip to Brighton I stood by the Volks Electric Railway, an actual train, and walked in the Pride procession. You could call the Pride procession the Pride Train. You know, if you wanted to. In the spirit of Pride I wore pink and had fun.