Flying Suitcase

If you look closely, the world is still a very beautiful place.

How to Adopt a Tiger or a Lesson in Indian Bureaucracy

My glasses keep slipping out of place and my cotton shirt is soaked, pasted to my back. Despite the thick forest cover, the heat pierces through at Mumbai’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

As a child, this was a place for family picnics and school trips – for paddle-boat rides, chutney sandwiches, and the ‘safari’ – a ride around the park’s animal enclosures. Today it’s a green patch in a concrete jungle. (matadorchange.com)

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Croatia in Ten Stops

From April to late October the sun settles over the Adriatic; the days are long and warm, and are best enjoyed in summer whites, flip-flops, and a glass of something cold. It’s the perfect time to visit, and if you do, here’s my rough guide to the best of Croatia in ten stops. (gobackpacking.com)

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How I Learned Hindi

I thought my Hindi was workable.

Hindi isn’t my mother tongue, we didn’t speak it at home, but I followed basic conversation – thanks to Bollywood blockbusters I watched every weekend – and I knew the devnagri script, again learned at weekend classes that my parents insisted I attend. With one foot already in the door, how hard could it be to pick up Hindi? (matadorabroad.com)

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How I Escaped the Hungry Husband & Learned to Love Cooking

Most of my life, I hated the kitchen.

Indian kitchens are for women. Cooking, along with assorted kitchen activities, is what women do. Women cook, set up the table, clean up and make chai, while men eat, chat and watch TV. The kitchen was a cage that I had to stomach just because I was a girl. I decided I’d rather not. (matadorlife.com)

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Urban Volunteering: Mumbai

Mumbai is home to millions of people, and just as many causes.  (matadorchange.com)

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How to Dress Green

Fashion is complicated, and I don’t just mean in that matching-shoes-with-belts way. The style choices you make have far reaching socioeconomic implications, both at home and halfway across the world. In short, the t-shirt you wear affects the world. (matadorchange.com)

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A Day in the Life of an Expat: Zagreb

My day starts on the balcony with a hot mug of coffee. I watch the leaves falling (or filling in, depending on the season). It’s quiet. The coffee is bitter. (matadorabroad.com)

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Hiking in the Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

On the old road between Zagreb and Zadar a dense green cover takes over. As the sound of rushing water blocks out everyday noises, you know you’ve reached the Plitvice Lakes National Park. (matadortrips.com)

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5 Creative Ideas for Souvenirs

A souvenir, traditionally speaking, holds the essence of the place it comes from; it packs in the history, the adventures, the culture and the colours of the country. But the more you travel, the quicker you’ll realize that world is, in fact, made in China. Gone are the days when a little curio – the Eiffel tower on the coffee table, or the Chinese tea set in the showcase – held dreams of a distant land. But who says the romance of travel has to die with outsourcing? (matadorgoods.com)

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A Day in Zagreb

The sun is screaming down on Zagreb, and fashionistas are greeting it with gladiator sandals and belted whites. The city is undergoing a drastic transformation -from an all-black routine to bright pops of colour, inspiring flowers to burst onto the scene. The air is ripe with strawbwrries and orchids, and so are the street stalls. The heart of Zagreb smells like summer. (everthenomad)

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Notes from a Cafe

Delicate strings of cigarette smoke rise up in synchrony, like ballerinas magically suspended in mid-air. Through the haze, and inter-cutting electric blue trams, I trace graffiti smothering the city walls. (hackwriters.com)

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A Day With the Stone Beauty

She is known as the Stone Beauty. Over the ages many have vied for her attention: they’ve tried to woo her with castles and riches; they’ve tried to impress her with art; they’ve even fought wars over her. Today I get to see for myself what all the fuss is about. (hindustantimes.com)