What's Dave Doing?» Article archives | whatsdavedoing.com – living the travel dream

La Tomatina. Anyone for ketchup?

Dave — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:43:34 +0000

Forty thousand revellers. One hundred and fifty thousand tomatoes. Thirty five degrees Celsius. Uncountable amounts of sangria. One small town. A recipe for one hell of a good party.

Becoming the Littlest Hobo

Dave — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 02:35:17 +0000

When I was a child back during the eighties, in between eating pieces of Lego, committing crimes against fashion and picking on my younger siblings, I used to be allowed to watch a few TV shows. After the various terrible cartoons had finished (yes, Masters of the Universe, I’m looking at you) but before all family conversation stopped for half an hour while the six o’clock news was on, one of my favourite programmes was The Littlest Hobo. Little was I to know that over twenty years later, this feel-good show was going to start resembling my life.

Flying solo

Dave — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 09:22:07 +0000

Before I embarked on my latest set of wanderings around the world a few weeks ago, one of the things that was playing on continuous loop through my head was a nagging question. Can I do it? Not the act of travelling per se – I think I’ve done that enough times for it not to hold too many fears in and of itself. No, what my over-active brain was questioning was whether I was cut out for an extended period of solo travel, particularly through developing countries.

The floating markets of Can Tho

Dave — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:40:47 +0000

No trip to Vietnam would be complete without spending a few days checking out the mighty Mekong Delta. Easily accessible by bus from Saigon, the towns and villages on the Mekong River and its tributaries give you a glimpse of a way of life that has been largely unchanged for centuries. To get a better picture, however, you need to leave the safety of the shore and spend some time on the river. One of the best places to do this is in Can Tho - the largest town in the delta – by checking out its well known floating markets.

The final hours

Dave — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 03:04:20 +0000

I hate goodbyes.

Sideways, by Patrick O’Neil – Review and Giveaway!

Dave — Mon, 24 May 2010 06:45:37 +0000

There are times when life’s serendipitous moments just take my breath away. The night that chatting to a random friend of a friend at a dinner party in London many years ago kick-started my career in a way that I could scarcely believe, for instance, or the passing comment on a Tube ride that lead [...]

My Twitter turnaround

Dave — Thu, 20 May 2010 14:30:11 +0000

I was wrong about Twitter. There, I said it. For the longest time, I was probably one of Twitter’s more vocal critics. I absolutely could not see the point of it. As far as I could tell from media and other coverage, Twitter merely provided a platform for narcissistic, irrelevant posturing from celebrities and wanna-be’s. I don’t care what Paris Hilton or Ashton Kutcher are doing. No, I really, really don’t. To make matters worse, such posturing had to be done in 140 characters or less. Given that ppl ritng lik ths in text messages or on the internet annoys the hell out of me, that particular feature wasn’t likely to endear me to the product any more. The silly names (tweets? tweeps? what the ... ?) and esoteric punctuation (@ this and # that) seemed to confirm my suspicions about the target audience. From the outside, Twitter appeared to be some kind of teenaged version of Facebook at best and a marketing tool for clueless PR departments at worst, and despite protestations from a couple of workmates in particular I wasn’t even inclined to try it.

Finding my new pack

Dave — Mon, 17 May 2010 04:01:22 +0000

How many packs are too many? For many years I’ve laughed at a good friend of mine who seemed to have more backpacks than he did pairs of underwear. As I stood and gazed upon the contents of my wardrobe a few days ago however, I came to the realisation that I’m not much better. There seemed to be luggage for every occasion, from the super small black bag that fitted only a bottle of water and a city guide, to the stained and dirty blue suitcase that carted most of my stuff home from the UK several years ago. Several day packs of different shapes and sizes, plus the 90 litre behemoth that accompanied me on my last round the world trip. In this apartment, I swear half of my storage space has been taken up by storage space. Obviously, therefore, it was time to go pack shopping...

Anything but the airport

Dave — Sun, 09 May 2010 12:50:04 +0000

Gather round, children, and let your Uncle Dave tell you a story about the good old days of air travel. This story starts back in the foggy mists of time. Back before Michael Jackson died and Britney lost the plot. Before Enron went bust and commuters started sprouting white earphones. Before Bush stole the presidency and Gore became the Climate Crusader. Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about those mystical decades known as the late 20th century. Now I know you’re not going to believe this, but back in those halcyon days air travel was actually quite exciting and going to the airport was almost fun. The security lines didn’t take two hours to get through, and you didn’t have to take your shoes off and stand there like a naughty toddler while you waited. Klaxons didn’t go off if you had a bottle of water in your hand luggage. You didn’t get to star in your own soft porn film as you walked through full body scanners. There was even a chance that some goon from the TSA wasn’t going to rifle through your bags and pick out the best stuff to sell on eBay.

Off the beaten track: New Zealand’s South Island

Dave — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:37:49 +0000

Welcome to the first in an irregular series featuring people, places and experiences that are off the beaten backpacker and tourist trails. Today’s post showcases a few of these hidden gems from my old back yard, the South Island of New Zealand. I hope you get the chance to enjoy them – but don’t tell the locals I sent you, they might well prefer to keep these places to themselves!