JOURNAL

BY SYLVIA FURRER & HOLGER HOFFMANN “To me, spirits are something truly real. The world is full of them.” So says the Tuvan writer Galsan Tschinag, who is himself a shaman. Through his books “The Blue Sky” and “The Gray Earth,” as well as reading Yuri Rytkheu’s novel “The Chukchi Bible”, I gained my first…

BY ELAINE NEO We tend to form an opinion of a country from its headlines, and what nagged at me about Syria’s was the assumption buried inside them: that there could be nothing left there now but the war. When I told people I was going, they all asked the same thing in the same…

BY BO HAWI Sitting at my desk in England, looking out over the sun-dappled forest surrounding me, my latest trip to the mighty Himalayas of Nepal already feels like a dream, as it always does when I get back after a long adventure. Dream-like…as yet something very real has taken place. There’s always a shift.…

BY ISLA SNEDDON Leaving everything behind and jumping on a flight to Paris seemed almost unreal to me. Walking through the streets, past Parisians sitting at cramped tables, cigarette in one hand, glass of wine in the other. Laughter ringing out through the streets, with shouts of “devine quoi” and “avez-vous entendu?” insinuating they have…

BY KARINA CASTRILLO It was a sunny day when I traveled to Lake Como. I took a train from Milan and ventured to the foothills of the Alps, arriving at Como S. Giovanni station. Then I took a bus from the center to a little bed and breakfast in Lezzeno that was overlooking the lake.…

BY RHETT ARENS The paved trail rose and fell as it wound through the verdant jungle along Cat Ba’s southern shore. Our bikes weren’t exactly tuned for performance but with a little extra oomph we soon found ourselves peddling into the tiny Vietnamese village of Viet Hai. Unexpectedly the next few hours would hold a…

BY SAM MUMFORD For two months I have been travelling Southeast Asia. I’ve met people from all walks of life and from all over the world. The majority speak perfect English, making conversations seamless and deep connections inevitable. Jokes land, stories are entertaining and comfort is abundant. However, upon my arrival to the bustling metropolis…

BY JOSEF BUERGI The dust of the Karakoram Highway has barely settled on my boots, but the fragrance of saffron tea and the haunting echoes of the Muqam melodies remain as vivid as ever. In March 2025, I embarked on a journey to Southern Xinjiang, a region that feels like a gateway to a different…

“在立陶宛沒有邊際的綠色時空裡，你的願望會突然變小，縮小至一塊石頭、一朵蘑菇、一顆野莓，再也無所謂塵世與理想。”

BY SYLVIA FURRER & HOLGER HOFFMANN The idea of the “rainforest” is associated with green hell. For me, it triggers the opposite: in the more than 45 years that I have been exploring our planet, I have never felt such euphoria, neither in the mountains, no matter how high and spectacular their peaks may be,…