[Short of time? Read the Haiku review instead] I never carry a day pack when I travel long-term; I wear cargo trousers with capacious pockets. They must be big enough to accommodate a Lonely Planet Shoestring Guide, my notebook & pen, camera, sunglasses, small-denomination currency and a can of hawker-repellent. An unwieldy day pack is just another thing to carry, lose or be relieved of during a moment’s inattention buying bus tickets. Plus, with a full pack on your back the extraneous luggage must be slung around the front like an unwanted pregnancy – a style favoured by balance fetishists and American gap-year students ‘doing’ Europe by rail. Enter Sea to Summit’s revolutionary Ultra-Sil D
[Short of time? Read the Haiku review instead] Anyone who was travelling in the autumn of 2001 has a 9/11 story. It’s the ‘where-were-you-when-JFK-was-shot’ quiz of the 21st century. I imagine for most travellers the slow filtration of information hours, or even days after the incident, was a rude burst of real life interrupting their unreal on-the-road existence, although I met one guy who had just arrived in Afghanistan when it happened, and left very shortly afterwards. For me, that audacious act of terrorism set in motion a chain of events that resulted in my utter ruin. I was due to fly through New York that day, on my way back to the UK after 3½ glorious months in Central America. I st
