Getting ready to take off on an adventure to the Cappadocia region of Turkey? Or heading off to see the bustling city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia? You may not be able to just hop over with your passport in your backpack – there’s a good chance you may need to apply for a visa, even […]

Back pain is something of a scourge on western society. We are living increasingly sedentary lifestyles, have incorrect posture, and are getting fatter and taller. Luckily the Turkmen have a unique answer to this problem: Mountain goats! Not any old mountain goats – the less common and more interesting Turkmen Wild Goats. On one of […]

Nestled in-between the bejewelled bosom of the Caribbean and the neighbouring nexus of Central America, Cuba is an island nation 90 miles off the coast of Florida, famed for its anti-establishment old-school cool, vibrant people and bad-ass cocktails (indeed, Hemingway’s two favourite watering holes in Havana, La Floridita—for a daiquiri—and La Bodeguita del Medio—for a […]

Micronations are something we have a slightly unhealthy obsession with at YPT! But hwat exactly is a Micronation? And of course canyou visit one? All of that and more in the YPT guide to Micronations. What is a Micronation? So what actually is a micronation? Is it Andorra? San Marino? No; they are what is […]

Cock fighting in the Philippines is controversial to some…I know that what I’m about to say will disgust and anger some of my friends, but I’m going to say it anyway — I love cock fighting. My first experience of this frantic, fascinating and sometimes fatal spectacle was during my first visit to the Philippines, […]

We arrived in Bukhara, a bastion of well-preserved silk road buildings and monuments, on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve. For most Central Asians, this is the biggest holiday of the year with huge celebrations… but some unusual new restrictions put in place left the locals and ourselves wondering what the fate of these celebrations might […]

8) There are no days off. Whenever I told people I worked on cruise ships they would assume it was a non-stop party, which while partly true, ignores the fact that you work a lot of hours. For Western bar and wait staff contracted hours are 70 per week, and if you’re lucky you might get […]

Hitchhiking is one of the great ways to travel around a country, especially a place like China. It’s usually easy to get a lift from people who are eager to chat or share a meal somewhere. We’ve been picked up by a coal trucker, a Tibetan family in a minivan, and once by a guy […]

Bhutan is a small country crammed between China and India in the Himalayan mountains, nicknamed “The Land of the Thunder Dragon.” Because of several factors (including the geopolitical position), Bhutan claims a spot in the list of the least visited countries of the world, despite the fact that you have plenty of reasons to see […]

 Continued from Part One The neatly arrayed trees lining the road that we used to enter Pripyat stood in stark contrast to the haphazard growth that had begun reclaiming the nearby buildings. What looked to have once been a convenience store was presently no more than a pile of rubble, and what could have been […]