Yarns
The Sushi Predicament
The plates circulated like a runway at fashion week, except instead of haute couture, the models were dressed in shades of raw fish, and instead of leggy models, they were…
I Visited Seven Dentists in Europe on a Trip to the World Cup
It’s my second day on the streets of Moscow and the dentist I think I’m booked in to see doesn’t exist. I walk with my boyfriend to the address on…
Finding the Darkness: Running From Addiction in Cambodia
Having finished high school, gotten my place at uni and taken a gap year, I was at a bit of a loose end. The thought of moving from my open…
My Time on The Bachelor India
“My name is Nirvana. I am 26 years old, and I am here to find the love of my life.” This is a sentence I never in my craziest nightmares…
The Other Side of Suicide
Content warning: Suicide and associated themes I lay cocooned in an old duvet on the hard hospital floor, drifting in and out of consciousness to the haunting lullaby of my…
Losing My Mum at Six Years Old
I enter the hospital room and my body freezes. Before me stands a lifeless room full of clinical white light. Death lingers in the fringes, waiting for permission to feast.…
One Step at a Time: Trekking Kokoda at Age 15
Long days. Cold nights. Fatigue and loneliness. Standing in the harsh sun, I’m surrounded by walls of tall jungle. Staring ahead at a steep overgrown path that never seems to…
Tracking the Exchange Rate of my Trust
Content warning: themes of sexual assault In the winter of New Delhi, the birds of prey drew imaginary circles below the smog; they wouldn’t be seeing blue for a long…
Killing in the Name Of
The reactions are diverse when you tell someone you’ve decapitated a live chicken in Vietnam: I’ve been laughed at for my inept bravery, labelled as a bloodlust sicko and given…
I Thought I Would Die in a Bunk Bed in Hanoi
I land in Hanoi the second week of February. Not winter, not summer, and not comparable to any other middle season in the rest of the world. Arriving from the…
Crushed By My Holiday Crush
He was so handsome. Tall with dark chocolate skin and big brown eyes to match. He climbed in the minivan and took the last available seat next to me. Smiling,…
“The Worst Kind of Tourist”
I sat in an acai bowl cafe, the kind with swing seats and fake flowers, on a balmy Ubud afternoon, right in the middle of two 30-something white Americans. This…