Welcome
HM Travels

In December 2025, while on a transfer shuttle from Launceston to Cradle Mountain for the Overland Track, a fellow Australian hiker casually suggested that my next long trek should be the Larapinta Trail. I had never heard of it, but after a quick search, the raw allure of the Red Centre completely hooked me, and I booked my spot for late July 2026 with Trek Larapinta, an Australian hiking tourism company. Across 14 unforgettable days and 230 kilometers of pristine outback, t

Some people use wallets. I, however, prefer the high-stakes thrill of using my front-right jeans pocket as a chaotic, unorganized filing cabinet. This is the story of how that filing cabinet repeatedly fired its most important employees. Act I: The Cancun Cash-and-Dash I was sprinting through the Cancun airport ecosystem, running on pure adrenaline and the impending doom of missing my flight to Ireland. I had one final boss to defeat: the rental car return agent. Now, I didn'

The air inside the subterranean tunnels of Caves St. Martin clings to you with a damp, ancient chill, smelling faintly of limestone and sleeping wine. Deep within the picturesque town of Remich, Luxembourg, this labyrinth has guarded a secret since 1919: the art of Crémant de Luxembourg. It is a sparkling wine crafted with the exact same traditional obsession as French Champagne, born in a spectacular, one-kilometer-long cave carved directly into the rock. Running a hand alon

While looking for a long hike to do in Europe, I found out about the Kerry Way, which starts from Killarney, a charming little town in the south‑west of Ireland, in the Ring of Kerry area. The hike is 214 km long and runs through some of the most remote and peaceful landscapes in the country. In anticipation of doing the hike in June, I started searching for hostels and B&Bs along the route, but nothing seemed to line up neatly with the daily stages. I was close to giving up

In 2001, I flew into Cairns, Australia, drawn by the pull of the Great Barrier Reef. Boarding a high-speed catamaran, I made my way to the dive site. Despite my candid admission to the divemaster that I couldn't swim, he gave me the green light. We geared up—wetsuit, tank, regulator—and down I went. We descended into the blue, settling at seventy feet. The marine life was astonishing, and I marveled at the surreal sensation of breathing underwater. Then, an intrusive thought

I had just completed a flawless day of sightseeing, capped off with a fantastic dinner at the SixSeven rooftop restaurant. The food was excellent, the ambiance was perfect, and they were even screening Pretty Woman on a giant outdoor screen. Feeling disciplined and satisfied, I decided to skip dessert. This turned out to be my tactical error. As we walked back to the hotel, my friend handed me a chocolate candy to compensate for my missing dessert. It was nice, rich, and cata

There I was, driving the 120km stretch from Cancun to Tulum, aggressively flirting with an empty fuel gauge. Seeing an Oxxo, I pulled over for water and thanked the road-trip gods for the gas station next door. I filled up: 985 pesos. With the confidence of a modern traveler, I whipped out my iPhone to tap-to-pay. Beep. Declined. As it turns out, their terminal hated digital international cards. No physical plastic? No gas. Suddenly, I went from valued customer to prime suspe

My friend and I met up in Cancun for a beach getaway, and during the trip, he was on a mission to find a gift. He had a close friend back in the US who was a true cigar aficionado. While exploring the vibrant stalls of Mercado 28, we stumbled upon a shop that immediately caught our attention. It boasted a massive, glowing wall of premium tequila bottles and an incredibly inviting lounge area furnished with deep leather sofas. We wandered in and were instantly befriended by a

As an avid global traveler, I pass through Indian airports routinely, but my transit through Delhi in May 2026 was part of an especially grueling journey. I was flying from Uzbekistan all the way to Mexico. It was a massive, multi-city voyage split across two separate itineraries. The first leg brought me from Tashkent to Delhi. After a brief two-hour layover, my second itinerary began: an Etihad Airways routing that would take me from Delhi to Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi to Charlot

For more than a decade, the idea of standing at Everest (aka Sagarmatha, Chomolungma) Base Camp (EBC) had been sitting quietly on my list, refusing to be forgotten. I missed my chance during my Nepal & Bhutan trip in 2020, and when I finally planned it again for October 2025, the universe intervened with a HAPE incident in Bolivia that forced me to postpone. I rescheduled for April 2026, only to watch the plan unravel yet again when the Iran war disrupted air routes and cance

In my multiple visits to Scotland, I had always been drawn to its endless greenery, the rolling hills, the moss‑softened trails, and its lochs. So, when I came across an article about the West Highland Way, the idea of walking it lodged itself firmly in my mind. It felt like the perfect way to immerse myself in the landscape rather than just admire it from a train or car window. I convinced a friend to join me, and we planned to meet in Edinburgh on April 1, giving ourselves

Having walked the 850 km Camino Francés from Saint‑Jean‑Pied‑de‑Port to Santiago in 2024, and the Camino Portugués the following year, a gentler route but still full of charm and long days on foot, I felt ready for something wilder. So, I committed to the Camino Primitivo, the oldest and most demanding of them all, this time with two willing friends. We chose a March 20 start, firmly preseason, hoping to avoid the crowds and fully expecting colder weather, rain, and whatever

A landlocked country completely contained within South Africa; Lesotho had been on my list for years. I finally paired the visit with nearby adventures in Uganda and Rwanda, stitching together a trip that crossed both altitude and culture. My original plan was to drive from Johannesburg, but websites warned me about the bureaucracy of taking a South African rental car across the border, the paperwork, the permissions, the cross‑border fees. I abandoned the idea of a road entr

Recently, I flew a chain of routes, Rwanda to Cape Town, then Lesotho, Eswatini, and onward to Europe. Each trip required a Johannesburg stop, the unavoidable hub of southern Africa. On one of those five connections, I had a nine‑hour layover, long enough to step outside the airport and explore. The first place I headed was the Apartheid Museum. My resourceful friend from Buffalo, NY rented a car for just $19 a day, giving us wheels to explore. In about an hour, we reached th

Eswatini is a small, landlocked kingdom tucked entirely inside South Africa, lying to the northeast of Johannesburg and just a few hours’ drive from the Gauteng heartland. It’s one of Africa’s smallest countries by area and population, home to roughly 1.2 million people and a GDP per capita of about USD 4,000. The country is ruled by King Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch, and while Eswatini holds parliamentary elections, its system is best described as a monarchy wi

I first became aware of Cape Town not through glossy travel brochures, but through headlines about its looming water crisis. In 2018 the city came perilously close to “Day Zero”, the moment when taps would run dry and residents would have to queue for water rations. Through strict conservation measures, innovative water management, and collective effort by its citizens, Cape Town narrowly avoided disaster. That resilience lodged the city firmly in my consciousness. Although I

Known as the “Land of a Thousand Hills,” Rwanda is one of Africa’s most densely populated countries and sits just south of Uganda. After finishing my Uganda trip, it felt natural to continue onward by road, the Rwandan border is less than an hour’s drive from Kabale, making the transition between the two countries remarkably easy. The land border at Katuna has a small but efficient immigration post, and the entire process took less than fifteen minutes, thanks to my East Afri

More than fifteen years ago, a friend returned from Uganda raving about her encounter with mountain gorillas, and ever since, that experience has lived quietly but firmly on my bucket list. This year, the stars finally aligned. Once I decided to make the trip happen, I dove into the planning: researching routes, permits, and tour companies. I eventually found Encounter Africa through a simple web search; they offered a five‑day chimpanzee and gorilla itinerary priced at $5,40

I had the yellow fever vaccine certificate from US 15 years ago and somehow lost it. I had to travel to Uganda to see the Gorillas and an entry condition was having this certificate. The morning before the flight, I tried to figure out if I could get it in Pune, India, from where I was connecting to the travel to Uganda. I read the local hospital has vaccines available Monday, Wednesday and Friday but no appointments were available. I went to the well known Sasoon Hospital an

I’ve wandered across many of Indonesia’s islands — Bali, Java, Lombok, Komodo, and the Gili chain — each with its own rhythm and charm. Java, of course, carries the weight of the nation, a densely packed hub where most of Indonesia’s people live and work. Yet what I longed for was something wilder: Sumatra, that vast, untamed island stretching across the equator, lightly populated and brimming with mystery. I had originally signed up to climb Mount Kerinci, Indonesia’s highes