Wandering Desk Neil Bennion

This week, my friend Alexander Woolley joins me to discuss Ukraine, and in particular the historic Black Sea port of Odessa.

We cover various topics, including:

Is it 'Ukraine' or ‘The Ukraine’ and the whole ‘correcting people on how they pronounce a country’ thing. On being squashed between other countries (see also: Poland) The wonderful city of Odessa The Potemkin stairs (or are they steps?) Going to the opera / theatre (including tips) Speaking the language – or not (and indeed which one?) Ukrainian food and restaurants Sleeper train travel in Ukraine

In this episode I share my experience of learning to ride a motorbike (well, scooter) on the mean streets of Bali. Well okay, not exactly mean, but pretty freaking hectic for sure.
I talk about:
- The 4 big reasons I was avoiding riding a scooter
- What prompted me to just go for it
- The learning process
- The speed pact I made with myself
- Filling up with petrol
- The infamous Canggu shortcut
- Riding in the rain
- The single most amazing place I visited
- Insurance, driving licenses and other necessities
- My tips for people thinking of doing the same

In this episode I talk to Johnny Parsons from England who, together with his family, emigrated from their adopted home of Yorkshire to the Peruvian capital of Lima.
We talk about:
Why they left the UK and moved to Peru Adapting to Lima Travelling solo versus travelling as a family Teaching English as a Foreign Language His daily commute The incident that made him think twice about biking round Lima What he does in his spare time Peruvian food - and the need to tread carefully when talking about other nations' food Pies Johnny's tips for families thinking about emigrating

In this episode I talk about my recent time in that most instagrammable of places - the Indonesian island (province, even) of Bali.
I'll be talking about: The message I send to the future me every winter ... Why Bali ... First impressions of Ubud ... What can make it so hard to acclimatise ... The hipster-surfer town of Canggu ... Bali as a vegan paradise ... The chain of islands that made my own trip worth it ... How Bali is dealing with the problem of washed-up plastic ... Tips for your own trip to Bali.

In this, the first episode, I talk about how I left the comfortable corporate life behind to go on a life-changing trip, and how this changed things for good, whether I liked it or not.
We cover a lot of ground, including:
The epicness of your first big trip ...  the personal growth that comes from travel ... reverse culture shock and re-acclimatising back home ... how travel expands your mind beyond its elastic limit (and how this is both a blessing and a curse) ... meeting people on the road ... stagnancy and losing your mojo ... the need to be part of a community ... adapting to cultures abroad ... how you ultimately gain insights into your own culture