What’s your favourite travel story?

Lamu island in Kenya is a place that makes you feel like you’ve stepped out of your own life for a while.

I had arrived before my friend, so I waited eagerly for her in the bar of Peponi Hotel, watching the little transfer boat drift toward the jetty. When she finally appeared, she wasn’t alone. Beside her stood a girl from New York, traveling solo, someone she had met only minutes earlier on the boat ride over.

We invited her to join us for lunch, nothing more than a casual gesture. But over our plates of delicious ginger crab linguini, something unexpected happened: conversation flowed endlessly, laughter came easily, and within an hour the three of us felt oddly stitched together by chance.

At the end of the week, Mrs. Porschen, Peponi’s owner, told us she thought we were lifelong friends.

In a way, she wasn’t wrong. We still talk, still travel together, and still keep our WhatsApp thread alive - the one we named “Ginger Crab” on the very first day.

Sometimes the most unforgettable part of a trip isn’t the place you go, but the people you meet along the way.

What is the one thing you don’t travel without?

I’ve grown fond of beginning every journey with a book tied to the place I’m headed, as if the story might teach me how to listen to the country. On my recent trip to Mexico, Frida Kahlo kept me company. I carried her biography by Heden Herrera in my bag, and she carried me through the city -her voice coloring the murals, the markets, the flowers that seem to bloom everywhere you look.

For my upcoming trip to Oman, I’ve chosen Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger. I may not follow his footsteps across the desert, but it feels grounding to understand the landscapes, histories, and people who shaped the place long before I arrive. It’s my way of easing into a country—letting its stories speak first.