Nathan Johnson Pyongyang, North Korea, September 2013 In the evenings your group is confined to your hotel. You have few entertainment options, but the hotel karaoke lounge is open, empty and even has Western songs. You look through the song list and make your selection.
For Paul Chai, music and travel are inseparable. A photo might trigger a memory, he writes, but the right song will trigger a feeling.
Shu-Ling Chua New York City, June 2014 As we slip through the inky night, from ferry to bus to my windowless hotel room, I think, I could stop this at any time. I could have stopped this hours ago.
Clare Hennessy Berlin, September 2015 The act of filling a day and encountering the world had left me battered. I rattled to my final, haphazardly selected destination via the U-bahn.
Jesse Maskell Kansas on the I-70, June 2015 Lorde curls sentimental melodies for forlorn city kids everywhere. I’m high on the sight-binge of famous boring Kansas.
Sherryl Clark South Africa, 1977 We were ushered into the station commander’s office. What was this about? Had we broken some kind of law? Were we in trouble for the nude beach visit?
Stephen Andrew Somewhere along the Hume Highway, summer of 1982 I catch myself staring too long at the sunlight on her hair, or laughing too loud at one of her jokes, and feel the sharp pierce of an unbridgeable distance.
Stephen Andrew Central New South Wales, circa 1987 By the time the bus hit the Queensland border, I was a changed man, hearing things in a new way. It was a conversion of sorts, or perhaps, a mini musical epiphany. From that day on, country music made sense to me.
Mickey Randall Sydney Airport, January 5, 2006 I fiddle with my Walkman radio, singularly ravenous for Australian sounds.
Holly Ringland Runaway Bay, Australia 1994; Surfers Paradise, Australia 1999; Vancouver Island 2003; Central Desert of Australia 2007 I always think I’m imagining it, but the beam of his torch is steady and true as it bounces over the shrubs, making phosphorescence of the spinifex.