Inspiring Travel Writing from Paul Miles
Paul Miles started his adult life as a scientist. He chose his PhD topic because it involved field trips to west Africa. Unfortunately, he hadn't thought about the months of monotonous lab work. He changed his career path. Eventually, he ended up working for WWF in the Solomon Islands, promoting community businesses, especially small-scale tourism. He lived in the South Pacific archipelago for five years and achieved some success with his writing and photography in the venerable Solomon Star. Things could only get better.
He now contributes to Condé Nast Traveller (and Traveler), the Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, The Guardian and others. In 2003 he won the PATA (Pacific Asia Tourism Association) Gold Award for a feature on Solomon Islands published in Condé Nast Traveller. He specialises in islands and sustainable tourism. He returns to the Pacific at least once a year and wants to write a book or a screenplay, but has trouble getting around to it.
He now contributes to Condé Nast Traveller (and Traveler), the Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, The Guardian and others. In 2003 he won the PATA (Pacific Asia Tourism Association) Gold Award for a feature on Solomon Islands published in Condé Nast Traveller. He specialises in islands and sustainable tourism. He returns to the Pacific at least once a year and wants to write a book or a screenplay, but has trouble getting around to it.
Articles by Paul Miles
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Blossoming Friendship
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Paul Miles
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Tunisia
In a 16th-century Tunisian text, ‘The perfumed garden’ - a sort of North African ‘Kama Sutra’ – there are chapters titled “Concerning the Causes of Enjoyment in the Act of Generation” and “...
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Magical Realism
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Paul Miles
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Solomon Islands
How many languages in the world have a word for the sound two trees make when they rub together in the wind? The language of Gela – one of about 80 languages in the South Pacific nation of Solomon Islands – does. It is gaitangi. Many...
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After the Coffee Rush
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Paul Miles
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Sao Tome & Principe
Where does our world begin? Where is our origin? I don't mean the Garden of Eden, although this place could pass for that too; I mean: where on Earth is the map reference 'nought, nought'? The answer lies in the sea of the Gulf of Guinea, West...
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Ayurvedic Bliss?
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Paul Miles
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Malta
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Gozo Region
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Gozo
If I'd meant to be coated in hot oil or enveloped in seaweed, I would have been born a prawn. As it is, I am human and - perhaps more of a factor - British, so am not thrilled by the thought of having someone I have never shaken hands with,...
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Treasure Island
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Paul Miles
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Samoa
“My cousins gave me this garland when I left LA,” said the large Polynesian man squeezed next to me on the flight to Samoa. It wasn’t a ‘lei’ of fragrant flowers, but a cling-film necklace of chewing gum and chocolates...
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Journey to the Monster's Lair
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Paul Miles
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Tanzania
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Coast
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Dar Es Salaam
In Tanzania, if the train leaves at ten in the evening, you'd better check whether that's Swahili time. If it is, it could mean 4pm and you'd be very late. 'Swahili time' starts the day at zero hours when the sun rises faithfully at 6am. Midday is...
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Paradise Found
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Paul Miles
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Solomon Islands
“There aren’t any sharks in here are there?” I asked nervously. “Yes”, smiled the old man watching me about to dive into the blue-green lagoon. Lesson number one: remember, in Pijin, negative questions can have positive...
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Spain's Ripest Exotic Fruit
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Paul Miles
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Spain
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Andalucia
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Granada
It's only in the last fifteen years that the crops of Las Alpujarras - the foothills of the Sierra Nevada - have diversified from rye, peppers, figs, almonds and walnuts to the more foreign fruits of raspberries, kiwi fruit and tourism. The white-...
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Time Lite African Odyssey
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Paul Miles
Be honest, aren’t you just a teensy bit jealous when people talk about their student travels and the adventures they had? Even if some of it sounds grim? How they slummed it in a third class train carriage for four days, sleeping with chickens...
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Tattoos and Transgenders
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Paul Miles
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Samoa
A young man, semi-naked with a pareu (sarong) around his waist, lies on a woven palm leaf mat on the floor of the house. Like most houses in Samoan villages, it has no walls; allowing the tropical breeze to blow through. A radio crackles with the...