Monkeyrockworld

From the holiest city of India, Varanasi, I am very excited to announce that from today, I am part of the new team of writers for Rolf Pott’s Vagabonding. As you can see, for the occasion I partied with the sexiest holy cows at Dasasvamedha ghat

Yes. I have been keeping this hidden for a few weeks, but now it is time to disclose. For all those who still do not know, Rolf Potts is the author of Vagabonding: an uncommon guide to the art of long-term world travel and an accomplished American travel writer who has had a past not too dissimilar from my present. (more…)

Freedom in year 2012 has the taste of India: a sensation which resembles being sandwiched in between the oily D-cup sized bosoms of a fat Goddess, at 40 degrees Celsius. It definitely stinks and sucks, but after all, still feels like a woman.

Let me tell you, I love India as much as I hate it: chaotic, smelly, pretty dirty, but also divine, sublime, naturalistically beautiful, and so sacred it is impossible to put it into plain words. (more…)

I am happy to announce that I made the headlines at Tom Vater‘s website… check the piece here.

I recently met Tom in Bangkok; he is a travel/guidebook and adventure writer based in Thailand (check out his guides to Cambodia and Angkor Wat out on excellent MOON Publishing), and also former guitarist of Bangkok garage punkers Pussy and the Learjets. In brief, the kind of person I consider a hero. (more…)

Please take one hour of your time to check out this documentary put together by a crew of  very “special travelers”. I found it thanks to a friend and had a very good time watching it. These guys have made their passion a full time job which is taking them around the world.  I thought this may be inspirational for many of you following me out there, plus it is indeed a great teaser of some of the areas of Northwest India I will be visiting in around two months time.

Relax, kick back and enjoy, and check out what some of these crazy Italians have done with their lives… maybe  questionable choices, but definitely enlightening. Think over it!

TAQWACORE -- The Birth of Punk Islam” by Omar Majeed, 2009

Ok, I’ve just finished watching TAQWACORE and what’s better than penning down my fresh opinions in Monkeyrockworld? Nothing, especially as this is so much up my alley of interests. I do not want to be annoying retelling stories you may read elsewhere on the net, but in a nutshell, Eyesteel Films produced the documentary on the explosion of “Taqwacore”: what the heck is that? Muslim punk rock baby. Yep… if you can get more controversial than that, please try to explain it. Named after the famous novel “The Taqwacores” by Michael “Muhammad” Knight (which is another movie all to itself, not to be confounded with this one), TAQWACORE is the first wave of American punk bands (and well, all spectres of punk as we go from the almost ska outbursts of the Kominas to the full-on crusty sludge of Al Thawra) who earned a reputation for bringing it out on a quite impressive coast-to-coast American tour. This movie documents that trip on the “Green Van” of Taqwa (the Muslim concept of God consciousness), the reception from the American Muslim punks, a paradoxical road trip ending with a real punk performance at Chicago’s American Muslims conference. The Taqwacores really bring a spark of excitement in the otherwise dull, middle-class, plastic American punk contemporary scene by bringing new lymph into the movement. It is definitely interesting. (more…)

Matteo Tricarico, whom we followed through his bicycle Odyssey from Vietnam to Italy, has finally reached home after almost two full years on the road. Congratulations to you, Matteo!!! I am so envious of you I am turning green right now!! The following is Matteo’s last diary from Italy. Hoping to be soon able to embark on a similar adventure, I give you matteo’s final words, and I invite you to contact him if you desire to bring him to talk about his trip in your clubs, associations, homes or whatever else in La Dolce Italia….

Day 736, chronicle 098, Manfredonia (N41°37.633′ E15°54.941′) Italy, 15 October 2011 2:55 pm -

The trip ended Sunday, October 9 at 12:15 when I got off my bicycle and I shook hands with the mayor of Manfredonia, Angelo Riccardi, who greeted me at the headquarters of the LUC (Urban Cultural Laboratory). A stage was prepared there and I received plaques, trophies and other awards from representatives of the municipality of Manfredonia, the Olimpic committee of Foggia, the UISP Gargano, associations for diversity “Il delfino” and “Occhi felici” (happy eyes), Avis and the Association Gargano 2000. Frankly, I was pleasantly surprised and genuinely touched by the warm welcome back I received from both the authorities and the citizens of my home-town, a worthy grand finale of two years of travels. It still seems unimaginable and incredible to me, even if I personally experienced it. Although not even a week has passed since I reached my destination, my cycling life seems already distant in time, belonging to another phase of my existence. Not being in the middle of the “action”, I find it hard to tell about the last month cycling from Thessaloniki, where I wrote the previous entry of this diary. I am composing this last chronicle on the old high school desk in my youth bedroom at my parents’ house, and I cannot help remembering all those places where I laid my computer to describe the prominent facts of the adventure. It is the first time in my life that I kept a diary and found it a very useful exercise to rethink and reflect on what happened, besides being a way to ponder and draw lessons. Even if I have always tried to make the story interesting for you, oh my readers, I ask pardon of the tedium I may however have caused you. (more…)

Yep, I know I have not been updating this site for too long. I may write an emotional post on how things have gotten boring and sad lately, but I’ll spare it for the good of mankind. I start publishing instead a report of my May 2011 trip to the backwaters of Southern Thailand… I do not know whether or not there will be a follow-up, but some information on Hat Yay may be definitely worth for the world out there. Do not hate me. I have a monstrous writing block, lately, and things may have to stay this way for a while.

I said it before and I’ll say it again: the first time I traveled extensively in Southern Thailand in late 2008 I was badly impressed by the state of commercialization and flock of “Banana Pancake Trail” tourists ala “Tubing in the Vang Vieng” t-shirts. After I did my open water dive certification in backpacker heaven Koh Tao, although having visited less explored areas like Nakhon Pathom and Nakhon Si Thammarat, I decided I had had enough of the major islands of the Thailand Gulf. When I arrived in Penang for the first time, the change of atmosphere won me over for good, and touristy Thailand was quickly forgotten. (more…)