As part of STA Travel’s 30^th anniversary celebrations we asked our tribe of Explorers to give us their thoughts on how traversing this little old green and blue planet has changed in the last three decades. We’ve had great responses so far, among the highlights are Malph’s back-packing in 2009 and Rob Strauss on hitch-hiking, but now it is the turn of Dylan – the Ramblin’ Rucksack Man.

He begins his post with a tale of a heady night in the house of Junior, a Fijian and staff member of the Coral View Resort. Junior’s Father was in full flow showing proudly a collection of items, one of which was a ‘beautifully preserved guestbook’ from when the household used to double as a guesthouse in the 80s. The book to him,

“represented the regretfully passed days of travel, when travellers could legitimately title themselves as adventurers.”

Not missing the opportunity, Dylan asked the question and in his words,

“[…] grew fascinated with the priceless perspective of a local on how travelling has changed since thirty years ago.”

Dylan relays exactly that perspective on the changing face of the practice of exploring foreign destinations and their cultures. It raised seriousness, nostalgia and some points worth considering about the connections made between nations through the global paths we tread. Let Dylan know your thoughts by leaving a comment on his excellent (and cleverly titled) post - [Insert travel-related title here].

Time for something a little bit odd… Isla, one of our longer serving STA Explorers (and former EYSer), has been experiencing all that Moscow has to offer, however it turned out she had missed something - The Yuri Kuklachev Cat Theatre.

The Yuri Kuklachev Cat Theatre is literally as mad as a bag of cats. Yuri rescues cats from the street and then watches and learns their natural talents before training them and building an act around what the cat in question enjoys doing.

The Moscow.Info site describes the theatre as,

“A family-run operation, the Cat Theatre has a company of over 120 cats (and four canines) who perform alongside human mimes in a variety of shows including The Nutcracker and Cats From Outer Space.”

What could be better?! Despite admitting to laughing out loud, Isla sums up the visit to the theatre by stating she still believes dogs are better than cats. I’ll sign off with this YouTube video of the cats and Yuri in action – thoughts welcome…

I promise no cats were hurt in the writing of this post.

NB: There is a website for Yuri’s Cat Theatre, but it was doing strange things to my browser so decided not to include a link. Discover it at your own peril…

STA Explorer Martin - Getting Away From it All – is still making use of his working holiday visa in Kununurra, Australia and has, depending on you disposition toward spectacular weather, been ‘treated’ to a sensational lightning storm!

Martin always performs well with a camera in hand and, as you can tell from the images I’ve picked out from his Flickr set, capturing the electrical storm proved no different.

If you’ve got some double awesome weather imagery or tales from your time travelling get in touch and let us know by commenting below or tweeting @statravelbuzz.

Our STA Explorer Malph, (Mankini on a Mission) isn’t all about hi-vis lycra swimwear designed for the more out-going gentlemen. As a member of our fold we asked him his thoughts on how things have changed in the world of backpacking, and since he’s a well travelled and willing sort his response on back-packing in 2009 is exactly what we were hoping for.

“It maybe surprising to some that in the three years since I last decided to grab my backpack and head to pastures new that the way people travel has changed significantly. There are the obvious changes in technology that keeps everyone up to date with your latest adventures, but there are subtler changes too in terms of the kind of people you meet, where they are from and which countries they are going to.”

His post goes into detail under the sub-headings of ‘what’s changed’, ‘still true in travelling today’ and ‘the backpacking of tomorrow – the next 30 years’. Each is insightful and well written, plus, as I’m sure some of his fellow STA Explorers will concur, evident in the day-to-day of travel.

There is also a brilliant quote from Jon Krakauer’s book Into the Wild – I can’t speak of the book (must read more), but I have seen the film adaptation and it is a splendid piece of work telling a superb story – which Malph feels captures the mind-set of the back-packer. It is well worth a philosophical moment of your time.

I recommend heading to the post instantly if you haven’t already. And all that remains is to find a suitable picture to accompany this post and thank Malph for his thoughts - thank you Malph!

This month’s STA travelbuzz meet-up is happening tomorrow! How’d that come around so quick?

Needless to say Camilla has been diligently working and everything is in place for another evening of travel discussion and chatter with a healthy mix of social media thrown in. Previous meet-ups have seen dream destinations discussed as well as being themed. The most recent get together, in honour of our £10 Poms, was given an Australian vibe.

Tomorrow’s fiesta is focused on Latin America, so expect sangria, paella, matadors, a carnival atmosphere and Penélope Cruz (ok, maybe don’t expect Penélope Cruz). There is also going to be a chance to learn a little of the Spanish language, so I’ll be hoping to see ‘hola’ and ‘hasta la vista’ featuring heavily in any email we receive post meet-up.

It’s all happening tomorrow evening in Holborn from 7:30pm. If you’d like to get involved or just pop along and see what we get up to please do. Just email or tweet us and we’ll get right back to you!

True to our social media roots we are a friendly bunch at STA travelbuzz and one of our most recent connections is with the lovely Shyma. She’s 23 and works in London web designing. Besides this she has a huge love for travel and the intention of visiting all the countries she possibly can. Below is her experience of Darjeeling, India…

Home to the famous Darjeeling tea, Darjeeling has been nicknamed the ‘Queen of the Hills’ – and as we began our drive up the Himalayan peaks, I soon realized why.

We had first landed in the airport of Bagroda and were instantly surrounded by local airport workers, all keen to help. We soon found ourselves a taxi and driver to take us the 3 hour journey up to Darjeeling.

The journey itself felt like we’d stepped backwards in time, to a simpler world away from the rush and headiness of modern day city living. The villages we passed through were made up of basic huts with tin roofs, with inhabitants working the land or manning the very few street stalls.

Climbing the peaks itself and the view became increasingly breathtaking, which more than made up for the bumpy and petrifying ride. The slopes are very steep and the bends very sharp with drivers come careering down the mountainside with a simple blow of the horn every so often to warn others to make way!

Arriving at the top and we checked in to the Hotel Elgin, a majestic building with stunning views of the scenery and incredibly kind and helpful staff. The temperature in the peaks drops dramatically because of the altitude but we had hot water bottles in our beds each night and hot breakfast the next morning.

Darjeeling itself has a huge amount to see and do. We drove to the top of Tiger Hill where you have a view of Mount Everest – providing you go on a clear day where the summit isn’t engulfed by clouds! Many tourists wake up extra early to watch the sun rise over the glorious mountain. The Buddhist monasteries dotted over the town are a spectacular mesh of colour and architecture and the monks happily show tourists around and tell of their history.

Although it is part of India, Darjeeling is a stark contrast to the heat and noise of cities like Calcutta. It’s free from stress, pollution and the expense you would normally expect to find in a busy town. Beautiful yet unpretentious, it’s a bubble of the world that has escaped all the negatives of modernisation.

Thanks Shyma, superb work. Should you feel a desire to share your experiences of international travel with the STA travelbuzz tribe just get in touch and let us know.

He’s landed, our very own STA Explorer Chris (aka Hang Ten and Party) is in Oz, but that wasn’t before dodging an excess baggage charge, apparently a cheeky Devon smile is all you need, and a stint circling Hong Kong airport. Only on the second leg of his journey did the excitement and reality kick in,

“Loving the map of the flight though…I’m actually going to Oz…Years of dreaming and planning and I land in freaking Oz today… Just thinking about it gives me butterflies.”

But that was all before, Chris is now in Australia doing his thing – I give you Cairns Carnage… The post follows his usual bullet point formatting, a sort of stream of consciousness from a surfer in Australia, it certainly does the job.

More coherent though is the following entry on his diving course, which is a great read for anyone thinking of doing similar, and by Chris’ accounts why wouldn’t you, it sounds awesome,

“Just finshed my PADI Open Water and Advanced diver certification! It’s pretty sweet being able to roll up, hire some kit and hit the water with Linzi….it’s my new yoga I think!”

As a pro photographer Chris has been busy capturing all that has been going on and uploads are imminent… Stay tuned.