The Everywhere blog

Gijs Bekenkamp is in the enviable position of saying he has visited over 60 countries. Lucky for us, he has some fantastic travel stories and photos to prove it. You may have spotted his travel photography and writing published in our last issue, Everywhere 02.

Gijs is a graphic designer from the Netherlands with an amazing eye for photography. However, be sure to read the captions on his photos as well for some hilarious commentary on travel from around the world. You can take a peak at Gijs' Everywhere travelogue for some great festivals in Cameroon, graffiti in Lithuania, and strongly worded warnings against durians and pushbikes. We recently asked him to share a bit more about his travel history and aspirations:

How long have you been an Everywhere member and how did you get involved? I’ve been an Everywhere member since day one actually. JPG Magazine had send out an email about the launch of this new magazine and I immediately got exited. So Monday morning, first thing was to ‘discover’ a couple of places. I think a picture of a Transdnestrian Cook in a small diner in Tiraspol was my first posting.

(Photo: Transdnestrian Cook, Moldova)

What's the favorite travel story you've shared? What fascinates me about traveling is not only the places you visit but also the way you visit them. Therefore I love the Issue 03 theme ‘Slow Travel’.

I posted several photos for this theme but the article ‘Valhalla, the Caribbean heaven’ is probably my favourite so far. Not just because of the pictures and the story but also because the experience I had back then was an utter blast. We sailed with a bunch of backpackers from Panama to Colombia in order to pass the Darian Gap. The Darian Gap is a 54 mile stretch of land between Panama and Colombia. This stretch of rainforest has many hazards like swamps, insects, FARC-guerilla activity, etc, etc.

The sailing trip brought us paradise-palmtree-islands, Kuna-Indian-tradional-dances, cullo de pollos (free translation: the asshole of a chicken, fierce Caribbean storms) and much, much more.

Did you have any previous travel writing or reporting experience? Next to several exhibitions (amongst others an exhibition at the International Photo-manifestation Noorderlicht) and a nomination by National Geographic with this photo, I had a couple of publications in Dutch magazines, newspapers and books. My latest publication has been in the book ‘A Summary of the World’ by Esther Kokmeijer, an awesome 372-page hardcover book about a journey to the centre of gravity of each continent.

What is the one dream place you'd love to visit? That’s a hard one… almost as difficult to say what the 'best' place was that I've visited so far. You find out that the more you travel, the more you want to see, but for now my dream-place would be a trip I’m planning at the moment to India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

We want to follow the trail of an uncle of my girlfriend. He went on an extensive trip in the sixties and left a diary about this traveling. Unfortunately the guy passed away shortly after his return. There is almost no visual footage of his travels and we would love to redo a part of his trip to be able to add pictures, our experience and our time-frame to his diary. We want to follow his trail from Delhi, India to Kathmandu, Nepal.

Anything else you want to add? Keep up the good work, I love the way Everywhere works. The fact that contributers decide (partly) how the magazine and the side evolves is a great and exciting process.

Thanks to Gijs for sharing with us. You can find all of Gijs' travel photos and stories in his travelogue. Here's just a sample of some of his travels:

"The Uygher frequent a game of snooker. This by itself is not very special. The thing that does make it special is the fact that they seem to play the game outside all the time. Even if it's freezing cold.."- On Outdoor Snooker in China

"Everywhere you look you can buy food and there are at least sixty places where you can buy freshly squeezed orange juice. I order a delicious looking meal and drink a 'special coke' (red wine served in a coca cola bottle)."- On 'Place Djemmaa el Fna,' Marrakech

"Especially the first seconds after getting into the mud are quite an experience. It feels like your weightless. You sink into the mud up to my chest. Much deeper is not possible."- On the Mud Volcano, Cartagena/ Colombia

"In the middle of Salar the Uyuni, a huge saltflat in the South of Bolivia you find this special hotel. It's entirey made out of salt, including the chairs, tables and beds. DON'T LICK THE WALLS"- On the Hotel de Sal Playa Blanca, Bolivia