Did you know that Laos is the most bombed country in the world? If Jo Carroll had spent more time with her guidebooks and less with a physiotherapist preparing her creaking knees for squat toilets she'd have been better prepared when she crossed the Mekong in a long boat and stepped into the chaos of Huay Xai. But bombs still lie hidden in Laos' jungles, in the rice paddies, and in the playgrounds. While young people open their doors to new ideas and possibilities, memories of war are etch...

JO CARROLL hesitated before returning to Nepal after the earthquake. Arriving as a tourist when local people were in such need felt an intrusion.Not at all, Tika told her. We want you to come. We need you to come.Within hours of arriving she saw just how right he was. Nepal, it seems, has been forgotten since the journalists left with their pictures of destruction. But the welcome is as warm as it has ever been.Even from the crocodiles …All profits from this boo...

It's 1848. And Sara, aged fourteen, must leave her family in the stinking potato fields of Ireland to seek a better life with her wealthy aunt in Liverpool. But her uncle has different ideas.Will she find solace among the dockers? She finds love, but becomes embroiled in the unrest of the Irish men and women who live in squalor in the Liverpool slums. Yet her efforts to help them only enrage her uncle further.Her escape takes her to the other side of the world. But there is...

It's time for JO CARROLL to pack her rucksack again, and this time she's heading west, to Cuba.Everyone, it seems, has been to Cuba, or wants to go to Cuba, or knows about it. Cuba, they insist, is on the brink of change. A market economy will finally see off the old cars and rationing. They've been saying that for decades. But what face does Cuba present to a tourist in 2014?She finds salsa, of course, and cigars, and wonderful coffee. But what surprises wait for her when th...

After all the excitements of her mid-life Gap Year, Jo Carroll couldn't quite reconcile herself to her gentle corner of Wiltshire with her garden and strolls across the Downs.It seemed such a good idea to return to Nepal. She knew her way around there now. She was ready for adventures, but surely there'd be no terrors in Kathmandu this time?She should, she knows, be careful what she wishes for. She managed to extricate herself from a scam in Pokhara with nothing more than h...

Three years ago, during a chance encounter in Cuba, I was asked why I'd never been to Ecuador. I mumbled, for I could think of no good reason. And so thought I'd better find out more for myself. What treasures I discovered! From ancient Inca sites constructed on top of settlements build by indigenous people centuries ago, to tortoises with supercilious smiles, to volcanoes, to amorous frigate birds and poisonous frogs!

There must be something between the retirement party and buying a zimmer frame. Jo Carroll decided this was the time to revive her teenage dreams and go round the world. So she packed her rucksack, a round-the-world ticket, and a notebook. Not prepared, then, for being marooned on a beach in Australia with the tide rising and nothing but cliffs behind her; nor negotiating with a gunman who wanted to marry her in Lucknow. Let's not think about the snakes and leeches in the jungles of Malays...

JO CARROLL decided it was time to pack her rucksack and get back to the mountains. Little things like a pension and bus pass were not enough to put her off. Besides, after her gap year, she knew all about travelling now.But Nepal had other ideas. Storms raged in the mountains; strikes made transport impossible. And then there was the tiger …

JO CARROLL hesitated before returning to Nepal after the earthquake. Arriving as a tourist when local people were in such need felt an intrusion. Not at all, Tika told her. We want you to come. We need you to come. Within hours of arriving she saw just how right he was. Nepal, it seems, has been forgotten since the journalists left with their pictures of destruction. But the welcome is as warm as it has ever been. Even from the crocodiles … All profits from ...

It's 1848. And Sara, aged fourteen, must leave her family in the stinking potato fields of Ireland to seek a better life with her wealthy aunt in Liverpool. But her uncle has different ideas.Will she find solace among the dockers? She finds love, but becomes embroiled in the unrest of the Irish men and women who live in squalor in the Liverpool slums. Yet her efforts to help them only enrage her uncle further.Her escape takes her to the other side of the world. But there is...

There must be something between the retirement party and buying a zimmer frame. JO CARROLL decided this was the time to revive her teenage dreams and go round the world. So she packed her rucksack, a round-the-world ticket, and a notebook. Not prepared, then, for being marooned on a beach in Australia with the tide rising and nothing but cliffs behind her; nor negotiating with a gunman who wanted to marry her in Lucknow. Let’s not think about the snakes and leeches in the jungles of Malays...

Three years ago, during a chance encounter in Cuba, I was asked why I'd never been to Ecuador. I mumbled, for I could think of no good reason. And so thought I'd better find out more for myself. But I had no idea what an astonishing country it is, with its mountains and beaches and Inca treasures. And poisonous frogs!