Potato in a Rice Bowl

Small World broadens the mind with postcards and intelligence from everywhere at a time when the growth of international air travel has shrunk the definition of proximity and the internet has enabled the globalised media industry to bring distant events and places tantalisingly close.

Affluence has made Australians more mobile than ever. The notion of travel as a recreational pursuit of the wealthy is long past. Last year, a third of the national population travelled abroad, joining almost a billion tourists in the air, on the road, on board ships and trains.

The statistics are mind-boggling, but the full meaning of this in terms of global engagement is more perplexing. Will this extraordinary movement of people aid understanding or exacerbate tensions?

Some of Australia's best authors and journalists are featured, including an exclusive extract from Murray Bail's forthcoming novel The Voyage.

Lonely Planet co-founder Tony Wheeler revisits some of the most troubled regions in the world, taking in Kinshasa, Jerusalem and Haiti; Melissa Lucashenko has a strange holiday in Cambodia; Stephanie Green finds herself an unwitting witness to history while visiting Egypt; and Jane Goodall reflects on the recovery of Bucharest.

Mark Dapin reports on the perils of travelling as a journalist; Kate Veitch explores our changing relationship with travel and photography as smart phones replace cumbersome cameras; and Joanna Kujawa presents a history of wanderlust. Lesley Synge finds an earthly hell in an island paradise; Gayle Bryant reports from the frontlines of a terrorist attack on a luxury hotel; plus stories, poems and much more.

Small World opens a new window on how we live now.

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?Life is lived in the little things.?
?Marilyn Beckwith

In the early 1970s, after a year of unemployment, Marilyn Beckwith was in desperate need for change in her life. With her characteristic joie de vivre, she started a new life on a new continent?and didn?t look back. In 1971, she and her husband moved to Africa with their four children, armed with not much more than a penchant for adventure and a sense of humor.

They started their African adventures in Kenya, and they tried life in Zaire (now Congo). Marilyn was called to build a home for her family on the local economy, unsupported by any embassy or company. While steadfastly holding on to her values, she faced a steep learning curve in adjusting to the African rhythms of life. She gamely coped with challenges, from the mundane to the miraculous, including bridging food shortages, navigating the fringes of diplomatic life, outsmarting a mischievous chimpanzee, and adapting to new languages:

?Madame, you speak French like a Zairean.?
?Oh, thank you."
?Madame, that was not a compliment!?

Journey with this American mother as she discovers that everyday life can become extraordinarily entertaining when circumstances are unusual.