Arrivals

Welcome/Croeso. Bienvenue. Willkommen. Benvenuto, Benvenidos, ようこそ(Yōkoso) to those from Japan and 你好 to my Chinese visitors. For the icons given reference to above, see below.

My name is Kelvin Hayes a writer, photographer, designer, cultural educator, synesthete and traveller. Travel has formed a big part of my life having visited over 60 Countries, 160 Cities, and 100 Flights. In addition I’ve slept in 40+ Hostels, 20 Hotels (2-5 star), several Air BNBs, homestays, and on airport floors, bus stations, beaches, churches, a bank lobby in Barcelona, a bookstore in Paris, a park in Gibraltar and Lisbon, a marae in New Zealand, a rugby club in Wales, a canal tow path in Oxford and a Riad in Marrakesh.

I have done all this without media coverage, awards or accolades, no grants, no sponsorship and very little financial support. I was working remotely in 1999! Before the term ‘remote work’ and ‘digital nomad’ were known as they are today. In addition I’ve survived chronic physical and mental bullying, attempted murder, 20 years on the road, 9 months of homelessness and a global pandemic.

If I can survive so can YOU! 

Stuck for where to start? Read the cream of the blogs HERE, OR head straight to THE ATLAS a work in progress which provides a central reference point for site visitors.

WHAT ARE THE ICONS ON THE MAP?

I’ll start at the beginning. The map grid reference and the ship icons are from Wang Chung’s Points on the Curve. Canada is Men Without Hats logo; purely as I couldn’t think of another synth-pop or new wave artist from Canada.

The US of A is Hall and Oates – not necessarily new wave but who else? South America is the neat combo of Duran Duran’s Rio and their offshoot Arcadia which I thought lent itself nicely to the mysterious lower reaches of Latin America. 

Africa was somewhat troublesome so I had to improvise, there was no immediate imagery to go with, even Toto’s single image for their hit Africa is a boring blue; hardly anything that would conjure up the mammoth continent. The most obvious one for me was The Police’s Tea in the Sahara but not being a single there was no guiding imagery.

And then what to do with the rest of the continent? In the end I settled on the desert from the back cover of Icehouse’s Primitive Man on which I’ve added Youssou N’Dour’s The Guide and the Egypt, the Eye in the Sky motif from Alan Parsons Project. The bottom is just green felt tip left over from my initial improv on top of which comes a neat pattern design from Toni Childs Zimbabwae single. Somehow it worked – for now at least.

Europe was a no brainer utilising Kraftwerk’s Trans Europe Express. If you look close you may also spot A-ha’s famous imagery from their Take on Me video. Above in the sea is a cross from Simple Minds New Gold Dream which I hope also in a small way represents the Celtic world.

The red hat figurine used for Central Asia is from Marco Polo, an album by Italian’s Nicola Alesini and Pier Luigi Andreoni. I also manage to incorporate the mountains from Wally Badarou’s Words of a Mountain – not technically speaking the Himalayas region but it fit. India is from West India Company’s New Demons while the red of China is complimented by the Beijing opera visage from Jean Michel Jarre’s Concerts in China. Japan is represented by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Finally Australia and no prizes for guessing it’s Icehouse and their cover for Great Southern Land (though the cover art was only used in ‘Stralia and NZ so it might be unknown to those of you visiting from other territories). In addition is the ‘ENZ’ from Split Enz True Colours. I am not a huge fan but I had to have something representing NZ and at that time they were the only ‘big’ artist from there.