TrodPod

The Gambia is Africa’s smallest mainland country: a slender ribbon of land wrapped around the river that gives it its name and almost entirely enclosed by Senegal. What it lacks in size it makes up for in warmth - both climatic and human. Known as the Smiling Coast of Africa, it offers golden Atlantic beaches, over 600 species of bird, a river teeming with life and a history both painful and profound. From Europe, there is no easier entry point into West Africa.Love the pod? Get the guide! Out with each new podcast, we publish a guide to the country. Buy the TrodPod guide to Gambia for just $3: https://www.patreon.com/c/trodpod/shop. Better yet, become a TrodPod member for just $5 a month and access TrodPod guides to every country in the world, released weekly with each new podcast episode! Sign up now: https://www.patreon.com/trodpod/membershipThanks for all your support!TrodPod is Murray Garrard and Elle Keymer. Sound editing by Leo Audio Productions. Design and marketing by GPS: Garrard Powell Solutions

Mauritius is the kind of place that looks almost too good to be true in the brochure - and then turns out to be exactly as advertised. A volcanic island adrift in the Indian Ocean, ringed by coral reefs and fringed with beaches of absurd perfection, it has parlayed its natural assets into one of Africa’s most prosperous economies. But it is more than just a beach destination: beneath the resorts lies a complex, multicultural society shaped by Dutch, French, British, Indian, Chinese and African influences.Love the pod? Get the guide! Out with each new podcast, we publish a guide to the country. Buy the TrodPod guide to Mauritius for just $3: https://www.patreon.com/c/trodpod/shop. Better yet, become a TrodPod member for just $5 a month and access TrodPod guides to every country in the world, released weekly with each new podcast episode! Sign up now: https://www.patreon.com/trodpod/membershipThanks for all your support!TrodPod is Murray Garrard and Elle Keymer. Sound editing by Leo Audio Productions. Design and marketing by GPS: Garrard Powell Solutions

Laos is Southeast Asia’s quietest secret: a landlocked, mountainous country of saffron-robed monks, mist-wreathed karst peaks and a pace of life so languid it makes its neighbours look frantic. Once the Kingdom of Lan Xang — the Land of a Million Elephants — it was later the most heavily bombed country per capita in history, a fact that still shapes its landscape and its people. Today, it blends Buddhist tradition, socialist politics and Beer Lao into something utterly beguiling.Love the pod? Get the guide! Out with each new podcast, we publish a guide to the country. Buy the TrodPod guide to Laos for just $3: https://www.patreon.com/c/trodpod/shop. Better yet, become a TrodPod member for just $5 a month and access TrodPod guides to every country in the world, released weekly with each new podcast episode! Sign up now: https://www.patreon.com/trodpod/membershipThanks for all your support!TrodPod is Murray Garrard and Elle Keymer. Sound editing by Leo Audio Productions. Design and marketing by GPS: Garrard Powell Solutions

Peru is South America’s superstar, and it knows it. From the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu to the culinary fireworks of Lima, from the enigmatic Nazca Lines to the vast green sprawl of the Amazon, this is a country of almost absurd variety. It has been reinventing itself for decades and keeps getting better. The food alone would justify the airfare. The rest is a bonus of civilization-spanning proportions.Love the pod? Get the guide! Out with each new podcast, we publish a guide to the country. Buy the TrodPod guide to Peru for just $3: https://www.patreon.com/c/trodpod/shop. Better yet, become a TrodPod member for just $5 a month and access TrodPod guides to every country in the world, released weekly with each new podcast episode! Sign up now: https://www.patreon.com/trodpod/membershipThanks for all your support!TrodPod is Murray Garrard and Elle Keymer. Sound editing by Leo Audio Productions. Design and marketing by GPS: Garrard Powell Solutions

Benin is a small, narrow strip of a country on the West African coast with a history vastly disproportionate to its size. This was the seat of the Kingdom of Dahomey, one of Africa’s most powerful and militarized states, and a pivotal node in the Atlantic slave trade. It is also the birthplace of Vodun - the spiritual tradition that traveled across the ocean and became Haitian Vodou, Brazilian Candomblé, and Cuban Santería. Benin is raw, fascinating, and profoundly important.Love the pod? Get the guide! Out with each new podcast, we publish a guide to the country. Buy the TrodPod guide to Benin for just $3: https://www.patreon.com/c/trodpod/shop. Better yet, become a TrodPod member for just $5 a month and access TrodPod guides to every country in the world, released weekly with each new podcast episode! Sign up now: https://www.patreon.com/trodpod/membershipThanks for all your support!TrodPod is Murray Garrard and Elle Keymer. Sound editing by Leo Audio Productions. Design and marketing by GPS: Garrard Powell Solutions.

Turkey is one of those rare countries that genuinely straddles civilizations. Straddling Europe and Asia, it has absorbed the legacies of Hittites, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans and turned them into something entirely its own. Istanbul alone could occupy a lifetime. Add Cappadocia’s surreal landscapes, the Roman grandeur of Ephesus, the thermal terraces of Pamukkale, and a cuisine that ranks among the world’s finest, and you have a country of almost unreasonable richness. The tea is strong. The welcome is stronger.Love the pod? Get the guide! Out with each new podcast, we publish a guide to the country. Buy the TrodPod guide to Turkey for just $3: https://www.patreon.com/c/trodpod/shop. Better yet, become a TrodPod member for just $5 a month and access TrodPod guides to every country in the world, released weekly with each new podcast episode! Sign up now: https://www.patreon.com/trodpod/membershipThanks for all your support!TrodPod is Murray Garrard and Elle Keymer. Sound editing by Leo Audio Productions. Design and marketing by GPS: Garrard Powell Solutions.