About me

About me

Hi, I’m Tom.

I grew up in a small village in rural Essex, England’s most misunderstood county, but nowadays I live in northeast London with my wife, Polly, a cat called Wasabi, and a small knitted koala called Keith.

I started this blog in December 2014, as a way of sharing two of my biggest passions: writing and travel. My aim is to paint a picture of some of the places I’ve been, provide useful information where I can, and share my opinions when I think they’re worth sharing.

Over the years I have increasingly found myself drawn to the offbeat, the unusual and the weird when it comes to travel, and lately I’ve become particularly interested in the former Soviet Union and the old communist bloc. Recent journeys have taken me to South East Asia, Georgia and Uzbekistan, and I took four months off work for the trip of a lifetime around South America in 2018.

This blog has been a bit quiet of late, partly due to the pandemic, and partly because I became a dad in 2021, which has recently prompted me to launch a new site called Baby Friendly London - do check it out if you're a London-based parent!


Contact me

If you’d like to get in touch you can email me at tomoharawrites@gmail.com.

You can also sign up to my newsletter for an occasional selection of my favourite travel stories from here and elsewhere around the web.