In March 2020, the world went into lockdown while a global pandemic raged. In December 2020 and February 2021, I watched movies in Macau and snowboarded across Central Park respectively. In September, I flew to Melbourne, did a road trip across the Gold Coast, and watched the semis and finals of the World T20 Championship. (I even bumped into Novak Djokovic’s distant relative in a public restroom).

I met a travel buddy there, we ate our way into Sarajevo, then cycled into Podgorica, took a bus into Tirana, hopped onto a train to Skopje, before circling back to Belgrade. It was my first alcohol-free foreign trip. I dipped my toes in the Red Sea, drove to Mecca, walked the streets, and clicked photos of the merchant houses of the Old City, and marvelled at its UNESCO World Heritage status. In March 2020, I spent 10 days in Jeddah, the second largest city of Saudi Arabia. In our new column What's In A Setting, we explore the inseparable association of a story with its setting, how the location complements the narrative, and how these cultural windows to the world have helped broaden our imagination. Movies and shows, old and new, have helped us to live vicariously through them. They have allowed us to travel far and wide at a time borders are shut and people are restricted to homes.

Walter mtty adventure