March 29, 2006
Tha Ton
Supuat drove me to Tha Tan...right on the Thai-Burma border directly north of Chiang Mai to see several minority groups, Lisu, Lahu, Akha and Longnecks, that live there. Last...Read this update
March 16, 2006
Elephants Monkeys & Snakes
A day trip north took me to an elephant training camp, monkey training school where they learn to twist off the coconuts and let them drop from the trees. The...Read this update
February 24, 2006
Koh Pha Ngan
Doug Luk and I took a break from Samui and put the car on the ferry for the two hour trip north to the island of Koh Pha Ngan for...Read this update
October 23, 2005
Big Onion Tour
Big Onion Tours, the word "onion" being a play on the Big Apple, offers tours of neighborhoods of NYC. We chose the "immigrant tour" which shows how different ethnic groups...Read this update
Central Park
In any given week in the summer you can choose from any four or five street fairs and on this day we chose the Columbus Street Fair on the Upper...Read this update
Harlem
Probably the biggest surprise yet in New York is discovering that Harlem is not the ghetto as depicted in years past. Sprucing up campaigns have left streets spotlessly clean...little old...Read this update
Washington Heights
The "F" subway line, if you take it to the very end at the northern tip of Manhattan Island, lets you off in a Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights. Everyone...Read this update
Hop On Hop Off Bus
A good way to get a good overview of New York and to get a good look at the architecture is to sit in the upper level of one of...Read this update
February 03, 2005
Stamp-Out to Burma
"Stamping out" consists of leaving Krabi Thailand at a border crossing...in the case of Ranong the border is with Burma...and then "stamping" back into Thailand. To do this they...Read this update
December 13, 2004
Jinghong
While I was in Guizou Province, Bob headed off for Putuashan Island and then circled back to Shanghai via Hangzhou...then flew to Jinghong to meet me at the Banna...Read this update
October 05, 2004
Life in a Mongolian Ger
Terelgj National Park, an hour by car outside of Ulaan Baatar, is a spectacular valley surrounded by high eroded rock formations, pine covered mountains and steppes carpeted with sheep,...Read this update
September 26, 2004
Hanging Out Feels Great
After hanging out a couple days...glad to be off the train...Gregory, a former University teacher of German, drove Bob and I, three Germans and a Pole on a half-day...Read this update
September 25, 2004
Five Hours to Olkhon Island
The next morning we are picked up at our homestay in Irkutsk by a sullen driver who drives us five hours over pot-holes, through the taiga and across a...Read this update
September 19, 2004
Europe-Asia Dividing Line
Yekaterinburg is most famous, however, as the place where Tsar Nicholas II and his wife and five children were murdered by the Bolsheviks in July 1918. Having seen where...Read this update
September 08, 2004
A Day With Sasha
I had watched "Russian Ark," a movie about the history of the Hermitage before I left home so I was excited when we found Sasha, a university educated art...Read this update
September 05, 2004
Traki, Karaites & Kibini Pastry
Trakai, on the outskirts of Vilnius, Lithuania, is a small settlement placed in the middle of five large lakes that is home to about 350 members of the Keraites, a...Read this update
January 08, 2003
Yichang & Yangtse Dam
As we were checking into our hotel, Joe Peng, 30-something young entrepreneur that was with us on our trip up the little gorges showed up with four of his...Read this update
January 06, 2003
Down The Yangtze
Side Trips on The Way At 6:05am a tour guide knocked at the door...follow me, follow me now, he says! We saw the ghosts...a series of temples in the...Read this update
January 01, 2003
Panda Research Base
An early morning one-hour ride on Sam's Guesthouse bus took us south of Chengdu to the Panda Research Base where China is trying to keep the Giant Pandas from...Read this update
December 21, 2002
Volcanos in Tengchong
A young Chinese woman on the bus had struck up a conversation in English...telling us about the sights around Tengchong. We thought that maybe we could pay her to...Read this update
December 18, 2002
Big Noses In The Back Again!
Bus to Dali As we pulled ourselves up into the luxury express bus we felt that we were living large...we wouldn't have local color but we would have comfort...Read this update
December 14, 2002
Conversations In The Gorge
Wednesday Dec 11 In Old Town Lijiang, Bob joined us for breakfast at our hotel at 9am; met Li at her hotel at 10:30 for minibus trip up the...Read this update
December 07, 2002
Tiger Leaping Gorge
China's greatest river, known by Westerners as the Yangtse, is called Jinsha Jiang by the Chinese. It's origin is in Tibet and runs through Tiger Leaping Gorge near Lijiang,...Read this update
December 05, 2002
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain
Bob took a flight south to Mangshi and then on by bus to Ruili near the Burma border. Jana and I left Kunming on a Yunnan Airlines flight to...Read this update
November 26, 2002
Mobbed at Yangshuo
Southern China Yunnan Province Tuesday Nov 26, 2002 At Yangshuo we were mobbed by women selling hotel rooms. I stayed with the backpacks while Bob and Jana looked at...Read this update
November 22, 2002
To Guangzhou
Friday November 22 2002 Hong Kong to Guangshou Across the street to noodle shop for breakfast. Sat with woman who worked as a buyer for a British department store...Read this update
September 25, 2002
Hanoi
September 24 2002 Bob left Hanoi right away on the train for Sapa near the Chinese border to do some trekking among the colorful minority villages and then to...Read this update
August 26, 2002
He Ho & Inle Lake
August 26 2002 It is possible to take a ferry up the Irrawady to Mandalay but we chose not to do this because we heard the ferry was government-run...Read this update
August 06, 2002
Talad Nam Lam-Paya Floating Market
Our friend, Jiraporn, who lived in the U.S. ten years and has a doctorate from Oregon State University in Fisheries and is now a lecurer in the Department of Fishery...Read this update
July 23, 2002
Jaipur City Tour
Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan and sits on a dry lake bed surrounded by barren hills at the top of which you can see fort-like edifices and the surrounding...Read this update
July 21, 2002
Pushkar
The driver has to ask 5 times for directions to Pushkar (no male pride here). Upon entering the village a guy sitting at a table lets down a red and...Read this update
Chittorgarh
On the way out of town the next morning, I am not surprised to see a dead cow that had been hit by a car. “The government will come and...Read this update
Mr. Singh's Rickshaw
We take the offer of Mr. Singh, the Sikh driver of an auto-rickshaw, a small, noisy, three-wheeled motorized contraption with no doors, to take us around the narrow streets that...Read this update
July 18, 2002
Ghandi-India To So Africa
In my last story, I mistakenly said that Gandi was born in South Africa. He was not. He was born in 1869 in Porbander in the Indian state of Gujarat...Read this update
Migrants & Beggars
Continuing our taxi tour with Asane, he takes us to a part of Mumbai where we will see many migrants and beggars...and the red light district. As is happening all...Read this update
Asane's Taxi Tour
In Mumbai, we took a three-hour government sponsored tour in an Indian-made Ambassador car with “Indian A/C” which is a fan that sits on the dashboard. While we were waiting...Read this update
June 27, 2002
Hout Bay Township Tour
Just outside Cape Town we visited a squatter’s camp where poor people including immigrants from Zimbabwe and Algeria, who were not allowed to live in Cape Town prior to apartheid,...Read this update
June 17, 2002
Robben Island
June 16 to July 13, 2002 Standing bunched shoulder-to-shoulder in the small anteroom of the prison on Robben Island where Mandela and others were political prisoners, our half of...Read this update
June 14, 2002
Citrusdal and The Baths
June 14, 2002 My birthday The Baths is a health spa about 16 km from Citrusdal in a pretty wooded gorge. It is a long weekend in South Africa;...Read this update
June 05, 2002
Otjiwarongo Cheetah Camp
June 5, 2002 The next morning James drives us back to Outjo, the small predominantly German/Afrikaner town we had stayed in before and we buy apple strudel and real...Read this update
May 29, 2002
Okavango Delta By Makoro
The Makoro Trip through the Delta By the time the 1300 km long Okavango, southern Africa’s third largest river, enters Botswana from Angola, through the Caprivi Strip in Namibia, it...Read this update
AIDS & The Ocavango Delta
Wed May 29-30 , 2002 Can’t stop in Maun to check email because nothing opens until 10am. Gary takes us into the Delta on his Safari wagon with two...Read this update
May 25, 2002
Victoria Falls Camp
Sun May 25, 2002 Up at 5:30 for the sunrise micro-light (motorcycle with wings) ride to view the falls and the geologic formation left by them over thousands of...Read this update
May 19, 2002
Malawi Village Walk
Sun May 19th 2002 Village Walk Africa does not really exist. Africa is a geographical name for a continent. Africa is made up of countries but people, especially in...Read this update
May 18, 2002
Dinner & Dancing On A Mat
That night Rod has arranged for us to have dinner at the home of a local family. We each take a bowl and spoon from the truck and are...Read this update
May 15, 2002
To Malawi
May 15th 2002 Jambo! (Swahili for Hello!) Back On The Road-Tanzania South to Malawi We were up at 4:30-no breaky (Australian, English, New Zealander and South African for breakfast)...Read this update
May 10, 2002
Ngorongora Crater
The Ngorangora Crater is a conservation area and National Heritage Site. After breaking camp in the Sarangeti, we drive another two hours up to the Crater rim where we...Read this update
May 08, 2002
Maasai Warrior Tribe
Beautiful tall Masaii men and women still maintain their tribal lifestyle and religion-wearing red to keep the lions away from their cows. They live in southern Kenya and northern...Read this update
May 06, 2002
Nairobi to Capetown Overland
May 5, 2002 We left for the 4000 mile seven week trip in a Mercedes Benz truck overland from Nairobi to Capetown. As Bob suspected there would be, there...Read this update
April 30, 2002
A Felluca Ride Up The Nile
In Aswan, a felluca, an ancient sailboat of the Nile, is a common means of transport up and down the Nile River. It has a broad canvas sail and...Read this update
April 29, 2002
A Coptic Christian Guide
In Luxor we did have a tour guide and it made all the difference. We were able to enjoy the sights without being constantly by the touts. A Coptic...Read this update
April 08, 2002
Rome
"Italy will return to the splendors of Rome, said the major. I don't like Rome, I said. It is hot and full of fleas. You don't like Rome? Yes, I...Read this update
April 06, 2002
David
Bob is going on a walking tour where he will learn how the Renaissance Medici family ruled and held onto their city as an independent state for three centuries in...Read this update
March 21, 2002
The Atlas Mountains
We took an excursion trip south and east past incredible green terraced fields and old Berber kasbahs (ancient Moroccan self-contained communities made out of the rust colored mud of...Read this update
September 30, 1995
A Dacha In Samarkand
After coming off the Kyrgyzstan trek, Peter, our trip leader, had arranged for us to go to Samarkand in Uzbekistan before continuing on up to Tashkent for the flight...Read this update