August 06, 2006
Early Morning In The Zocalo
Vendors with hot chocolate, atole and red and green tamales stood at each end of the Zocalo at 7am...one giving free pan (sweet bread) and chocolate to two indigenous women...Read this update
August 05, 2006
One East On Third
On the e-hotelier.com web site a friend found this description of son Josh's restaurant in the Hilton Hotel in Beijing where he is the Chef de Cuisine: Hilton Beijing stars...Read this update
Francisco
Francisco wears a red T-shirt and straw hat and sells books in Spanish on the sidewalk in the Zocalo. Yesterday I noticed that some of the books were by the...Read this update
April 13, 2006
Sabaidee Pi Mai Lao!
Lao New Year is a time to encourage young people to absorb the spirit of cleaning their temples, houses, stupas of their ancestors and apparently the bodies of anyone, especially...Read this update
March 29, 2006
Thai Cooking School
At the Smile Guesthouse I attend cooking school. A Dutch couple and a German girl and I each have our own "station" with a wok sitting on a gas burner....Read this update
March 25, 2006
Faithful Tuk Tuk Driver
Nice to have someone faithful to me. I trust Supoat, in his 50's, with soft face and warm bright eyes. I call him when I need him to drive...Read this update
Breakfast at Smile Guesthouse
I have changed hotels. I am now at the brand new Bau-Tong Lodge with free WiFi that is down little soi 3 off Loi Kroh...for half the cost of the...Read this update
March 19, 2006
Chiang Mai Felt Like Home?
Have been here three weeks and Chiang Mai did feel like home for awhile...just long enough to get oriented and find the good places to eat. I spent all...Read this update
March 15, 2006
Market-Going
Tired of the Night Market for tourists, this week I walked to the Warorot Day Market...a market for the local Thais. I bought delicious garlic flavored BBQ chicken for lunch...Read this update
March 07, 2006
Walkabout
Yesterday morning I walked to the Post Office around the corner and down the street and then slowly swung a wide path through the city...dawdling in used book stores, Jonesing...Read this update
March 04, 2006
Good-bye To Samui
On 1 March I said good-bye to my son Doug and his wife Luk and Ting Tong...their little Shimizu...and caught a Bangkok Air flight back to Bangkok (Bangkok Air built...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
January 31, 2006
January 23, 2006
Street Noodles
My favorite food in Thailand is one of the many varieties of noodle soup found on street carts. Street food is safe if you select a cart in early to...Read this update
December 26, 2005
A Christmas Gift
After rack of lamb marinated with fresh oregano, thyme, garlic and olive oil; tender gratin of baby spinach in a bechamel sauce with snow crab and east coast clams; brussel...Read this update
October 25, 2005
Yonah Schimmel's Knishs
Looking for a restaurant one afternoon on the Lower East Side, we happened by a tiny bakery with huge savory knishes displayed in the window...potato, kasha, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, mixed...Read this update
Pierogis In Greenpoint
Around the corner from Josh's apartment in an almost all-Polish neighborhood Bob and I found an authentic Polish restaurant. Blackboards behind the cashier list items in Polish and English. When...Read this update
October 23, 2005
Bouley Tasting Menu
There are 13,000 restaurants in New York City and urbanites, with cramped apartments and schedules, often eat out...whether take-out, order in, pizza slices or, on special occasions, in one of...Read this update
July 12, 2005
Stories Of The Street
Ten baht (25 cents) for a motorcycle taxi gets me to the American educated dentist down the soi and around the corner in little more than a minute...scared to death...Read this update
May 16, 2005
"Oh New Shoes Lost Me!"
After a flight from Bangkok on Bangkok Air, I have been enjoying my 26 year-old daughter-in-law on quiet Khlong Muang Beach in Krabi Province the last couple of weeks...Read this update
March 31, 2005
Not The Ubud We Pictured
Ubud was nothing like I had pictured. Even though it's community members still adhere to traditional customs and the arts, crafts, music and dances support religious rituals and ceremonies,...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
January 24, 2005
Luk's Family In Trang
We rented an SUV and drove to Trang, about 150 kilometers south of Krabi, to meet Luk's immediate and extended family. We were greeted with the traditional Thai wai...Read this update
October 30, 2004
Kindred Spirits
Walking by the Foreign Language Bookstore in Quindao, just up the street from my comfy clean hotel room that a tout from the railroad station led me to...80 yuan...Read this update
October 17, 2004
Great Days Great Wall
E found the website (www.wildwall.com) and the adventure offered intriguing potential...off the beaten track, away from the Chinese tourist groups that follow a guide with a microphone and colored...Read this update
September 30, 2004
The Tajik and Olga
The Tajik and Olga In Irkutsk, when we find our seats on the train to Ulaan Baatar, we find a good-looking 40 year old Muslim man from Tajikistan in...Read this update
September 10, 2004
Forest Mushrooms and Vodka
The night before we leave St. Petersburg, Elena and her childhood friend, Dula, breathlessly excited, bring home bags and boxes of forest mushrooms. Bob and I haven't eaten and...Read this update
September 06, 2004
St. Petersburg Homestay
A Homestay has been arranged for us by our tour company, White Knights, with Elena who lives in (and owns) a 3 room very cluttered flat four flights up...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
December 28, 2002
Ruili
Coming down out of the mountains we were happy to see Ruili lying in the green lush valley below...a larger city than I thought...a Chinese/Burma border town with a...Read this update
December 10, 2002
Echo & Li...Competitors
Monday Dec 9 2002 In Old Town Lijiang, we are woken up by a knock at the hotel door at 8am. Two couples from Taiwan were on their way...Read this update
December 08, 2002
The Wonderful Naxi People
Once in Lijiang, we dumped our luggage at the Shangira Hotel (Y80 or about $10 for a double) that was recommended by Echo. I suspect she was getting a...Read this update
July 31, 2002
Shimla
July 31-August 4 2002 The last few days I have been fighting some sort of strange malady...raging sore throat, red spots on the tops of my feet and the underside...Read this update
Rickshaw Driving Lesson
After dinner, Bob entertains the nearby date sellers by dickering aggressively with another rickshaw driver who makes the mistake of saying to Bob “You are rich man-why can’t you give...Read this update
July 30, 2002
Bargaining for a Rickshaw
Our last night in Delhi before taking the train to a cooler Shimla in the mountains for a few days, we strike out in the worst part of the day...Read this update
July 18, 2002
Bombay Renamed Mumbai
July 13-18, 2002 India forces you to look beneath the surface of things...there is more here than your eyes see...a midnight ride into the city from the airport in the...Read this update
July 12, 2002
Sleepover In Soweto
A Sleepover in Soweto-Africa’s largest township On our way to India we stopped in Johannesburg for two days to stay with Lolo Mabitsela in her Bed and Breakfast in...Read this update
June 12, 2002
Orange River Bushcamp at Fiddler’s Creek
www.bushwhacked.co.za The facilities are nice-big grassy campsite and there is a lapa (open air shelter) covered with green leaves of a plant with purple flowers within which to eat...Read this update
June 11, 2002
Hobas & Fish River Canyon
June 11, 2002 On the way from Serus the topography is incredible--perfectly formed mesas and buttes-almost Utah-like. We stop in the tiny wide spot in the road called Bethanie....Read this update
June 09, 2002
Solitaire & Sesriem Camp
June 9, 2002 Sesriem literally means "six rawhide strings" The truck ride south to Sesriem Camp was not as cold as we thought it would be. We stopped in...Read this update
June 08, 2002
Swakopmund
June 6-8, 2002 How are you today mommi? George and James do a pretty good job looking after me-making sure I’m happy so I don’t unglue on this trip...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
June 02, 2002
Ombinda Country Lodge
Sunday June 2, 2002 near Outjo Yesterday the truck broke a spring so we stopped in the Afrikaner town of Outjo to find a mechanic and pick up some...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
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 22, 2002
New Words In Lusaka
In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa your car “hoots” not honks. Hoot, I tell them, is what an owl does! Rod says Geese "honk" and cars "hoot!" We...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
Zanzibari Feasting
Zanzibar's native cuisine brazenly drenches seafood in local aromatic spices. At night, locals gather at Forodhani Gardens, a strip of park on the waterfront right outside the House of...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
Search For Truth In Egypt
Cafes and Food You can have what Bob calls "mystery meat," which in Egypt is called kebab-lamb or chicken sliced from a vertical spit-very good in pita bread. Kofta is...Read this update
April 09, 2002
Athens
Landed in Eletherios Venizelo airport and everyone clapped as is often the custom around much of the world. Took a one hour bus ride from the airport to Monastiraki...Read this update
St. Peter's House
The Vatican In 1965 I had missed seeing the Vatican because I refused to stand in line three hours. So we took the Metro across the Tiber River to the...Read this update
March 23, 2002
The New Young Brits
In the train, before crawling into my compartment, I stood out in the hall and had a great conversation with a bright energetic young Brit (Richard) attending Cambridge. He had...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
February 28, 2002
Paris
Well we have been in Paris less than 24 hours and have had many adventures already! We found a cute little Basque restaurant last night-Bob had squid in its own...Read this update
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September 18, 1995
Trekking in Kyrgyzstan
The fall of 1995 Bob and I joined an REI adventure tour company based in Seattle Washington on an 18 day trek in the highest and most dramatic part...Read this update