Mud Bricks and Karaoke in Taanayel, Lebanon
“You absolutely must tell your driver to go to Taanayel, you’ll love it,” my Lebanese friend Lara said. Our conversation was conducted on a cell phone during a drive in the Bekaa Valley and those were...
View ArticleAmong the CloudsOn Tajumulco, Guatemala
Climbing Tajumulco My boots crunch the gravel underfoot as I stare down a volcano. Tajumulco rises impressive before me, a ring of clouds surrounding its base, the only thing to hint this is the...
View ArticleDriving the White Villages of Andalucia
Andalucia and its White Villages Driving Southern Spain Driving in a foreign country can intimidate the best of us. My first time driving in Southern Spain, I worried about mysterious traffic rules and...
View ArticleSwaziland becomes Eswatini!
During the exciting and colourful 50/50 celebrations in Swaziland last month, King Mswati III made an historic announcement that the country’s name would change to ‘The Kingdom of Eswatini’. Meaning...
View ArticleActun Tunichil Muknal, Belize, Caves and Superstition
My guide, Jose, looked around at me and put his finger to his lips, “Shh, can you feel the spirits?” I held my breath. Human skeletons and cracked pottery lay scattered on the ground. Obsidian blades...
View ArticleThe Ocher Valley of Sorrows – Colombia
“I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams…” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince...
View ArticleSnowshoeing & Snowblind at Switzerland’s Aletsch Arena
But I Digress… This is the third and final installment in the series about my January journey to the Matterhorn Region, in the Swiss canton of Valais (or Wallis), which has 45 summits at Switzerland’s...
View ArticleSilversmithing in Breckenridge’s Arts District
When I think of Breckenridge, Colorado, I immediately think of skiing, so I wasn’t sure what to do when meeting a group of friends there during the off-season. Imagine my surprise to find myself trying...
View ArticleChasing Covered Bridges in Marion County
Covered bridges entered Oregon’s Willamette Valley during the 19th century along with pioneers settling the Pacific Northwest. Over 400 of these wooden relics of a past time are estimated to have been...
View ArticleStranded in No Man’s Land on the Pamirs, Where Wild Things Are
I watched the Sun crawl behind the snowy peaks that belong to no country and are ruled only by wolves that roam the wasteland at night. Now, how am I going to survive through it? Central Asian...
View ArticleA Taste of Cinnamon and Conversations on Civil War-Emerging Tourism in Sri Lanka
I arrived late in the evening in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital and even at the airport I could smell the fragrance of cinnamon that Sri Lanka is so famous for. In Colombo, I was staying at the glamorous...
View ArticleQuiet Corners in the West of Wales
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Even if you tour Europe, you’re probably not going to go here.” These were the words, spoken by my mother, that enticed me to take a break from my busy Los Angeles...
View ArticleA Hidden Concert in a Berlin Warehouse
It is a chilly Sunday evening in Berlin. Late October and the trees have shaken off their leaves. I shuffle my feet through piles of golden yellow and approach two steel doors with graffiti scrawled on...
View ArticleLa Maison Arabe, a Riad in Marrakech
When I first arrived in Marrakech with its wide boulevards stalled with traffic, chain hotels, modern buildings and palm trees, I felt disappointed. I could have been somewhere in Florida! But then I...
View ArticleSame Same, but Different in Bangkok
“Same Same — but Different” in Bangkok – so goes the saying on two-thirds of the T-Shirts for sale in Bangkok… Suvarnabhumi Airport at 1 am After a long flight over the gerrymandered International Date...
View ArticleDog-sledding in Svalbard, Norway
After a late night wandering the streets of Longyearbyen, under the midnight sun, I was up early. Waiting in the crisp Arctic morning air, my breath visible despite it being June, I could see the tour...
View ArticleRide the Circle Train, Myanmar
Myanmar Fascination I have always had a fascination with trains and to me it seems that each country has trains with their own special character. When I arrived in Myanmar, previously known as Burma, I...
View ArticleEsperance: The Gem of Western Australia
Kangaroos living on the beach, pirates, explorers, gold, and the biggest wave in Western Australia; ‘The Cyclops’. It seemed like my childhood story books were starting to come true. I was on my way to...
View ArticleCarcass – The Thar Desert, India
The Desert is a great leveler The Desert provides. The Desert consumes. And you do not get to decide this. The Desert decides. I photographed this Buffalo carcass on my 4th day of my trek across The...
View ArticleAn Awakening at Jetavanaramaya Stupa in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
The soft rays of the 8 o’clock sun played peekaboo with me, as I cycled into the historic city of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, that May in 2016. Tall trees stooped and swished to embrace, and the asphalt...
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