The Silk Road: China to Kyrgyzstan

Myanmar: Places & (mostly) Faces

The Lost Travelers of Vang Vieng

  • Luxembourg seasons

    Seasons Change, and So Does Luxembourg

    You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but it might be fair to judge a place by its seasons. By popular demand, here is finally a post on Luxembourg, a…

  • Christmas Markets: Magical or Mediocre?

    Now that we’re fully immersed in that awkward period after Christmas when the snow hasn’t yet melted away but our holiday cheer has, let’s take a moment to reminisce on the…

  • Warriors vs. Heat NBA game

    The Other Beautiful Game

    At first glance it’s all borderline absurd: the wait, the expense, the costumes, the music, the special effects and the scale. The line to get in started three hours in advance.…

  • Istanbul: The End of the Road

    Istanbul is the end of the road – the Silk Road namely – the point on the map where the East and West come to a head: symbolically, geographically and, in many ways,…

  • Tomales Point landscape

    California’s Wild Wild West, aka Tomales Point

    “Avoid hiking at night. Mountain lions are nocturnal, humans are not,” said Google. Great. Few things are more humbling than basking in the beauty of California’s wild northern coast, but basking…

  • Merry & Bright

    December is that time of year When what’s important becomes more clear. Presents and bows glitter under the tree But it’s our loved ones who are truly the key. To you, dear…

  • Transit & Transition

    Nothing bonds people more than stuffing them together in a tight space for an extended period of time, surrounding them with stale air, feeding them tasteless food and making them altogether powerless. No, I’m…

  • Helping Hands: Crossing the Mongolian Border

    What I noticed first were the hands. Heavy, no-nonsense, working hands. Hands that lift and carry and squeeze. Okay, I might be exaggerating a little and even flirting with political incorrectness,…

  • France: The Complete Package

    What are you craving? Mountains? No problem. Ocean? Atlantic or Mediterranean? Take your pick. Or are you more of a city person? Start with Paris, or maybe quieter Lyon. Like to drink…

  • The Lost Travelers of Vang Vieng

    From afar Vang Vieng looked like any number of small towns in Laos. Dramatic limestone cliffs framed the sunset as we dropped into the karst canyon from the north. We took…

  • Dust & Spices: Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh & Delhi

    We entered Punjab via Amritsar near the Pakistani border, heading south from mountainous Himachal Pradesh. We’d just spent almost a month exploring areas near Ladakh in the Jammu and Kashmir state and ten days meditating in…

  • Robbed: A Comedy

    Picture two round, sweaty, shirtless men, partly bald with smug (if not evil) grins plastered onto their cartoonish faces. Excuse me, stupid, cartoonish faces. They’ve come to roll down their car window,…

  • China: The Enigma in Pictures

    Some would say that entering China is like stepping back in time. Others would say it’s like stepping into the future. Whatever it is, it’s captivating, confusing, incredible and sometimes overwhelming.…

  • When in doubt, head to the mountains

    There’s nothing quite like that moment. It’s early in the morning and you’re sore from the previous day’s hike. You unzip your tent, a rush of fresh air hits you and…

  • The Woman in Beijing

    There are some faces that are impossible to forget. You cross paths with a stranger from a different world for a split second and sometimes they never leave you, burned into…