China. Land of mysterious culture. Most populated country on earth. Home to mountain tribes, dissident provinces, mighty rivers, ancient traditions. Nation of frequent and radical political uprising and change. China has all this to offer.Instead of exploring all that, I went to Beijing.Beijing is not...
I first heard about Mama Hahn from two travelers in Koh Phi Phi Thailand. I hadn't even planned on going to Vietnam, but after a discussion with these two Australians, and their glowing report about Mama Hahn, coupled with their reported ease of travel in...
In 1966 I was six years old, and just beginning to understand things going on around me. I grew up in a sleepy bedroom neighborhood surrounded by apple orchards and lightly tangled forests, but every night the real world visited through the medium of television...
Someone pounding on the hotel room door when you are midway through a gin-induced sleep is always a bad experience. When the person making the noisewears a military uniform, is accompanied by three grim-faced plain clothed gentlemen, and none of them speak your language, you...
When in Nepal you are more or less expected to trek. Trekking is not mountaineering, where you use ropes ice axes and the like. Trekking is hiking along the thousands of trails in the Himalayas. Being of questionable physical prowess, I had decided most definitely...
I'm in Bagan, one of the historical focal points of the Buddhist religion. Starting around 1057, Kings, Princes, and just about everyone began erecting temples here, and the process continued for 250 years until it was trashed in a conquest from the north. Then Bagan...
I've been on the Yangon-Mandalay express train for fourteen hours and fifteen minutes. I suggest that a trip like this can, in fact, be taken with only two litres of water, seven polo mints, and a pack of Marlboro Lights as sustenance. I wouldn't suggest...
This is a story about state-of-the-art ship building, recycling, aquaculture, government's attempts to save a fragile ecology, and sustaining tourism: the last functioning economic flow in Indonesia. It started when I saw a curious dingy.One morning as I walked around an empty beach on the...
It's unavoidable. Sooner or later tourists in Bali turn their thoughts to money. My suggestion is, if you have any vacation time saved up, and only a little dough in the bank, you saddle up and get to Indonesia right now. Sure you'll be taking...
My luck came in good today. Last night I met a FAST company United States Marine Seargent named Kerry at the local beach bar. He was one of 3000 shore leave Marines and Navy that arrived here in Kuta last night. They have been circling...