The camels and donkeys convoyed out without their humans together every morning into the desert only to come back home every evening before the hyenas came out for hunting. In a sense the domesticated animals represented me, leaving home for an adventure, only coming home when the proverbial jaws of danger were hot on my […]
So You’re In Seoul
I had some essential “THIS. IS. SEOUL.” thoughts when getting hit by grannies harder than a linebacker, chopsticking enormous dumplings into my face while trying to forget about “dog soup” for sale, and getting harassed by hawkers to come join their food stalls or buy their goods. Unreccomended for the novice traveler, but recommended nonetheless, […]
My Cheat Sheet Guide to the Parks of Wild Alaska
What to do in Alaska
Singapore, Bewildered: Where Ancient Tradition Meets the Modern Cutting Edge
^ This is what I thought I’d see in Singapore. I was expecting to be immediately dumbfounded by modern technologies from the cutting edge of development. What I wasn’t expecting to see was how this place, Singapore, was rooted in ancient tradition. A walk through Singapore is an assault on the senses. The hawker stands […]
NOT IRAQ, KURDISTAN (PART 2): The Peshmerga, Yazidis, Saddam’s Palace Ruins, and the City in the Sky
If you haven’t read Part 1 of this story, I would suggest starting there. Disclaimer: this story isn’t full of the cute narrative misadventures that I typically do. But nevertheless I was sure that there was a story here, somewhere buried beneath the facts, a considerably more important one. Some names have been altered to […]
Scenic Bear Viewing at Lake Clark, Alaska
Very rarely do I come home and immediately start writing– but I can’t contain myself . . . you won’t believe what I did today! All my life I have been an animal lover, fascinated by wildlife behavior on nature shows. I had never actually seen a brown bear in the wild. Today my inner […]
Dwam, Reverie in the Scottish Highlands
I had hoped yet hadn’t intended to visit The Highlands, but– there I was. I was at the bottom of a brown valley with waterfalls as far as the eye could see– more than thirty! I’d counted. Their tails cascaded down the slopes, digging thin trenches beneath them. Each ribbon traveled inward to this middle […]
Not Iraq, Kurdistan (Part 1): Preserving the Cultural Identity, Millennia Old History, and Natural Beauty of Disputed Kurdistan
This article was originally posted in The Mountain- Ear Newspaper, Nederland Colorado. The author lays claim to all original intellectual property here in thereof. Nomads Who Want A Home Our preconceived expectations of what northern Iraq might have been like couldn’t have been more wrong. Kurdistan, one of the most controversial “countries” in the world, […]
An Ancient Ache in Ireland
What happens when you’re sick over wanting to be back in a place where you don’t belong? An ache. That’s what Ireland was to me. It wasn’t leprechauns, luck, pots of gold, or Guinness Beer. I avoided those things like the plague. I didn’t even kiss the Blarney Stone. Upon arriving in Dublin, after a […]
Kuala Lumpur: A Place of Many Firsts
Monsoon Season You have not experienced Southeast Asia until you have heard the sky open up on top of a market of corrugated metal roofs during monsoon season. That was the introduction that Kuala Lumpur yielded me. The mood of the Petaling street market changed, time to hunker down for an hour to keep […]
8 Things that Travel Has Taught Me
I’m 50 countries in now, and to me that’s nothing. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to what I’d like to see, do, taste, hear, and feel. Folks keep telling me that I will be done soon. But what they don’t know is that it’s like drugs. I’m in too deep now, and there’s […]
Penang: A Food Paradise, Malaysia
The Journey My hips twisted to balance as I focused on keeping my feet planted, surfing with the movement of the train on the tracks. I was too intrigued to sit during the ride from Kuala Lumpur to Penang. I tried not to fumble my camera lenses as I switched them then held my camera […]