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Salmon Glacier, Alaska: When Travel Comes Full Circle
What happens when travel comes full circle? That’s not what I was thinking as I chatted with a shaggy-haired 20-something as he pulled a stack of postcards out of the sun-visor of his Prius. “You look like you’re loaded down”, he called over the gas pump before the Sweetgrass boarder crossing. His words were muffled in the wind. Something about the way he said it caught my attention. “You’re headed to Alaska”. He had said it as more of a statement than a question. I too soon would learn to recognize the difference between a Canada tourist and those making the long-haul North. We’d pulled over at the last place…
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Taipei, Taiwan
The place where I almost lost my love for seafood? Taiwan. Also the place where I had some of the most awesome street food ever? Also Taiwan. Surprised to see real curved swords reverently wielded around by old men for daily exercise in the form of martial arts? Yep, you guessed the place. Taiwan. Taipei to be exact. What my experience in the world had taught me, after a lifetime of examining “Made in” manufacturing tags, my best guess as to what Taiwan might look like would be a conglomerate of dirty manufacturing warehouses. After all, everything is Made in Taiwan (okay that’s a hyperbole). There may have been a…
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Traveling Afar to Djibouti
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 trail. That was what it was like to be a traveler in Djibouti. Flies harassed me to the point of rage as I arched my back in disgust after I pet a mangy kitty which turned its body to reveal a bad case of mange and a large open sore. I looked into the kitchen…
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Somaliland
I’d gone into Somaliland with an open heart and an open mind. I’d read so much good news online from the tight knit community of international country collectors. Somaliland wasn’t Somalia; it was supposed to be safe, interesting, and welcoming. Before entering Somaliland, at the gate in Djibouti, I hadn’t covered in my hijab. All of the ladies who had seen my hair now starred a hole through me as I stepped into their country. They were smiling. They were beautiful and mysterious and traveled in women-only-groups. I, on the other hand, even though I was covered, wasn’t mysterious at all. They knew exactly what I looked like without my…
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Denali
Ma Kettle, that’s what I called myself in the little Alaska shanty cabin in the woods near Healy. With no measuring cups, I was failing at making pancakes. The mix to milk ratio was off. There was a sticky burned mess on the bottom of the pan. The floors were made of plywood and I, the barefoot queen, wore my shoes at all times as to not get splinters. I hated the way walking barefoot in this particular cabin made my feet feel unbearably dirty. I cringed every time I looked up at the ménage à trois sign that decorated the cabin overhead. It was difficult for me to imagine…
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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, here are a few tricks to get you through your trip to Seoul. CULTURAL NORMSThis is in no way meant to be stereotypical nor account for everyone in Korea: When out in public, loud behavior is considered rude. I’ve never heard quiet like a coffeehouse here. Subways and trains a quiet places where people walk…
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Possibly the Only Story You Will Ever Read About Alaska’s North Slope, Prudhoe Bay, Deadhorse, and the Alaskan Arctic [Part 2]
You can find Part 1 of this story here The inside of the Arctic Oilfield Hotel looked like a camp that you might see in Antarctica. It was complete with everything needed to keep you entertained and sane during the brutal winter: x-box room, free fancy laundry, board games, all you can eat snacks. We wore required medical grade latex booties over our shoes because it was mud season, and let’s be honest, working in the oilfield required getting down and dirty. We were the only visitors to the camp who weren’t on business. As one of the only females in town, especially a young female, the members of the…
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Possibly the Only Story You Will Ever Read About Alaska’s North Slope, Prudhoe Bay, Deadhorse, and the Alaskan Arctic [Part 1]
I had an unnatural, burning desire to see all of Alaska, at least as much its 700,000 square miles of wilderness as possible. That fervor was how I found myself on the first mile of the Dalton Highway, surveying the seemly empty expanse of the Arctic. Speed limit 50 next 416 miles—that was our introduction to the Dalton Highway, Alaska’s northernmost road. But 50 was faster than the Dalton typically allowed, potholed and frost-heave ridden as it was. We dodged lose gravel from eighteen-wheelers. The gravel showers were capable of shattering the windshield. The Dalton highway began 80 miles north of Fairbanks and snaked 500 miles north to Prudhoe Bay and…
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The Truth that no one will tell you About Belize
It’s the age old story of being completely underwhelmed by what you came to see and leaving with a sense of value in the experiences that were unexpected. Like you, I probably headed to Belize to see the Great Blue Hole. I might have been excited to get some R&R on Caye Caulker. But for the resort loving tourists (that I love to insult) who went to Caulker Village, bought a t-shirt and a puka necklace, and felt like they did something special, I move that they could have gone to Cancun and got the same generic experience. The truth that no one will tell you about Belize is that…
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My favorite Places Around Banff
I’ll give it to you straight– I went to Banff at the wrong time of year. The beginning of June was packed. Lake Louise wasn’t as serene as the Pintrest pictures tried to fool me. I was elbow deep fighting bus tourists for a photo op. But it wasn’t my fault: while researching this trip, I had a difficult time figuring out what to see and do in the area because there wasn’t concise online information available. It was also difficult to figure out what the park boundaries were. See the above map for a clear understanding (map credit to blog Where We Be who had the most comprehensive online…
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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 and plazas are exotic. The climate? Scorching tropical. The food? Pretty bowls of spicy, sultry goodness, flavors you didn’t even know existed. The high rises? Full of flats with tenants that are [from what I imagine due to their rent value] untouchably, stupid rich . . . like walking their orangutans from the window of…
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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 protect the identity of sources. “ کاروان.” reads as an insider guide who introduced me to his homeland. Peshmerga soldiers furrowed their brows in skepticism when we presented them with our passports. “Tourists? . . . In Kurdistan?” They seemed surprised but waved us through each checkpoint. This particular checkpoint sat at a Peshmerga training…
