This morning I was notified by the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) that I have been stripped of all travel journalism awards given by the organization and its foundation for the use of performance enhancing drugs. In particular I have been stripped of the following awards: 2012, 2013 and 2014 Lowell Thomas Awards for …
I have been meaning to write on this subject for many months now. The Blog Action Day (October 15) sort of gave me an excuse to go ahead and do it. Over the course of my trip, I’ve seen the most severe poverty I’ve seen in my life. From tin shacks in the Solomon Islands …
I’ve been in Tel Aviv for two days now. It is a very different city than Jerusalem. For starters, I haven’t seen a single Orthodox Jew here. Zero. Everything here is much more laid back and secular than Jerusalem. In addition to a very large beach area, it also seems very artsy. Some of the …
The ankle is feeling better and I’m off to Bangkok in a few hours. It should be a big change from Phuket. I really have no desire to see many of the islands in the area around here, which is what most of the backpackers usually do. It has been raining (which sort of ruins …
The following question is for my non-Asian readers: Name something about Indonesia which does not involve a natural disaster. When do you think of Indonesia, what image comes to mind? Can you name an Indonesian movie? Any Indonesian outside of politics? Can you name any Indonesian food dish? I asked similar questions when I first …
I’ve had a jammed packed couple of days here in Singapore. I’m currently at a McDonald’s at the Singapore Harborfront waiting to take the ferry to Bintan Island, Indonesia. Bintan is like a 45 min ferry ride from Singapore and it, along with neighboring Batam island, are cheap, close tourists destinations for people in Singapore. …
One of the realities of running a travel blog is that you can’t update every day. The last 48 hours I’ve been incommunicado and it has been a pretty interesting 48 hours. I didn’t get a lot of sleep, managed to drive down the funeral route of a former president, saw a volcano and almost …
The most valuable thing I carry around with me isn’t my computer or my cameras. It is my photos. I can replace any of the equipment I have, but I can’t replace the photos I’ve taken. That raises a pretty big problem for me. How can I make sure that I don’t lose the photos …
I just got back from my first visit to Angkor Wat. Wow. Traveling as long as I have, I think i tend to get jaded having seen so many things. I really wasn’t too sure what to expect at Angkor, but whatever my expectations were, they were exceeded. Angkor is a really special place. What …