From the World Heritage inscription for Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan”: Situated on the eastern bank of the River Jordan, nine kilometers north of the Dead Sea, the archaeological site consists of two distinct areas: Tell Al-Kharrar, also known as Jabal Mar-Elias (Elijah’s Hill) and the area of the churches of Saint John the …
From the World Heritage inscription: Cultural Landscape of Bali: the Subak System as a Manifestation of the Tri Hita Karana Philosophy forms an acultural landscape of five rice terraces and their water temples that cover 19,500 hectares. The temples are the focus of a cooperative water management system of canals and weirs, known as subak, …
Read part 2 and part 3 Travelers to Europe often complain of church fatigue. Everywhere you go, you see old churches and castles and after a while they all sort of just blur into each other. In Asia, the equivalent would be Shrine and Temple fatigue. No place I’ve visited so far suffers more from …
I’m having a hard time finding a reasonable tour to Komodo National Park. Everything out of Bali requires at least two people and if you go alone you have to pay an arm and a leg. I’m seriously considering just flying to Flores and doing some sort of tour from there. It should be much …
I don’t just like to write about what I see in certain places and then drop the country as I move on to the next. There are some subjects that deserve revisiting, and one that sort of jumps out at you in Hong Kong is the Philippines. Why the Philippines? You’ll notice it if you …
Along side the rice terraces of Banaue, the highlight of my trip to the Philippines was my visit to the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park. it is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the longest, navigatable, subterranean river in the world. (got that?) Puerto Princesa is the capital of Palawan province, the westernmost province …
There are some cities in the world which can only be described as great cities. Cities where you can walk around all day and never cease finding good street food, restaurants, parks and shops. The people are nice and the streets are clean. Manila is not such a city. Day 1 I learned the hard …
There really is something called Jerusalem Syndrome. Wikipedia describes it as a: …mental phenomena involving the presence of either religiously themed obsessive ideas, delusions or other psychosis-like experiences that are triggered by, or lead to, a visit to the city of Jerusalem. It is not endemic to one single religion or denomination but has affected …
In my more than decade of global wanderings, there is one place that always comes to mind first when I decide I need a culturally interesting place—one with great food, markets, and other expats—to work remotely for a few months. Even though I always look broadly to consider other cities with digital nomads and low …