by Phil Deering This is chapter three of a three-part post. In Chapter 1, I told the story of a 2007 trek during which I encountered a one-room school in the highlands of the north of Vietnam. When I learned the school had been destroyed in a landslide I decided to raise the money and … More My Three Cups of Tea: Chapter 3 and end
Six years ago (2011) our son was living and working in Medellin, Colombia. It seems that North Americans, when the topic of Medellin comes up in the conversation, immediately go to Narcos and Pablo Escobar. It’s like if you said you were going to visit Chicago, your friends would say: aren’t you worried about Al Capone? … More It’s Colombia, not Columbia!
In September this year I flew to Seattle and then drove a rental car to the Olympic Peninsula to join up with my husband Phil and his team of four other long distance backpackers. My mission was to pick up a last cache of food dropped by Phil at my old friend’s house in Sequim, … More The Way We Live: the Friendship Tour
Factory Girl: Prologue gives a rundown on this novel social/business experiment by William Norris, founder of Control Data Corporation. If you haven’t read it, the Magnetic Peripherals Inner City computer manufacturing plant brought together folks from various backgrounds with spotty work and education histories. Control Data’s goal was to make money by using these folks to … More Factory Girl, Chapter 2: the Inner City plant
I may have been a straight A student, but I can’t hold onto a purse or passport to save my life. “Easily distracted”, I say. No matter, it seems that either through my good karma, a guardian angel, or the kindness of strangers, I have sailed through one potential catastrophe after another while traveling abroad. … More A Ditz in a Foreign Land
In a previous post encouraging folks to plan their own travel (I can do it by myself!), I listed nine goals for travel I apply in the planning process. Two are the subject of this post. You are more likely to meet the locals or other diverse travelers that enrich your experience of the place … More Crazy, Lucky, Funny, Poignant, Scary: Peru, Part 2
This year I read a terrific travel book by Tim Cope about his long trek on horseback following the route of Genghis Khan from Mongolia to Hungary (On the Trail of Genghis Khan: An Epic Journey Through the Land of the Nomads). As much as possible Cope stayed out of cities and encountered what little … More Getting to know the Locals in Turkey
Guest blogger Phil Deering, April 2017 When traveling far from home, many of us hope we’ll meet the regular, everyday people of the nations or towns we visit. But it’s tough. In foreign lands or even tourist towns in the US, we’re ensnared in a tourist economy that is anything but normal. That economy is … More One Tactic to Get Past the Tourist Barrier
Other states, other lives, other souls 