(Picture is Citizen M hotel in Rotterdam. Quirky, classy, high tech, affordable with great common spaces to meet people.) Before you go any further in this post, think about what “great lodging” means to you. If it’s an all-inclusive four star hotel on the tourist strip, then you won’t find my experience useful. Trip Advisor … More Finding Great Lodging
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
Irony: a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result. (Google) I spent one month in Sierra Leone, West Africa in August 2003, in fulfillment of the field experience requirement for gaining my Masters in Public Health with a global health focus. I … More Ironies in a Post Conflict Country
During the 5 years I spent traveling back and forth to Cambodia for work I also had several vacations in Vietnam and a dozen weekend stopovers in Bangkok, I noticed the importance of luck and gambling in the region. I learned that both Vietnam and China have long placed restrictions on their population’s ability to … More Luck meets Karma in SE Asia: An intro with four sixty second stories
In 2016 my husband and I went to the Great Barrier Reef, a two hour boat ride over heaving seas, leaving from Cairns in Queensland. Our boat tied up in its appointed spot near the reef and we received our equipment and stinger suits to be used over the 2 1/2 days. Most of the … More It’s not about the fish! GBR is dying; climate change is to blame.
On my 70th birthday, with mortality not at the doorstep, but somewhere down the street within sight, I find myself immersed in my Dutch roots. I just finished co-leading a ten day “active seniors” trip in Holland. Eight of us, from 55 to 75, biked, trained, trammed, boated and walked briskly through Amsterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven … More See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil
Feb. 19, 2017 From 2005-2010 I worked on a training project that sent me to the capitol of Cambodia over a dozen times for a week or two at a stretch. Phnom Penh traffic is pretty heavy, with a rich mix of cars, tuk-tuks, cyclos, motos, and bicycles. Until recently, there were few stop signs … More Gentle Chaos–Biking Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Other states, other lives, other souls 