The term “bucket list” is as tired and cliche as game changer, hand crafted, and pivot (the political strategy). But we all have a short or long list of places we want to go, things we’d like to do and sites we’d like to see.
What’s on your list, and why?
Here are mine, in no particular order:
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If you’ve been out in public during the past ten years you may have noticed that there are few “adult” domains dotting our landscape. I don’t refer to the “Live” “Nude” Times Square of decades past. I refer instead to any and everywhere. The stroller set has infiltrated your local coffee shop and bar (hey after a long day playing in a sanitized million dollar soft-edged heat-proof playground, you’d need a stiff drink too.) Restaurants whose white tablecloths and staggering bills once signaled and adult oasis, now have nuggets of processed foods on the menu (because after all small children do enjoy fine dining they just don’t enjoy actual food.) No doubt much of the free-range high pitched squealing you experience (in restaurants, bars or Holocaust memorial museums) is mostly due to a parent not wanting to deny themselves anything of their pre-parenting life. It would seem that some people skipped the “What to EXPECT when you’re expecting” chapter. Life should continue unaltered save for many more accessories. Continue reading
Let me start with the worst hotel experience I ever had. It was in Albuquerque, a word that if I never have to type it out again in my life I’ll be very happy.
It was part of a cheap chain, one we’d often stayed at before and done just fine. They’d all been clean, quiet, and had very comfortable beds. But this one! When we first entered the road, there was no air conditioning (it was nearly 90 outside), no remote, no fridge, microwave, iron, ironing board or coffee-maker, as there had been in the rest of the chain. Continue reading
Kashgar is an ancient oasis town on the western tip of China. The area is home to Uyghurs, a Turkic speaking, Muslim community. It is in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. The region is by no means autonomous and is quickly filling up with Han (China’s dominant ethnicity). Through a combination of modernization, repression, and flooding the area with Han immigrants, the Uyghur people and culture are slowly being snuffed out.
I am a huge Silk Road buff. And Kashgar is Silk Road Central. My plan is to visit the Sunday Bazaar– the largest in Central Asia– and to travel the Chinese section of the Karakoram Highway. The highway crosses the Pamir Mountains and connects Pakistan with China. Bin Laden’s hideout, in Abbottabad, is along the Karakoram. A few miles to the west of the highway are the borders with Tajikistan and Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor. Continue reading
If you’re into travel, then you’re probably into travel TV shows. Which hosts make the top 10? Here are my favorites:
10. Rick Steves. He’s got that awkward uncle vibe going, but his shows and books are chock-full of useful information about Europe and beyond. His support of NORML definitely gives him more street cred with the PBS crowd.
9. Karl Pilkington. An Idiot Abroad is brilliant. For the life of me, I can’t figure out if his dislike of travel is an act. Continue reading
We end my South American journey with a hike on a glacier. The Perito Moreno Glacier is huge. It’s 19 miles long and is the only glacier in South America that is not shrinking. Scientist can’t explain why. Continue reading
Yesterday, we visited penguins. Today, we go trout fishing! Marge (not my wife’s real name) booked a guide to take us out. When I found out the price for the day trip (equivalent to what I spent over eight days during my solo bus trip), I was pretty peeved, to say the least. While we waited for our guide to pick us up at the hotel, I sarcastically said– For that price, he better pick us up in a Land Rover Defender 110.
After traveling by bus by myself for two weeks, I am in the company of my wife again. I told her that for the rest of our South American trip, she can choose every and any destination and activity that she wishes. So on the first day together, we are going to see some penguins*! Continue reading
Another installment in our series on abandoned places in the world. Please note, the series has been permanently moved to Mondays. Continue reading
Preface: Lanai is a small island just a stone’s throw from Maui. It used to be the world’s largest pineapple plantation. The plantation was replaced by two ultra-swanky resorts when Dole realized that it was much cheaper to grow pineapples in Third World countries. Recently, Oracle’s Larry Ellison bought 98% of the island for half a billion dollars.
While on Maui about eight years ago, I decided to take the ferry to Lanai for a one-day jaunt. Tackling the Munro Trail in a 4×4 was my goal. Lonely Planet suggested an outfit that rented sturdy Land Rovers. A phone call quickly revealed that the company went kaput. Continue reading
