Travel

116 posts

The Best Thing about Each of the 50 States and DC

These are my fondest/most mind-searing travel memories from each state. What are some of yours?

Alabama: (It’s the only state where I can’t think of anything, good or bad. This list gets better, I promise.)

Alaska: Sharing a salmon jerky on a bus with a Vietnam vet from Fort Yukon. He comes to town twice a year for a medical check-up. He has a baseball cap with the Intel logo that reads “Jesus Inside”.

Arizona: Running back and forth across Hoover Dam to reach the Pacific and Mountain Time Zones.

Arkansas: Getting room service (club sandwiches) at a Hilton Garden Inn outside Little Rock. Continue reading →

The Road to Karakul Lake

We are heading south. A surprisingly well-paved, two lane road connects us from Kashgar all the way to our final destination. Ever since 9/11, China has made a point of making sure its borders with Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, all within a few hours’ drive from here, are secure. To that end, this road has been paved and regularly cleared of falling rocks. On the way to Karakul, I see about a half dozen army trucks filled to the brim with stone faced, young People’s Liberation Army soldiers.

A few minutes out of Kashgar, the landscape opens up. Near the horizon stands the Pamir range, my destination. The road is lined with pencil thin poplar trees on either side. Parallel to the southbound lane is a narrow canal used for irrigation. It runs for miles. Continue reading →

Your Child Is a Human Shaped Security Blanket

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 →

QOTD: Got a Hotel Story for Us?

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 Bazaar and the Karakoram Highway

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 →

Top 20 Abandoned Places

For the past eight months, the Five Abandoned Places series has showcased a total of 175 locations from around the world. Today’s “top 20” post will mark the last of the weekly series (which no doubt will take on a new form in the weeks ahead). Many thanks to the readers who have offered site suggestions or left comments. Continue reading →

My List of the Top 10 Travel TV Show Hosts

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 →