Curiosity, Travel and Change
I am still finding it hard to believe that the state that is home to the grotesque vulgarity of Mar-A-Lago and the rapacious artificiality of Orlando still has Cedar Key, a place that is tranquil, unchanged, and vulnerable. I came in search of the "old Florida" and a place to quietly recharge after a cold …
I recognized Bun immediately at the Siem Reap Airport—his eyes creased and mouth wide in his perpetual smile, the red Cambodian woven scarf around his neck, his face beaming with energy. at Ta Prohm temple I had seen Bun only on his YouTube videos: Bun handing out food after the monsoon floods, Bun tending to …
Continue reading "A Homestay in Siem Reap and Lessons in Buddhism"
May and me, Day 1. I awoke this morning to a thick grey mist covering the abundantly green valley below me. A thunderstorm had roared through last night, leaving everything glistening in the muted sunshine. Morning view from the homestay after a heavy rain I was in the village of Tà Phin, about seven miles …
Trying to understand a huge, messy, sprawling city like Bangkok as a tourist is like being the proverbial blind man with the elephant- you might figure out an ear or the trunk, but you’ll never get the whole thing. And a elephant seems an apt metaphor— for elephant imagery is everywhere. This is about one …
Fes is confounding, challenging, fascinating and should be on your next itinerary to Morocco. Fes, at least the Medina (Old City) which is the main attraction, is a place where the balance between modernity and tradition seems to tip heavily toward the past, where the labyrinthine and narrow alleyways disorient the unfamiliar tourist, and the …
The Anti-Atlas mountains stretch across southern Morocco, the last mountain range before the Sahara Desert. It’s a stark landscape of imposing ochre granite mountains scoured by wind and sand, rocky soils scattered with argan trees and terraced slopes that once held fields of barley. It is the land of the Amazigh people, better known to …
In December of 2024, I was in a classroom in Oaxaca de Juarez with eight other immigration advocates from the United States. This was my third visit to Oaxaca, but unlike the prior two. I came as a student of MANOS: Migrantes Apoyados, No Olvidados (Migrants Supported, Not Forgotten), a Oaxacan nonprofit that supports migrants …
On a breezy and sunny afternoon last May, I found myself peering through my telephoto lens at an abandoned Soviet military installation on the other side of the Arpaçay River. The installation was in Armenia, a literal stone’s throw across the river, but as impenetrable from Turkiye as a moon landing. Earlier that day, our …
Baklava and tea in Taksim Square Our Istanbul food tour guide, Kadir, leaned over the plate of baklava and commanded our attention. “There is a proper way to eat baklava, watch”, and he speared the sweet sticky square with his fork about a third of the way in and turned it over so the nutty …
Continue reading "Contemplating Baklava: Eating my way through Türkiye"
Hay dos Méxicos; there are two Mexicos, said our driver, Francisco, as we passed through the interminable sprawl of Mexico City on our way to San Miguel de Allende. We were passing through a stretch of sometimes makeshift auto body shops, with hand-lettered signs and beat-up cars, trying to ascertain some of the products being …
Continue reading "Two Mexicos: My Trip to San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato"
Old and On the Way 