The drive from Chinggis southwest to Sainshand was surprisingly easy. I had the wide open steppe with the usual animal herds in the first half. The second half of the trip was paved all the way. I did hit a pretty nasty thunder storm on the way, but I was happy about it since it cleaned a lot of the dust off the LandCruiser. I can actually see out the front window again, still not the back window, however. I…
I think I’m pretty well known for refusing to work on my birthday, but this year I took it a step further and took the whole week off to visit Yucatan, Mexico. Yucatan is a pretty small state and I know I can accomplish a lot on what is definitely the shortest international trip I’ve ever taken. I based myself in the Yucatan capitol of Mérida, dubbed the safest city in Mexico. Let’s hope so. Here’s a funny speculative story…
Greetings and salutations from planet earth’s newest country, Kosovo. As it turned out, my stress about this border crossing was unwarranted. Back in Nis, I turned in my rental car at noon and then was looking forward to finding a place to keep cool in the 100 degree temps because my bus didn’t leave until 6pm. But, the owner of the hotel I stayed at said he didn’t have any reservations for that night and I could use the room…
2020 pretty much sucked for everybody on Earth and my year certainly wasn’t without some hardship and heartbreak either. After spending the spring and early summer basically doing nothing due to being unable to find work anywhere, I finally got a gig in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. I was keen to start exploring again and having never been to that part of the country before, I was pretty happy about it. Wilkes-Barre is not a super exciting town, but turned out to…
Up with the sun, I left Wadi Musa in a car with a nice Czech couple to Wadi Rum about an hour and a half away. When people talk about the Arabian desert, this is usually the place they’re talking about. It’s arid, sandy, and hot, the Bedouin people have been living and thriving here for thousands of years, this was the home and stomping grounds of TE Lawrence of Arabia during the Arab revolts in the early 20th century,…
After an easy ride from Feynan, provided by my hotel, I landed in the town of Wadi Musa, a town that apparently was largely built up only due to it’s proximity to Petra. Lots of hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops, tour buses, selfie sticks, you get the idea. My head was still pounding from my hikes in Dana and Feynan so I pretty much went straight to bed and slept all day and through the night after taking some “Jordanian herbs”…
I first arrive in Paro, Bhutan, on the only airline allowed to fly into the country, Drukair, into what is not only the only airport in the country, but also considered one of the most dangerous airports in the entire world. The approach involves an almost 90º turn during the descent between the mountains as well as several turns through the narrow valley to the runway. Experiencing it wasn’t nearly as frightening as it sounds, but I imagine it can…
Every trip seems to have one section that doesn’t quite go according to plan, and I think this section is it. After my Simien Mountains tour I was supposed to go straight to Aksum, but was told instead that I would have to spend the night in Debark and go to Aksum in the morning. Morning came and my ride didn’t show up. I then spent the whole morning trying to arrange a ride in a town with no local…
Continuing on my way north through Ethiopia, I made a long day trip into the Simien Mountains. Doing a three day trek is an option, but due to time constraints, I settled for the day trip and it turned out to be just right. Any excursion into the Simiens has to start in the little town of Debark, where the park headquarters are located and where you sign in and get an armed ranger. Why we need an armed ranger…
I woke up early one last time in Dar es Salaam and made my way through the busy city center, this time to the ferry port and boarded the very nice Kilimanjaro 3 bound for the island of Zanzibar. The Indian Ocean water around these parts, by the way, is just the most crystal clear blue you can imagine. You can almost see all the way to the bottom. After a two hour ride I reach the port of Stone…