I’ve been in a few interesting spots this year: Atop the highest peak of Machu Picchu in Peru, diving with great white sharks off the coast of South Africa, having tea with the Archbishop of Kenya and even floating around in a hot air balloon over the ancient Egyptian ruins…
When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money. ~ Susan Heller It’s an interesting project to pack everything you think you’ll need for a year into a backpack. I did have some help though – a…
“To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history….” ~The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova Elizabeth Kostova’s novel “The Historian” was racing through my mind as we touched down on the tarmac in Istanbul. For those of you who haven’t read it, you’re missing out. A good portion of it follows the…
So yes, I can be pretty cheap when I need to be. Take for example my last night in Israel. As I mentioned before, I had a flight out of Tel Aviv, and didn’t really want to spend money on a bad hostel for one night. Especially when I have…
I ended up spending about a week in Jerusalem, primarily because my final pre-booked flight was scheduled for the 10th of June out of Tel Aviv. And, even though Tel Aviv is supposed to be higher-tech and more modern than its land-locked counterpart, I couldn’t find a cheap hostel there,…
Editor’s note – this entry is not for the faint of heart. In fact, it’s pretty gross. However, as a true journalist, I’m putting it all out there, for you, the reader. Just beware. Montezuma’s revenge. The bane of a traveler’s journey and something unavoidable if on the road for…
Now that my GAP adventure was over, I found I was pretty much on my own to get to Israel. Now, in every other part of the world (even Africa for Pete’s sake), it’s not all that hard to find a bus that would carry you from one capital city…
Ok, cue up the theme from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”. Raise your hand if you know what Petra is. And no, it’s not the old Christian rock band. Now, raise your hand if you remember the place where Indiana Jones and his dad found the Holy Grail. There…
After a night in the busy costal town of Aqaba, we made our way north to the desert of Wadi Rum. Now, if you were as confused by the name as I was, let me enlighten you – “Wadi” is apparently the Arabic word for “valley” – of which there…
The second half of our tour of Egypt took us to the lesser-known (at least to me) Sinai region of the country. This is the part of Egypt on the east side of the Suez Canal, which is technically in Asia (Yes! Another continent! Yeah, I know, it doesn’t really…