I went to Istanbul. Here are some photos. [View Full Entry]

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These are some photos of Nottingham, England, where I am attending graduate school. [View Full Entry]

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The moment many of you have been waiting for has arrived and I have finally returned home. I will save any sappy reflections for the personal conversations I hope to soon have with many of you. This entry is just a quick overview of the last two weeks. Great Britain: I rented a car in Edinburgh and made a long overdue Braveheart pilgrimage on a three day drive through the Scottish Highlands. Along the way I made a point to find the ruins of a specific castle north of Wick where I believe my mother’s ancestors may have once resided. I [View Full Entry]

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During the summer months India’s Himalayan foothills offer some relief from the sweltering heat of the plains below. After I had endured the scorching heat of Rajasthan for a few weeks I made getting to cooler climates a priority. On my way north from Delhi I stopped to visit a few places in Punjab; namely, the Golden Temple in Amritsar and the Pakistan-India border crossing. The Golden Temple is the seat of the Sikh religion. Watching the masses of pilgrims perform their prayers throughout the temple complex was fascinating. Inside the Golden Temple itself, Sikh priests performe [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Kathmandu I visited Nepal's Royal Chitwan National Park. The highlight of Chitwan was riding through the jungle on an elephant. Things got exciting when Dumbo had a turf scuffle with some rhinos. My elephant even did some screaming with his trunk raised in the air to scare them off! Nepal passed without incident, though there were a lot of visible security measures in place, including numerous roadblocks and checkpoints. I eventually arrived in India riding on the roof of a comically overcrowded bus. Uttar Pradesh: My introduction to India occurred in the country&r [View Full Entry]

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Over the past month I have traveled from Hanoi to Kathmandu via southwestern China and Tibet. These regions are among the world’s more remote places, and naturally, there are many stories to tell about the journey. What I have provided here is just a brief overview. My route passed through three geographically and culturally distinct regions: China, Tibet and Nepal. China: Getting to Tibet entailed crossing the Yunnan province in southwestern China. I found traveling in China to be surprisingly easy. After having been hawked and gawked at in Indochina for several months, i [View Full Entry]

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I am not a coffee drinker. Vietnamese coffee is industrial strength and I drank one not long ago. If I seem aggressive, cynical and insensitive in this entry, I would attribute it to the coffee. I just saw my mom off for home. That woman rocks. She came all the way from the other side of the world to see her baby and she gave him all the TLC he's been missing for the last year: 4 star hotels, banana splits, beach resorts and good back scratches. She even sowed my favorite shirt when it ripped! What a girl. Without a [View Full Entry]

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I have come to believe that the collective national pastime for aging women in Laos is to aimlessly wander along mountain roads with large bundles of firewood strapped to their backs. These women roam everywhere with scarves on their heads and weathered faces, occasionally giving me a grin as I pass by. When I was on the move, whatever forms of transport I happened to be on weaved from side to side on the narrow mountain roads to dodge these women, in addition to the herds of boney cattle and water buffalo that were often being prodded along the road by [View Full Entry]

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One can only pray that Cambodia’s darkest hour has come to pass and that the hope adorning the faces of a new generation is indicative of the country’s trajectory as a whole. My impressions of this place are contradictory. Cambodia is tragic, haunting and eerie; so much so that I had nightmares when I first arrived here. Yet I find the simplicity and hope that defines many of the Khmer people beautiful and touching. The lingering tragedy is everywhere. In the streets I have been swarmed and pawed at by beggars with missing limbs taken by war and mines, many of [View Full Entry]

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Occasionally we have experiences that permanently alter our frame of reference in regards to how we view our own position in the world. I recently visited some refugees along the Thai/Burma border and the experience had just that effect. Thailand’s western border regions bear witness to the human tragedy that is currently taking place inside Burma. I arrived at the refugee settlement on the back of a dirt bike, and I immediately took notice of the strong military presence and signs that warned newcomers about the presence of landmines in the area. The Thai Army keeps troops along t [View Full Entry]

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