Touchdown to Athens, Greece. Named after Athena, daughter of Zeus, Goddess of wisdom, the birth place of democracy, the staging arena of western philosophy, the epicenter of art and culture which has been replicated time and time again, stands as one of the oldest cities in the world dating back to 5000 BC. There are excavation sights throughout the city, some gated off and others open to the public. One was recently discovered in central Athens by the public transit system as they were digging a vent for their subway line. Whoops! Now it's just another sight amongst the hundreds you [View Full Entry]

---

---

ISTANBUL - The only city in the world which spans two continents where east (Asia) meets west (Europe) and a narrow watery boundary marks the division. İts hıstory spans thousands of years conjuring up hıstorıcal terms such as Constantınople, the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, Sultans, the Crusades, harems, and more. A place now of Islamic faith where the daily singing prayers echo through the streets from mosques which were once churches ın a Christian socıety. I was on a tight time-line of 10 days to see the endless sites of Turkey. But within two and a half hours of stepping off [View Full Entry]

---

---

After being told "impossible" by two tour agents, five visits to the Russian Embassy, prebookıng my accomadatıon in Moscow, as well as prebooking my Trans-Siberian train ticket, changing my out going flight from Moscow by a mere 24 hours, obtaining two different invitations into Russia, completing the paperwork twice since the online forms were invalid, and paying the 131 dollar processing fee... in US bills printed in 97' or newer only... I was able to procure a 6-day transit visa the day before I had to leave Mongolia for the 101 hour, 6300km journey across the Iron Curtain. A most relaxing [View Full Entry]

---

---

Just before leaving Mongolia İ was invited to attend a horse branding... ceremony? I was told by my 29 year old Mongolian mother, Haliuna, that their neighbors out in the countryside would be branding a "baby" horse and that if I wanted to join them İ should bring a bottle of vodka as a gift. My imagination foresaw a few guys holding a horse with cigarettes dangling from their lips while another sizzled his mark into the hide of his expanding property and we would all toast to... İ don't know, Genghis Khan? But what I experienced was a symbolic rite [View Full Entry]

---

---

I once heard someone say, "There are no strangers, only friends we have yet to meet." (Hey Chris) Nowhere has that been made more true than here in Mongolia. Let's see... up until this point, I've backpacked through Europe, sailed across the South Pacific, volunteered on varied farms in Oceania, taught English and trekked to EBC in Nepal, experienced Thailand's wet and wild new year... what special experience would Mongolia have install for me... hmmmm... It's got to be something different. Oh! I know... how about a hernia repair. Surgery in a foreign land was the last thing on my list [View Full Entry]

---

---

Two days prior to departing Nepal I was bestowed an unwanted memento, 'Delhi Belly', aka Montezuma's Revenge or Traveler's Diarrhea - there's an oxymoron for you. To think I survived seven weeks in Nepal without any real GI issues but as I was packing to leave... blammo! A slave to the proximity of a reliable toilet. This is not conducive when you're flight gets canceled unbeknownst to you and you spend three days in transit battling one befuddled snafu after another as the airlines scramble to get you to your next final destination. It was an exhausting 72 hrs of waiting [View Full Entry]

---

---

Kathmandu, Nepal: It's shockingly underdeveloped i.e. unpaved roads, mandatory sporadic daily blackouts, extreme poverty (mostly children on the streets), road kill being cooked on the side of the road, aggressive monkeys, wild dogs, civil unrest (it seems to follow me wherever I go), hygienic uncertainty, plumes of dust, cows grazing in the streets, a lacking infrastructure... all this within the capital city limits of Kathmandu! Upon my arrival, there were children running around the tarmac and the recently parked wheels of the 747 I was stepping off of. The airport building wasn't much bigger than my grade school cafeteria. 'This was [View Full Entry]

---

---

This was a place of great tranquility. After experiencing the rustic lifestyle of Goljung this place was a palace of comfort where I taught English to kids from the ages of 5 to 20. The Monastery is run on donations from around the world supporting kids who come as orphans, from poverty, and from far off remote regions. Here they're giving food, shelter, clothing, an education, medical coverage and with that, they are given hope and a chance for something better, something different. The genuine courtesy, selfless generosity, and honest kindness of both the children and the teachers was a soulful [View Full Entry]

---

---

I was fortunate to find an affordable volunteer program in Nepal which I participated in for one month as an English teacher. I say "affordable" because in today's 'Brave New World' it's all business, and most programs' weekly prices are equivalent to an all-inclusive week vacation in the Caribbean. So much for "volunteering" in the traditional sense of the word. Even though they had medical assignments, I decided to play teacher. Since I never did it before, it sounded like an interesting challenge. So, for four weeks I divided my time between a rural farming village lost to the recesses of [View Full Entry]

---

---

"It's the Himalayas!" Himalaya, Sanskrit for 'house of snow', where the Sherpa people live on the edge of the inhabitable along the 'Roof of the World'. Referred to as 'tigers of the snow', they are the unsung heroes behind every summit attempt of the world's tallest. After the climbing season, they return to their villages, families, farms, and herds. It wasn't unusual to discover, while talking to a lodge owner or a yak herder, only if asked mind you, that they have, indeed, been to the summit of Everest. Typically, the answer came with that far-off gaze of distinct remembrance followed [View Full Entry]

---

---