Japanese cuisine has a rich and storied history based as much upon the unique culture of the region and nation as it is upon its native foods. For any traveller looking to experience the heart and soul of Japan, the mouth and stomach are an ideal place to start, especially in the city of Kyoto. If you’re looking to travel to and book accommodations in Kyoto, do so with each of your meals in mind, as the foods, dishes and styles of eating in … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2014
Cock-a-Doodle-Don’t, Cockfighting in the Philippines
John M. Edwards attends a horrific “cockfight” on Bantayan Island in the Philippines, only to end up wondering what exactly were the ingredients in the national dish of adobo. . . . The roosters swaggered around like Mick and Keith, with dangerously sharp spurs attached to their legs. While the apocalyptic poultry sussed each other out with malice, the excitement began to build. My two new Norwegian backpacker friends snapped photos with … [Read more...]
Arriving on a little piece of Paradise, Ko Yao Noi Island
A power boat in southern Thailand greeted us as we arrived by taxi from the Phuket Airport. The blue waters beckoned and invited us along for the journey. Boats in this part of the country are great melting pots. Europeans, Americans (north and south) and plenty of folks from all parts of Asia were coming to Ko Yao Noi for a variety of reasons - to get away budget style, to park it at one of the small luxury properties, for honeymoon or ferrying … [Read more...]
My Journey to the massive Kata Tjuta stones in Australia
Here is my personal journey, which started in Sydney and ended up in me finding the most peaceful yet mind-blowing place on Earth - the Kata Tjuta stones in the Northern Territory. Ticking things off When you go to any country in the world for the first time there are certain places you need to tick off your to-do list. In Australia those places are the Gold Coast in Queensland and of course, Sydney. The Opera House, Bondi Beach, the … [Read more...]
The Olympics of Travel, 2014s Competitve Travel Adventure
Travelers are a competitive bunch, from "How many countries have you been to?" and "We've been there, did you do...?", to watching TV's The Amazing Race and saying, "I could do that!" A 2014 travel adventure competition is set to finally allow travelers to test their travel savvy and compete with other great travelers mano-a-mano for "The World's Greatest Traveler™" trophy and a free trip around the world. One former participant calls it … [Read more...]
Finding a man crush on St. Thomas
It's not often I get a man crush, something usually reserved for sports figures. But Omar and Romulo, two burly boys weighing a combined 1,000 pounds, had me at the first kiss. Omar and Romulo, along with Remo and Franco, are four massive sea lions that you can get up close and personal with – including getting bussed on the cheeks – at Coral World Ocean Park in St. Thomas, where you can also swim with sharks and sea turtles, do snuba diving … [Read more...]
Brr-cold in Barbes-Rochechouart: Christmas in France
In Paris’s Muslim quarter, Barbés Rochechouart, John M. Edwards finds ho-hum Christmas cheer, but no champagne or beer. . . . Back when I lived in Paris, one of the most comically incongruous things I saw as a temporary expat was a pathetic Pere Noel with a guelle de bois (“face of wood” = hangover) peeing in the snow, with an excessively painful grin, on the legendary Boulevard St. Germain (namedropped ad infinitum in Hemingway’s elegy to the … [Read more...]
Peter Greenberg, The Travel Detective
Peter Greenberg is one of America's foremost travel correspondents and travel experts. It is admirable what he has accomplished and done for consumers (as well as his valuable contributions within the travel industry) during the past few decades. With someone who logs 400,000 airline miles a year, he maintains a rigorous schedule that would leave most people gasping for air! He has taken time out of this busy schedule to answer a few … [Read more...]
River Gods: Confessions of a Grand Canyon Guide
It all began, for me, at a meeting of the Canoe Cruisers Association, the Washington, D.C. chapter. In the midst of the button-down capital there is an underground of cutoffs and t-shirts that each weekend assembles by the banks of some Shenandoah or Appalachia river to rake the whitewater with paddles. A recent high school graduate searching for life’s passion, I joined up at the urging of my old Scout leader, and was immediately hooked. My … [Read more...]
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Imagine writing a book when your body is entirely paralyzed except for your left eye lid - the other eye being stitched shut. Author Bauby wrote this entire book by blinking - using a special alphabet that was devised for him - he chose each letter, one at a time slowly forming words, then sentences. Rendered almost entirely rigid by a stroke at age 43 in 1995, he left a world of fashion (he was editor of the French Elle) and entered a … [Read more...]