Recently we had the opportunity to sit down with Tony Wheeler, the founder of Lonely Planet, in San Francisco. He was on a whirlwind tour in the United States promoting his new book, Bad Lands: A Tourist on the Axis of Evil. We spent about an hour in the interview. Immediately following his book promotion tour he was off to attempt a climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa 5,895 meters (19,340 feet). We asked him a series of questions - this is … [Read more...]
Kite Runner
Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini This is a gripping read starting with a boy's (Amir) childhood life in Afghanistan before war tore apart this country. This is fiction but it reads like real life and is interwoven with real life events and places. Eventually the principal character Amir moves to the USA with his father (baba, meaning father). Where else can you find Afghan culture, love and the Berryessa Flea Market in San Jose, California … [Read more...]
Too Much Sunlight
Asif, the mid-thirties grizzly of a man, was driving our office's green Land Rover rapidly down the sun-baked and vehicle-beaten dirt road. I, the sole foreigner on our trip, assumed the seat of honor (and obligation), shotgun, while my trusted friend and colleague, Torialai sat behind me. Beside him sat Ustad Raqem, the principal of the elementary school which we were journeying to visit. It was July and each of us therefore had shed our … [Read more...]
The Places in Between
The Places in Between by Rory Stewart An amazing modern day tale of one man's journey walking across Afghanistan in the middle of the winter, mostly with just his dog. Takes place right after the "fall" of the Taliban and is a unique insight into the Afghan culture. Throw in freezing temperatures, heavy snow, and some hostile villagers and you have an epic tale. Rory stayed with local villagers during this entire hike - his "guides" … [Read more...]
An Unexpected Light
An Unexpected Light by Jason Elliot One mans descriptions and stories about his two journeys through war torn Afghanistan. His first journey was in 1979 and then later in 1989. This is excellent travel writing - part travelogue, historical and personal story that highlights the dangers as well as the joys of traveling in Afghanistan during this war torn period. … [Read more...]
Bad Lands
Bad Lands by Tony Wheeler Join Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler as he explores some of the "badlands" in the world. He visited the following nine countries because of their human-rights abuses: Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia. … [Read more...]
Notes from Dave’s India Journal
Here in India, where there is land there are people. Where there are people there is trash. Where there is trash there are cows. Where there are cows there is cow shit. Where there is cow shit there are people collecting the shit and making cow pies. Such is the state of the outskirts of Agra. We drove through fields where we saw many cow pies drying in the sun today on our way to an old Mughal city of Fatehpur Sikri 40 clicks from Agra. … [Read more...]
Trains and More Chaos
Chaos reigns at the New Delhi airport - pre paid taxis are a joke. Many people in old dirty clothes hanging around. The fog here was TERRIBLE last night. Its the norm in the winter during the nights with merely 5 to 7 feet visibility. We landed around 9pm and arrived at our hotel around midnight just to catch the New Year's festivities. Drive from airport normally takes 25 minutes! Hahaha yea. Driver kept stopping every few seconds while getting … [Read more...]
Iran; the most misunderstood country of the world!
Over the years when talking to a foreign tourist who has come to my motherland for the very first time I've gotten used to hearing expressions such as "wow! I see you have restaurants in Iran!", or "Believe me Iran was not what I'd thought", "I never thought you had such a beautiful country" and so on. For the global public opinions and the mass majority who do not have any particular way of knowing a distant land rather than relying on the … [Read more...]
The Fire Temples of Darius
Just down the street from where the Ayatollah Khomeini's simple house stands in a leafy northern suburb of Tehran, someone had scrawled the following on a wall: 'America: there is not a damn thing you can do!' It was spray painted in English. Elsewhere, I spotted large murals depicting skulls on the American flag with the words "Down with the USA!" across it. Also in English. None of this came as a shock to me; in fact I expected to see such … [Read more...]