Los Angeles, CA - Weather "LA's fine, the Sunshine's most 'the time, And the feeling is laid back - palm trees grow, rents are low...." croons Neil Diamond in his hit song "I am I Said". Well the part about the weather is certainly true - not that sure about rents in today's market! Los Angeles has great weather most of the year. A word of caution however regarding that last statement. Sometimes the LA area, and most specifically the areas … [Read more...]
Los Angeles, CA – Beverly Hills
Los Angeles, CA - Beverly Hills is a wealthy community much loved by locals and visitors. Drive around some of the local neighborhoods and into Bel Air. Whoooee. Fancy. You can see the homes in the flats, and each one has a clearly showing security sign on a stake driven into the ground somewhere in their front yard. Drive up into the hills and you are lucky if you can even see the homes - as often they are gated or protected in front by large … [Read more...]
Los Angeles, CA – Thai Town
Los Angeles, CA - Thai Town is the center for the Thai Community in Los Angeles. The Thai population in Los Angeles is the largest community of Thai people outside of the Thailand. This region backs up against and in some cases blends in with "Little Armenia". Many Thai restaurants and shops are scattered along about a 1.5 mile stretch of Hollywood Blvd, just east of the 101. To get to Thai town take the 101 to the Hollywood Blvd exit and exit … [Read more...]
Los Angeles, CA – Cardrooms Casinos
Cardrooms/Casinos - There are no Indian Reservations within the city limits of Los Angeles so technically there are no casinos within Los Angeles. Rather these businesses are cardrooms, but each cardroom cleverly has decided to incorporate the word casino in their names (which is misleading to the casual gambler). These cardrooms do not have slot machines, rather their focus is on card games including but not limited to blackjack, poker and … [Read more...]
Palms Thai Restaurant, Hollywood, CA – March 2006
Palms Restaurant Hollywood CA - The Palms Thai Restaurant without a doubt is one of the top Thai restaurants in the entire state of California. This is a bold statement, but I feel qualified to say this after having eaten at at least a hundred Thai restaurants in Thailand, many Thai restaurants in other countries around the world, and over 50 Thai restaurants in the state of California alone. The food here for both lunch and dinner is very … [Read more...]
Alaska & Canada Bicycle Trip Part II
Portland, Oregon - September 02, 2001 Victoria and the lower Forty Eight The planned few days off in Victoria turned into two weeks, thanks to the relentless hospitality of my friends Gil and Lynne Blair, both of whom I met on a cycling trip two years ago in Washington State. I am greatly indebted to them for providing me with thousands of calories, electric light, this thing that spews hot water (they call it a 'shower'), and teaching me … [Read more...]
Swiftboating the Mekong River
Pnomh Penh, Cambodia Dec. 19, 2004 After a hot and sweaty bus ride south from Saigon, I thought we reached the South China Sea when we first came across this open body of water. Then the driver filled us in that this was the Mekong River, still sixty kilometers inland from the sea. It is a truly massive river, a good deal wider than the Mississippi River down by New Orleans. From its headwaters in Tibet it has traveled about 4300 kilometers … [Read more...]
Windhoek, Namibia
The last time I signed off, my brother Abdul and I had just arrived in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia by bus from South Africa. We decided to pony up some extra money and take a Greyhound type coach and survive the trip, as opposed to paying next to nothing on one of the ubiquitous minibuses but putting our lives into the hands of a crazed driver hell bent to make it to his destination in the shortest time possible. Our guidebook called … [Read more...]
La Gomera
La Gomera: Island of whistling wind and whistling people. La Gomera, the second smallest of the Canarian Islands, is an island rich in culture, food and history. Some travelers believe that the nearly perfect round shape of the island helps to concentrate a lot of positive energy in this place. Whether this is true or just a cross between Chinese "Feng-Shui" and "New Age Beliefs" doesn't really matter. What really matters though, is that La … [Read more...]
Devils Do Good
This story takes place in Cuzco, Peru where the author attended a shamanic ceremony that involved taking San Pedro, a cactus used in certain Peruvian religious rituals and known for its ability to open areasof the mind that are normally unreachable. The article describes the author's hallucinogenic experiences during his initiation, and shares the mystical philosophies of the shaman and medicine women who introduced him to San Pedro. They … [Read more...]