Greetings from Cappadocia! We are rapidly adapting to the troglodyte lifestyle of the modern cave dweller! Cappadocia was a perfect hideaway for the early persecuted Christians because they fled here to hide away in caves and they built their churches in caves as well. It almost appears that every family had its own church, sort of like a second living room to their cave dwelling. These early churches comfortably fit only about 10 people in very damp and dark conditions. Many of these Churches also developed during the Byzantine empire […]

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My curiosity to try wearing the most conservative Muslim, black Burqa drapery in California overcame my dread that I would be found out by a Muslim who might eagerly approach me as any of us might do when we find “our kind” in a foreign land.  I was fearful of offending, or appearing to make light of a serious cultural tradition. It took an immense amount of courage to overcome my trepidation. But at last I decided to just go for it. Logically speaking no one would even know who […]

The post From the Outside In: My Reflections as a Non-Muslim Wearing the Burqa in Silicon Valley appeared first on Dave's Travel Corner.

I felt like I was caught up in a wild storm these past 2.5 weeks, in the middle of a flurry of constant adventure, sensory stimulus, and physical exertion. One constant though, was my experience of contrasts – contrasts between 1st class seating on flights (the benefit of standby travel with an airlines employee) and $2/night lodging; the incongruity between awe inspiring mountains and “checklist travelers” apparently unmoved by the quiet beauty, taking hundreds of photos to capture the “best” but quite likely seeing very little; contrasts between the reality […]

The post You are a donkey. I am a monkey. Sometimes we go up, and sometimes we go down. Trekking to Annapurna Base Camp. appeared first on Dave's Travel Corner.

I just returned from watching the sun set on the sandstone cathedral in Arequipa’s Plaza de Armas. I sat on the bench with ice cream cone in hand watching the trabajadores on their 3rd day of a hunger strike. Some hung on large crosses with steps to hold their weight and others lay on the ground in sleeping bags. This visual is a good entry point into the realities of South America. After so many trips to lesser developed countries I find myself becoming inured to the poverty. I pass […]

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I’ve been asked by several people why I’m spending all my time in the Andes and not seeing the rest of this diverse country. In my email below I provide my answer. I warn you that it’s long, so if you are too busy or not interested, please delete now! I just returned from an incredible adventure in the mountains, and I’m at a loss for words… Whenever I visit spectacular scenery I always fail to find words to express the fullness of what I feel. When I began this […]

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Greetings from Buenos Aires! Salutaciones de Nuestra Senora de Santa Maria del Buen Aire! Its a cold but bright sunshine filled day in Buenos Aires. Just finished sipping a cappucino at a classic cafe in La Recoleta where the elderly men still dress in suits and older women wear fur coats for their afternoon java jolt. Prior to coffee we were communing with the dead in the Recoleta cemetery. Our taxi driver had difficulty understanding why we would fly clear to Argentina to go visit their cemetery. On any of […]

The post La vida Argentina: Passion. Protests. Mate. Puppy Eyed Stares. appeared first on Dave's Travel Corner.

July 7 – Subject: Greetings from quiet Norway! Shh… the first words we heard on the train from the airport to the city center were “please respect the quiet zone.” And its been incredibly quiet ever since! A well known Norwegian painter once wrote that the beauty of the mountains moves him into silence. If that’s the case then perhaps people will stop talking altogether once we drive into the mountains. I always like to be keenly aware of cultural contrasts in my first few days in any new place, […]

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July 16, 2004 Gutten tag! Hello friends! Greetings from the Viennese Internet cafe! I just returned from paying my respects to some of the great classical composers of our time! Some people make pilgrimages to Rome or Mecca, but I pay homage to people like Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, and Strauss. Standing before all of them lined in a circle around me felt like a religious experience. I only wish I had the power to bring them all back to life before me. I stood in the cemetery in silence, no […]

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Day 1 Greetings all from the heart of Laos! I’m writing from Vang Vieng, sort of a Gimmelwald of Laos… in other words the Laotian version of the Swiss Alps. I walk out of my hotel room onto a balcony that faces the most ethereal, exotic scene! Mountains in the shape of fingers and hands and what not jet up towards the sky, covered by foliage, and below lie palm trees, the village, and the river. Laos is the 10th poorest country in the world. Until recently they had one […]

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Sawasdee kha friends! Part I I find myself writing this email several hours after my brother’s village Thai wedding, while sitting in the comfortably air-conditioned “business center” of our hotel. It’s not often on my travels that I am left without words to describe my experiences, but for once I feel that this email can never fully articulate the feel of the last 24 hours. When we left Bangkok yesterday I was eager to return to the village in rural Thailand that I last visited 2 years ago. In addition […]

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December 7, 2002 Greetings all from Bangkok, Thailand!!! Bangkok leaves me speechless because it is so utterly different and fascinating. I have no words to describe it, but I’ll do my best. The 30-hour trip began by wandering the solitary back roads of Oregon and ended in the heart of crowded, congested, and polluted Bangkok. We were met by Syy and Jim in the airport and whisked away to our “hotel.” Outside of this hotel were the slums of the city… shacks built on sticks above a soggy marsh. Further […]

The post Welcome to Thailand: Where taxis, tuk-tuks, boats, elephants, sky train, motorbikes, and mini-buses merge for your convenient transportation. appeared first on Dave's Travel Corner.