John M. Edwards plans to tour the cave where St. John wrote the Bible’s “Book of Revelations” on an idyllic Greek island called Patmos. . . . On the little-known island of “Arki” near Patmos, Greece, four travelers stared at the boat docking under a cliff-shrouded curl of surf and sand resembling a sneer. “Smugglers!” my new friend Leo, an Argentine of Italian descent and owner of a “finca” in Welsh Patagonia, exclaimed. All of us … [Read more...]
About John Edwards
John M. Edwards is an award-winning photojournalist who has visited more countries than he has written about. He has written for CNN Traveler, Missouri Review, Endless Vacation, Entertainment Weekly, International Living, Adventure Journey, Xtreme Travel Stories, Salon.com, Grand Tour, Islands, Coffee Journal, Mabuhay, Danse Macabre, Verge, Glimpse, Hack Writers, BootsnAll, The Expeditioner, ForeWord, Borderlines, Go Nomad, North Dakota Quarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, and North American Review. He recently won 4 NATJA Awars (a record for one person in one year) He is now editor-in-chief of the upcoming annual Rotten Vacations. He turned down a job as lead bassist for STP (The Stone Temple Pilots) way back when before they were big. Plus, he helped write "PLUSH," voted The Best Song of the 20th Century by Rolling Stone Magazine.
The Maltese Beercan
John M. Edwards takes a ferry boat, complete with a small steamer trunk and a traveler’s liquid pride “In Sicily, it’s fine, you can change money everywhere,” the lanky traveler lectured, popping the tab on his beercan, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. A white floppy sunhat, popularized by British sunbathers in Brighton, shaded his head from the fierce Mediterranean sun, though we were hidden in the subterranean hold of a ship … [Read more...]
Lourdes on 25 Prayers a Day
The Lowdown on Tacky Souvenirs and Christian Kitsch - Hautes-Pyrenees France I think it was Goethe who said that the imagination was man’s “deadliest enemy,” but how could that be so when all of us have dreamed up so many fabulous places to visit, celebrity people to admire, and unique pleasures to seek out. Even so, nightmares notwithstanding, we are all vaguely astonished when legend becomes reality and we actually arrive in a place we … [Read more...]
Please Pass the Pommes Frites: My Dinner with Martin Amis’s Son
Ex-expat John M. Edwards is invited as a “standby” to a sumptuous Parisian dinner party near Passy, where perforce playing the devil’s advocate comes with no pricetag at all. . . . “Hello John, how would you like to come to a dinner party tonight,” queried fair friend and picnic partner Julie, a fellow Servas member. A world peace organization affiliated with the United Nations, “Servas,” we joked with devil-may-care abandon, should … [Read more...]
Later “Louise”!: Hurricane Season in Tortola, BVI
John M. Edwards hunkers down in the hallway of his Caribbean concrete-block hotel to sit out a hurricane tempest more powerful than Peter Potamous’s “Hippo Hurricane Howler”! “BEE-HEE-HEE-HAW-HAW!” I impressively bellowed like Peter Potamous, the cartoon hippo on the Hana-Barbera animated series “Peter Potamous and So-So” (1964). I had every right to howl, now that almost all of the tourists on Tortola--in the British Virgin Islands (or … [Read more...]
Full Moon Party on Ko Samet, Thailand
John M. Edwards survives a psychedelic breakdown--and hubris--on a backpacker’s hub off the coast of Thailand. . . . In Thailand, it is not necessary to have an actual full moon shining down on you in order to throw together a “Full Moon Party”—just loads and loads of magic mushrooms. The decidedly pagan, almost “Glastonberry,” Halloweeny atmosphere of the event, featuring a wild bunch of fragrant hippies—proud of their piercings, … [Read more...]
T Up: Thank God for the Oil Companies!
JOHN M. EDWARDS, part owner of a privately held oil and natural gas concern based in Houston and New Orleans, gushes on about one of nature’s most valuable resources: petroleum! You can’t get to a rainforest without any transport to get you there. Luckily most major oil companies like Chevron and Shell have absolutely no interest in damaging the primary rainforests of the Amazon and Congo, although there is always some drilling on the edges … [Read more...]
Turkey Day in Turkiye
John M. Edwards, a Mayflower descendant, becomes a pilgrim in Turkey Originally I was going to write about haggling with friendly, but aggressive, Turkish merchants over carpets and kilims, amidst endless rounds of little glasses of thé du menthe–until I realized everyone else had already exhausted this topic. The gist: you end up getting ripped off, but you like the carpet anyway. Then I thought I’d write about the wonders of Instanbul, … [Read more...]
A Trace of Thrace: Balkan Adventure
In Plovdiv, Bulgaria, John M. Edwards snitches on the mystery-shrouded Balkans’ best-kept secret: an ancient (and enduring) heresy I was on the way slow train from Budapest through the Balkans, on my way to Bulgaria, chainsmoking and guzzling Egri Bikavier (Bull’s Blood) wine, when the train came to a juddering halt and was boarded by heavily armed Serbian soldiers. A Serb with an impressive handlebar moustache and an assault rifle demanded … [Read more...]
Gotham
John M. Edwards, alias ”Tom James, Zagat Reviewer,” wonders if a bon vivant who can’t cook but can criticize, could possibly win a James Beard prize for “gourmandism.” “I’m sorry but we are fully committed!” The dumbed-down dame maitr’d, a dead ringer for “Jewel,” flashed an ultra ambiguous vampyr smile. Inside, it did indeed slightly resemble a lunatic asylum. Horsey-faced tourists yammered loudly, throwing back their heads with … [Read more...]
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