The one I want to wrap in my arms and bring home is Nebras. I didn't even know her name when I return to Iraq, shortly after the assault on Baghdad. I am armed only with a photo of a beggar touching her nose with her tongue. I had met her a few months before, when I'd traveled to Iraq with a women's delegation, just five weeks before the U.S. bombings and invasion. Unfazed by impending disaster, the little girl, old enough to be in … [Read more...]
Dancing with Elephants and Gods: Kandi, Sri Lanka
It's not everyday that you get to frolic with elephants and gods. Let me remind you that God supposedly sent Adam to Sri Lanka after his expulsion from heaven, as it was close to what he had left behind. After this visit, I have no reason to doubt this, as Sri Lanka truly is a paradise on earth and I was happy to get a taste of it. A pineapple and coconut shack we found while going to Kandy "Guess what! Change of plans! We are going to … [Read more...]
Wanderlust In Bohol Paradise
"Life without travel is dull." ~The Author Our racing machine sounds like a roaring thunder on the highest gear dashing through lengthy and paved highway that connects Tagbilaran and its neighboring towns, all in the province of Bohol, Philippine Islands. The 8:00am sun has finally put itself clear after days of frequent rains in the island. I still sense the morning dew leftovers as I ride in next to Lloyd, going to one of the world's … [Read more...]
Still Alive
I'm learning to read his jaw. Sometimes I lose the language in his translations, but his jaw telegraphs the unspeakable. But, tonight, I can't see it. We're facing each other, squaring off in the shadows over outdoor vanilla sundaes laced with crisp kiwis and strawberries, arguing about whether I should accompany him to pick up his food rations from the United Nations. The UN had suspended food giveaways, and he finally has an appointment … [Read more...]
Island Escape, Roxy Maldives Resort
A stay on a private island in the middle of the Maldives can make the rest of the world seem mundane, pedestrian in comparison. Such is the case of Roxy Maldives Resort (formerly Zitahli Resort & Spa Kuda-Funafaru) on its own private island in the heart of the Noonu Atoll, accessible via a 50 minute seaplane ride from Male (the capital city of the Maldives). The "welcome pier" at Roxy Maldives "Remote" Maldivian resorts such as these … [Read more...]
Luxury stays in Thailand
I had the happy occasion to be in Thailand in spring 2011, staying first in downtown Bangkok, then up in Chiang Mai, luxuriating in two hotels that were two of the most glorious and well appointed I'd ever enjoyed. In the thick of downtown Bangkok is Lebua at State Tower, a five-star, all-suite luxury hotel that towers over the rest and offers stunning views of the city and Praya River below. It is a massive place of glass and stone, and … [Read more...]
Thailand: One man’s virgin tour
Dried fish at a Bangkok street market I wake up at 5:30 a.m. on the 57th floor of the Lebua at State Tower, an upscale hotel in the thick of Bangkok, the Praya River snaking by below. I stand and listen, hearing a throaty growl seeming to gather steam in the distance and figure it has to be an airplane leaving the city from Suvarnabhumi Airport. But how can that be? For one thing, the airport is 19 miles away. For another, the sound doesn't … [Read more...]
Curse of the Sea Gypsy
Looking for Love on Lovina, Bali Well, er, the problem was, I thought I saw a real live mermaid. Get that? Loping on Bali's Lovina beach one day, I came across a troglodytic Indonesian man crouching over a campfire, cooking a stunted animal on a skewer. Was he eating a cat?! "Very nice bitch," the local sarong hawker spat in the sand. Lo and behold! I saw a bikinied blond, like the statuesque prow of a Viking vessel, … [Read more...]
A Trip To Samar
A soft breezy sunrise rouses me as my ship nears the coast and moors at the docks of Maguino-o, off the city of Calbayog Western Samar in the Central Philippines. Sheer weather of the early morning meets the island's pristine seawaters. And I feel like a sixteenth-century explorer reincarnated. "There you are," I whisper upon sighting the shores of Samar. Believing I could reach the location only through history books. One of the very … [Read more...]
Cebu Paradise, History So Affluent
A surge of Faithful Catholic devotees at the Basilica's prayer sanctuary. The Philippine Islands would never be in its present popularity had it not been for the stroke of luck which led to the discovery of Cebu by the great explorer Fernando Magallanes who first sighted Samar, Cebu's neighboring island, on March 16, 1521. Unlike many of its interesting destinations, this central part of the Philippines certainly does an important milestone … [Read more...]
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