We flew from San Francisco to Kathmandu and spent a couple of days there to acclimate before we flew to Pokhara to experience a life changing experience, parahawking. Pokhara is a destination for paragliders and there are many companies that offer a paragliding experience. Scott Mason, a British national offers a unique experience, paragliding with a trained bird of prey. Scott, an avid paraglider, started Blue Sky Paragliding in part … [Read more...]
Learning to Breathe
Long time Photojournalist Alison Wright has traveled to the far corners of the planet photographing endangered cultures and people. Her work has been dangerous at times - including covering demonstrations that became violent in Nepal. And she has certainly been involved in a number of mishaps in her career. But this story is not about those adventures. It is about a horrific crash involving a bus she was in and a logging truck on a windy … [Read more...]
Conned By An Entire Community?
We'd been in Nepal's bustling capital city less than 24 hours. In what has become routine upon arriving in a new city, I was up around sunrise eager to wander out and explore the streets of a place that's been a dream of mine for over a decade. Like every other SE Asian country's capital, Kathmandu's streets are chaotic. Chaotic, I said. The roads are awful. Resembling heavily bombed strips of concrete, the streets are extremely fractured and … [Read more...]
A Quotable Vacation, Nepal
Tihar, or Diwali, came and went last week and I went to Pokhara for a mini vacation. After a rainstorm, dinner at a Nepali family’s house, and an impromptu whiskey with an old friend passing through Kathmandu, Kendra and I headed out to Pokhara via microbus on Tuesday morning. A day of travel on each end, we spent three full days in the town and it was a relaxing respite. We didn’t realize we chose to travel on the biggest day of the Diwali … [Read more...]
Body Laotian
John M. Edwards sings the Buddha electric, embarking on a quest in the Laotian capital for the world’s most unique body posture. People thought I was a lunatic for coming all the way to Laos, a landlocked nation without any beaches, for a “vacation”? Even I thought I was out of my mind. After a couple of days lying on the wavy grass in the hazy egg-yolk-shaped sun of Vientiane, a Southeast Asian Wild West boomtown, though, I was bronzed … [Read more...]
Back to the Wonderful City of Angels
We flew in last night over a sea of lights spread as far as one could see. It was Bangkok - one of the planet's greatest cities. At midnight along Sukhumvit it was a mix of lights, traffic and people wandering the streets in search of sleep, sex and alcohol. This latest visit was a throwback for me offering a nostalgic reflection on my first trip to the Kingdom in 1996 (on the way to Nepal). Then as now, we landed at Don Muang airport. I … [Read more...]
Possible Himalayan Trek to Sikkim
I've been to India several times already; earlier this year I secured a 10 year multiple entry visa, for more exploring within this amazing country. We visited Chennai in July for my sister's wedding - as expected, the weather was hot and humid - frequent dips in the pool made the weather more bearable. It was nice to visit Southern India for the first time - although we were missing the mountains. A few years ago we got to experience the … [Read more...]
Huaraz, Peru
In every inspiring natural creation there is a realism that speaks to you. In every moment on a mountain you find it more and more. You discover yourself in ways not possible through other means. This stays with you and guides you for the rest of your life. May everyone have this chance at least once. ~ Dave Remember, the key to getting high is not "the herb", but rather time spent acclimatizing ~ Dave Huaraz (population … [Read more...]
No More Heroes
No More Heroes by Henry Biernacki This is the story of a relationship that develops between young traveler Niklas and an older woman Suria (Foxy); she is not a traveler. Much of the story takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area and explores their individual perspectives on life. With the travelers perspective, Niklas initially believes his own experiences are enriching Suria's life but later on he realizes the wisdom of her years are enriching … [Read more...]
You are a donkey. I am a monkey. Sometimes we go up, and sometimes we go down. Trekking to Annapurna Base Camp.
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, … [Read more...]
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