landof1000smiles

I was literally driving around Bali, on the main road which makes a ring around the island. Near the northern tip, around Campuan, I practically wrecked my motorbike while…

I had never really treated myself for my birthday. In fact, throughout my teens and twenties I was usually working on this annual time of reflection and celebration of myself…

Speaking purely from the subjective perspective of a 30-s something western traveler of Southeast Asia, there are several areas I’ve noticed in which we may enact the axiom “when…

I was at the farm a few more days before getting down to the last allowed by my visa. Wresting myself from its bucolic environs, I hitched up to Luang Prabang. I would remaining…

It was a more or less clear day on the island of Gili Trawangan as my girlfriend and I enjoyed our English breakfast on the beach and waited for our boat to begin to take…

With the exception perhaps of the recently departed Nelson Mandela, there are no other political leaders in modern history I can think of who command as much auspice and…

Bali has historically been known as a picture-perfect postcard island ever since Westerners began strolling over its pristine beaches nearly a century ago. To a large extent…

Beijing offers countless engaging sights for those interested in history, culture and art. Less often mentioned are the many amazing contemporary destinations in the city which…

I had spent a week in Beijing, and had soaked up the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, all the palaces and hutongs and markets and museums that I could really handle in that amount…

My experience travelling in places usually involves exposing myself to a great many examples of local cultural interests. When I arrive in a new place, one of my favorite things…

For the past year I have lived in the peaceful, small, traditional and slow town of Ubud in central Bali. Ubud is a place where everyone smiles, where the sidewalks are…

The drive itself is pretty straightforward. From Jogjakarta you head to Solo, the other capital of Javanese culture, and drive through the city and keep going northeasterly.…

Prior to my trip there, I had studied a bit of the history of Timor Leste, one of the youngest countries in the world. Before it gained its independence in 2002, it bore the…

I had had enough. I was completely driven to the tether of my threshold of pain. This malignant force in my mouth, which initially was only a problem when I ate ice cream or…

As the afternoon lingered on I started to hear more cacophony from outside my bungalow window in Ubud, hunched over my laptop, pecking out more of my manuscript. As the peal of…

In the past several years I have learned some of the basic things that are essential for travelling well and being baptized by the divine folly of the universe I have seen…

I was hunting for something interesting to do in Shanghai and came across the Propaganda Poster Art Centre on the always-wonderful traveler’s almanac Atlas Obscura. The PPAC is a…

We all have our odd ways of exploring new places. I like to traipse through alleyways and ride around on public buses. I’m not a big fan of obvious tourist attractions. One thing…

The last time I arrived in Hong Kong, I searched the Internet to find some halfway interesting places in that city of banks, offices and escalators, using the fantastic website…

One of the most common, boring themes in travel writing is a lament about places being “discovered,” thereby becoming popular, played-out and impure. Travelers love to talk…