I’ve seen mountains. The Tetons and the Sawtooth. The Rockies and the Sierras. The Cascades and the Alps and the Andes. I’ve hiked them and I’ve camped in them and I’ve skied them and I’ve admired them from afar so it’s from an educated perspective that I tell you this: the Himalayas are the most…
Kathmandu is filthy. A fair statement and the only negative one I’ll make. Because the truth is: I quite like the place. I arrived at the Kathmandu airport after 10pm feeling a breezy air of nonchalance that can only be attributed to the fact that we’d been more or less ‘in transit’ for the preceding…
A few days ago I was boarding an enormous jet bound for Dubai. I stood in the jetway and admired the size of the engine, thinking about the rooms of my apartment that could fit inside of it, when it occurred to me that I’d forgotten a fundamental detail of my kitchen. “What are our…
It had been my assumption that Cape Town would be similar to San Francisco. This was based on nothing beyond the inarguable fact of it being a city built beside the ocean. But as I piloted our rented Volkswagen away from the airport (internally singing to myself: “left side, left side, we drive on the…
Never in my life have I been so aware of the sun’s comings and goings. We rose at the ungodly hour of 3:45am in order to make the drive from Cape Town to the seaside town of Gansbaai, where our day’s activity would commence. As we neared our destination, the sky began to lighten, illuminating…
The sun would rise at any moment. I stood in an open grassy space in the Serengeti and watched a half dozen men prepare the green and white hot air balloon that billowed in the light breeze. Every few seconds I turned toward the horizon behind me, afraid that I might miss the sun’s…
I found it. That something ‘different’ I’d been seeking but couldn’t quite put into words? It’s here in Africa. It began on the red eye from Rome to Ethiopia. I’d fallen asleep, despite that the two long-limbed African men on either side of me saw no reason to share the armrests, when I was awoken…
“The city is a museum,” Fernando told me. “If you dig a hole deep enough anywhere you will find something.” We were standing in the middle of what was Ancient Rome’s city center. All around me stood remnants of columns and stone foundations – none of which I would have had any hope of deciphering…
Five days behind the wheel of a rental car have brought to my attention two things: 1. Italian highways are a California driver’s dream come true. 2. Italian drivers are insane. Earlier this week we picked up a rental car – a short and squat white Mercedes of an economy class not available in the…
Today we hopped a train to Rome, bidding ‘ciao’ to Florence after several slow-paced days of espressos, gelato, a little live music, markets and fine weather. It was a lovely time, but I’m glad to be moving along. This morning as we walked over the bridge and down quiet streets toward the train station, we…
Somewhere Seeking 