In mountainous northern Thailand, at the end of a long dirt road, private except for occasional but welcomed visitors, live the “long necked women” of the Kayan Hill Tribe. With our Thai-speaking guide, I visited this small village called Ban Nai Soi, where four different ethnic groups; Kayan, Akha, Hmong and Lahu live together, refugees from persecution, sharing resources and maintaining their own unique culture and customs. Two decades ago, …
Thailand is known as “land of a thousand temples”, each stunningly unique and overwhelmingly beautifully Buddhist. It’s also known as the “land of a thousand smiles”. I think there’s a connection… First, it’s hot. Plan your adventures for mornings, late afternoons and evenings. Not during the heat of midday. The city comes alive at night. It’s an easy city to get around. Tuk-tuks are everywhere, as are taxis. Buses circumnavigate …
My Zimbabwe adventure included a morning hike in the Victoria Falls Rainforest and an afternoon helicopter ride over the falls. Both were incredible! It is the largest waterfall in the world. Not the widest or the highest but the world’s largest sheet of falling water. Twice the height of Niagara and only rivalled by Iguazu Falls in South America. The Zambezi River is the fourth-largest in the African continent and …
Share my visit to the Kingdom of Swaziland, or eSwatini as it’s now known. The last traditional kingdom in Africa. I found cheerful, friendly Swazi people proud of their rich culture and traditions, which they love to share with visitors. In few places have the youth uprisings been as surprising as in Eswatini, a kingdom of 1.2 million people that changed its colonial name, Swaziland, in 2018 on the order of …
It’s an 11th century Buddhist VM! Thangka roughly translates to “recorded message” in Tibetan and is an ancient form of Buddhist art. The art of India and Nepal is one of flamboyance! Color in capitals! Flags fly, ropes of marigolds are offered to visitors along with welcoming red bindis and bracelets. Each with a prayer. Carvings, sculptures, paintings…all celebratory and strange. But so beautiful! I watched artists in the city of …
It was the most imposing structure I have ever visited, dominating the landscape, miniaturizing the “Blue City” below. On par with the Great Wall but so much richer in ornate decoration and impossibly grand. Mehrangarh Fort stands four hundred feet in splendor on a perpendicular cliff above the sky line of Jodhpur. Burnished red sandstone, imposing, invincible and yet with a strange haunting beauty that beckons. Much has been written …