Looking back on 2015, I think the hardest thing I did was spend only parts of three days on the Greek island of Lesbos, when the drama of the migrant crisis playing out there demanded more time than this. One million asylum seekers, many of them … [Read more]
Nha Trang Boat Trip with “Floating Bar”
The U.S. Coast Guard would be appalled, but drinking while adrift is a daily scene off the coast of Nha Trang, Vietnam. The "floating bar" is part of a popular all-day boat trip to outlying islands and it works like this: Shortly after lunch, a … [Read more]
The Benefits of Moments of Travel Misery
“There is little favorable to be said about poverty,” wrote Nelson Mandela in his book Long Walk to Freedom, “but it was often an incubator of true friendship.” I first read this line (and book) about 15 years ago, and I remember it sometimes in my … [Read more]
Paul Theroux and “Despair is the Armchair”
On most days of the year in the Colombian city of Bucaramanga, you can spot paragliders in the distance sailing along the valley’s edge. Or, if you take a bus up from the city to the mountainside itself, you can sit and watch folks gallop off the … [Read more]