Long live Bali’s cultural traditions, which endure with the help of forward-thinking hotels like The Ritz-Carlton, Bali and Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve. Learn more about how these and similar resorts are helping preserve the island’s heritage amid a rising wave of tourism in “Staying Power,” a story I wrote for the August 2018 issue of Virtuoso Traveler. Looking for a quicker read? Check out my Bali photo essay on the Virtuoso Life blog.
The best way to keep my Bali memories going – especially in the midst of a mid-February cold spell – before I write my upcoming feature: two posts on The Virtuoso Life blog. The first, a photo essay on the country’s beauty; the second, a focus on the best breakfast I’ve ever had.
Just back from Bali (and, great stays at The Ritz-Carlton, Bali and Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve). Photos at every turn, but I was able to “narrow it down” to under 50 (yes, 49) for this new gallery.
Long live Portsmouth, New Hampshire – the third-oldest city in the U.S. and, incidentally, one of my favorite places on the planet. As a New Hampshire native who’s lived in Seattle for two decades, I still feel Portsmouth’s tidal pull, which brings me back every year to reacquaint myself with its lobster rolls, beloved tugboats, and brick-paved lanes that always seem to reveal some fresh find. For a few locally favored stops to explore on your visit, read “A Perfect Day in Portsmouth,” my quick guide to the city that I recently penned for The Virtuoso Life blog.
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In Colombia’s buzzing capital, urban art is booming. Thanks to Bogotá’s tolerant laws and businesses that often commission works, accomplished artists have converged on the city, transforming its calles into bold open-air galleries that lend insight into the country’s aesthetic and soul. Glimpse a few of the city’s modern masterpieces in “Paint the Town,” a story I wrote and photographed for the June 2017 issue of Virtuoso Traveler. And for more on the city’s urban art culture, visit The Virtuoso Life blog to read my interview with Crisp, a prominent Bogotá-based street artist – and one of the scene’s unofficial ambassadors – whose work often calls attention to political injustices and the beauty of nature.
For more on Colombia, see my 4/2/17 post, Love In Cartagena, and my 2/8/17 post, Colombia On The Cusp.
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Just back from a South Africa tour led by National Geographic Expeditions with G Adventures. Still working on my story, but for now, visit my new South Africa gallery to see a few favorite sights witnessed while on safari and in Cape Town.
My travel dream come true – following Gabriel García Márquez’s footsteps in Cartagena, Colombia. Great thanks to Big Five Tours & Expeditions for making it happen. Much gratitude, too, to my guide, Will Salazar Oviedo, for sharing my obsession with Gabo’s words and for completely getting why standing below Fermina Daza’s balcony made me smile. For anyone else hoping to explore the Nobel Prize-winning author’s literary landscape in Cartagena, “Real Magic,” a piece I photographed and penned for the April 2017 issue of Virtuoso Traveler, maps out a walking tour with stops at eight key locations significant to his life and works.
For more on Colombia, see my 2/8/17 post, Colombia On The Cusp.
For decades sidestepped by most American travelers, Colombia is now a country on the cusp. Following years of violence, it is now “a beacon of stability in Latin America that’s peacefully shedding the nightmares of its past for a greater future,” says Big Five Tours & Expeditions’ president Ashish Sanghrajka. I recently had the good fortune to explore the capital of Bogotá and Cartagena’s sixteenth-century Old City with Sanghrajka and Big Five just as the Colombian government adopted an accord that ended a 52-year conflict with the country’s rebel forces. When you go: Expect your fears to be allayed and to quickly fall in love with Colombia’s people, culture, and natural splendor. But first: Check out a few of my favorite finds in Bogotá and Cartagena in “If You Go to Colombia, You’ll Long to Go Back,” written for The Virtuoso Life blog, along with my new Colombia photo gallery.
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Philanthropic travel has the power to keep on giving – both for the “giver” and the “receiver” in the equation. I was recently reminded of this lesson while researching young travelers who effected positive change in the communities they visited, and who, in turn, changed and grew themselves as a result of their experiences. Read more about their efforts, and find a sampling of worthy voluntourism opportunities for travelers of any age, in my article, “Lasting Change,” written for the June 2015 issue of Virtuoso Traveler.
Nightly symphonies of cicadas, picnics by thirteenth-century Lanna ruins, jaunts to Myanmar, hours exploring the Hall of Opium, dinners in the jungle accompanied by two-ton elephants – I had the fortune to experience it all during a recent stay at Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort. Though elephant-based tourism is a contested and hugely complex issue – and, sadly, so often done wrong (read: good for profits, bad for animals) – Anantara provides one sound prescription for caring for Thailand’s captive pachyderms while also employing their mahout partners and working to preserve wild populations. Learn more about the camp and its efforts in my article, “Wildest Dreams,” written for December Virtuoso Traveler magazine.
If achieving longstanding goals is truly good for the soul, then today I’m pleased to have realized two: 1) visiting Myanmar, and 2) arriving in a country by walking across its border – rather than simply “parachuting” in via its airport (see numerous criticisms in the Paul Theroux canon).
Thanks to a guided tour provided by the Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort in northern Thailand, I had the fortune – all in a single day – to visit thirteenth-century ruins in the surrounding town of Chiang Saen, take a long-tail boat ride along the Mekong for a stop on the Laos island of Don Sao, and cross a bridge spanning the Ruak River from Mae Sai on the Thai border to Tachileik for an exceptional – albeit brief – two-hour glimpse of eastern Myanmar.
So much bustle, chaos, and dust stirred from tuk-tuks and motorbikes in both border towns eventually led to some stillness and peace at Phra Jow La Keng (shown above), a 90-year-old Buddhist temple that doubles as an orphanage. I’ve posted a few more photos of the chaos and peace I experienced today – mostly as a reminder that I need to return for a more thorough stay – in my Myanmar gallery.
Congratulations, Quito! Ecuador’s tourism board recently announced that its capital is an official finalist in the Swiss-based New 7 Wonders Cities contest. The current list of finalists comprises 28 cities (including Chicago, Seoul, Beirut, and Barcelona) winnowed from an initial pool of more than 300. Voters from around the world will select the winning seven wonders, which will be unveiled on December 7, 2014. You can vote for your seven favorites at new7wonders.com/en/cities.
No doubt, the news was well received in a country that’s currently calling to visitors and developing its tourism infrastructure with such vigor (read: new eco-lodges, boutique hotels, international airport, and deluxe train journeys, to name a few).
I had the pleasure to see this progress firsthand while exploring much of continental Ecuador – from Quito to the cloud forest to the coast – last November after an initial trip there afforded only a quick overnight in Guayaquil en route to the Galápagos Islands. What I found: a diversity of indigenous cultures, brilliant biodiversity, a revitalized culinary scene, and passionate ambassadors (everyone from newly repatriated chefs to ardent environmentalists) all eager to show off and share the virtues of their country. Read more in my story “Much Ado About the Mainland,” published recently in the November/December issue of Virtuoso Life.
It’s been five years since my visit to Miyajima, but after dusting off this image for the VIP department of August Virtuoso Traveler, I was reminded of how powerful a place this is. Located in the Seto Inland Sea, Miyajima (or “shrine island”) specializes in spirituality, abounding in both Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, all made more beautiful in autumn when the island blazes with brilliant maples.
Wading in the water on its long heron’s legs, Miyajima’s towering O-torri gate welcomes both living pilgrims and the spirits of the deceased. On the shoreline, seemingly floating on the sea, lies Itsukushima Shrine, a massive Shinto complex dating back to the sixth century. At Daisho-in Temple (shown here), visitors spin prayer wheels, light candles, then slip off to some other world during an intense meditation session where monks beat drums and chant sutras in Sanskrit. You can visit this realm more readily via my photo gallery.
The above VIP page was designed by my close friend and colleague, Jay Carskadden, an artist of many talents (among them: painting, web and graphic design, and metalsmithing – incidentally, she also designed this website and the engagement ring that I gave to my wife, Adrienne, on this same trip). Jay works tirelessly to help produce Virtuoso Traveler every other month, and has posted a collection of additional VIP pages on her own website. See these and some of her other design work at jaycarskadden.com. Her paintings and jewelry can be viewed at jaymetalsmith.com.
“Does God exist in the heart of the devil?” Clad in somber black attire and embellished by a long, white, waterfall of a beard, the rabbi and author Gutman Locks stood before Jerusalem’s Western Wall and patiently awaited my reply. Behind him, orthodox Jews bobbed, chanted, wept, and pressed written prayers inside crevices of the wall as the setting sun lit its stones in a warm, golden glow.
“Yes,” I answered, thinking it mattered little that my response was mostly theoretical, or that our definitions of “god” and “devil” most likely wouldn’t match. I hadn’t traveled 7,000 miles from Seattle to Jerusalem to debate or dismiss anyone’s beliefs, but to witness the devout pursuing and communing with their own versions of the divine. As I arrived at the Wall, surrounded by scores of the faithful and greeted by the rabbi’s question, I knew I’d found what I was seeking.
“You’re a smart man,” Gutman told me after I’d given my reply. “God is infinite and everywhere at all times.” Later in our discussion, after I’d confessed to being a travel writer, he added: “You should tell your readers to search out the things that they can best learn from each place they are visiting. The specialty of this place, Jerusalem, is God. That’s what we know best.” (See Gutman’s side of the story – and a picture of me taking a picture of him – at the rabbi’s blog, Mystical Paths.)
While I don’t believe any human being can fully comprehend – or any one place encompass – what “god” may or may not be, it is experiences like this that keep me traveling to the world’s “holy lands.” From Fátima in Portugal to Miyajima Island in Japan, those places where the sacred is celebrated most ardently, whether peacefully or in conflict, reveal much about our species and an existence we all struggle to understand.
Jerusalem’s Old City is no exception. With its Western Wall (a remnant of Herod’s grand temple and one of the holiest sites in Judaism), Dome of the Rock (the place where Muslims believe Mohammed ascended to heaven), and Via Dolorosa (the path that Christians believe Christ followed to his crucifixion and ultimate resurrection), the pursuit of the divine is on full display here. If my words have failed to do this place justice, I’m hoping my photos might help.