Italy · EuropeMarch 2020
Quarantine: Notes on Going Nowhere
We are under (self) quarantine now. If you are not yet, you will be soon. In some places it is still voluntary. In other places, it is compelled…
Essays
Cambodia · AsiaMarch 2019
Kep: Cambodia's Apocalyptic Town by the Sea
The Lonely Planet entry on the Cambodian seaside town of Kep was short, promising an unusual combination of crab and a post-apocalyptic vibe.
Cambodia · AsiaJanuary 2019
Arriving in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Cambodia was the only place I'd ever been where the locals told me to watch my back.
Vietnam · AsiaFebruary 2018
Con Dao's Prisons and Tiger Cages
Last Christmas, I traveled to the tiny island of Con Dao off Vietnam's southern coast, where I somehow managed to unwittingly fly straight into a typhoon. After the…
Vietnam · AsiaJanuary 2018
A Surprise Typhoon on Con Dao
A typhoon usually doesn't just sneak up on you. But that's exactly what happened to me last Christmas Eve, when my husband and I unwittingly traveled to the…
January 2018
Travel 2017: A Year in Review
2017 was probably my most intense year of travel ever: it started in Laos and Cambodia, and was followed by visits to Detroit and Texas, Portugal, Romania, Hong…
Portugal · EuropeJuly 2017
A Great Fire in Portugal
During my last trip to Portugal, I stayed at a bona fide palace, complete with flying buttresses, a butler, a maze garden. It was hotter than the dickens,…
Greece · EuropeJuly 2017
Getting Stuck in an Elevator in Athens
After it happened, we had a new point of reference for terrible things. It became our shared refrain: “Well, at least it’s not as bad as getting trapped…
Laos · AsiaJanuary 2017
Laos, Land of a Million Bombs
During the Vietnam War, there was this entire Secret War going on in Laos that I learned about while I visited what is one of the world's most…
Greece · EuropeJanuary 2017
On Athens and the Greek Economic Crisis
Coming from Detroit, the first major city in the world to go bankrupt, I was interested in how the statistics and stories about the Greek debt crisis matched…
India · AsiaMay 2016
You Can Only Go to India for the First Time Once
India is another world. The first impressions are overwhelming. The chaos greets you the minute you exit the airport in a disorienting force of scents and smells, noise…
Thailand · AsiaMay 2016
Scuba Diving in Thailand, auf Deutsch and in English
No matter where you find yourself in the world these days, whether in the middle of the Ecuadorian rainforest, on a lonely mountain road in the Caucasus, or…
Romania · EuropeJanuary 2016
Two Romanias
Romania came out from behind the Iron Curtain over 25 years ago, but it's still a country with one foot in the past as it moves resolutely into…
Thailand · AsiaJanuary 2016
A Secret Beach
"We have a map," the man at check-in to our backpacker bungalow hotel told us, lowering his voice slightly, his tone conspiratorial. "A map to the secret beach.…
Thailand · AsiaJanuary 2016
One Night in Bangkok
One night in Bangkok, at least for us, and surely for most people who come here, is nothing like the song. It probably was, three decades ago, but…
Thailand · AsiaJanuary 2016
One Night in Phuket
How does that song go? “One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble, not much between despair and ecstasy.”
Thailand · AsiaDecember 2015
Tha Lane Bay, Krabi, Thailand
We hopped into kayaks at the Tha Lane pier and pushed off from a dock filled with longtail boats lolling in the waves. Our Thai guide, Him, led…
Cuba · AmericasDecember 2015
Cuba: Prohibida la entrada
In 2004, I traveled to Cuba as a student in a course on sustainable agricultural systems. On my application, I listed my reasons for wanting to join the…
Italy · EuropeNovember 2015
Florence, 15 Years Older
Florence is a city by which you measure your life every time you return.
Italy · EuropeNovember 2015
A Virgin in Florence
I was only 15 the first time I visited Florence, when I traveled there with a class of high schoolers (and their parents) on one of those fully…