Posts/Entries
All posts/entries, for now, from over two decades of global travel. And a few colourful tags, too.
Qinghai–Tibet Railway, Tibetan Plateau || Riding The Rails
We made it out of Xi'an as planned, made it onto the train for Lhasa, Tibet, as planned, and all without needing (yet) to produce the permits we acquired in Xi'an to enable us to undertake this trip legally. We left Xi'an yesterday, Saturday, morning and it's now noon...
Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, China
As soon as we arrived in Xi'an a few days ago off the overnight train from Beijing we were trying to organise our way out of the city. Maybe it's because we'd spent more time than planned in Beijing. Or maybe it was because I hadn't initially planned on paying a...
Beijing, China (2008)
Some days ago now, Valentine's Day actually, I started what I know is going to be a pretty swell trip. That's when I met Pat, my bestie, in the Capital International Airport here in Beijing, China. I arrived in the city the day earlier off the ferry from South Korea,...
Kiyomizu-dera Temple, Kyoto, Japan
One Of Japan's Most Celebrated Temples & A New7Wonders Of The World Finalist Kiyomizu-dera Temple, Kyoto, Japan. November 20, 2007 As the imperial capital of Japan for more than a thousand years, Kyoto conjures up the classic images of Japan: narrow lanes of...
Gyeongju, South Korea
Gyeongju is a coastal city in the southestern corner of the Korean peninsula. The city is famous throughout Korea as the capital of the ancient Korean Silla Dynasty, a dynasty that rose at the turn of the 1st millennium and ruled most of the Korean Peninsula from the...
Bulguksa Temple, Gyeongju, South Korea
The Bulguksa Temple (temple of the Buddha land) is the most famous temple in South Korea and home to seven of the country's listed National treasures. A temple was first constructed on this site in 528, but, & like nearly every historic building in Korea, the...
Folk Village, Yongin, South Korea
I've been back in South Korea for a few months now on this my forth visit to the country since my first back in late 2003-early 2004. Already this place feels like a second home. I haven't had much time thus far on this visit to the Land of The Morning Calm to be a...
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Ye olde. With a 6,000-year-old history, Europe’s fourth-oldest continually inhabited city boasts Roman ruins & a charming & photogenic cobbled Old Town made for exploring.
Sofia, Bulgaria
Pictures from my September 2007 visit to Sofia, the capital and largest city of Bulgaria located in the west of the country. ______________________________________________________________________
Lake Ohrid, Macedonia
Ohrid, immortal Ohrid – a kingdom of light and water, a repository of ancient ruins from Macedonia’s earlier kingdoms – is the sublime lakeside town that for many represents the culmination of the Macedonian experience. The charming tourist friendly town of Ohrid is...
Tirana, Albania
Tirana is the capital city & the centre of political, economic, and cultural life in Albania, the budding bastion of new democracy that is this little corner of Southeastern Europe. Having spent the majority of the last 60 years under a strict and isolationist...
Durres, Albania
I was befriended by a local here in Durres, Albania, shortly after disembarking the overnight ferry across from Bari in Italy. It was an abnormally wet & overcast September day yesterday upon arrival but David, my new Albanian best friend, brightened up the mood...
Naples, Campania, Italy
Before getting to Naples, the capital of the Italian south and my last stop in this my first jaunt through Italy, I had read that it was 'different', an utterly compelling city unlike anywhere else in the country. I had read that it was large, filthy, crime-ridden,...
Pompeii, Campania, Italy
Pompeii, a 40-minute train ride around the Bay of Naples from Naples in southern Italy, was a wealthy Roman trading town that, on August 24th of the year 79 AD, was buried by volcanic ash and pumice from the eruption of the nearby volcano Mt. Vesuvius. The volcano had...