I know I didn't write all that much about Cuba, in the end, but hopefully this piece I wrote for AFAR magazine's October 2013 issue – about ropa vieja, paladares, and the Revolution – will make up for it. Oh, and if you do ever make it to Havana, be sure to have dinner at …
Life in Little Berlin
This weekend, my friend Susannah came to visit from Arles, where she's teaching English on the assistantship program. Thanks to her need to experience as much of Paris as possible in one weekend (she studied abroad here too, but living in France away from Paris can cause strong pangs of longing for Paris, so she …
Paris Inhospitable
Je recommence! After a wonderful summer in Turkey and all over Europe, and then back in the US for several months of fall to visit friends and family and make some money, I have started what I like to call "The Great Europe Adventure, Round 2." As you all know, I spent my junior year …
Dharamsala: Search for the Dalai Lama
First, some logistics: you may have notices that at the top of the sidebar on the right, there's a new widget that says "My RSS." If you click on the little logo, you can go to a site that lets you subscribe to my blog, so it will send you my updates. At least, that's …
Haridwar/Rishikesh: Buddy Om
Everyone remembers 'Buddy Jesus' from Kevin Smith's brilliant religious satire film, Dogma, right? Who could forget that hilarious parody of the commercialization of religion and spirituality? Ladies and gentlemen, I have found its match in Hinduism/eastern spirituality. As soon as we arrived, Buddy Jesus sprang to mind. Willa describes it as Disneyland spiritualism. Welcome to …
Mountains of Maharashtra
I am currently in one of the more stunningly beautiful places in the world, with a natural landscape similar to that of the Grand Canyon, only much more lush and green, though similarly hot. Thankfully, at night it is cooler, and overall it is cooler than Mumbai. Before I get started, I want to do …
Kerala, Part 2: Munnar
Note, I'm posting twice, so be sure to read the one below this one first, for chronology. ----- After a couple days in Fort Cochin, we took the ferry back over to the more industrial, bustling, typical Indian city of Ernakulam and caught a government bus up into the Western Ghats, the mountains here that …
Kerala, Part 1: Fort Cochin
There are many problems with trying to post in India, the most important being that internet is surprisingly difficult to find. (There are plenty of internet cafes, mind you, but sometimes internet is out on the whole street, and many places we’ve been don’t have wifi, so I can’t use my own computer and hence …
Happy Anniversary
Yesterday, Friday (when we went from Thailand to Cambodia), was my 4-week anniversary of arriving in Asia, and, consequently, beginning my travels. Since arriving in Hong Kong on January 16th, I have been in six countries - China/Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia - taken three flights, gone on three train rides over …
Misadventures in Malaysia & Travails in Thailand
After Mikey arrived in Singapore last Monday morning, we proceeded to continue exploring the city together. We wandered Little India and Chinatown, explored to the impressive zoo (we saw polar bears!) and Night Safari (hyenas at night, anyone?), ate tasty roti prata (Casti girls - this is that amazing bread at that place in Mountain …
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