There’s nothing more amusing than watching new travelers pack a suitcase. I suppose that the fact that they don’t do it often gives them an excuse to not know exactly what to leave in and take out. I’ve always maintained that the only thing you really need is a passport, cash and a debit card. While this is true, I’ve also discovered that...
A lot of Americans had never heard of Namibia until Angelina Jolie and Brad made a trip there to give birth to Shiloh. There’s not a lot of big news that comes out of that country because it’s still relatively freshly independent, there’s a small population, and Namibia seems to have learned what not-to-do from it’s neighbor and former...
Guess who has the highest car crash mortality rate in the world? That’s right. The country I’ve been driving in; Namibia. After a long day on a DIY safari, we left Etosha National Park in northern Namibia and headed towards our campsite near the Angola border. We had an hour drive, so we entertained ourselves by talking about where we were going and the...
This is my sixth time to Africa. In my twenties I navigated a sizable portion of the continent with buses, trains and hitchhiking. I camped in rural areas and stayed in hostels. In the 90s I rented a car to drive across South Africa and got stuck in sand trying to make it across an obscure Mozambique border crossing. I think I’ve used every possible mode of...
I know cartoons aren’t real (except for Scooby Doo of course) so my expectations for Madagascar didn’t really include singing lemurs and wise-cracking penguins, but I did imagine that it was quite different than it really is. It’s very difficult to get the real scoop on this country since Google maps will NOT give you driving directions and you...
A great man once said “Chocolate doesn’t ask silly questions, chocolate understands”. Actually it might as well have been a woman for all we know since it’s one of those quotes that nobody has ever claimed. Ask most people how they feel about chocolate and you can almost watch the wave of euphoria creep across their face...
Madagascar is a frustrating place if you’re used to things working and planes being on time. It’s only domestic airline carrier has been nicknamed “Mad Air” because of its erratic schedule and tendency to randomly cancel flights on a whim. It was very little of a surprise when I showed up at the airport and couldn’t get on a morning...
I thought I’d figured out how to cheat the system a few years ago. I was in Germany when I became aware that my phone was not just using some kind of magic “phone waves” or other skulduggery, but was actually employing several different technologies that allowed me to text, make phone calls and use my GPS. I suppose I already...
(Reprinted from Houstonia magazine August 2015-) I AM 16. My mother has decided to take her three kids on a road trip to Utah, sans Dad, to visit some friends south of Provo. It is the 1970s, somehow we all fit in a VW Beetle, and miraculously the tiny car makes it through the Montana mountains, Idaho, Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone National Park, which is...
There’s no place in the world like New Orleans. The food is amazing. The drinks are plentiful. The music is wonderful. However, If you’ve spent a few days walking up and down Bourbon Street, you might feel like you need to give your body a rest. You can only eat and drink so much before you start looking like you need a vacation from your...