I almost didn’t get out of bed that day. The week of balancing three jobs and over 70 hours of work had caught up to me, and I wanted nothing more than to sleep. But a peek from between the blinds left me blinking and sure of one thing: it was a fine day for …
lake
Nature Cruise in Milford Sound
Fiordland, a vast tract of mountainous terrain that occupies the south-west corner of South Island, New Zealand, is one of the most astounding pieces of land anywhere on God’s earth, and one’s first impulse, standing on a cliff top surveying it all, is simply to burst into spontaneous applause.” – Douglas Adams “Who here is …
Day Hike to Brod Bay
Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.” – Pedro Calderon de la Barca It’s funny how quickly we get used to being in a beautiful place. My first week in Te Anau, I spent hours just sitting and reading on the shore of the lake each day after …
Colors of Rajasthan: Six Highlights in Jaipur
I reached Jaipur after almost 24 hours straight of traveling, having left the hill station city of Darjeeling the preceding morning. I was shambling by the time I got into an airport taxi, and couldn’t find the energy to care when the driver charged me a couple hundred rupees extra. But even as fatigued as I was, …
Top 10 Memories: Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend
I treat the camera like a person – I gaze into it. Photos are a flat thing, and you need to put life into them.” – Cara Delevingne Sometimes travel is dangerous. I know it as well as anyone. From being jumped on a cobblestone street in France to battling altitude sickness while crossing a pass …
Hiking the Seven Lakes Basin
Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.” ― John Muir When it comes to loop hikes in the Olympic National Park, the High Divide Loop around Seven Lakes Basin is one of the best. Clocking in at 18.2 miles, it …
Into the Familiar Unknown
The car park was surprisingly full for such an overcast day; the gravel still soaked from the on-again off-again showers. We were prepared, though, with jackets and plastic bags to wrap around valuables should Washington’s clouds live up to their reputation. Nearly two months had passed since I flew into Sea-Tac from Stockholm, after having …
Five Things to Do in Kyoto
Beautiful Kyoto is the city most people familiar with Japan will recommend to the first time visitor. Having been the former capital of Japan for a span of over 1000 years and being spared the devastation of bombing raids in WWII, Kyoto is one of the cities in Japan where a wealth of historical architecture …
Five Things to Do in Nara
Let’s go back to 8th century Japan. The imperial infrastructure of the country had been growing for quite some time, causing the empress to choose a permanent location for the capital. She picked a spot on the Yamato plain and the construction of Nara began. At the time, Buddhism was becoming more and more deeply …
The Cherry Blossoms of Gyeongju
One of my favorite memories from my first year in Korea involved riding my new scooter to Gyeongju to see the cherry blossoms with my friends. This year, I rode my motorcycle along the same winding, rural road from Pohang to Gyeongju–the cool breeze of early spring whipping the falling cherry petals in swirls and eddies of …