…ssports. I gladly obliged him and he started flipping through the pages in search of my visa. He finally found it and started barking something in Russian and I just kept saying visa and giving him the thumbs up sign as if to say that it was in order and legal. I don’t think that he cared very much and he just took our two passports and headed off the train. Needless to say, this made me very nervous. As a seasoned traveler, my passport is my most…
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The Belarus Ordeal
December 11, 2007 by 2 Comments
…ssports. I gladly obliged him and he started flipping through the pages in search of my visa. He finally found it and started barking something in Russian and I just kept saying visa and giving him the thumbs up sign as if to say that it was in order and legal. I don’t think that he cared very much and he just took our two passports and headed off the train. Needless to say, this made me very nervous. As a seasoned traveler, my passport is my most…
Sanaa, Yemen
February 8, 2008 by 20 Comments
…Noah’s sons knew it as the land of milk and honey, Gilgamesh came here to search for the secret of eternal life and most famously, a woman simply known as Sheba called this land of Yemen her home. However, since the book of mythology has closed, Yemen had been locked away in a hidden corner of the peninsula-until now. Yemen is coming of age and showing itself to the world and let me tell you: Yemen sits at the crossroads of two continents, with f…
Vatican City
October 18, 2007 by 2 Comments
…t on his primordial function as the bishop of the Archdiocese of Rome. The term Holy See refers not to the Vatican state but to the Pope’s spiritual and pastoral governance, largely exercised through the Roman Curia. His official title with regard to Vatican City is Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City. The papacy is a non-hereditary, elective monarchy, chosen by the College of Cardinals. The Pope is also technically an absolute monarch, mea…
Farewell Old Friend
September 21, 2008 by 4 Comments
…at strike that nearly ruined baseball. The following year, 1995, started a string of 13 consecutive playoff appearances for the Yankees, an epic streak unequalled in baseball history. They would go on to win four World Series, six pennants and numerous division titles and I was there for several of those games including a few unforgettable moments. I was in the stadium for games four and five of the 2001 World Series against the Diamondbacks that…
Freetown to Monrovia Overland
January 8, 2009 by 7 Comments
…there are also innumerable checkpoints. These checkpoints are basically a string, usually with plastic bags hanging from them that goes across the road where there is some joker in a cop uniform (or not) who begrudgingly gets out of his chair to come over the the car. He acts for a second like he or she is interested in some information about the car when in fact all they want is a bribe. Part of my deal with the driver was that I don’t pay bribe…
Post-War Monrovia, Liberia
January 8, 2009 by 12 Comments
…y helpful American security guy who was also from New York and he pulled a string to get me in to see the consular people. They were very nice once I got in there but they couldn’t help me. They basically said to wake someone up in the States and have them wire to Western Union which I didn’t want to do. I explained to them that I needed to get that Brussels Air flight that night and they said that Brussels Air is the only vendor in the whole coun…
The Fallacy of All-Time
February 17, 2009 by 8 Comments
…er, he is so stupid that he created a whole new chapter in the neverending string of assinine behavior this guy takes part in. If he doesn’t think that every reporter in the country is out looking for his cousin at this moment, he is a retard. He says that his cousin injected him. When he was asked what his cousin name was, he wouldn’t say. He just said they were stupid kids experimenting. I tell you what, I never said to my cousin, “Hey just for…
The Lakshadweep Islands
June 20, 2009 by 16 Comments
Lakshadweep, from Hindi meaning “100 islands” is actually a string of 36 palm covered islands, of which 10 are inhabited, 200 miles off the coast of Kerala in Southern India. Its inhabitants are mainly Sunni Muslim fisherman wherein fishing and coir production are the islands’ main sources of income. Life on the islands is very traditional and the Indian caste system divides the Islanders in ways that I have never seen in India. Lakshadweep is as…
Madagascar
January 12, 2010 by 9 Comments
…, impoverished, enlightening, sad, intriguing and all of these descriptive terms all come back to that fact that Africa gets in your blood. As much as it can frustrate the hell out of you and you constantly say TIA or Africa time, it moves you to come back time and time again. This was my eighth trip to the continent and in total I’ve spent about 6 months of my life on the “dark continent” and I can’t get enough. So to quote another well known per…
