WHITEWATER RAFTING ON BALI'S MIGHTY AYUNG RIVER

A very long time ago I used to work for ARTA , a non-profit corporation dedicated to preserving wild rivers, a goal they work towards by bri...

MY FAVORITE PLACE ON EARTH-- AFTER HOME: BALI

Because I've traveled so much and to so many places people are always asking me which was my favorite. For many years I would always say...

THE HORRORS OF DELTA AIRLINES, PART II

After my previous post about what an airborne cesspool Delta has become, Ken wrote a comment that I've heard voiced by many. It's a...

IS DELTA THE WORST U.S. AIRLINE ?

Today started well enough. Instead of having to wait for a Delta service rep to get on the line in the normal 30-40 minutes, a friendly huma...

SRI LANKA, PART 3: THE CULTURAL TRIANGLE-- AND OUR FINAL CLOSE ENCOUNTER

To be honest, I not a big beach person. I'm afraid of sharks, not a huge sunburn fan and I've read so much about sewage being dumped...

FAST FORWARD 3 DECADES AND INSTEAD OF CEYLON, IT'S SRI LANKA

I know for sure that in my mind and in my tales, I had painted a picture of Ceylon as an earthly paradise. I certainly remembered it that wa...

OMG! HOW DID I FORGET SEVILLA!! (I DIDN'T)

Seville has been one of my favorite places in Spain since I started visiting that country in the late 60s. Except for the times that I was s...

TAKING THE FERRY TO CEYLON (BEFORE IT WAS SRI LANKA)

The first time I went to Sri Lanka it was 1970. It was about the most faraway, exotic place I had planned to go to on my drive across Asia, ...

ARGAN OIL IS DELICIOUS AND HEALTHY-- AND ONLY AVAILABLE IN SOUTHERN MOROCCO

Not all of my friends are big travel freaks like me and Roland. I remember when my sister came to visit me in Amsterdam when I was living th...

MADRID-- A GREAT PLACE TO GET AWAY FROM THE DRIED SPITTLE OF REPUBLICANS

Yesterday I let some of my old friends know about this blog. The first person to get back to me was Gary from up in Vermont. "Maybe you...

EATING IN MARRAKESH

Samir from The View From Fez blog has a great list of places to eat and sleep in Marrakech (as well as just about everything else anyone wo...

RIADS, THE NEW OLD THING IN MARRAKESH ACCOMMODATION

A riad is an urban house situated in the medina or kasbah. It isn't a random loosely defined lodging but one whose plans and arrangement...

IS MOROCCO A SAFE PLACE TO VISIT?

When I announced to my friends that I was going to Morocco for a few weeks in December and January, almost all of them were wary. Everyone k...

TANGIER-- GATEWAY TO MOROCCO

I'm finally finished unpacking and guess what I found! 3 pages of notes that I took when I decided to start this blog while I was in Tan...

NOW CORDOBA, THAT'S A GREAT TOWN TO VISIT!!

All that inordinate and undeserved praise Frommer lavished on Toledo actually aptly describes Córdoba! Once the capital of Muslim Spain-- an...

TOLEDO ISN'T A BAD PLACE, BUT IF FROMMER THINKS THIS IS THE BEST CITY IN SPAIN, I'D LIKE SOME OF WHATEVER HE'S SMOKING

I've lost count of the number of times I've been to Spain since the 60's. I love Spain-- the people, the culture, the language, ...

NEVER BE AFRAID TO TRAVEL ALONE (UNLESS THERE'S SOMETHING TO BE AFRAID ABOUT)

I've probably thought about this more than most. Starting back when I was 13-- and attempting to hitchhike down to Miami Beach to visit ...

OLD CITY FES AIN'T SO SCARY NO MORE

Traditionally the main entrance to Fes-el-Bali (Fes' old walled medina) is through the beautiful Bab Bou Jeloud. Two things were "m...

EATING IN FES

Once I get settled into this blog I'm sure it'll set its own rhythm. It won't be all chronological or anything like that. But ye...