Do we spend the first half of our lives trying to figure out what to do with the second half of our lives or do we spend the second half of our lives wondering just what the heck happened in the first half? Tough call, but traveling can help us figure it out. Going it alone can be lonely. Sometimes, during trying times, we need help from other people to help us rediscover the bright […]
The problem with fences is, once built, you don’t know if you’re inside or outside. —Thoughts of a Kalahari Desert bushman, roughly translated. In 2003, South Africa was a country in transition, and seemingly on track to begin reversing the atrocities forced upon its native people. After being whisked between South African wineries and safari lodges, I managed a border-crossing revelation. The age-old ways of Africa’s Kalahari Desert Bush people, innately bound to their ancient […]
Why knot? (from: THE DIRECTIONS TO HAPPINESS: A 135-Country Quest for Life Lessons) Finding your way in Laos can be a challenge. Street addresses are rarely used. If they are, building numbers match the order of construction. Lao transit often means huddling in the back of a family-size tuk-tuk. These oblong, bald-tired trucks make room for three lucky ladies riding in front with the driver, while 20 others cram into and upon the dingy pickup’s tarp-roofed […]
(from: THE DIRECTIONS TO HAPPINESS: A 135-Country Quest for Life Lessons) “A little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing.” —Thomas Jefferson Now that childhood seems to be officially over, only occasionally do I dare people to do things. Not the case with my eldest brother, Basil, who routinely challenges me to perform illegal tricks for his amusement. I routinely caved into his cons until I turned, well, about 35. Our family summered in New […]
(from: THE DIRECTIONS TO HAPPINESS: A 135-Country Quest for Life Lessons) Put the currency blues on the run. Before email and cell phones, letter writing was still vital, as many long-term backpackers could rarely afford to call home. Such isolation made Australian hospitality even more welcome, especially after a year in Asia without a turkey hero. In the late 1980s, after a year-long Southeast Asian tour, a college friend and I hitchhiked 1,000 miles up Australia’s […]
(from: THE DIRECTIONS TO HAPPINESS: A 135-Country Quest for Life Lessons) Why peer through the keyhole when your hand rests on the doorknob? I was backpacking in the newly “opened” China in 1987 when Chen, a multilingual restaurateur and the unofficial mayor of Yangzhou, entered my life. He had a kindly way with backpackers, and one afternoon he invited me to join him on a 70-mile journey in a rickety delivery truck across southeast China’s surreal […]
