While Matt was hobnobbing with famous actors-cum-travel writers (or vice versa), I spent my night sitting in a dark corner of a small theater. The audience’s energy was electric and the whoops erupted throughout the night. Those hollers were unleashed for the sensory assault brought on by the premier of [...]

Spurred on by this month’s photo contest of “Adventure Travel” (check it out here), I was curiously flipping through the virtual pages of  The Adventure Life magazine when I came across a photo essay on the entrants in this year’s 12th annual Abenteur and Allrad Overland Festival in Belgium, what [...]

Tibet’s history is a complicated story of spirituality, invasion, conquest, and persecution. Once a Buddhist nation governed by the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s religious identity was brutally stripped away in 1951 when Chinese troops forcibly occupied the region, destroying monasteries and killing thousands of civilians. In 1959 the Dalai Lama fled [...]

The high season for Machu Picchu is roughly June through September, as summer travelers use their vacation time to explore the ruins in the predictably good weather these months bring. In October the rainy season begins, not a great time to trek along narrow paths and camp outside. Oddly enough, [...]

I can still remember what the crisp air smelled like. It was sweet and earthy with hints of eucalyptus and fresh dew.  The sky, always impossibly blue, seemed vaster on the open plains and grasslands then it had back home. The sounds of birds chirping tender songs awakened me each morning [...]

By Justin Calderon Button-faced gibbons lankily toss themselves through the canopy, a petite mouse deer gnaws at a bush below, and Betek — the chief and shaman of his tribe — methodically whittles another blow dart to such slender precision it nearly becomes invisible to the eye. He sheathes the [...]

I never saw the movie “Indochine.” According to its summary, the flick was released in 1992, and is about a French naval officer and his young Vietnamese lover who are escaping banishment. They seek refuge in the labyrinthine crags erupting from the sea in Ha Long Bay. Those of you [...]

Okay, everyone, don’t get pissed at me, but you’re just not as cool as this guy. I’m sure your ratty backpack has loads of patches on it and your passport needed supplemental pages years ago. Still, you got nothing. I got nothing, either. But Armando Basile, on the other hand, [...]

Let’s face it, “Lawrence of Arabia” is one of the best travel movies of all time. I dare you to watch this flick (and, yes, that means you’re going to have to put aside about 3 1/2 hours) and not want to pack your bags and follow in the famed [...]

Most cruise lines seek to provide its customers with what I call the “Best Of” trip (e.g., “See the Best of the Mediterranean: From Scenic Livorno to the Seascapes of San Tropez”). While this is probably a very lovely way to sail and explore, I often want to experience all [...]