Tag: travel
My Summer Vacation – Foreign Extraction Edition, Part VIII
Hello readers, I’m back with more of my Philippines tale. In the last installment we had traveled from my brother’s village to the airport in Cagayan D’Oro and were waiting for our flight to Manila. […]
My Summer Vacation – Foreign Extraction Edition, Part VI
At the end of my last installment we had traveled to Illigan City and procured cash and produce. The trip back was mostly uneventful. Night fell as we traveled back, but under the auspices of […]
My Summer Vacation – Foreign Extraction Edition, Part V
In last week’s installment, we had just talked to our brother at the mayor’s office, and then received a ride back to our guesthouse, courtesy of one of the mayor’s drivers. I’ll segue here and […]
My summer vacation – Foreign Extraction Edition, Part IV
Picking up where I left off (almost 2 weeks ago – sorry!), my stateside brother and I had just had a meal of fish and rice, followed by with some delicious pineapple pie, and were […]
My Summer Vacation – Foreign Extraction Edition, Part III
In last week’s installment, we had just wrapped up our brief adventure in Narita, Japan and were headed back to the airport to fly to Manila. After a leisurely and somewhat circuitous trip to see […]
Motorcycles in April
The one positive thing I can say about my tendency towards travel mishaps and misadventures is that it gives me almost unlimited blog post fodder. With that, I present the latest chapter, in which my […]
Tales from the Trenches of Standby Travel
A couple of weeks ago I was trying to get out of town on standby. You know how sometimes there will be a perfect storm of glitches? This was one of those days. One advantage […]
Please Stand By
As an airline employee I am entitled to unlimited free travel on flights operated by my employer. This probably sounds like a wonderful perk, and it is, but it’s not the unfettered joy it might […]
Postcards from the South Part I
My new job has sent me to a city, far from my home in Seattle, to learn about the Airbus 330, one of the planes in the fleet that I see frequently in Seattle. I […]
Random Thoughts of a Jet-Lagged, Newly Minted Night Shift Worker
I just started my night shift hours hot on the heels of 2 weeks spent 9 time zones away. I’m adjusting, but barely, so here’s a collection of random thoughts. I spent most of my […]
A Master Class in Travel: Kampala, Uganda to Maputo, Mozambique Overland -Final Exam-Part I
This week we have a guest poster, my Africa travel companion, Mr. K. If you think you know the answers, please post in the comments. I’ll post the key later this week. Choose the one […]
Africa Overland Part XIII – Flat Tire in Malawi
At the end of our last installment, we had just gotten past a road blockage on the way to Senga. Not too long after we stopped for gas and cash in Mzuzu. Getting the gas […]
Africa Overland – Part IX: Last day in Tanzania
At the end of our last installment, we were ready to depart the Utengule Coffee Lodge with plans to cross into Malawi at Songwe before nightfall. We passed through Mbeya on our way south. As […]
Africa Overland – Part VIII: Lodging at the Coffee Plantation
At the end of our last installment, we had just experienced our first checkpoint bribe, as we traveled from Itigi to Mbeya. As we drove south we went from red-dirt lowlands to alpine terrain and […]
Africa Overland – Part VI: Bihamuralo to Itigi, Tanzania
At the end of the last Africa Overland installment, we were just departing Bihamuralo, Tanzania, where we spent our first night on the road. K had examined the map and suggested that for this second […]
Africa Overland Part V: Biharumulo, Tanzania
(Correction – my traveling companion, K, reminded me that our friend in Biharumulo was named Daniel, not Patrick as I remembered.) At the end of the last installment we were making for Biharumulo, Tanzania, hoping […]
Africa Overland – Part IV: Tanzania
At the end of the last installment, we had just stopped for a photo op at the Equator, a couple of hours from our first border crossing, into Tanzania. Next to the acquisition of the […]
Africa Overland – Part III: South from Kampala
At the end of the last installment, K and I had, by dint of persuasion and gratitude, procured an important certificate from Kampala Interpol. By this time it was close to 6:00 PM and we […]
Africa Overland – Part II: More Red Tape in Kampala
We left off as K and I stood in a very long line outside the Kampala Interpol, a concrete building containing numerous cell-like offices. We were waiting to get a certificate that would affirm that […]
Africa Overland – Part I: Red Tape in Kampala
Once upon a time, not too long ago, I road tripped through the lower third of Africa. It all started when a friend left a job in Uganda for a job in Mozambique. She moved […]
The Smelliest Catch – Part III
The story resumes as I try to describe what it’s like to work for 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. Because the sockeye season is so short, and the boat has so little […]
Ten Pounds of Living into a Three-pound Life – Part II
I have a bad habit. I schedule optimistically. Especially when I’m on vacation and I want to do more than there is time for. So, optimistically, I believed I could ride all the way to […]
The Smelliest Catch – Part II
We pick up the story as I try to explain how job hunting for a fishing boat job is different from looking for a job in say, the air-conditioned offices of an investment firm. You […]
Impressions from an African Road Trip
I recently had the unique opportunity to drive a car through 4 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. The route was from Kampala, Uganda, along the west side of Lake Victoria, into Tanzania, more or […]
Ten Pounds of Living into a Three-pound Life – Part I
One time, not too long ago, I spent a Thanksgiving weekend in Maui. It was my first time there and as much as I would like to think that I will have numerous future opportunities […]
A Refreshing Foot Bath in the Land of Smiles – Part IV
When we left off, I was standing under a street light on an unfamiliar residential street, trying to glean information from an increasingly soggy map. From behind me I hear a voice ask me if […]
A Refreshing Foot Bath in the Land of Smiles – Part III
We pick up the story in at 7-11 outside Chiang Mai, where I have stopped to buy a map and ask the staff to show me where I am along the road that runs in […]
A Refreshing Foot Bath In the Land of Smiles – Part II
We resume the story as I head back to the hotel after my fish pedicure. I walk out of the spa on my bloody stumps after a one-hour treatment stretches to about 2.5 hours. I […]
A Refreshing Foot Bath In the Land of Smiles – Part I
In 2011 I went to Southeast Asia for the first time; the trip was a large group effort to help a friend celebrate a milestone birthday. We met in Bangkok then took a train to […]
Bike Race
This post is based on an article I wrote in 1999, on the occasion of my first (and almost last) solo bike race. Back then, I submitted it to Dirt Rag, but they weren’t interested. […]
A Refreshing Cocktail in the Land of Smiles – Part III
We pick up the story as I am drinking an iced coffee, with a plan to turn the cup into a gas funnel. Alas, it’s not that simple. I have encountered the world’s strongest plastic […]
A Refreshing Cocktail in the Land of Smiles – Part II
The story left off as I approached a gas station in Pattaya, Thailand, hoping they might fill a bottle with gas for my pooped-out scooter. As it turns out, while everyone seems inclined to be […]
A Refreshing Cocktail in the Land of Smiles – Part I
Recently I took a short trip to Thailand, which included a couple of days in Pattaya. When I was invited to Pattaya, I was intrigued, imagining a few ramshackle cottages at water’s edge, delicious food […]
Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls – Part V
We resume the story as I am driving the route to the purported waterfall – the one that I was unable to find on the bike. As I drive this road, I pass a couple […]
Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls – Part IV
The story picks up once I have arrived back in town after aborting the waterfall ride. I drop the bike off at the shop and decide to drive my rental car around a bit. I entertain […]
Low Context Stranger in a High Context Land
I recently took a trip to Africa and the Middle East – specifically Kenya and Dubai. In Africa, one of my companions, who lives in Uganda, commented that Uganda and Kenya are very high context […]
Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls – Part III
We pick up the story as I stand in the midst of what is either a ranch or the entrance to the waterfall I have ridden out to see. I’m surrounded by dogs, chickens and […]
Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls – Part II
We resume the story as I am riding up into the hills above Puerto Vallarta. After the turn the road indeed gets steeper and climbs away from the river. This fits with what I was […]
Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls – Part I
Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls – Part I The setting: Puerto Vallarta. I am there on a 48-hour turnaround, as part of a mileage run. I have been experimenting with unstructured vacation lately, so I don’t […]
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Africa: Part II
(In the last installment, I had just gotten a flat tire on my car.) The next day the tire shop called to say that I would need a new tire. Later, when I picked up […]
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Africa: Part I
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Africa: Part I For 4 years I have had a Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa card* (I applied for a Bank of America Cloven Hooved Rewards […]
Jennifer Lesher 