Adventures in Travel

Beautiful islands emerged out of the calm tropical sea. My family owned a small boat with a 40HP engine that we took out onto the ocean. In those days we would just drive the boat up to the shore and planted the anchor right onto the soft sands.

Clambering over the rocks with my father when I was young as we walked around the islands, holding his hand in the warmth of the sun is a moment I will not forget.

During one conversation he said how it was during the war, when the Japanese bombers would come down low.

Engines roared. Plane rides were exciting to me. Until the day an engine exploded on take off.

Flash-forward to now, I have a flying phobia. But I don’t let that stop me traveling to far-flung places.

Granada, Spain, had a small airport. I was reluctant to fly into it. I looked up plane crashes to discover there hadn’t been any. But I wanted to be safe anyway, so I flew into Madrid and took the five-hour train ride.

Houses perched delicately upon cliffs, colorful in the setting-sun hours, picturesque as we sailed the azure waters of Cinque Terra.

I was happy once I reached the summit, my altitude sickness faded into thin air.

Junk food is not my forte and when I’m traveling I eat as healthily as I can. Thailand and Vietnam suit me most, local pho or white rice with chicken. It’s different for me now since I became a vegan.

Kaleidoscopic sunset colors in Costa Rica reminded me of those in my hometown in Asia. Same latitude.

Longing for something a little different I took a trek to Iceland with my daughter.

Meeting like-minded travelers finds one talking to people you would never otherwise talk to.

Necessary, that when in Kingston, visit the home of the great Bob Marley.

Orphanages were everywhere in Cambodia. I visited one and made a donation to buy a school desk and computer.

Perfect visibility provided the best diving in Tahiti. It was my honeymoon. My son was conceived.

Quiet and contemplative was the moment I lay in the soft snow after a fall in the Swiss Alps, my skis nowhere to be seen.

Realizing there I was in Paris, and that that it had been 30 years since I last saw Rodin’s Le Ponseur.

Sometimes when I travel I bring my own pillow.

To travel is to change up your routine and your mind-set.

Unexpected weather forced us to abort a landing during a typhoon in Hong Kong reinforcing my fear of flying.

Very often I find myself afraid. My father told me he didn’t fear anything. We were different in that way.

Winding up in California may have been the best thing I did.

Xtapa, Mexico, I had to have a Bloody Mary before boarding the flight.

You only get one life. Live it.

Zigzagging along hiking trails is my daily ritual. I get the same feeling as traveling.