Gettin’ It On Like Genghis Khan: World Nomad Games 2016 What do Steven Seagal, Genghis Khan, and a bunch of kok boru goats have in common? They all seem to shine with the waxy sheen of death, and they were all focal points of the World Nomad Games 2016 in Kyrgyzstan. Successor to the first-ever …
Headed West: Rural Travel in Japan’s Noto Peninsula It’s easy to get caught up in the industrial/entertainment juggernaut that is the East Coast of Japan. The mind-bending neon and manga inspired mayhem are all consuming and distract from the fact that Japan has a West Coast, too. So it comes as a surprise …
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Like all good Central Asia stories, it both starts and ends with a cold beer and a couple sticks of sheep shashlyk. One moment a late night chat over ways to make inroads in Kyrgyzstan, and seemingly the next talking my way past security and picking up a Press Pass for the World Nomad Games. Which, really, is what …
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We hadn’t slept longer than an hour when the disinterested, pale-shirted, tired-eyed Chinese airport security guard padded over and shook us awake. I knew immediately that our plan had failed. When you travel like this, very rarely do things go as expected. Flustered by interrupted sleep at 1:30 a.m. and a lack of any Chinese …
Kyoto, Japan – The Romance and Reality Kyoto, Japan. Mere mention of the name here in Tokyo brings out the capital’s overworked, underpaid and constantly knackered work force into a beaming soliloquy about tradition and romance. Spared of World War II bombs and home to some two thousand temples and shrines, this is a city …
By Beau Miller “It’s governed by a council/ All good souls and wise./ They’ve only $5 for armaments/ And the rest for cakes and pies.” -Pete Seeger, “Andorra” As your attorney, I advise you to rent a fuel-efficient automobile and drive at top speed to Andorra, but before you start packing the trunk with ether, …
Read Part I: On the Water in Guinea Part II We have been following the other boats. There is an art to seeing the schools of fish playing just below the water and on each boat men are standing tall, not even realizing their legs roll of the boat. There is an art to seeing …
By Jett Thomason Part I I’ve been living in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, for six weeks now. Conakry is a city built on a peninsula jutting into the Atlantic and it has long outgrown the French planning for the town. Two million people have been living poor and densely packed for fifty years in the limited …
By Jett Thomason Lamu Travel Lamu was to be the crown jewel of my East African coastal journey. I had read about the town and the imminent construction of a new port. After Mombasa, which is already at capacity, Lamu is the only natural spot for a harbor in Kenya. The construction of a port …
I recently had my first month-long work trip to Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi. The trip represented a number of firsts. First time to Africa. First time to be jetting around for quick site visits rather than long-term job assignments. And first time to be representing the US government in the field with the official passport …
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