On Friday, July 15th 2016, a contingent of the Turkish armed forces attempted to overthrow the elected government of Turkey. I was in Istanbul at the time, and this is my recollection of what happened throughout the night. That evening, military forces broke into the broadcasting room of TRT News and handed the anchorwoman a document, which they forced her to read on-air. "The Turkish Armed … [Read more...]
Smile
Walking up the steps of Kashgar's old city, I came across an older Uyghur gentleman being escorted by what looked to be his daughter. He stared at me intensely as I walked towards him, a faint air of distrust in his eyes. No doubt I was just another tourist, here to take photos of the last of the city's ancient mud-daub buildings. There were a few tourist shops operating within the confines of … [Read more...]
Oman Road Trip
Oman had never really been at the top of my must-see list. Having traveled to quite a few countries of Arabic and Islamic influence, I generally know what to expect: friendly people, early morning call-to-prayer wake-ups, and pesky alcohol restrictions. I've had many great experiences in these places and made dozens of friends, but despite that I generally favor traveling to other regions of the … [Read more...]
Rickshaw Run, Yet Again
"Whew! What an adventure. Now that it’s finished, I can honestly say that I’m glad I did it. Would I do it again? Nope. Would I go back? Yes, I would go back to parts of India (and definitely Nepal) again, but just as a tourist, not as a rickshaw driver." The above snippet was taken from the last page of the blog that I wrote while doing the Rickshaw Run in 2011. I totally meant what I wrote at … [Read more...]
Burning Man Revisited
Burning Man. A city in the desert. A culture of possibility. A network of dreamers and doers. An annual experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance. I had no intentions of going to Burning Man this year. People asked throughout the year if I was going to go again, and after missing the opening ticket sales online (through a technical oversight … [Read more...]
Welcome to Africa
As some of you may know, I am currently in the middle of a 13,000 mile charity drive from the U.K. to Cape Town (www.shoebaru.com). We (Team Shoebaru) are currently "stuck" in Aswan, Egypt, which has been our de-facto base of operations for the past month or so while we sort out numerous visa and mobility issues on our way south into Sudan. Before we arrived here we traveled through Europe, taking … [Read more...]
