Touring San Pedro Prison in La Paz is to enter a brutal, surreal circus - where prisoners run the complex and violence is rife, yet families also live inside.
Stories
CRAZY TRAVEL STORIES + NOTES FROM THE ROAD
Dangerous travel scams: My crazy story - and advice on how to avoid - being drugged by "friendly" strangers while traveling.
A dental disaster when a broken tooth became a root canal and then a torturous extraction and a drugged high.
While the world watched it on TV, I was caught - unknowingly - amid a massive cyclone that devastated coastal Bangladesh in 1991.
What can I say: it was a bus trip that nearly topped all bad bus journeys ...
Encountering a traffic accident in Laos gets me thinking about death and near accidents in West Africa.
From van-camping over a lake and mountain panorama in Yunnan, to being sent to a quarantine area during the Coronavirus outbreak in China.
Traveling to the open-pit diamond mines of northern Sierra Leone, once land of civil war, brutal warlords, and "Blood Diamonds".
Traveling Syria in 1989, encountering classic Islamic hospitality on a bungled hiking trip to the desert ruins of Halabiye on the Euphrates River.
SUBSCRIBER ONLY POST. Crazy travel story about love and tequila amid the ancient Sun + Moon Pyramids of Teotihuacan in Mexico.
In 1994, I hitchhiked to the remote rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, where in Medieval times they were called “The Jerusalem of Ethiopia”.
As I returned to Bangkok’s Khao San Road tourist district, I asked myself: Was this a freak day or is “the land of smiles” turning sour?
Crossing the deserts of Baluchistan in western Pakistan is a wild adventure, encountering nomadic tribesmen amid desolate spaces.
Entering a small town in Saddam's Iraq seemed a quiet and friendly experience - until a children's parade proceeded down the mainstreet.
SUBSCRIBER ONLY POST. Yemen is fascinating! Get my take on the history + culture of Yemen.
Part #2 of story heading into outer Indonesia to Papua in search of my GF -Erica's, long lost father that she hadn't seen for 30 years.
Last night I dreamed a disturbing dream. And that nightmare seemed real the next morning - walking the streets of Kontum in Vietnam.
A letter home from my time in Ainaro in the mountains of East Timor, living with a local family and working for the United Nations in 2000.
Some days on the road travel takes a nauseous turn. My rant about dumb tourists and mass tourism in Cusco, Peru in 2002.
First impressions of traveling in Tehran - Iran, in 1990. Racing across the city in a taxi amid chaotic streets that seemed asking for accidents every minute.
Luxor can be painful beyond the ancient beauty - scammers, hawkers, gigolos and inflated prices. But it doesn't have to ruin your trip - try these tips!
From drinking beer with a young homeless alcoholic to helpful locals - some people encounters and other moments traveling Bulgaria.
Musings at the end of an epic overland trip across Asia and Africa; broke and confused. But mostly, about how awful hostel dorms can be for a light sleeper.
Fake police travel scam in Nairobi, Kenya. But were they fake police or corrupt cops? Read this crazy story and decide for yourself.