Mount Rainier: Hiking to Camp Muir

Sep 16, 2014 | USA

The soundtrack for our breakfast was the booming of distant rock slides and avalanches. They couldn’t be seen, but they were certainly felt. We heard the first earlier that morning just as the hike began. Strange creakings and rumblings in mountain tongues; warnings...

Surviving Super Typhoons

Nov 16, 2013 | Philippines

Happiness is the sag of heavy insects clinging hungrily to a mosquito net. The warm glow of a blood meal just inches away drives them mad while I sleep soundly beneath. The click click of legions of hermit crabs climbing and falling on rocks, holding secret meetings...

A Himalayan Adventure

Nov 3, 2012 | India

An earthquake — the second of the day — rattled the glasses around my rooftop cafe. Exciting stuff, and the first tremor that I’d felt since waiting to climb a volcano in Sumatra last year. The tremor was just enough to remind me that I was in the...

Trouble in Lake Toba, Sumatra

Aug 27, 2011 | Sumatra

Amazing how sore a few days on a motorbike can make your bottom. There are two types of motorbike drivers in Southeast Asia: those that have already fed the concrete and those that are going to feed the concrete with skin and blood. Luckily, I’m still a part of...

Man Eating Lizards on Rinca Island — Finally!

May 25, 2009 | Indonesia (Not Bali)

Update: I actually won a Solas Best of Travel Writing award for my experience with the Komodo dragons on Rinca Island. (it’s a better read than below) “Hissssss….” I was staring down a full sized female Komodo dragon just a few feet from her...