Jungle Trekking in Laos and Befriending Parasites

Jul 1, 2015 | Laos

The jungle did its job. And the leeches were experts at theirs in the Luang Nam Tha Protected Area of Laos. I scraped the wiggling bloodsuckers off with my knife at every stop, but new ones would grab hold of my left foot even as I was clearing the right. We danced...

Vagabonding Travel Injuries

Mar 24, 2014 | Life on the Road

Looking back through my pictures from the last few years, I found a few fun photos of vagabonding travel injuries that I’ve accumulated while on the road. Some of this grizzly collection were mere annoyances, while others nearly changed (or finished) my life....

Wild Kayaking in Sarawak, Borneo

Jul 8, 2013 | Borneo

I came up laughing but I knew that something bad had happened. That same sickening twist in the pit of your stomach, the gut feeling of inevitability, when reality trumps fantasy — the moment when you know that you’ve sustained an injury that can’t...

The Evil Inside and Wandering Flute Salesmen

Oct 24, 2012 | India

Part 1: The Evil Inside I tossed another handful of pills down like jellybeans. Assorted shapes and colors, antibiotics and probiotics, I had no idea what I just swallowed or the dosage. I didn’t care. No, I wasn’t getting ready to walk into a rave....

Ouch!

Mar 26, 2011 | Thailand

Ouch. Feet are important for vagabonding. Lieutenant Dan’s famous advice from Forrest Gump of “take care of your feet” rang through my head about the time I stepped on the rusty nail in Pai. Rather than step on the sharp point as I would have...