For our first shopping trip after COVID, we chose to go to Marrakesh. Morocco has always been one of our favorite destinations, and our store needed some more color and cool Berber jewelry. It is always fun to rummage through interesting looking stores in the souk to hunt for treasures. We loved these metal signs… Read more »
Category: Shopping Overseas
The Last Himalayan Buddhist Kingdom: Bhutan
Our trip this October took us back to South Asia to visit old friends in both India and Nepal and to make new friends in Bhutan, a country we had never visited before. We found Delhi and Kathmandu as chaotic, bustling, polluted and wonderful as ever, and this made our stay in bucolic and unique… Read more »
Chile & Argentina
During our recent trip to Patagonia, we visited both Chile and Argentina. We liked the flora, fauna and folks in both countries, but wondered why they have had so much trouble getting along throughout their history. Looking closely at a map–you notice that there is a section of their joint border in the southern Patagonian… Read more »
“Gers” and “Yurts” in Mongolia
Mongolia is a wonderful country whose vast landscapes are scattered with round portable nomad tents. The majority of the Mongolian population call theirs “gers”, but the minority Kazakh people in far western Mongolia call theirs “yurts”. Kazakh yurts, however, should not be mistaken for Mongolian gers. There are a number of differences. The two nomadic… Read more »
Driving in Mongolia
Mongolia is a vast country–13th largest in the world–with a small population–3 million. Of interest to the driver, is that it has fewer kilometers of road per person than any country in the world, and some of the worst urban traffic. Until the 1990’s virtually all vehicles, and there weren’t many, were of Russian… Read more »
Why Travel to Mongolia?
Fred and Sharon, former diplomats, have never lived in Mongolia. As a long-time repressive client state of the former Soviet Union, the U.S. didn’t even formally recognize the country until the late 1980’s. As a result, there was no U.S. Embassy in Ulaan Baatar (Red Hero) at which they could serve until too late in… Read more »
A New City of Warsaw
Poles are indomitable in spite of their past!
The Fairy Tale City of Prague
The streets of Prague are full of fairy castles and Art Nouveau!
Middle Europe (New Name for Old Place)
We traveled by train to Prague, Krakow, Warsaw and Budapest.
Hunza: the Inspiration for Shangri-La
A beautiful valley in some of the world’s highest mountains.