Many of us spend a great deal of time planning our vacations. Where are we going? What are we going to do?…and what happens? A schedule develops. We’ve all done it. Heck, I have gone so far as to create elaborate itineraries and laminate them – one for each traveler on our trip. What this … Continued
Orlando inspires me to use my time wisely because there’s so much fun stuff to do. We went to a theme park every day. We’d get up early and we regularly went to a breakfast buffet so that we could eat a lot so that we would be full for several hours. These are all … Continued
On a cold winter’s night, when the stars lay across the sky, my friend and I decide to visit to Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s dargah. It’s Thursday and the entrance to the dargah is swarming with pilgrims. Wires twist like tendrils around a forlorn lamppost at a distance. Translucent-winged creatures whirl around like Sufi saints lost … Continued
I find it beautifully ironic that I stumbled upon this travel writing contest the day before a significant anniversary in my life. It’s an anniversary I share with my significant other: nature. February 12th will forever be my “quit-aversary,” that is, the day I quit living someone else’s life and started living my own. After … Continued
Gurgling and gasping for air I finally surfaced. Shooting pain surged through my legs and back forcing me to float as flat as possible, the transparent water surrounding me. Adrenaline rushed through me as I heard the muffled screams of victory from my newfound friends on the yacht in front of me, their shouts almost … Continued
Picture a country overwhelmed with a desperate sort of poverty and an even more desperate beauty filled with longing and humming with the undercurrent of a people trying to survive. It’s a country that challenges one’s emotional stability, meaning that every intense emotion known to man will be felt there, sometimes all within the space … Continued
THE SILVER PAVILION When you visit Kyoto be prepared for the incredible. Here you see the distillation of centuries of refinement, enormous wealth, grotesque egotism, tempered somehow by the urge to art, to some factor we might call beauty that is part of being human, a surprise mutation of our DNA in that tiny fraction … Continued
It is a dream of every obedient servant of Allah to spend at least once in a lifetime experience in this beautiful land, Makkah. Why would we want to go to a place known for its heat and overcrowded with people? Coming from a country with the tropical rainforest climate, we would love to avoid … Continued
Although I’m sure that for some people there is one place that comes to mind when they think about where they would wish to spend their time, that statement simply isn’t true for me. There are far too many incredible sights to see even in our small corner of the world. For now I spend … Continued
I have never been celebrated Winter in my life. I am from Indonesia, a very tropical country with never ending summer. Truthfully the idea of having winter is always on my mind. I always want to go to Iceland or even Greenland just to feel some winter euphoria. Then, I decided to go to South … Continued