The final day of the trip we head south, to the DMZ, the 2.5-mile-wide swath near the 38th parallel that separates North and South Korea, a border so tense it could squeeze the breath out of stones. The paved road is wide and flat, seeming to stretch the length of the world. It is big … Continued
The next day is triumphal, the morning enormous as the sky. We visit the Revolutionary Regional Museum, fronted by ectype Siberian tigers, which still roam these mountains, and are traditional symbols of a unified Korea. Inside, the displays celebrate the North Korean victories over Japan and America, including a video of such shown on Toshiba … Continued
(Note: this piece does not explore or comment upon any political or ideological aspects of North Korea, nor does it pass any judgments or make critiques…there are many books and articles that do that…but rather this is merely an account of travel through a remarkable and little-known land as a guest of the state.) It’s … Continued
From Iguaçu I travel west over the Andes and beyond, over one of the emptiest stretches of water on the planet, en route to Easter Island, a fine dot on the map of the Pacific. If Iguaçu is full presence, Eastern Island is absence. Fretted by incessant winds, it is surrounded by a million square … Continued
Northern Ireland. It warms every hand that stretches, and it thaws the frozen seas within us. There is something eternal about the light of this land, a radiance that unshadows the future, like the pillars of a bridge supporting what we see into the delights of what we soon will. So praise this bridge that … Continued
Although my personal country count is over one hundred countries (by Traveler’s Century Club), I still have so many places to go on my list! For a long time, I have wanted to go to Iceland and Ireland (and Italy–George calls is my “I” List). When Richard Bangs spoke at our travel event in October, … Continued