Just south of Tajikistan and west of the highway running from Dushanbe down to Kabul sits the tidy Afghan city of Kishem. More than 60,000 people live in the Kishem Valley and once every week nearly all of them walk or ride donkeys into town for provisions. During warmer months sidewalks fill with vendors selling everything from fruit to nuts.
No matter where you live chances are you want to get out of the house and see some place new. Problem is that, though stay-at-home orders stemming from the Coronavirus are being relaxed, the definition of social distancing remains imprecise.
Only donkeys could traverse the rocky nine-mile track running through fields of opium poppy before the U.S. arrived and
By David DeVoss Los Angeles isn’t such a bad place to be when it comes to social distancing. April’s warm sunshine has replaced the rainy weeks of March. Grocery stores are open and relatively well stocked. There’s no sense of panic despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Rarely do you hear the wail of an ambulance.…
By David DeVoss When travel began to plummet in mid February airlines responded in the usual way: they dropped prices. By the last week in February it was possible to fly round-trip from LA to Montreal for $196 on American. Round trips between United hub cities also fell below $200. But then something unusual…
By David DeVoss If baseball is played in Heaven it probably resembles spring training in Arizona’s Cactus League. Every year, during the glorious month of March, 15 major league teams prepare for summer baseball at ten fan-friendly stadiums designed for culinary indulgence, relaxing in the sun and meeting friends you didn’t know you had. Spread…
Spring Training baseball opens in Arizona this week with 15 teams playing more than 200 exhibition games. All of the games take place throughout the Greater Phoenix area from now until March 22. People can argue about the relative popularity of football and baseball, but for native-born Americans baseball will always be the national pastime.…
by David DeVoss Sinitic cultures are famed for their hard work. From Shanghai to San Francisco, Singapore to Seattle, Chinese work hard so they can take 10 days off for at Chinese New Year. This week Chinese, Vietnamese and Koreans are celebrate the Year of the Rat, one of the zodiac symbols that define the…
The greatest journey in life is the one we all take to the grave. It’s a trip where getting there is all of the fun. Along the road travelers encounter luxury hotels, memorable dinners, historic athletic contests and a bucket list of exciting experiences. For those who invest wisely and are prudent with their savings, the last leg of life can be filled with glamping safaris and Disney cruises with the grand children. Yet travel writers rarely ponder humanity’s final steps toward the ultimate threshold.
Travelers wishing to truly understand China’s rich history must venture beyond the opulent gateways into the real China, a land shaped by wealth and war, to the city of Yangzhou. Located just north of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province, Yangzhou offers modern comfort, exotic beauty, distinctive cuisine and historic sites that reflect the grandeur of the past and the promise of the present. Yangzhou is a city of 6,000,000 that sits in the middle of China’s richest province. The city is famous for feminine beauty, imaginative gardens and artistic handicrafts that include lacquer and stoneware, bamboo carving, cutlery and block printing. Knives and cleavers made in the city are so finely honed that cooks can slice a 1-cm-thick bean curd into 30 paper-thin shreds without breaking a single one.
Because of its fertile soil, abundant water and temperate climate, Jiangsu Province is known as China’s “Land of Fish and Rice.” In Yangzhou, the ancient Southern capital, the riches of Jiangsu are expressed in the design, construction and careful maintenance of magnificent urban gardens…