House-Hopping, and an Appreciation of Dish Sets
My friends are amazing. They’ve emailed me out of the blue many times in the last month and a half to say, “Hey, I’m gonna be out of town for X number of… Continue reading
We woke to new scenery. After a day of the Gobi (like all deserts seen from a train, beautiful at first, and stultifying after seven hours of exactly the same), the small but… Continue reading
Tomorrow, I’ll get on the train to Beijing. I’ve been in Ulaan Baatar one less week than originally planned, but about five days too many. I know, I said I liked the city.… Continue reading
Do not be fooled. Mongolia may have an average of 280 days of sun a year, but that doesn’t mean you get 280 days of warmth. It is remarkable how beautiful the day… Continue reading
On the microbus from Irkutsk to Olkhon Island, the Russian men around me seemed to keep talking about the fact that I was a woman traveling alone and, if I guessed right, making… Continue reading
The sun was radioactively orange, emerging from the silhouettes of old factories whose destiny within the decade will be live-work lofts. The color felt unreal, only elsewhere available in the artifice of nail… Continue reading
As you may have noticed, there were a lot of emotions in Alice Springs. A great upwelling of hope, that push at your sternum like the rumblings of first love, a deep despair… Continue reading
Somewhere on that burnt red off-road track, after my sleepless and sick night of camping in Broome, when my feet burned from sand fly bites and my stomach burned from Sambuca and smoke,… Continue reading
I’m staying in North Perth, but sadly all I can really tell you about the city is how to get to the Wellington Street Bus Station to catch a train to Midland or… Continue reading
My friends are amazing. They’ve emailed me out of the blue many times in the last month and a half to say, “Hey, I’m gonna be out of town for X number of… Continue reading
So I began looking at the Trans-Siberian Railway, because that’s part of the list, and frankly I’m getting to the point here in the Bay where I’m so comfy I don’t want to leave,… Continue reading
I’ve been thinking about traveling to Southeast Asia for some time, though I couldn’t yet tell you when exactly, and it will be for some undetermined amount of time. This just throws the… Continue reading
Western Australia and the Northern Territory provide the independent traveler large expanses of unpopulated, varied, and raw landscapes, ranging from bone dry deserts to pristine azure beaches to the tropical rainforests of the… Continue reading
I tried CouchSurfing on an erratic whim. I was sitting in Dunsborough, doing some research into how to go north. I had decided to fly from Perth to Broome when I couldn’t find… Continue reading
Most tourists don’t come to Alice Springs to be in Alice Springs. For many, it’s just a launching point to get to Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock), the massive and ancient swooping… Continue reading
The day I got on the Ghan in Darwin, I’d been having a rotten morning. I’d woken up at 4am to a shaking and rumbling. My first trained thought was, “Oh, god, an… Continue reading
As I write this, I am back on the train again and it feels almost as if I have come full circle. We’ve got the rad crew, the same ones we had on… Continue reading
You can tell a Californian when they start talking about medical marijuana; I’m listening to a kid near me at the hostel talk about the 25 max plants right now, and it occurs… Continue reading
The trip so far has been a nice mix of hostel and home: I’ve spent a fair portion of the time alone or with people I know at their houses; I’ve spent a… Continue reading