By: Ali Almond At the time of day when the inky west Bali ocean folds in bands of tangerine, a brawny body adorned by tattoos paddles out on his surfboard. He has a bundle of plastic containers and fishing line nestled under his neck. He smokes a clove cigarette. Somehow he keeps it dry enough to smoke while…
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Alaska: The Failure of Words is the Beginning of Truth
By : Angela Noel Lawson Four-hundred-year-old ice fell into the sea. A crack like thunder preceded the calving. Then shards of ice cascaded down the face of the glacier and crashed into Disenchantment Bay, Alaska. The largest calving glacier in North America, Hubbard is advancing into the ocean. This slow march into the water didn’t…
Saint Louis’s Verve
By: Eva Mulej The city is still flickering from the day’s heat when we finally manage to escape from the verve of Saint Louis, a city on the northwest coast of Senegal. It stretches from the mainland, over the Feidherbe Bridge, to the small island with beautiful colonial architecture and ends at the narrow peninsula…
What Travel Can Teach Us About Minimalism
By : Ashley Mingesz While basking in warm December sun at the top of a pyramid in Uxmal, Mexico, I mused at a familiar feeling I have every time I find myself in a beautiful new place. I’m amazed by how few material possessions I require to be fulfilled when they aren’t available to me….
Fact: We Find What We’re Looking For
By : Angela Noel Lawson Vegas reminds me of a little black dress I once owned. The dress served its purpose. Coupled with a pair of very swanky heels, it attracted the attention I craved. Wearing it felt like I’d stepped into a different world, one I wouldn’t inhabit nine-to-five. But one day, when I…
How to Speak Howler: A Trip to the Community Baboon Sanctuary in Belize
By : John Garry When I reached Burrell Boom in the Cayo District of Belize, I thought I’d heard every possible language spoken in Central America. Belizeans flip between English, Creole, Spanish, and dialects of Mayan with minimal effort—an impressive fact for an unenlightened monolingual American like myself. I expected this; I read about it…
How to be a More Mindful Traveler
By : Elisha Donkin I have a confession to make: on more than one occasion on my travels, I have had to stop and think long and hard about where I’ve actually been, and I don’t mean what countries I’ve been, but literally the town I was in yesterday or even that very morning. In…
The Blind Massage: A Twist on The Southeast Asian Spa Experience
By: Alison Spencer Winding through the men’s section, a distinct thwacking sound echoed down the narrow hallway. I’d had massages previously but never heard such noises, clearly made from hard and repeated skin on skin contact. As I neared the ladies’ area, the cacophony of smacks and thumps only grew, reaching its peak as I…
Overcoming Cultural Differences in the Classroom
An excerpt from Given’s memoir, At Home on the Kazakh Steppe, which tells the story of her two years teaching English in the middle of Kazakhstan. By : Janet Givens As I opened my frayed notebook, I saw my list that Gulzhahan and I had been working on over the past six months or so,…
