It wouldn’t be a honeymoon without at least one magical moonrise, right? We arrived on the island of Santorini (Thira), Greece, in the early evening and were almost done with dinner on the upper terrace at our hotel, when Karel spotted a great, red disk peeping above the horizon. The Mediterranean was glassy smooth, and…
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The Amalfi Coast was one of my favorite places of our spectacular trip around the world. Set off walking in any direction, and an adventure of discovery awaits you, with big views of the Mediterranean Sea, mountains, and cliffs, contrasting with an intimate, enchanted world of orchards and gardens, ancient churches, old stone houses, and…
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A clatter of hooves draws me to the balcony. What? Where? From my perch I can see half of the village of Pontone above and below me. I spot the horse just across a gully, down a bit from me, standing next to a parked van at the end of the single road. A man…
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We finally found out where all the tourists have gone. They’re in Rome; legions of them lining up around the Colosseum, mobs and globs clogging the Spanish Steps, masses of chatterboxes disturbing the sanctity of the Sistine Chapel. We were actually in Rome twice, with the Amalfi Coast sandwiched in-between, and we used our time…
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We always felt safe and well cared for in Egypt, but this segment of our trip was not about immersing ourselves in an authentic cultural experience. Egypt is a challenging place for westerners, and especially for western women. In public spaces, men seem to outnumber women by four or five to one, and sometimes local…
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There are advantages to traveling when tourism is down, but there are disadvantages, too. Our flight to Luxor was canceled due to lack of passengers, so we were rescheduled onto a different flight that left later, and didn’t arrive at our hotel until after midnight. Unfortunately, our bodies still hadn’t adjusted to the five hours…
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If you were an artist in Egypt, you might be tempted to dispense with shades of gray in your palette. In the dry air, the fierce light of the sun brightly illuminates some aspects, while casting others in dark shadow. There is water, or there is not, with a stark end to greenery at the…
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When I was a little girl one of my best friends was a girl from Japan. Our families were very close for several years while we lived in New York City. Then, when I had just turned eight, we moved away. Junko and her family moved back to Japan a short time later, and we…
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We used our last couple of days in Bangkok to take care of errands and do a little more souvenir shopping. I was mostly interested in textiles, but I found some beautiful porcelain at the huge weekend market at Chatuchak. Thai Five-Color Porcelain, also called Royal Porcelain, used to be available only to wealthy nobles….
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We were enjoying our vacation from our honeymoon, which is what our stay in Bangkok felt like, but it was time to be tourists again for a couple of days. Jaa had kindly arranged a home-stay in an area of Thailand that still maintains the old ways of life on the rivers and canals. Karel…
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We returned to Bangkok for a day and bid farewell to Kelvin, who had to fly to New York on business. Interestingly, his work took him to Stonybrook, which is right near where I lived as a child. I’m sorry I couldn’t show Kelvin around my old stomping grounds the way Jaa showed us around…
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