Mar 28th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
My blogger dashboard tells me, "you have written 465,451 words in 1,000 posts since you started publishing 1,048 days ago." Wow! I've been working for this wonderful blog for that long? It's been fun and I've learned some important things about travel writing.
The subjects are endless
I got into travel writing years before Gadling hired me, but working for a daily blog made me worried that I ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Ethiopia posts
Six things I've learned about travel writing after submitting 1000 posts for Gadling
Mar 28th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
My blogger dashboard tells me, "you have written 465,451 words in 1,000 posts since you started publishing 1,048 days ago." Wow! I've been working for this wonderful blog for that long? It's been fun and I've learned some important things about travel writing.
The subjects are endless
I got into travel writing years before Gadling hired me, but working for a daily blog made me worried that I ...Adventure travel in Somalia?
Mar 9th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
Will Somalia become the next big adventure travel destination?
Short answer: Not anytime soon.
Long answer: For the first time in two decades, there's a ray of hope shining across that chaotic land. The Islamist terrorist group Al-Shabab is on the defensive as it gets pummeled by Kenyan, Ethiopian, African Union, and Somali "government" forces. They've fled Mogadishu and several other ...Tourists killed in Afar Region, Ethiopia
Jan 18th, 2012 at 9:30AM: Five tourists have been shot dead in Ethiopia's northern Afar region, the BBC reports.
Ethiopian State TV announced that the tourists were killed late on Monday by gunmen who had crossed over the border from Eritrea. It said they were part of an Afar rebel group trained by Eritrea.
The names and nationalities of the tourists were not released. Two other tourists were injured and are now in ...Opinion: Dutch khat ban smacks of racism
Jan 16th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
The Dutch government recently announced that it will ban the use of khat, a narcotic leaf widely chewed in the Horn of Africa and Yemen.
I've written about khat before. I've spent four months in Ethiopia, especially Harar, a city in the eastern part of the country where chewing khat (pronounced "chat" in the local languages) is part of many people's daily lives. It's a mild drug that makes ...My adventure travel year: a look back and a look forward
Dec 31st, 2011 at 12:00PM:
This was a strange year for me. I didn't see any new countries but I still had some great adventure travel. I spent two months living in Harar, Ethiopia, writing a series about it for all you fine folks. I'd visited this fascinating medieval walled city back in 2010 during a road trip in Ethiopia and passed through on my way to Somaliland. The three weeks I spent in Harar in 2010 convinced me I ...Somali murals: funky advertising in the Horn of Africa
Oct 21st, 2011 at 2:00PM: One of the fun parts of travel is discovering the street art of a new place. Whether it's the elaborate graffiti of New York or Madrid, the political murals of Mexico, or the current craze of Yarn Bombing, there's always something cool happening on the street.
In the Horn of Africa, street art takes the form of murals. I believe this is a Somali development, because I've seen it much more in ...Eating in the Horn of Africa: camel, goat and. . .spaghetti?
Oct 13th, 2011 at 9:00AM:
When my wife and I went to the Horn of Africa last year for our Ethiopia road trip, we were eagerly looking forward to a culinary journey. We weren't disappointed. Ethiopian food is one of our favorites and of course they make it better there than anywhere else!
While it came as no surprise that the food and coffee were wonderful, the cuisine in the Horn of Africa turned out to be more varied ...My kid is more up-to-date on geography than Google Maps
Sep 23rd, 2011 at 5:00PM: "Where's South Sudan?" my five-year-old asked me.
Being my kid, he's big into maps. He has a map of Africa with all the flags on it hanging above his bed. Using it, he's been able to trace dad's adventures in Ethiopia and Somaliland. It's been marked up a bit since I got it for him more than a year ago. I had to draw the boundary of the unrecognized state of Somaliland on it, and we had to add ...The world's most disputed antiquities: a top 5 list
Aug 3rd, 2011 at 1:00PM:
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art announced Tuesday that it would return 19 Egyptian antiquities that have lived at the museum for most of the last century. These artifacts, excavated from the 14th century B.C. tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (King Tut), include a sphinx bracelet, a small bronze dog, and a broad collar with beads, among other bits and pieces. Zahi Hawass, the former Secretary ...Travel Read: The Coffee Story
Jul 15th, 2011 at 4:00PM: As a writer, I read many books by authors I know. As a traveler, I read lots of books set in places I've been. The Coffee Story by Peter Salmon gave me the rare chance to read a book about a place I love written by someone I met there.
For the record, I don't review books by friends because that's both unprofessional and unwise. Peter isn't a friend except in the Facebook sense of "I got drunk ...The n-word, the g-word and the hidden perils of travel
Jul 12th, 2011 at 11:00AM: Living in Spain, I get a lot of questions about the United States. One of the most common, and certainly the most disturbing, is if it's OK to use the N-word.
Let me just say from the outset that I think the term "N-word" is silly. By using it you immediately think of the word I'm trying not to say so, in a sense, I've actually said it. On the other hand, if I actually used the word n-----, ...Photo of the day: Donkey traffic jam
Jun 2nd, 2011 at 5:00PM:
Regardless of how transportation evolves, sometimes the old ways are still the best ways. New York and London have some of the oldest public transit systems in the world and while they've made a few upgrades in the last century, the original tunnels are still in use. Many parts of the world disregard modern vehicles all together, like these men with their drove* of donkeys. Donkeys are cheap to ...The Obama pen: weirdest African souvenir ever?
May 16th, 2011 at 9:00AM:
Obama is big in Africa. There are Obama shops, Obama hotels, Obama t-shirts, even Obama: The Musical. A craze of naming babies Obama hit the continent when he was elected. Even better, the proud parents could fill out the birth certificate with an Obama ballpoint pen.
I came across these in a shop in Harar, Ethiopia. A friend of mine worked for his campaign, so it seemed the perfect gift. The ...Photo of the day - Don't look a gift buffalo in the mouth
May 12th, 2011 at 5:00PM:
Shopping at a local market can be a highlight of any trip. You might find antiques in Paris, produce and food in Ethiopia, or just tube socks and funnel cake in America. Today's Photo of the Day was taken by
Flickr user American Jon at the
Bac Ha Market in Vietnam, known for colorful hill tribes, livestock of all kinds (some good advice on transporting your new chicken can be found here), ...Ten (more) random observations about Ethiopia
Apr 26th, 2011 at 9:30AM:
When writing last year's Ethiopia travel series, I collected twelve random observations about Ethiopia. These were interesting bits of information that didn't fit in any of my articles. While writing my Harar travel series, I collected ten more.
1. The standard traveler's money belt that hangs from your neck and is tucked under your shirt is very amusing to Ethiopians because Oromo women ...The worst zoo I ever saw
Apr 21st, 2011 at 9:00AM: I feel sorry for my Harari friends.
During my stay in Harar, Ethiopia, they were so hospitable, so eager to ensure I had a 100% positive impression of their city and country. For the most part I did, and I left for the capital Addis Ababa with lots of great things to say about Ethiopia.
They should have warned me not to visit the Lion Zoo in Addis Ababa.
It's billed as a natural wonder, ...The hyena man of Harar: a unique relationship between beast and man
Apr 19th, 2011 at 1:00PM:
The hyenas come just after dusk. We've been sitting in Yusuf's modest farmhouse on the outskirts of Harar talking about them when we hear their familiar yipping laugh. Yusuf picks up a big bucket of mule and camel meat, shoos away his well-fed cat, and strolls outside to meet them.
Yusuf is Harar's biggest celebrity, the famous "hyena man" whom everyone who has heard anything about Harar has ...Qat culture in Harar: East Africa's favorite legal high
Apr 7th, 2011 at 9:00AM:
Every afternoon in Harar, you see men walking along carrying plastic bags filled with leaves. Hararis aren't big fans of salads; they're chewing these leaves for a completely different reason. It gets them high.
Qat (pronounced "chat" in Harari, Amharic, and Somali) is a narcotic leaf from a fast-growing bush found all over the Horn of Africa and Yemen. It's legal and hugely popular in this ...Oromo villagers fight to preserve their heritage
Apr 5th, 2011 at 9:30AM:
A week ago I talked about exploring the ancient civilization of Harla near Harar, eastern Ethiopia. The modern Oromo village of the same name sits on the site and of course farmers come across ancient artifacts as they work in the fields. Harla ruins are scattered in between modern buildings and even the favorite tree for kids to climb is growing out of an ancient ruin.
While this makes for a ...Top ten ways to deal with a slow Internet connection while travelling
Mar 25th, 2011 at 9:00AM:
Adventure travel has its downsides. One of them is that out-of-the-way places tend to have slow Internet connections. Usually this isn't a problem. You aren't going to the ends of the Earth to tweet about it, are you? Sometimes, though, we need to keep in touch. While writing my Harar travel series, I've been having serious problems trying to do this broadband blogging job on a dialup ...
