The mountains, the rivers, the waterfalls… these were not the views that I expected in Iraq. And this was only in a few limited days driving around Iraqi Kurdistan. In the time since, I’ve realized there are some incredibly picturesque towns even further afield in Northern Iraq. My guides did a great job taking me […]
I came to Iraqi Kurdistan with fairly open expectations on what to visit. I certainly didn’t come here on some religious pilgrimage, although it started to feel that way as we visited one church or monastery after another. To be clear, these are deeply historic and beautiful sites, but they are symbolic and meaningful in […]
Although Lebanon was effectively the first real stop on this trip, it was added as a bit of an afterthought. My main flight was to Amman, Jordan, with a goal of being somewhere unique and memorable over my birthday. Where, exactly? The list that checks those boxes has gotten smaller over time, and this year […]
I’ll start this post off a little serious, as I can’t be the only person vexed by this issue. What do you do when you love a place, when a place is absolutely dear to your heart, but that place is filled with history with someone with whom you no longer share such feelings (to […]
This was another brief stopover in Singapore where we hit up the highlights and acclimated to the time change. Surprisingly, JAL upgraded us to business from Narita. The United business flight was nice, but JAL business class steps it up even further with a mattress insert and multi-course sushi. I guess status on United can […]
Well, this wrapped things up, in so many ways. The tour of St Vincent began with a large botanical garden and finished at a rather crowded black-sand beach. This was a pretty unique itinerary…. 12 ports, 7 countries, all in 14 days. Even though this was largely done to “check off” these locations, I really […]
Grand Etang Lake is a lovely little stop in Grenada… very striking from the air. The tour for the day included a stop at a nutmeg factory and a spice farm. The day was closed out at a nearby beach. The last drone flight for the day was launched from a basketball court were a […]
A loop around Trinidad from Port of Spain included a number of interesting stops… botanical gardens, food stalls with with Indo-Trinidadian sweets & spices, a city tour, as well as some beach time. It’s a charming island… great food, beautiful at ground level as well as from the air. The beaches were gorgeous.
Another country, another city tour. Barbados was on the home stretch of the cruise and I went on a city tour that included a few historic stops. The cruise terminal has some nice beaches within walking distance and some quiet parks as well that were perfect for a few discreet drone flights. Another uneventful stop:
Reaching the Pitons in St Lucia entails traveling over and through some hilly terrain along the coast for a couple of hours. The journey is mildly stomach-churning, but I had a good driver that made it pretty tolerable. Also, the views of the coast were gorgeous and made the time go by pretty quickly. Close […]
Riding around in a bus with some complimentary booze… well, that was kind of the day in Antigua. There’s some interesting history with the Yacht Club there with rich people coming to try and outdo each other every year. Antigua is probably even prettier than the last two stops. Gorgeous from land and from the […]
Even with a post utterly lacking in content, I feel like I get stalled just trying to throw together a title. That’s my starting point on this thing… Trying to catch up with at least one post per country is pretty challenging with these quick little ports of call. St Kitts was another lush jungle […]
A few suggestions for proper “River Tubing”: minimum water depth of 12 inches, water should be actually flowing, river debris should be minimal. None of these things were true for the tubing on offer in Dominica… so you had this brigade of local dudes shoving this gaggle of sunburned dizzy tourists, flipping them over into […]
Like most of the ports of call on this cruise, St. Martin still has a lot of damage from recent hurricanes. Specifically, a well-known “clothing-optional” beach, “Orient Beach” was pretty much leveled in a storm the prior year and was being reconstructed. That didn’t stop a few determined beachgoers, but for the most part the […]
A leisurely stroll can be had in Road Town, but you’re gonna be making your way through traffic, construction, and debris from recent hurricanes. This third stop on the two-week cruise was in the British Virgin Islands. The place is pretty hectic near the port. Regardless, I still found it worthwhile to spend an afternoon […]