April 2025 Newsletter Within a month, it’s amazing how you can delve into extremely different cultures. That was recently the case as I went to visit tribes in the world’s newest country, South Sudan. Then I visited, along with Khadija and our friends Nick and Monica, the enchanting country of Oman with a long history of maritime trading in the Indian Ocean and beyond. Both were new countries for me; now I've visited 153 of the 193 UN countries. South Sudan became a country in 2001 after 50...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
March 2025 Newsletter After an extremely interesting but exhausting three weeks photographing at the Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj, India and touring a wide swath of Bangladesh, we had to, alas, start returning home. We had two flight connections in Mumbai and Frankfurt and which gave us an opportunity yo visit those regions. We spent a few days in Mumbai and enjoyably strolled on the Marine Drive Promenade by Back Bay, part of the Arabian Sea. We went before sunset when the light was...
3 months ago • 5 min read
February 2025 Newsletter For ten days, I attended the Kumbh Mela, widely regarded as the world's largest religious gathering, extending 45 days with well over 100 million Hindu pilgrims. Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad) hosts the Kumbh Mela every six years, so the next is in 2031. This year was extra special as it was the Maha (Great) Kumbh Mela which occurs every 144 years. For each Kumbh Mela, the city constructs a temporary city. This year it covered 15.5 sq miles / 40 sq kilometers, about...
4 months ago • 4 min read
January 2025 Newsletter Khadija and I visited six countries in November and December. The December newsletter recounted our experiences in Bhutan, Brunei and Bangkok. Here we are sharing the second half of the trip in Bali, Timor-Leste and Taiwan. BALI: Somehow, neither Khadija nor I had ever been to the geographically sweeping and highly populated country of Indonesia until now. We decided to go to Bali mainly because it had direct flights to Timor-Leste, our next destination. We were...
5 months ago • 5 min read
December 2024 Newsletter Khadija and I are resting home in NYC after taking fourteen flights in Asia, over six weeks and visiting six countries. We call this our “B & T” trip, because every destination started with one of those two letters: Bhutan, Bangkok, Brunei, Bali, Timor-Leste and Taiwan. Bhutan, Brunei, Indonesia (where Bali is located) and Timor-Leste were new UN countries for us. This trip brought the number of UN countries visited to 150 for me and 148 for Khadija. Taiwan is not a...
6 months ago • 4 min read
October 2024 Newsletter Khadija and I just came back from Libya and Yemen. Amazingly, both have two governments that are in conflict with each other. Neither is in a hot civil war, but the factions have quite a way to go to reunite. While both countries are low in any stability index and have few tourists, they were safe where we were and extremely interesting. Libya was a new country for both of us and Yemen for me. This trip brought the number of UN countries visited to 146 for me and 144...
8 months ago • 4 min read
9 months ago • 1 min read
about 1 year ago • 1 min read
March 2024 Newsletter Khadija and I spent February in three countries, two on either side of the Red Sea and one in the Alps. First, we traveled to Eritrea which became a country in 1991 after a 30-year war of independence with Ethiopia. This was UN country #137 for me but Khadija had been there once before in the 1990s for work. The capital, Asmara, could be one of the world's most beautiful and livable cities with its wide streets and ubiquitous cafes serving excellent espresso. However,...
over 1 year ago • 3 min read