Hiking to a Hill Tribe in Hsipaw
Since I am living in the land of denial about my own age, I believed I would be fine to do a 15km hike in Myanmar’s Shan State to visit one of their remote hill tribes (even though I hadn’t set foot in hiking boots for over a year)… a hike that turned out to be a 6-hour-long uphill climb. In the heat.
3 of Myanmar’s Many Riches
It's embarrassing to admit that up until a few months ago, I couldn't have pointed out Myanmar on a map, let alone the most important Myanmar attractions. (I have a good excuse, though, since the world map has changed a lot since I studied geography in school, when Myanmar was known as Burma.) Myanmar really only hit our radar after Henk and I decided we wanted to visit Southeast Asia for the...
Alien Landscapes of the U.S. Southwest
I've always felt like visiting the U.S. Southwest was like visiting an alien world, but I had no idea just how alien until a recent visit to New Mexico and Arizona. When people think of the southwest, what often comes to mind are images of Native American pueblos, cacti and the iconic landscape of signature buttes rising out of the red plain like in Monument Valley on the border of Utah and...