Take the Zambezi, one of Southern Africa’s largest rivers. Let it loose across the floodplains of Angola and Zambia, tributaries swelling it until the river is as large as a racing track. Once the waterway is flowing with full force over the basalt plateau of southern Zambia, cut a 1700-meter wide gash in the valley and watch the entire width of the river come pouring down an 180-meter face of rock into a narrow gorge. That is Victoria Falls, one of the most monumental waterfalls in the world.

The falls’ indigenous name, Mosi-oa-Tunya, means “the smoke that thunders”. And indeed, it roars, it throws up spray, it crashes and it swirls – Victoria Falls is an overwhelming sight, twice the height of Niagara Falls. So spectacular, in fact, that it already was a popular tourist attraction in 1905, when the railway from then-Rhodesia to Cape Town was completed under British colonial rule. Now a World Heritage Site, Victoria Falls attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, some content to simply take in the natural wonder, others, like me, daring (or brainless) enough to bungee jump over the gorges, too. (more…)

Tags: air, Angola, assignment, attraction, basalt, basalt plateau, Bounced, bragging, bridge, british colonial rule, bungee, bus, Cape Town, capital, cash, center, century, chasm, chatter, circle, cloud, colonial, content, crest, cry, David Livingstone, Day, departure, departure time, direction, Doctor, drizzle, dry savannah, end, entrance, explorer, eye, face, fact, fall, fame, Fell, fine, floodplains, footbridge, force, friend, gash, gear, glimpse, gorge, ground, haze, headfirst, height, Heritage, honor, indigenous name, jump, Leila, light, Livingstone, loan, Lusaka, meter, mid, monarch, morning, Mosi-oa, name, narrow gorge, Niagara Falls, o clock, One-two-three, opportunity, park, path, payday, plateau, platform, presume, protection, Queen Victoria, railway, rain, rainbow, Rhodesia, ride, river, rock, rule, Saturday, savannah, Scottish, scottish explorer, side, sight, site, smoke, smoke that thunders, Southern Africa, southern Zambia, spray, stand, statue, statue of david, Stream, structure, sun, surprise, swing, then, time, tourist, town, track, traffic, transportation, transportation schedules, Tunya, underfoot, valley, victim, Victoria, victoria falls, visit, void, walkway, water, waterway, way, width, work, work assignment, world, world heritage site, year, Zambezi, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Time really does slow down on an island, which is hard to comprehend for those of us caught up in the fast paced pressure cooker of modern society, but it’s the single thing I enjoy most about the island life. The smaller the island, the slower the pace, and the first one I visited was also the tiniest I’ve been to, but it was just this smallness that made it such a special place. In the southern Caribbean Ocean, just north of the Central American nation of Honduras are the Bay Islands, a string of three small tropical islands, of which westernmost Utila is the smallest.

Known in backpacker circles as a great, cheap place to get your scuba diving certification, Utila offers little more to do, but plenty to enjoy. Like the other Bay Islands, Utila is reached by a short ferry ride from the mainland coastal city of La Ceiba. Unlike the rest of Honduras, English is more widely spoken than Spanish, and the native inhabitants are primarily Garifuna, descendants of Black Caribs, giving it a much different feel than the rest of the country. Tourism has become the primary source of income, and Honduras recently made Utila a tax-free zone to encourage its further development, as well as standardizing scuba diving rates (read this as get there now before it gets overdeveloped). (more…)

Tags: accommodation, activity, affair, anything, Arriving, backpacker, Baked, bar, barracuda, Bay Islands, beach, beer, beginning, bit, Black, body, breakfast, caribbean ocean, Caribs, Ceiba, Central American, central american nation, certification, challenge, chicken, cinnamon, city, classroom, coast, coastal city, Coco, coconut, comprehend, conch, cooker, country, country tourism, couple, course, Cross Creek, Day, Development, dinner, dirt, dive, dive centers, dive certification, dive courses, dive shops, diving, end, English, evening, everything, excitement, favorite, fellow, ferry, ferry ride, flame, fly, Food, Fresh, gallon, Garifuna, gear, grouper, hammock, hawkers, heat, home, Honduras, hotel, hour, Iguana, income, island, item, La, la ceiba, lack, life, magnet, mainland, master, midday, middle, milk, morning, nation, native inhabitants, north, Northern, offer, pace, PADI, palm, Pan, person, place, plenty, point, prep, pressure, pressure cooker, remainder, research, rest, restaurant, rice, ride, right, road, row, salad, sand, scuba, scuba diving certification, seafood, shack, side, siesta, site, society, source, southern Caribbean Ocean, Southwest, sparse, spiny, station, string, sugar, Taracina, tax free zone, terrace, thing, time, tourism, track, trade, tropical islands, tuna, USD, Utila, vat, volunteer, westernmost, while, woman, world, Xijing, zone

I sat down at the slender, grey-topped table next to the leafy fence that marked the edge of the Gimbsheim Weinbrunnenfest. My company for the evening, all of whom were more than three times my age, could easily have been half the participants in any small town ladies night bingo club.

Expecting to slowly sip a glass of wine or two over conversation of knitting, gardening, or perhaps if it got a little edgy, how so-and-so had stolen someone else’s goulash recipe and passed it off as their own, I settled in with a mild sense of dread. (more…)

Tags: Abend, afternoon, age, air, answer, approval, area, ascent, awkwardness, bakery, bike, bike ride, bingo, bit, boy, breath, butcher, cathedral, chuckle, club, Coliseum, comment, commercialism, community, company, conversation, couple, dance, dancing, didn, dread, drink, drinking, edge, Eiffel, elderly woman, Europe, evening, evening festivities, Expecting, experience, farmer, fence, festival, floor, flung, Food, foot, Friday, garden, gardening, Germany, gift, Gimbsheim, glass, glass of wine, goulash, goulash recipe, grape, Guten, hadn, hair, haired woman, Hilde, hillside, housing, humor, July, ladies night, landscape, laugh, locals, mild sense, moment, monument, morning, Mosul Valley, music, narrow streets, Neuschwanstein Castle, next morning, night, night bingo, nothing, Oppenheim, Paris, postcard, recipe, region, Rheine River, Rheinhessen, ride, ridge, Riding, road, rock, Roman, round, Ruth, Scattering, scene, scenery, search, sense, shirt, shop, sightseeing, sip, site, someone, something, spot, Square, St. Mark, stand, stone, strung, table, three times, time, tourist, Tower, town, town ladies, translation, variety, War, wasn, way, weekend, Weinbrunnenfest, wine, wine festivals, wines, woman, world, year

Switzerland is a country of picturesque mountain ranges and quaint little alpine villages. I had always wanted to visit this beautiful country and now I was finally getting my chance. However, having spent the whole day on a train, I was starting to wear down and my excitement was dwindling to say the least.

A bus ride was in order before we would arrive at our final destination, but as the bus approached, I fel sense of dread boiling up within. It was getting late in the evening and I hadn’t booked accommodations, so we would have to search in the rain for a bed. (more…)

Tags: adventure, age, air, alpine, alpine lake, alpine villages, Alps, architecture, assortment, backyard, base, basement, beautiful country, bed, biking, book, Brienz, brighten, bungee, bus, bus ride, cabin, cake, calm, calm waters, center, central Switzerland, chance, city, cliff, climbing mountain, couldn, country, couple, Day, delay, destination, distance, door, doorbell, dread, due, eagerness, edge, energy, evening, Everyone, excitement, exhaustion, extreme sports, exuberance, eye, fact, fel, final destination, floor, forefront, front, Gimmelwald, glacier, gondola, guide, hadn, halt, help, hiking, hill, home, homemade, hop, house, ice, Interlaken, Jungfrau, jungfrau region, Lake, landscape, Lauterbrunnen, lawn, life, location, look, lunch, man, medium, mist, months of the year, mountain, mountain ranges, multiple companies, name, nature, night, office, order, outcrop, panorama, pasture, path, picturesque, picturesque mountain, plenty, porch, railing, rain, rainbow, region, ride, river, river rafting, roadway, rock, room, sce, scene, scenery, school, sense, shop, shopping, simplicity, skiing, sky, sky diving, snow, Snow-capped, snowy, spot, stage, state, station, stomach, stone, stop, store, street, summer, sun, Swiss, swiss alps, Switzerland, Thun, time, tourist, town, trail, train, trip, valley, variety, view, village, wall, wasn, water, way, window, world, year

Everyone in Bali smiles. Big, broad, beaming smiles. And all that’s necessary to evoke it is eye contact. Even when they may be preoccupied with weaving their scooters through traffic or carrying a heavy, flailing pig across the road, you only have to hint at a smile from your own lips and the response is immediate and electrifying.

“Transport?” queried a smiling young man on a sidewalk in Ubud, an artsy town in the south-eastern hills. It’s a frequent offer on the streets of nearly every town in Bali. Everyone with a car will offer you a ride for a small price. You may say “no thank you” seven times on Monkey Forest Road in Ubud. But what’s heart-warming is that you will always receive an enthusiastic “Welcome!” in response. (more…)

Tags: apple, approach, Arung, awe, Bali, Balinese, balinese landscape, bamboo, Big, bike, brown snake, Buddhist, buddhist history, buffet, cacao, car, coast, coffee, coffee beans and tea leaves, combination, compound, contact, conversation, country, countryside, crowd, Culturally, cycle, daytrip, dialogue, dinner, eagerness, economy, edge, end, English, Everyone, everything, exception, excitement, excursion, Exploring, eye, eye contact, family, feast, foreigner, Forest Road, fountain, France, friendliness, fruit, gateway, genuine friendliness, ginger, ginger tea, Group, Hallo, Happiness, heat, heavy, Hindu, history, home, host, Indonesia, indonesian islands, landscape, leftover, life, luxury, man, mangosteen, meal, middle, mixture, Monkey, monkey forest road, Moon, morning, Mount Batur, mountain, mountain bikes, music, Muslim, muslim country, nut, offer, office, orchard, papaya, path, peanut, peanuts, pear, pig, price, pride, response, reward, rice, rice terraces, ride, road, roosters, salak, school, selection, sentence, service, seven times, sidewalk, skin, smile, society, sound, spicy, stop, table, tea, temple, time, Tour, town, traffic, Transport, Ubud, use, van, village, visit, wall, wave, way, Wide-eyed, wind, year, zeal