Adelaide Then & Now
Australia.com – August 2005 Curled up in the considerable shadows of Melbourne and Sydney, Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, has always been characterized …
Amman Now
On Air Magazine – October 2006 Amman was once considered parochial and out of touch but is making its way toward hip. Nightlife entrepreneurs …
Rote’s Second Wave
Travel & Leisure Southeast Asia Magazine – April 2010 Diego Arrarte hangs up his cell and accelerates his moderately dented late-model Toyota …
In Pursuit of Tranquility
I was in an ancient, temperate rainforest standing on a ledge perched 150 feet over Fitzsimmons Creek, a pristine, boulder-strewn stream that divides Whistler and Blackhomb Mountains in BC. Fog clinged to the ancient cedar and fir trees on the slopes of Whistler Mountain, and it felt like I’d found the most vibrant and fertile place on earth.
Waka Power
Captain Stan has spoken. It’s time to open the sails as we shove off from Doubtless Bay on a waka horua, a traditional Polynesian catamaran, built from two massive dugout canoes lashed together and bridged by an expansive deck. Opening its sails requires coordinated effort from all 14 on board. The masts are heavy, shaped from one piece of solid timber. We push and pull and seconds later, with the masts secured, the sails unfurl.
Becoming Lombok
It looks like Heaven needs a good rain. Its outskirts could not be dryer. There are a few struggling tobacco plots in the parched brown hills. One abuts a compound of lean-to thatched bamboo shacks with satelite TV.
Here are some other things you didn’t know about Heaven. You get here via a narrow dirt track, which feels more like a trench. Some of the drops are so deep, I actually grunt as the car [yes you can drive to Heaven] lurches forward. Skateboarders will be pleased to hear that Heaven is equipped with an expertly molded, concrete half-pipe. Oh, and I should also mention that Heaven is actually right here on planet earth. In Lombok, Indonesia.