“It’s not a simple right or wrong, it’s a whole new way of thinking.” -Edward Burtynsky, from Manufactured Landscapes on the industrialization of China. TAIZHOU, China- At times it seems as if China is one colossal construction site. The old is being replaced with the new and the new is being replaced with the newer. The [...]
I once took China’s one child policy at face value: a one child policy would mean that people are only allowed to have a single child, right? It all made perfectly clear sense until my first incident of travel in China in 2005. I found that there were far more brothers and sisters than a [...]
With the summer hiring scene quickly approaching and a load of college graduates and other job seekers on the lookout for well-paying, yet stimulating, employment, thousands are flocking to ESL recruiters with opportunities in South Korea. Like most prospective teachers, before I went to Korea I had gathered the bulk of my “reliable” pre-arrival information from [...]
It was late summer in the southern hemisphere and I had been traveling in Australia for only two weeks when a friend told me about IronFest. Nothing sounded better to me than jousting, battle reenactments and blacksmithing in the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney, so I was off. I bid my friends in [...]
Cardboard box sat upon cardboard box in stacks that rose up from the floor to nearly the ceiling of a meerschaum pipe workshop in Eskisehir, Turkey. They had been sitting there for what may as well have been ages, the workshop was nearly devoid of artisans, and I was informed sadly that because of the [...]
“Music chronicles the times: the feeling of the times, the emotion of the times,” spoke Snorri Helgason while sipping from a mug of coffee inside of a Reykjavik cafe. “It just makes people feel good,” he continued as he set down the mug, “that is what music does for me, and I hope my music does to others.”
In his native Iceland, Snorri Helgason rose to stardom fast as the front man for the pop band Sprengjuhöllin. Their first album spent 27 weeks at #1 on the country’s music charts. This is the story of how Helgason rose from the ashes after obtaining national stardom, and has taken his show on the road to stages all over the world.
The human was born a traveling animal. For over 100,000 years we walked across the great Savannas, made way through the jungles, camped in Arctic tundra, and hunted and foraged in the forests of this planet. Then, a little over 10,000 years ago, a blip in the timeline of our species, we started laying down our satchels, building our shelters with a sense of permanence, and began cultivating the grains and animals in our surroundings. This great event, perhaps the largest shift in human cultural evolution, happened around a great temple now called Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey.
This is the ancient story of the rise of the farmer, the fall of the nomad.
A half century has now passed since Korea was bifurcated along the 38th Parallel, and the contending sides could not have developed along more opposing paths. As North Korea absconded under the cloak of a dictorial regime South Korea opened up to the West and is now booming with commerce. What was once a single culture is now two very different societies. What is the future of the Korean Peninsula? Can the two sides reunite, or are they now too different? Does anyone care anymore? With those who can even remember a unified Korea passing into old age and decreasing in number, vagabondjourny.com’s Korean correspondent, Tiffany Zappulla, asks these questions.
These are all workers in the independent economy of Colombia. Otherwise known as hawkers, street vendors, shoeshine boys, and money changers these unregulated laborers sell their wares and offer their services to all who pass through the urban streets of this country.
“Many NGOs and anti-whaling countries see the oceans as some sort of giant zoo or sanctuary. But we look upon the ocean as a resource which we have a right and obligation to utilize in a sustainable manner for both ourselves and future generations.” -Tomas Heidar, Iceland‘s whaling commissioner “Whaling is part of our existence. If the EU [...]
Visiting a Hermit and Not Finding Him: A Journey up Cold Mountain Path The Cold Mountain Road is strange no tracks of cart or horse hard to recall which merging stream or tell which piled-up ridge a myriad plants weep with dew the pines all sigh the same here where the trail disappears form asks [...]
HASANKEYF, Turkey- The history of Hasankeyf goes back 10,000 years. This is over two times longer than the Giza pyramids and Stonehenge, and makes the glorious civilizations of the Maya and Inca seem as if they were flourishing just yesterday. Hasankeyf is one of the oldest places in the world. But this ten millennium run will soon meet [...]
MYSTIC, Connecticut - “The more little miracles I witness the more I believe in the big ones,” Tom spoke as we sat on the side of highway 1, a tick east of Mystic, Connecticut. Thomas Helling was wearing a t-shirt with a large star of David printed upon it’s front in bright blue that had, “Jesus loves you,” superimposed over it.
MYSTIC, Connecticut -Thomas Helling grunted a little as he picked the heavy 10 foot high wooden cross up from the side of the highway and hoisted it to his shoulder. Jesus’ instruction to his disciples was “Walk on.”
ARGENTINA, South America- Okay, so I do feel a little bit guilty, relying on people’s hospitality, but what can I do? They’re just so damn hospitable!
SAN ANDRES DE GILES, Argentina- Argentina’s economy was built on farming, on its famous beef, exported to Europe by the shipload.
ORLAND, Maine – Dave is from Canada, Dave travels by bicycle. Dave also has an interested strategy for finding free accommodation on the road: he trades a little labor to set up his tent on farms. I arrived to work on The Farm one morning to find a tent set up out near the pea [...]
BANGOR, Maine – “Howdy sir!, Where are you hauling that big cross off to?” I rhetorically called out to a man walking down Maine highway 1A with a full sized Jesus cross slung over his shoulder. “To Mexico!” he responded, as he momentarily halted his hike to shake my hand. To Mexico. Why is it [...]
JAIPUR, India- I was picked up in the morning at the front gate of the Rajasthan Hotel by the master wood carver, Umesh Singh, and we rode off on his motorcycle through the busy streets of Jaipur. As we criss-crossed lanes of exhaust spewing traffic, dodged holy cows, honked at broken down beggars, and plowed [...]
ISTANBUL, Turkey-Provisioned with a motorcycle, a camcorder, and a keen lust for discovery, Turkish adventurer, Cihan Karadag, plans to circumnavigate the entire Middle Eastern region by motorcycle, alone. He will depart from Istanbul in early June and projects that this 10,000+ kilometer journey will take more than three months to complete. Photo from Cihan Karadag [...]
Copan RUINAS, Honduras- White flecks of bone glimmered in the archaeologists’ sifting screens and the excitement among the crew was building as the remains of a human being would soon be unearthed after an undisturbed slumber of more than 1,000 years. I watched as the old Honduran archaeologist scraped off the remaining bits of parched, [...]
“I write graffiti because my head and my heart demands me to write. Because I wake up and I go to bed with graffiti in my mind. Because it’s the only thing that makes me forget my problems and my sadness completely. Because it makes me happy.” -Mister Dheo, Portuguese Graffiti Writer. LISBON, Portugal- Portugal: [...]
HODONIN, Czech Republic- “Wine is made by god. The wine maker can only damage it,” spoke the old wine maker Vlasomir Gloss, as he sipped reverentially from his glass of wine. He then paused for a second as his words took effect upon his audience, and then added with a coy smile, “Most wine makers damage [...]
Jocelyn Lieu Interview: Another Concept of Journalism “If you are going after the news, you’re working 60 hours a week, you’re drinking hard. I think I burned out a little bit. But I took away the feeling that the news was useful. . . . I knew more and more of the truth but I [...]
HANGZHOU, China- I first met Loren Everly in the windswept, desolate city of Ulanbaatar, Mongolia. We were both staying at the Golden Gobi guesthouse and bonded when I offered him an orange (a real delicacy in the non-fertile shrublands of the Gobi) and, out of sheer courtesy, he refused to accept more than half of [...]
BYLAKUPPE, India- In 1959, on the heels of their beloved Dalai Lama, tens of thousands of Tibetans abandoned their Chinese occupied homeland and sought refuge in India. Recognizing the atrocious nature of the Chinese invasion and subsequent colonization, along with the uncomfortable political situation in which they were placed, the Indian government absorbed the mass [...]
Tattoo in the New Japan By: Wade P. Shepard After hearing that Tsukasa was dying, I went back to his studio to find out how everything stood. It was true: the master was in no condition to tattoo. The apprentice seemed to coldly shrugged this news off though, as if it was to be expected. [...]
KYOTO, Japan- It was the apex of spring in Japan: the cherry blossoms were in full bloom and the fierce winter winds had died down to a gentle, welcoming hum. I was on a bus with an acquaintance headed to Kitaoji Dori, a fashionable district in downtown Kyoto. There, I would be formally introduced to [...]
HEREDIA, Costa Rica- She spoke with a biting sincerity and curtness that were moving far beyond her words alone. She was a survivor, having witnessed the sharp end of life first hand. Now a professor at Long Island University’s Global College in Costa Rica, the woman who I will refer to only as La Profesora, [...]
“For it is only apparently cocks that are fighting there. Actually, it is men.” -Clifford Geertz, Notes on the Balinese Cockfight Men cheer, roosters squeal, and the evanescent smell of blood permeates the dust-filled, squalid air. The last glimmers of life were just stoked out of an uncomprehending rooster, and I stood witness to this [...]
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