Palau

I loved my time in Palau in 2017. This country is a gem and if you can make it here you’ll see why. No glitz, no glamor, just pure beauty combined with 5-star luxury service. You see, they don’t teach their people to be nice on this island, they just are nice. While I...
St. Lucia

St. Lucia

Country Information: St. Lucia is a volcanic and mountainous Caribbean Island between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. The capital of St. Lucia is Castries. There are approximately 164,464 people living here. The official language of St. Lucia is...

Guyana

  Guyana might be one of my favorite countries in South America. Why? When I visited in 2016, I found it to be vibrant, had lots of positive energy and was the only country on the continent with a distinct Caribbean flair. Its major exports are gold, bauxite,...

Marshall Islands

The world travelers ahead of me said that the Marshall Islands were a dump, however, I loved my time here in 2016. I arrived and took a $5 taxi ride from the airport to the center of downtown Majuro. From end-to-end Majuro is 35 miles long and on average is about 100...

Singapore

Feeding an orangutan in Singapore Country Information: Singapore, founded in 1819. The capital is also named Singapore, and the population is over 5.8 million. There are many religions practiced in Singapore, with the main ones being Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and...

Brunei

  In 2016, I was incredibly fortunate to be in Brunei on its National Day, celebrating its (33rd) independence from Britain in 1984. Its downtown streets were lined with 33,000 members of the military and students from schools from all over the country. I got a...

Iraq

Wow, quite a trip to Iraq. There were several ISIS-inspired bombings in Baghdad just before my arrival, which made me second guess my decision to go there. However, after speaking with Douglas Layton, the President of the Kurdistan Iraq Tours, I was reassured of my...

Iran

A week prior to leaving for Iran (in ’16) I still did not have my visa and I was getting a bit nervous. This is a country that has had US sanctions imposed on it since the 70s and gets few visa requests from Americans. I’m sure that my request was thoroughly...
Myanmar

Myanmar

Woman from the Kayan tribe wearing rings on her neck to resemble a dragon Jim’s Perspectives: Myanmar has only, realistically, been actively promoting tourism since 2010, so now is the time to go before throngs of Europeans discover this jewel of a country....

Uzbekistan

“We travel not for trafficking alone. By better winds our fiery hearts are fanned. For lust of knowing what should not be known We take the Gold Road to Samarkand.” These are the final 4 lines of poet James Elroy Flecker’s The Golden Journey to Samarkand....