When I hitchhiked through Spain with my girlfriend in 1963 on our way to Morocco, we stopped in Seville for a couple of days before taking the ferry to Tangiers.  I was struck by the similarities in home architecture with towns in India and by the words we share… Continue reading →

Ancient History
Many friends wondered why I wanted to visit Uzbekistan. It has been on my travel list since I researched my book, a biography of Emperor Ashoka, who ruled the Indian subcontinent from about 269 BCE to 232 BCE. During his reign, a thousand monks attended the Third Buddhist… Continue reading →

I joined an Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) tour of Morocco with 11 fellow travelers from all over the US.  My first visit to Morocco was in 1963.  A classmate from my boarding school in India, whose father happened to be India’s ambassador to Morocco, had invited me. … Continue reading →

Impressions:

“Arigato goziamsu” or “thank you” are words I heard most during my 20 days in Japan usually accompanied by a slight bow or “eshaku”, signifying politeness.  I joined an organized “cultural tour” of Japan with 13 other travelers with stops in Tokyo, Hakone, Kanazawa, and Kyoto. … Continue reading →

It is always a pleasure to be in New York.  I lived here for 9 nine years long ago, but when I visit, it feels as if I never left.  Its cosmopolitan energy combined with world-class art, theater, and food, is engaging and uplifting.  The last throes… Continue reading →

Like most people, I was feeling cooped up in the US, especially with daily devastating news of mass shootings and vitriolic discordant politics.  But I couldn’t leave until my new passport arrived.  When it did, I scoured the Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) website for the first available spot… Continue reading →

My daughter moved to Seattle in the Fall of 2009 to attend the University of Washington. She has lived there since, went on to law school and is now a practicing attorney and a homeowner. In those twelve years, within the city, she moved from the University District… Continue reading →

New Zealand had been on my travel list for a while because of it reputed physical beauty and good governance: it has become the movie set for films that need a dramatic geographic backdrop; and, together with Nordic countries and Australia, surveys consistently place it is among the best governed… Continue reading →

A friend from graduate school ages ago sent me a message on Facebook, where I had posted photos of Porto, asking if I would be there in two days when he planned to arrive.  By then, I was in Lisbon and let him know that.  It turned out… Continue reading →

As I walked through the courtyard of my hotel in Eilat, a lady reclining on a lounger by the pool said something to me in Hebrew.  In gestures and English I replied that I did not understand that language.  A man next to her translated in a heavy… Continue reading →

I came to Zanzibar because a friend from college 60 years ago, who was born in Tanzania and lives in Dar-es-Salaam, had built a villa on a bluff above the ocean on the island of Zanzibar and invited friends to visit. As I had not spent much time with him… Continue reading →

Palashi (Plassey) is a township on the banks of River Bhagirathi, about 90 miles north of Kolkata (Calcutta), the current capital of W. Bengal, and 30 miles south of Murshidabad, the capital of Bengal in 1757. In those days, Siraj-ud-Daulah was the Nawab (ruler). He had attacked Calcutta to stop… Continue reading →

By the third day of morning walks on the ramparts of Galle’s fort, I was on nodding terms with regular exercisers. One of them stopped me to chat, asked where I came from, what I doing in Sri Lanka, and what I did for a living. My answer to the… Continue reading →