“Where are you from?” “How long have you been traveling?” “Where did you just come from?” Those are probably the top three questions I hear travelers asking each other when they first meet, when I’m hanging out in the common area of a guest house or hostel. If they’re asking…

It was a cool, overcast afternoon and the light was gorgeous, so I walked over to Penang’s Protestant Cemetery to take pictures. The British East India Company settled Penang, an island off the west coast of Malaysia, in 1786. This cemetery was opened that same year and used for over…

A little blond boy stood barefoot at the edge of a pier on a lake, and he had something in his hand that he wanted to throw in the water—an orange leaf that he’d found on the path. He put his hand behind his ear and flung the leaf forward. As he…

Bicycling was one of my passions as a kid. At the age of 10 or 11, I would ride my green three-speed Schwinn into the countryside and go until I got lost. Then I’d find my way home again. That was my game, a way of bringing adventure into my bland…

Last night I walked over to the seafront. It’s only a few blocks through the city streets. Sometimes it seems like you just need to stand near the water. And I wanted to see Georgetown, my city, by night. It’s like the longing to see your lover in different clothes…

Six months ago, I turned my life upside-down. Literally. I went to the other side of the Earth. At the end of October – a month before my fiftieth birthday – I boarded the Texas Eagle train in Maricopa, AZ, and let it rumble me west, and then climbed into…