Category: Recollections
Stories about events that happened well before the time I wrote the story. Mainly recollections of earlier travels before I started posting on Facebook.
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COOLING OFF IN THE CISTERN
If the happiness of children is a barometer of the peace and stability of a nation, then all was well in Syria when I took this photo in 1990. I was shooting some photos at a farm when I heard whoops of joy and laughter. I found a group of boys in an irrigation cistern having the time of their lives. Someone had turned on the irrigation water and it filled the basin and like boys anywhere they stripped down and took a plunge. I laughed with them and was very…
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HANS AND THE SELVA LACANDONA
Yesterday was an exciting day as I became reacquainted with an old travel companion. Thirty two years ago I was trying to sort out some train schedules at the Ciudad Juarez station in northern Mexico as I wanted to travel to the southernmost state of Chiapas. I was 23 and had a couple of months to kill before I was to head off to the Peace Corps and was hungry for some adventure. I had a book called Backpacking in Mexico and Central America. I chose to do the longest and…
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BATU FERRINGHI 35 YEARS LATER
In 1978, I was a scrawny 19-year-old teenager with a huge lust for adventure. I wanted to experience something exotic so I enrolled for a semester at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. On the weekends I would leave campus and explore parts of Malaysia. I used my thumb to hitch rides and slept wherever I could set up my tent. I immersed myself in the Malay culture and loved every minute of it. On one trip to Malaysia’s east coast I wandered into a village and was introduced to…
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ON! ON!
When I think of happier days in Syria, nothing brings a bigger smile to my face than memories of the Halab Hash House Harriers. I first ran a Hash House Harrier event on the east coast of Malaysia in 1978. I was in a little village and saw signs with HHH so I followed them and soon found a group of Brits, Malays and others loosening up. They invited me to join them on their run. It was the most chaotic run I had ever done. There was no set path.…
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CARPETS BUT NO ARK
In June 1991, my mates Heiko Schnell and Ben and Sharon Timmerman and I drove from Aleppo, Syria to the NE corner of Turkey where it borders Armenia and Iran. Our destination was Mt Ararat. We didn’t find the ark but found this carpet/kilim/soumak vendor along some quiet road with a view to Ararat. I had a hard time passing carpet vendors in those days. I don’t believe we bought anything from this gentleman partly because we had just bought carpets the day before and I already had a soumak very…
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THE BLACK CORAL FACTORY OF MANAGUA
I don’t recall exactly how it all transpired as I write this nearly 40 years after it happened. I was in Managua in July of 1987 visiting some old friends and seeing how the Sandinista Revolution had been progressing since I left in 1985. I was keen to see some black coral. I had documented the black coral trade on Nicaragua’s Corn Island a few years earlier, but wanted to see some more. I really don’t know if I wanted to buy some or document the industry, which could be seen…
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ON THE CORNER IN WINSLOW
I was standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona. Seriously, I was! I had just finished watching the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and got off the train in Winslow. My Peace Corps mate, Denny Hildreth, lived in Winslow and worked for the US Forest Service. He was no girl in a flatbed Ford slowin’ down to take a look at me … but I took the ride regardless. My college buddy, Jerome Welnetz, came from Galveston to join us. Jerome had visited me in Costa Rica and Denny, Jerome and…
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OLYMPIC SERENDIPITY
I was on an LA-bound Amtrak train out of Salt Lake City in July 1984 and found the snack bar. I got a beer and sat next to some men who were comparing the Olympic tickets they had: track and field, gymnastics, swimming. They had event calendars spread out on the table and had marked those they bought tickets for. They booked them months ago. ‘What events did you book?’ they asked me. ‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘I’m just going to feel the vibe of an Olympics. Maybe I’ll catch an event…
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