Mongolia.  The three-day national holiday of Naadaam is celebrated all over the country. It is a time for proving one’s skill. Competitions in archery, horseback riding, wrestling and bone throwing are mainstay events. In the capital, these are huge events…

Jordan.  In the town of Petra is a huge and interesting archeological sight. It is a sprawling mass of rock cliffs in which you can see carved tombs (and some are elaborately carved tombs) from the  very early times of…

Portugal. In the early Neolithic Era, in what is now the town of Almendres, somebody lugged multiple boulders to a hillside and set them in formation. These stones were 6-8 feet tall and placed in a symmetrical pattern on the length…

Iceland. I ate a chip from a chunk of a 100,000-year old glacier ice. It was served on a tray. I was on a boat (actually an amphibious vehicle) in the glacier lagoon of Jokulsarion. The day was full of…

Thailand. I remember bicycling around the ruins at Sukhothai and the surrounding area. With foot brakes and a low seat, it was just my speed. While in “ruins,” the standing remnants retained enough detail so you didn’t need much imagination to…