No photos allowed inside but, here, two exterior shots of Lhasa’s Potala Palace. The inside of beautiful and ornate and bejeweled, and brings to mind a lot of questions about the ideals of asceticism in practicality.
Recent Posts
Realities of Traveling in Tibet
I’ll readily admit that I had this whole fantasy built around the idea of Tibet, the way so many liberal-leaning Westerners seem to. I had also been living in China for nearly a year before I went to Tibet, so I had a pretty realistic view of the Chinese position […]
Jungle Hiking in the Mentawi Islands
Before we left modernity, our guide Ed said that we should bring lots of little gifts to hand out while we were in the jungle. In Mentawi, this mostly means two things: smokes and candy. Fully stocked and excited to go, Batiste and Joanna (a French couple I met in […]
Tibet Prayer Flags
Tibetan Prayer Flags Prayer flags just like these fly all over Tibetan Buddhist areas throughout China. Because these are blessed, every time they wind catches these flags and casuses them to blow a little bit of positive Karma goes towards the person who hung them. With the number of these […]
Palau Nias Beaches
Being an Indonesian island, Pulau Nias has lots of good beach and ocean options. I spent most of my days on Nias just driving a motorbike from beach to beach. I’d swim and read for a little bit, get antsy, and drive on to the next beach I found to […]
Buffalo Trace Distillery
Though most of my time in Kentucky was spent with the family of my newly-married fraternity brother Anthony, we did manage to sneak away on my last morning to the complimentary Buffalo Trace Distillery tour in Frankfort. In this oldest operating commercial distillery in the US, the tour starts […]
Hey there! I'm Stephen, this is my travel blog, and that's me in the poofy hat.
I'm a photographer / writer traveling since 2008, and I've been doing my best to visit amazing places.
My current focus is Central Asia, because for a hiking and camping enthusiast it's as good as it gets.