Defenders of the Fatherland Day: Holidays in Bishkek, Soviet-style (This article originally posted on Defenders of the Fatherland Day in 2014. To follow updates from 2015’s holiday in Bishkek, follow my Facebook Page and Instagram feed.) Once ‘Red Army Day’, then ‘Soviet Army and Navy Day’, and now finally ‘Defenders of the […]
Winter in Kyrgyzstan: Snow Camping at Ala-Archa The long frozen Bishkek winter takes it toll on my traditional pastimes. Growing up in Louisiana, deep in the US south, my love for the outdoors has always extended to camping and hiking and multi-day backpacking but given the locale usually only the warm-weather […]
Photographer’s Guide: the Varanasi ‘Ganga Aarti’ Puja Ceremony Whether for Hindu pilgrims on a spiritual journey or international backpackers on a decidedly more voyeuristic trip, the Indian city of Varanasi draws visitors from all over the world and one of the headline attractions in town is the nightly Aarti puja […]
Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia: An 80 Year Anniversary I’ll level with you for a moment. While planning the perfect Turkey trip itinerary, Lonely Planet and every other tourist guide out there would have you believe that the moment you step into the Hagia Sophia, your life will change. Angels will sing […]
The Museum of Innocence: Love and Madness in Istanbul It’s all an elaborate and precisely constructed lie: a museum built to tell the story of a self-referential book created around the contents of the soon-to-finish museum. A tale of love and loss, but mainly madness, which is entirely fictional but […]
Experienced Traveler’s Guide: Skipping Half the Tourist Places in Jaipur There are, quite frankly, far too many tourists sites in the world for me to have either the desire or ambition to see them all. Sometimes I make a half-hearted attempt but in a place like India where my stomach […]
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.