What Dreams May Come – Those personal favorite moments that explicitly remind you why you went traveling in the first place.

• The Big “Sur’ved” August 23, 2020
    “Something, someone, some spirit was pursuing all of us across the desert of life and was bound to catch us before we reached heaven. Naturally, now that I look back on it, this is only death: death will overtake us before heaven. The one thing that we yearn for in our living days, that makes us sigh and groan ...
• Falling Into Jackson Hole August 13, 2020
    “I was having a wonderful time and the whole world opened up before me because I had no dreams”   I’ve long associated the term “Jackson Hole” with the longtime local burger joint my dad used to take me to in NYC. I never knew it was named after an actual real place I’d ever set foot ...
• Rushmore Into The Badlands August 11, 2020
      “Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.”     After our night in Sioux Falls and adding 2 more to our RV yesterday, this morning filled up our tires with more air and picked up some supplies at a trucker’s gas station.     Then ...

FML. – Moments where I /someone/something failed at life and it was pretty funny.

• Love In The Time Of Corona/COVID-19 — The Cassandra Complex July 22, 2020
  The Cassandra Complex – the phenomenon from Ancient Greek mythology when one’s valid warnings or concerns are disbelieved by others. We’re now literally living it.     Despite having endured a crisis so visceral in NYC (or Italy, Wuhan, etc.) 4-5 months ago, and being grateful to have received enough international attention that we even felt hopeful that what we ...
• “Namibe”-tter Duo, I’ll Wait. Otherwise You Gotta “Lubango!” March 3, 2020
    After some uneven back-and-forth kind of travel in the outskirts of Luanda yesterday, we “slept in” this morning until 8am before starting out day with a drive to Cacuaco for a stroll around a local fishing village.     My gut feeling here was that since tourism here is still raw and developing, I would recommend keeping on ...
• We Wanted To Go On A Safari, But Then They Told Us To “Kiss-ama” Ass! February 29, 2020
    Not all travel days are going to be as perfect.   After returning last night to Luanda, this morning we woke up bright and early at 6:30am for a drive to Kissama National Park, arriving there at 9am.     Here in the park you supposedly can go on a safari for the local wildlife, but our prepared safari jeep ...

This Is A Crisis. – Moments where I/someone/something failed at life and it wasn’t really that funny (at least at the time).

• Love In The Time Of Corona/COVID-19 — The Cassandra Complex July 22, 2020
  The Cassandra Complex – the phenomenon from Ancient Greek mythology when one’s valid warnings or concerns are disbelieved by others. We’re now literally living it.     Despite having endured a crisis so visceral in NYC (or Italy, Wuhan, etc.) 4-5 months ago, and being grateful to have received enough international attention that we even felt hopeful that what we ...
• Love In The Time Of Corona/COVID-19 — Lockdowns & Phase Two June 24, 2020
    Phase 2 of our reopening has begun, and with our infection rates continuing to decline here in NYC, the irony is not lost on me that profound changes happened to us even when we were trapped in stasis. During the past 3 months since March 20th — the country’s longest — I didn’t lament just the ...
• Love In the Time of Corona/COVID-19 — Going On Offense May 14, 2020
  PSA: It’s time to play offense on COVID-19   About 9 weeks ago I had written how in the middle of the tsunami of the first wave, the safest assumption (with the relative little information we had) at the time was that one should come to the ER only if they had a life and limb threatening ...

“No Serendipity, No Story!” (WTF Moments) – The most wonderful moments in travel are the coincidences we discover with other people.

• They Put A Monsooner On The Moon — The White Desert Of Egypt December 7, 2019
    Once in a while, I’m blessed to write up and release a blogpost that will stand the test of time in my memories.     This is one of those posts.     The irony of today rests in the fact that after a decade visiting 180 countries and territories, that it would take me returning to my first ever country ...
• Announcing Our Inaugural Social Media Manager: DIANA KLATT, MPH October 10, 2019
  After 2 months deliberating over an incredibly competitive applicant pool on the eve of our upcoming 10 year anniversary trip to Egypt next month, I have the unique pleasure to finally announce our inaugural social media manager for The Monsoon Diaries: DIANA KLATT, MPH (@klattalyst). Global health epidemiologist, project manager for HealthRight International, creative director for ...
• Rwanada Forever! July 2, 2019
    After a week in Afghanistan and a sobering day in Kabul, it’s definitely time to get out of harm’s way and return home. There’s no need to exacerbate the situation by lingering during what will be another tense period in Kabul. On our way back, Evan and I decided to spend 3 days in Rwanda as one ...

Way Way Off The Beaten Path – Totally out of the box travel experiences; you won’t find these experiences in any guidebooks.

• The “Cabin-da” Woods: “We Are Not Ready For Tourism” | Everything You Need To Know About Visiting Cabinda! March 6, 2020
    Primer on Cabinda Formerly known as “Portuguese Congo” and no larger than the state of Delaware, Cabinda is a curious little region sandwiched between the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Having endured a 30 year long struggle to claim independence from the rest of Angola, it likely may become one of ...
• “Namibe”-tter Duo, I’ll Wait. Otherwise You Gotta “Lubango!” March 3, 2020
    After some uneven back-and-forth kind of travel in the outskirts of Luanda yesterday, we “slept in” this morning until 8am before starting out day with a drive to Cacuaco for a stroll around a local fishing village.     My gut feeling here was that since tourism here is still raw and developing, I would recommend keeping on ...
• We Wanted To Go On A Safari, But Then They Told Us To “Kiss-ama” Ass! February 29, 2020
    Not all travel days are going to be as perfect.   After returning last night to Luanda, this morning we woke up bright and early at 6:30am for a drive to Kissama National Park, arriving there at 9am.     Here in the park you supposedly can go on a safari for the local wildlife, but our prepared safari jeep ...

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way Around The World. . . . – Some stories simply can’t be categorized.

• Love In The Time Of COVID-19: The Flu Shot September 15, 2020
  TLDR PSA (look how serious I am); Get the flu shot. While getting the shot may not entirely prevent you from catching flu, it’ll still dramatically decrease your chances of accidentally infecting or killing others (like grandma), or ironically dying from flu yourself. Before COVID-19, patients with flu symptoms would overwhelm ERs every year, all infecting one ...
• Knock-Knock-Nakh-chivan On Heaven’s Door: 2 Days In Nakhchivan August 29, 2018
    It’s time to shift monsooning back into higher gears — today we’re visiting Nakhchivan! A landlocked exclave separated from Azerbaijan by Armenia (or as some say, physically located within Armenia), but an otherwise autonomous region under the control of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Nakhchivan is similar to exclaves like Alaska (thanks Alan Sedgwick!) and on a level less ...
• How I Visited 150 Countries During Med School + Residency & Still Became a Doctor June 30, 2018
  June 23, 2018 6:46pm: Counting down the last 14 minutes in my last shift of residency and the rest of my life.  6:47pm: In 13 minutes I am about to graduate as an attending physician.   It’s remarkable to look back and realize all it took was losing a bet to get here.  4 years of college, 4 years of med ...