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

  • Easter Island: It’s A Rap-a Nui! December 4, 2024
        Been on all our list, it has its own emoji 🗿, it’s been in the collective consciousness of all those who travel, and like Faroe Islands, it deserves to be visited before you grow too old. The 8 of us jumped on making this trip happen after Thanksgiving and here we are.     LATAM Airlines of Chile ...
  • Where Heaven Meets Earth: Scaling the Sacred to Tiger’s Nest September 25, 2024
      We wake up this morning at the Eco Lodge by Paro to a stupendous view from our room. Today is the day we’ve all been waiting for.     Today we achieve a bucket list item for everyone who knows where Bhutan is on the map, and fans of Nolan’s Batman as it was the inspiration for Ra’s ...
  • This Is My Med School White Coat Ceremony Speech September 20, 2024
      Just today I gave the keynote speech at the White Coat Ceremony of the very same medical school that had let me graduate 10 years ago. 10 years ago when I also gave a similar (but far shorter) keynote speech that could only at best guess what would happen in 10 years. So today I return ...
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FML. – Moments where I /someone/something failed at life and it was pretty funny.

  • Let’s Not Fight If We’re Brazza-s-ville January 10, 2025
    To get in, you first need a VISA: The Republic of Congo website: https://www.ambacongo-us.org/en/embassy-services/consular/visa   Download and fill out 2 copies of the visa form ROC Visa Application Attach required documents 2 passport photos with the 2 visa forms The Letter of Invitation Copy of the hotel reservation Copy of your flight itinerary Prepare payment: Obtain a check or money order for $160 and leave it ...
  • Kinshasa My Worries Goodbye! January 9, 2025
    To get in, you first need a VISA: Download and fill out the visa form: DRC Visa Application Attach required documents One passport-style photograph (2″x2″) taken within last 6 months. Invitation letter from your host OR hotel reservation A printed copy of yellow fever vaccination card. Copy of flight itinerary A copy of the front page of your Passport (bio page only) A valid, ...
  • Niger-ly There! January 3, 2025
    To get in, you first need a VISA: Download and fill out 2 COPIES of the visa form: Niger online Visa Form. Attach the following documents 2 copies of the filled out visa form 2 passport photos to accompany the 2 visa forms A Letter of Invitation Prepare payment; obtain a money order or certified check for: $155 made payable to Embassy of ...
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This Is A Crisis. – Moments where I/someone/something failed at life and it wasn’t really that funny (at least at the time).

  • Kinshasa My Worries Goodbye! January 9, 2025
    To get in, you first need a VISA: Download and fill out the visa form: DRC Visa Application Attach required documents One passport-style photograph (2″x2″) taken within last 6 months. Invitation letter from your host OR hotel reservation A printed copy of yellow fever vaccination card. Copy of flight itinerary A copy of the front page of your Passport (bio page only) A valid, ...
  • Dolomites Be Back! July 14, 2024
      Born here, but not destined to die here.     Mount Sinai Hospital: My birthplace, my first job at 16, a doctor at 33, and most recently, a patient. Only this time I was discharged without one of my kidneys. That wasn’t the plan. Months ago an MRI was offered for 5 years of back pain. I sat on ...
  • Onboard the Choo-Chuuk Plane March 3, 2024
      Here we go! I finally get to experience the United Airlines famed Pacific island hopper in the other direction after taking a part of it 4 years ago. Probably the most burning question is where to sit: If you’re flying from GUM to HNL (eastwards), sit on the right side for all the legs and then switch ...
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“No Serendipity, No Story!” (WTF Moments) – The most wonderful moments in travel are the coincidences we discover with other people.

  • Easter Island: It’s A Rap-a Nui! December 4, 2024
        Been on all our list, it has its own emoji 🗿, it’s been in the collective consciousness of all those who travel, and like Faroe Islands, it deserves to be visited before you grow too old. The 8 of us jumped on making this trip happen after Thanksgiving and here we are.     LATAM Airlines of Chile ...
  • Almost Got the Bhut-an! September 23, 2024
      Upon an invitation by Letti’s friends after our West Africa trip together, I happily accepted and asked for permission if I could also invite a few monsooners if they’d be interested. As I learned about the process, it came at no surprise that the government of Bhutan highly regulates the tourism industry to make it ...
  • Tomorrowland 2024: Life July 23, 2024
      From Bruges the 14 of us boarded one of the frequent half an hourly trains to Brussels.     Once back at Brussels train station and parting ways with Maria, Kenneth, Juliet, and Edgar who would eschew Tomorrowland for 5 days in Antwerp and Ghent, the rest of us took the metro and tram to our lodgings at ...
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Way Way Off The Beaten Path – Totally out of the box travel experiences; you won’t find these experiences in any guidebooks.

  • Bujum-bura My Head in the Sand January 12, 2025
      It’s nice to wake up in front of our airport gate, again.     For the 3rd time and second to last time back in Addis Ababa as our home base for our Central Africa trip, it was another 2 hour and 45 minute flight from Addis Ababa and this time to Burundi, our Central African odyssey that ...
  • Let’s Not Fight If We’re Brazza-s-ville January 10, 2025
    To get in, you first need a VISA: The Republic of Congo website: https://www.ambacongo-us.org/en/embassy-services/consular/visa   Download and fill out 2 copies of the visa form ROC Visa Application Attach required documents 2 passport photos with the 2 visa forms The Letter of Invitation Copy of the hotel reservation Copy of your flight itinerary Prepare payment: Obtain a check or money order for $160 and leave it ...
  • Kinshasa My Worries Goodbye! January 9, 2025
    To get in, you first need a VISA: Download and fill out the visa form: DRC Visa Application Attach required documents One passport-style photograph (2″x2″) taken within last 6 months. Invitation letter from your host OR hotel reservation A printed copy of yellow fever vaccination card. Copy of flight itinerary A copy of the front page of your Passport (bio page only) A valid, ...
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A Funny Thing Happened On The Way Around The World. . . . – Some stories simply can’t be categorized.

  • The Sweet Is Never As Sweet Without The Massawa May 22, 2023
      We’re skipping ahead from Somaliland to Massawa today, but if you want to read about how we got into Asmara yesterday from Somaliland: read here. After arriving a day later than planned in Asmara from Somaliland and Addis Ababa we quickly had lunch in the capital and immediately drove out in the afternoon for a 120km journey to ...
  • 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 ...
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