Adventure
Adventure
The Mystery of the Immaculate Herpes
It was a miracle—a horrible miracle—that turned my pleasant morning tinkle into a heart pounding free-fall into nightmareland. HERPES!!! I diagnosed (even though I’d never actually seen herpes before). For several minutes I sto...
Adventure
THE JJIMJILBANG DIARIES (Parts 1 &2): Six Days Naked in a Hot Tub Full of Old, Dirty Korean Men FOR SURVIVAL
Illustrations by, Jacquie Spadano and Ross Doran. ************************ I had not seen sunlight in over four days, but I knew it was nighttime. I could tell because the Koreans were singing again; their harrowing karaoke tr...
Adventure
Steve McDonald’s Guide to Getting in Cars with Strangers (Vol. 1)
Here at Backpackology, it is my responsibility to promote a travel style that encourages suicidal recklessness. It is my duty to glorify irresponsibility and actively promote self-endangerment. This is my contribution to the gr...
Adventure
Detained in Bahawalpur
Nearly two months have passed since my ill-fated journey to Bahawalpur, since my sixteen-hour CIA interrogation in a dirty, Pakistani hotel room, since they threatened to shut down my website if I publicized the story. I’m hopi...
Adventure
Flirting with Afghanistan: The Smugglers’ Bazaar
It was a dangerous idea to try to go to Peshawar, but its Siren’s call promised romance, intrigue, and adventure: a legendary Silk Road city of traders, warriors, and poets, a place where a hairy Pashtun might offer you four ca...
Adventure
GoatBall Superstar, Afghan Hero
The afternoon sun slanted across the District Chief of Police’s office as he sat glowering at me in his oversized armchair, gnashing his teeth like some rabid, Pashtun muppet. Sitting in his line of fire, I smiled at nothing in...
Adventure
Kidnapped in Alipur
I find it ironic, and embarrassingly hypocritical, that not even a week after I ranted about how you should never get into cars with strangers, I turned around and did exactly that. It was noon, and the heat of June shimmered a...
Adventure
Steve McDonald’s Guide to Not Dying in Scary Countries
In my life, I’ve had the fortune of visiting forty-four countries, and if I were forced to write down my favorites, you might mistake it for a list of Government Travel Warnings. I was in Japan when the tsunami turned Sendai in...
Adventure
Walnuts & Machine Guns: A Taliban Tale
A man with a machine gun has been following me for the last five days. His name is Zia, and he is very, very shy, especially for a man with a machine gun. He first started shadowing me in the town of Chitral, near the end of my...
Adventure
Chalo Pakistan!
Crossing the border into the mountainous, Islamic heartland of Pakistan, I decide to settle down in Lahore for a while, catching up on my writing, wandering into mosques, ripping up Government Travel Warnings, and gleefully thr...
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THE JJIMJILBANG DIARIES (Parts 1 &2): Six Days Naked in a Hot Tub Full of Old, Dirty Korean Men FOR SURVIVAL
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Weekly Postcard: Sichuan, China
