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China
A Dream Deferred: The End of Backpackology?
When I finally penned my response to Men’s Journal (at three in the morning) (over one week late), I was sitting amongst cockroaches on my hotel room floor, stripped down to my underwear, high as a rocket ship on mysterious Chi... -
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
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... -
Adventures in Backpackistan!
Laughing Yoga in Calcutta
The placid water of Rabindra Sarova Lake shined like gold in the light of dawn, and standing beneath a rustling fig tree on its bank, Mr. P.N. Chettiney screamed at the top of his lungs. “GOOD MORNING, CALCUTTAAAAA!” In a neat ... -
Adventure
The Heart of the Slums
The scruffy, young beggar banged on my window. “Sir, money! Money!” I tried to ignore him but it was futile; we were stuck in Mumbai’s gridlock traffic, and he wasn’t going anywhere. “Sir!” I had no small bills. I considered ap...
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China
A Dream Deferred: The End of Backpackology?
When I finally penned my response to Men’s Journal (at three in the morning) (over one week late), I was sitting amongst cockroaches on my hotel room floor, stripped down to my underwear, high as a rocket ship on mysterious Chi... -
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
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... -
Adventures in Backpackistan!
Laughing Yoga in Calcutta
The placid water of Rabindra Sarova Lake shined like gold in the light of dawn, and standing beneath a rustling fig tree on its bank, Mr. P.N. Chettiney screamed at the top of his lungs. “GOOD MORNING, CALCUTTAAAAA!” In a neat ... -
Adventure
The Heart of the Slums
The scruffy, young beggar banged on my window. “Sir, money! Money!” I tried to ignore him but it was futile; we were stuck in Mumbai’s gridlock traffic, and he wasn’t going anywhere. “Sir!” I had no small bills. I considered ap...
Latest Posts
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...
Backpackology 101
Everything You Never Knew You Didn’t Want to Know About Traveler’s Diarrhea
After three months of dread-filled anticipation, it was in Kannur, India, at the ironically named “Hotel Happiness,” that I finally got what was coming to me. The first wave of nausea ripped me awake at about 2:45AM, and within...
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...
Adventures in Backpackistan!
The Star Spangled Detour
Last night, I ate spicy Chongqing hotpot in Beijing. This morning, I ate pita with feta and hummus in Istanbul. It’s now lunch time, and I am sitting in a sticky booth at a McDonald’s in downtown Brooklyn, weeping nostalgically...
Inspiration
Guest Blogger Michael Spencer Bown: The Top 80 Highlights of the World
An unexpected benefit of backpacking in ‘dangerous’ places like Pakistan is that it affords you the opportunity to meet some fascinating people. They’re never tourists–they’re travelers, adventurers, lunatics, or most oft...
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...
Adventures in Backpackistan!
The 1,000 Year Old Egg (and the Three Penis Wine)
I’ve still got a few more Pakistan misadventures to come, but in the meantime, here’s a quick update from the Silk Road of Xinjiang. ********** Grocery shopping with a Chinese local is a bit like doing mushrooms for the first t...
Culture
The Way of the Pashtunwali
For this week’s special Photo Travelogue, there won’t be any happy postcards. Nor will I be striking wacky, douchebag poses in front of historical buildings. Nor will you see the usual cheery colors and smiling kiddies from the...
Culture
Last* Wednesday Wanderings: The Closing of the Border
I would have posted this last Wednesday, but I just so happened to be ankle-deep in yak shit with some nomadic, yurt-dwelling family, near the border of the vowel-impaired nation of Kyrgyzstan… But better late than never....
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...
Adventures in Backpackistan!
I’m Not Dead Yet!!! (But My Macbook Broke, and I’m Dead Inside…)
Huzzah, I’m not dead yet!! And you thought I’d been captured by Al-Queda and frozen in carbonite. Fortunately, I still haven’t managed to euthanize myself, and I’m now safe in poo-smeared China, eating pigeons in the desert and...
Adventures in Backpackistan!
A Postcard from Pakistan
Greetings from a rooftop somewhere in Pakistan, I’m still alive! Albeit, sweating profusely. And I probably have dysentery or something. Oh, and also I was detained and interrogated for sixteen hours by ‘secret police.’ So, um,...
Bizarre
Wednesday Wanderings: The Baali Theyyam
I know it’s Monday and not Wednesday, but today’s story isn’t finished yet, and NO ONE’S PERFECT GET OFF MY LAWN. For this Wednesday Monday Wandering, here’s a video of the Baali Theyyam in Kuruva,...
Culture
The Joshi Festival
Laughing in the face of Travel Warnings and a threat from the Taliban, I head north into Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to visit the indigenous Black Kalash Tribe and to see their annual Jos...
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...
Culture
Wednesday Wanderings: The Golden Temple of Amritsar
I’d like to try a little experiment. A friend of mine recently pointed out the irony in that, despite my college degree in Film Production, I never share any videos on this site. To which I pointed out that, with the narc...
Backpackology 101
To Go the Other Way
“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life…” – Jack Kerouac In a wild outpost town of eastern Baltistan, two days’ journey by road into the jagged, ...
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...
Adventures in Backpackistan!
Inhaling India (A Diarrhea Adventure): A Foodie’s Guide to India on a Budget
“If you take the foods of the world on one side and the foods of India on another, our pile would easily tip the scales.” –Rocky Singh ************************* You might think you know Indian food. You might frequent a few Ind...
