Children of the Pamirs Education Fund Opened – August 6, 2019

August 6, 2019

BREAKING NEWS!   A feature article on The Magic Girl of the Pamirs has been published in the Fall 2019 issue of Overland Journal. The story describes how we met a young 11-year old girl we are now sponsoring. We had backed into a small creek to wash dust off The Turtle V, high in […]

Japan #6 – Snow Monkeys – December 2014

May 14, 2019

Let the truth be known, one of the main reasons Monika and I wanted to visit Japan was to see the amazing Snow Monkeys. In the frigid valley of Japan’s Shiga-Kogen (Shiga Highlands) near Nagano, the site of 1998 Winter Olympics, there is a thermal spring that has been discovered by a troop of Japanese Macaque monkeys. […]

Japan #5 – Hiroshima – December 2014

May 10, 2019

At 8:15 AM, August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber carried out the World’s first atomic bombing. The bomb was about 3 m, (9.8 ft.), long and weighed about 4 tons. It was called “Thin Man” at first because of its long thin design. When the actual bomb turned out to be shorter than expected, […]

Japan #4 – Parks & Temples – December 2014

May 7, 2019

In case you never get to visit Japan, we wanted to give you a quick glimpse of some of the amazing parks and temples we saw. While every big city in the world has beautiful parks, those of Kyoto were spectacular. It seemed that almost every leaf and twig and branch had been exactly trimmed. […]

Japan #3 – Food -December 2014

May 3, 2019

Food is such an important part of traveling to new countries. While we do most of our own cooking in our self-contained camper, we never miss the opportunity to try the local specialties. Wandering through the market place in Kyoto, without a translator standing next to us, the question was, “What is it?” While there […]

Japan #2 – Geisha – December 2014

April 30, 2019

Whatever images might come up when we think of Japan, Toyotas, Nikon cameras, Sony TVs and Sushi, the beautiful and mysterious Geishas should be included. When Monika said she wanted to go to Japan to see the Snow Monkeys, I immediately imagined going to spa and having a nice massage by a Geisha. Well, that […]

Japan #1 – Kyoto – December 2014

April 26, 2019

With The Turtle V safely on its way back to California, we had a little time to burn. One of the countries we had always been interested in visiting was Japan. Being so close to South Korea it was easy to take the overnight ferry to Osaka and the “bullet train” to Kyoto. The Bullet […]

South Korea #11 – December 2014

April 23, 2019

Coming to the End of a Great Adventure is always a little sad. We headed south toward the megapolis of Busan. With a growing population of 3.6 million, we had no reason to drive into the city center, and in any case, we probably would not have found a parking place for The Turtle V. […]

South Korea #10 – Markets – December 2014

April 16, 2019

Markets. Yes, we’re market junkies, and we’ve seen some pretty interesting markets in the last couple of years, but really, the people in China and Mongolia and now in Korea, well, they eat things we really don’t have names for. Of course they have the regular stuff like chicken, beef & pork and vegetables. And […]

South Korea #9 – Food – December 2014

April 12, 2019

If there is one thing that makes travel in foreign countries exciting it’s the food, and Korea has some of the most interesting dishes we had experienced in the 22 countries we crossed to this point. We always like to taste local cuisine. In Korea it’s easy. Just walking down the street, restaurants had their […]