“The hummus will set you free!”
- Aperture: f/8
- ISO: 400
- Shutter Speed: 1/400 s
- Focal Length: 75mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
“The hummus will set you free!” This was yelled at me by a very aggressive hummus vendor who then flashed a wide grin and pointed at several pots of hummus (pronounced hoo-mus) set on a counter in front of him. Her and I were deep within the Mahane Yehuda Market. We had already purchased some halva (a…
Step-by-excruitiating-step: An Israel land-border crossing
- Aperture: f/22
- ISO: 400
- Shutter Speed: 1/125 s
- Focal Length: 10mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Amazingly, entering Israel from Jordan marked the first time we made a land-border crossing on the trip. (Airfare proved relatively cheap and, as we didn’t have an unlimited amount of time at our disposal, flying often made the most sense.) Of course, we picked a doozy. Like many travelers, we were aware that many Arab/Muslim…
Burning nipples, papier-mâché Moses and the baptism site of Christ
- Aperture: f/29
- ISO: 320
- Shutter Speed: 1/320 s
- Focal Length: 17mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
What do burning nipples and a visit to the baptism site of Jesus have in common? For me, the two experiences were separated by only a few miles. From our hotel in Madaba, Jordan, we drove our rental car west to explore and have a swim in the Dead Sea, completing our journey from the…
Tea for two at Petra
- Aperture: f/11
- ISO: 400
- Shutter Speed: 1/1000 s
- Focal Length: 300mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
By now, if you’ve been reading this blog regularly, you know my somewhat guileless affinity for animals – both wild and domesticated – has often gotten me in trouble during this trip (See posts on the koala, the monkey and the mule attacks). Pursuing the four-legged residents of Petra was not particularly dangerous, but it…
Get your Indiana Jones fix here
- Aperture: f/14
- ISO: 400
- Shutter Speed: 1/250 s
- Focal Length: 20mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Jordan, as framed in the neat oval of a Boeing 737 window, resembles Tatooine from the sky: a sea of rusty red sand, canyons and jagged mountains. As viewed through the windshield of a Citroën C3 sedan cruising Highway 15, the landscape is monochromatic, the sky a hazy gray. There are signs of civilization in…
Where to eat in Kathmandu
- Aperture: f/2.4
- ISO: 64
- Shutter Speed: 1/120 s
- Focal Length: 4.28mm
- Camera: iPhone 4S
Kathmandu is a great place to bulk up before — and certainly after — your Everest Base Camp trek. Prices are reasonable and the fare, ranging from food stands to gourmet, is varied. What you’re unlikely to find in Nepal’s capital city, however, is adequate service; almost every restaurant wait staff seems to operate in…
What to do in Kathmandu
- Aperture: f/4
- ISO: 500
- Shutter Speed: 1/3200 s
- Focal Length: 10mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Just as Him couldn’t stop himself from humming the Lord of the Rings theme during the New Zealand portion of our trip, I found it nearly impossible to expel Bob Seger’s “Katmandu” from my head during our stay in the Nepali capital. “K-k-k-k-k KAT-MAN-DU! I think that’s where I’m going to,” I sang to myself…
What are you waiting for? GO NOW!
- Aperture: f/18
- ISO: 400
- Shutter Speed: 1/400 s
- Focal Length: 14mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Exactly one year ago today, my husband and I quit our jobs to travel the world. Over the course of six months, we circumnavigated the globe, passing through, in order, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan, India, Nepal, Jordan, Israel, Greece and Turkey. The trip, as chronicled in this blog (still…
When the mule pushed me off the mountain
- Aperture: f/11
- ISO: 400
- Shutter Speed: 1/250 s
- Focal Length: 10mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
It was our last day on the Everest Base Camp trek, just a few hours hike outside Lukla, when the mule pushed me off the mountain. I remember Ray LaMontagne’s song, “Beg, Steal or Borrow” was playing on my iPod at the time because it was hearing the lyrics again, after the crashing and crunching…
Into thick air
- Aperture: f/13
- ISO: 800
- Shutter Speed: 1/1000 s
- Focal Length: 10mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Day 10 – April 7, 2013 – Pheriche to Namche Bazaar Hiking from Pheriche back to Namche Bazaar proved a grueling task – almost 8 hours of path pounding, including an uphill section that took about 45 minutes to climb. The sky was hazy, the trail ahead fuzzily obscured. It seemed every ridge we rounded…
