Max Hartshorne hikes one of Australia's most scenic trails from Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles and skis three of Utah's lesser-known ski resorts, Margie Goldsmith writes about a blissful week of Ayurvedic treatments in Sri Lanka, and Shelley Seale tells the inspiring story of Ponheary Ly, who survived Cambodia's killing fields and now runs a foundation to help children around Siem Reap.
Pilar Quintana and Conor McShannon write about their idyllic botanical garden on Colombia's Pacific Coast, Esha Samajpati finds a real dinosaur bone in Montana, and Tristan Cano writes about the spelndor of Malaga, Spain. Roman Skaskiw takes us to Ukraine's first ski resort in the Carpathian Mountains.
Dennis Lid writes about the return of the Baja Boys to Mexico's Baja Peninsula after 38 years, Lauren Manuel takes a scenic train ride on Cape Town's communter railroad and Simon Glassock writes about cross-country skiing in the Rondane Mountains of Norway.
All and all, it's just another month of top-notch travel writing on GoNOMAD!
Stories published in February 2011, on GoNOMAD:
Australia's Great Ocean Walk: Victoria's Magnificent Trail
I flew to Australia in February to take a walk -- a very long walk. My hike was on a trail that could easily be called the finest stretch of track in the southern hemisphere. It's called the Great Ocean Walk, and it winds its way along the very bottom edge of the state of Victoria, 91 kilometers in all. The trail looks out on the Southern Ocean, somewhere far beyond Tazzy (Tasmania) lies the lonely, frozen continent of Antarctica....
How Ponheary Ly Emerged from Cambodia's Killing Fields At the age of 14, Ponheary Ly died and came back to life. At least, that’s how she describes it. The year was 1977, and the Khmer Rouge was on its deadly rampage in Cambodia. After seeing her father killed, along with 13 other family members, Ly was on the run and in hiding when some soldiers accused her of stealing food. They marched her deep into the woods and forced her to dig her own grave...
Ayurvedic Treatment in Sri Lanka: A Week of Bliss
I am at the Ayurveda Paragon a wellness hotel on the southern end of Sri Lanka where I’ve come to recuperate from an exhausting three-week business trip in Vietnam. I plan to eat healthy food, hang out on the beach, and try the Ayurvedic cure. Ayurveda, which has been practiced in India for 5,000 years (and in Sri Lanka for 2,500 years), is said to cure all ailments including Parkinson’s, arthritis, migraines, back pain, asthma, allergies, and diabetes...
La Manigua Botanic Garden: The Beauty and Mystery of Colombia’s Pacific Coast
Manigua’ is one of the Spanish words for jungle. It doesn’t refer to just any jungle, though. Somehow it evokes a dark, mysterious and unconquered one. The kind of jungle you’d expect to find in the Romantic novels, in a Joseph Conrad saga where men struggle for survival in the harsh wilderness. When we arrived in La Manigua we thought the name was appropriate. Colombia’s Pacific Coast is one of the most dramatic places on earth...
A Northern Ireland Primer: Moors, Mountains and Sea
As I swirled the ice cubes in my rocks glass the bartender gave an exaggerated shiver. “Ice gives us the willies, ever since the Titanic,” he said. The Northern Irish have a self-deprecating wit that flies at will. Understandable when you think of the “troubles,” that period when political and religious differences made living hard and headlines worldwide. It was in 1986 that I first rented a car in Dublin and headed north; it was eye opening and friends asked why...
Visiting an Ancient Village of the Taíno, Cuba's Original Inhabitants “Let’s go again to re-visit the relics of the long gone Taíno Indians at Guamá,” my daughter advised during our discussion of the tours that we were going to make during our stay on Varadero Beach – Cuba’s top tourist resort spot. Although I had made half a dozen tours to Guamá through the preceding years, I still yearned to see yet again that reminder of Cuba’s past. The next morning we were on a tour bus on our way southward toward our goal...
Miami on Wheels: Traveling With a Disability
Until recently, I never gave my mobility much thought. I’d slap on some sneakers, grab my suitcase and jockey my way through airports, hotels and restaurants with the greatest of ease. Then my friend, Kristina met up with a patch of black ice this winter that shattered her tibia and hospitalized her for days. She and I had plans to escape our snowy winter, so, we didn’t let it jeopardize our fun in the sun...
Ojai, California: A Weekend With the Gals
"What about Ojai?" I said when the three of us were discussing our annual girlfriend’s weekend. I remembered Ojai as a hidden horsey destination, known only to Californians living in LA and Ventura Counties. Back in the mid-seventies my boyfriend’s parents had a second home in Ojai, a mid-size spread with a pool, coral and horses. I wanted to see what the place was like these days...
Volunteering With Ethiopian Israeli Communities
This was a once in a lifetime journey. A unique and surreal opportunity to live and work in two Ethiopian Israeli communities with twenty fellow University of Massachusetts students. We set out to change the lives of these Ethiopian communities forever, and in turn, they ended up touching our hearts and impacting our lives forever. We were about to work with Ethiopian Israeli Communities in Gedera and Rishon Le’Tzion...
Bruges, Belgium: Great Art, Ancient Grandeur
The rain was thankfully not to last and as the grey clouds cleared, a beautiful medieval city revealed itself, with rows of tidy coloured houses along seemingly enchanted cobblestone streets. The City’s old center largely caters for tourists who hungrily lap up Bruges’ big sellers: beer and chocolate. A good selection of Belgian beer is on offer and there are excellent chocolatiers on virtually every corner...
Romania’s Dragobete: Celebrating the God of Love
My grandparents live in a land of legend, in Transylvania, close to the mountains. The rhythm of nature has always guided their steps and has shaped traditions. Every celebration has intricate rituals, still, at least for my grandma, there is something which doesn’t change. The early dawn also found her beside the rustic oven baking bread and pastries that give off the smell of my childhood...
Getting that Wild West Feeling in Tombstone, Arizona Arizona’s high desert has rapidly become one of the destination spa and resort meccas of the world. The high desert is perfect for spas and resorts with its high altitude, clean air, year-round sunny weather, a plethora of tourist attractions, and a never-ending landscape of gorgeous natural desert beauty. Luxurious resorts in the area have received top awards from prestigious magazines...
Madikeri, Kodagu: The Heart of India's Coffee County
Madikeri is the district headquarters, at a height of over 4,000 feet above sea level. Coorg is the state’s smallest district, and one of the most prosperous in terms of standard of living and literacy rates and other social-economic parameters, as also the only one without a railway line. Kodagu, where you take five steps to the side and land in a coffee plantation, is still the largest producer of coffee in the country...
Travel Warning: 'Sumatra, Dangerously Beautiful'
Some of the strangest possibly most worrying conversations I ever had took place in the space of three weeks I spent in Sumatra -- the kind of conversation where you don’t know for sure how to react, what reaction is even expected, or even if it’s a serious or playful chat. ‘Travel Warning: Indonesia, dangerously beautiful’ was on a sticker a tour guide I met in a hostel gave me the day before I left Sumatra...
Visiting Italy's House Museums: In the Footsteps of Royalty
House Museums in Italy: New Cultural Itineraries, is a contribution by author Rosanna Pavoni to the many projects aimed at enhancing Italy’s historical, artistic and cultural heritage. House Museums are an eccentric and artistic way of demonstrating what Italy has to offer the traveler. They are rich in history and are representative of some of Italy’s greatest writers, artists and royalty. They are a must-see site for any traveler visiting Italy...
