Experiencing the Beauty and Grandeur of the Suiho En in LA By James Michael Dorsey In a valley surrounded by the vast city of Los Angeles, there is a tranquil escape from the modern world that takes you back to ancient Japan. This little jewel, just a half-hour north of downtown on the 405, (in […]
Culver City, “Heart of Screenland” By James Michael Dorsey Lights!… Camera!… Action!… These words, so well-known to most movie buffs, have brought countless visitors to the City of Angels, but how many of them know that for every film made in Hollywood, many more were filmed in Culver City? “Heart of Screenland’ is the city […]
The Barbaig Nomads of Tanzania By James Michael Dorsey The clang of steel on steel echoes through the early morning forest, signaling that the metalworkers are already at work. It is the sound of a select group of highly skilled men, Barbaig blacksmiths, who are carrying on a tradition and fulfilling a need passed down […]
Like Stepping into a Monet Painting in Southern California: Poppy Happy! By James Michael Dorsey Ah, Spring! The time of rejuvenation, color, and especially flowers! For those of us fortunate enough to live in Southern California, we have an abundance of all three in our own back yard. Officially known as the Antelope Valley Poppy […]
The Land of the Chumash is a fascinating Channel Island National Park By James Michael Dorsey One of the most fascinating national parks in America lays a mere three hours of travel from Los Angeles, and yet nine out of ten people from the city have never been there. It is the least visited national […]
Learning from Locals in Tanzania’s Great Rift Valley By James Michael Dorsey The man with the spear seemed to appear right next to me as if by magic, but rather than threatening me, his shy laugh told me I had found the tribe I had come to visit in Tanzania. I was in Africa’s Great […]
Kenya: On Safari near Nairobi–Nothing gets your heart pumping like a curious lion inches away from your car window.
By James Michael Dorsey So what’s worth seeing in a salt mine? A whole lot more than salt! Visitors entering the Wieliczka mine, 30 miles, (19km ) outside of Krakow Poland descend more than 800 stairs beneath the rolling countryside into a vast and sprawling magical land of dwarves, gnomes, and mythical creatures […]
Burrowing Beneath Budapest to Bathe in the Cave By James Michael Dorsey Travel writing can be a dangerous profession, especially when you are staying in a luxury hotel. It was my final two days at the venerable Gellert Hotel in Budapest, a grand and aging old-world hang out of the rich and famous whose rooms […]
Mysteries of Djenne, Mali By James Dorsey An African jewel lies on a sun-baked plain of Mali near the banks of the Niger river, swathed in the haze of cooking fires and blowing sand; a city made of mud that defies all description. Djenne is a flyspeck on a map, overlooked by most travelers, a […]
Djenne: An African Jewel Made of Mud By James Michael Dorsey An African jewel lies on a sun-baked plain of Mali near the banks of the Niger river, swathed in the haze of cooking fires and blowing sand; a city made of mud that defies all description. Djenne is a flyspeck on a map, overlooked by […]
When Time Stood Still in the Cambodian Jungle By James Michael Dorsey While photographing temples and monasteries in the jungles of Cambodia, I hired a local tuk-tuk driver named Thom and asked him to take me where tourists did not go. We went a little further off the beaten path each day until he realized […]
