Sang-froid: (literally, cold blood) Self-possession or imperturbability especially under strain. Calmness, coolness, placidity, repose, serenity. (Webster’s) Though the weather may be frightful, Parisians sit outside anyway. On a cold Sunday, cloudy and only 10 degrees…
This is the fourth set of profiles of people we have met in India. In this post, meet two people for whom education becomes a mixed blessing. (For the previous profiles, click Profiles 1 or…
Over 5000 of them, archaeologists believe, thrived in the high and low valleys between Flagstaff and Phoenix, places that people even today consider receptive to good, supernatural vibes. Then, for reasons still unknown after about…
Across Indonesia, there are hundreds of distinct ethnicities, languages and native cultures. For some of these, the old tribal religions remain. Most have been subsumed into the three major religions found here - Islam, Christianity…
Most visitors to the wild don't want the really wild. The wild is often uncomfortable, hard to reach, dangerous and fickle. You have a few days to visit a wilderness, see the jungle, sail the…
Even in daylight, it looked like a Dantesque circle of the inferno. 200 to 300 meters below us, on the edge of a tranquil turquoise crater lake, steam spurted into the air drawing sulfurous vapor…
It is almost impossible to see Candi Borobudur (Borobudur Temple) entirely from any vantage point. Though only seven levels high, each level is quite wide. On each, a two-meter walkway passes between panel after panel…
George, George, George of the Jungle Lives a life that's free. George, George, George of the Jungle, Watch out for that tree! Turns out that this silly lyric from a long ago animated TV show…
Unusual geopolitics in the early 60s led to the political division of Borneo island into three slices. The biggest piece of the pie, southern Borneo, became part of Indonesia. A much narrower slice running along…
High up in the treetops of Taman Negara National Park (literally National Park National Park), you can bounce along a series of narrow rope walkways amid primordial rainforest. Built as a tourist attraction, it's the…