Get to know the world - and yourself along the way!
The higher you wander into Indonesia’s hills, the more ornate the rice terraces become. On my way to the top of Kelimutu volcano on the island of Flores, I spotted a particularly interesting terraced cultivation in which only a single rice paddy glowed in a …
After visiting some of the genocide memorials in Kigali, I often wondered during my subsequent trip through Rwanda what thoughts were going through the minds of local people on this subject. Did it still matter among younger Rwandans whether someone was Hutu or Tutsi? Officially, …
Every year, the bridge builders of Kampong Cham start from scratch: They build a bamboo structure across the Mekong River that connects the city with Koh Pen Island. During my stay, when the elaborate construction was already half-completed, a local resident told me trucks would …
Lured by a little leftover lunch or something interesting to snack on, the coatis of Panama and Costa Rica can suddenly come very close to you, with their dachshund snout and their long tail stretched vertically into the air. In the town of David, at …
All morning I had hiked alone through Los Alerces National Park and had not encountered a single person there. Then, as I ate my empanadas at noon at Lago Menéndez, I felt an intense loneliness. In my melancholy mood, I gazed boldly at the majestic …
When walking through an unfamiliar village as a solo traveler, I am often uncomfortable at first. I get stared at, critically eyed and observed, or someone smells business and tries to sell me something. I feel like an vulnerable foreign body in the center of …
In the province of Yunnan, China can be experienced from its more traditional side. Many of its towns and villages are well preserved or have been rebuilt in the vernacular style, and the population is made up of numerous small ethnic minorities. When I visited …
At the border between Armenia and Turkey, on the Turkish side, there are the ruins of the former Armenian capital Ani, which are more than a thousand years old. A beautiful and at the same time very sad place, I found, because the Armenians are …