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Those crazy Russians. We have just overtaken a fishing boat on Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia and are now heading at a clip across its surface in the direction of its largest island. We are not in a boat but
The road to Pripyat, Chernobyl’s long-abandoned city, runs through a budding forest. The pines here are all relatively young; the original forest died from radiation poisoning more than a quarter-century ago. You may be able to decontaminate city streets to
Arriving in Beijing during Chinese New Year celebrations is a little like flying into a war zone. The machine-gun fire of the crackers and the mortar blasts of the rockets start jangling nerves around noon and continue long into the
“No one told me China was the worst country in Asia,” the student from Nanjing tells us. “Vietnam shits on China. Thailand shits on China. Singapore shits on China. Japan positively shits on China.” He is excited to hear that
In a 1998 episode of The Simpsons, Fidel Castro calls his advisers into his office and tells them: “Comrades. Our nation is completely bankrupt. We have no choice but to abandon communism.” Castro’s advisers, downhearted, let out a collective sigh.
Hurricane Paula was somewhere between the Yucatan Peninsula and the Cuban state of Pinar del Rio, which is another way of saying in the middle of my flight path, which is why my plane to Cancún was grounded and I
I am writing this postcard, my first dispatch as a freelance travel writer, from a bar in San Francisco. Arguably, this is the greatest workplace in the world for an alcoholic typist like myself: the gin is cold, the pianist’s
I flew into Sydney from Melbourne on June 14, 2008, two days before I was scheduled to start work at The Australian newspaper. As the plane descended through the clouds, it was wet that night and cold, my mood descended