Ah, the local barber. A ritual, a comfort of home.
Not so for me. Every haircut is a new adventure: a different country, a new language and yet another man with scissors (or God forbid, clippers) who has his own ideas about style.
During a recent ear-lowering interlude in Leon, Nicaragua, it struck me that barber shops are less about haircuts and more about history and culture.
“Hola, Gringos!” a little Honduran girl calls out to us from the garden of the coffee plantation-cum-guest house on the edge of Gracias, Honduras where we awoke Saturday morning.
“Hola, ninos!” we offer in response.
Giggles all around. Little do we know what a prescient greeting it is.
Do you pay for your photographs? Do you ask permission? Have you had any problems taking photographs of people on the street?
We field these sorts of questions often. Several readers also recently requested that we write a post about how we take our people portraits in street and market settings.
In response, we share ten tips for taking engaging photos of the humanity that colors our planet.
Singapore, an unexpected stop on our Southeast Asian itinerary thanks to a cheap flight from there to India. Our culinary expectations for this small city-state were low, particularly in the wake of our street food experiences in Thailand and Malaysia. Yet in the three days before our flight to India, it seemed like all we did was eat.
The other day we broke down in Guatemala City — in front of a piñata factory no less.
I helped push the stalled PT Cruiser whose motor had knocked, pinged and spoken of better days. Back then forward, we rolled the car out of traffic and into a parking lot.
Guatemala City is notorious for guns, violence, drugs, blighted neighborhoods and danger lurking around every corner. And there we were in a sketchy little parking lot in the middle of the city at dusk.
Learning a new language is great, but doing so through the lens of food and markets strikes us as ideal. So when the topic of Guatemalan cuisine came up during our Spanish lessons (day two, as we steered each of our instructors there fairly quickly), we seized the opportunity and asked if one of our sessions could double as a cooking class. You'll see the results in the video and recipe below.
From stink bean squid sambal to giant prawns in huge buckets of satay sauce, Malaysia delivers an experience of culinary and cultural diversity. Here's a wee taste of the wide-ranging (Malay, Chinese, Indian and Indonesian) bites you might find when traveling in Malaysia.
As we prepare for our departure to Guatemala and secure the various latches on our gear, I'm reminded of being robbed by airport security employees in Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport last year. Fortunately, miraculously – and somewhat shadily – I was reimbursed.
A recent comment from a woman who had money stolen at airport security in Toronto, Canada served as a reality check that this sort of thing can happen anywhere.
While reading Nicholas Kristof’s opinion piece on Burma (Myanmar) last month I was consumed by a rush of memories – conversations and images from of our month-long visit there last year. My comment on his article shares my views regarding the effectiveness of international sanctions in changing the behaviors of the military government (junta). I also address whether or not travel to Burma helps or hurts ordinary people.
What is Burmese food? Which Burmese dishes should you seek out and what sort of flavors and spices might you find when you visit Burma (Myanmar)? This Burmese Food Guide provides shares our favorite Burmese dishes, street food, snacks, and curries that you'll find in Burma (Myanmar).