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Anywhere in Morocco, when you sit down for a meal, the first thing they bring to your table is some Hobs bread, a plate of olives, and some mint tea. The traditional Moroccan dish is cooked in a Tagine and therefore the dishes are named based on what is in the Tagine, e.g. Seafood Tagine. The Tagines are made of clay and have a cover. The food ingredients are place in the based and cooked in an oven. The restaurant I saw in Casablanca had a lot of Tagines placed neatly in the

The British overseas territory of Gibraltar is a massive rock in the southern part of the Iberian peninsula. From the northern city of Tangier in Morocco, one can go directly to Gibraltar twice a month with a direct ferry. The company FRS also has a service from Tangier to Tarifa, which is in Spain. This service is offered multiple times a day and consists of a 45 minute ferry ride. From Tarifa in Spain, one has to take a bus to Algeciras, which is included in the round-trip

Next to the north Atlantic, right off the water is the modern and spectacular mosque Hassan II , built in late 1990s and is the largest functioning mosque in Africa. The striking feature of the mosque, its minaret, is 210 meters high and the second tallest in the world. The detailed carving and filigree on the minaret is astounding. Adjoining the mosque is a museum which looks quite elegant. When I visited during the late afternoon, I barely time to visit the mosque and was p

I was surprised to find that in 2013, LVMH setup a winery in Dindori, a town about 20km away from Nashik. It is situated in very serene surroundings a couple of miles inwards from the closest highway. The long entrance to the winery is lined with palm trees and looks pretty. There are many mountains in the area and the winery has a scenic backdrop. The area where the wine tasting is held is very elegant. Tasting can be done in the outside patio as well and the lawns outside m

I don't have the capability to carry. Twenty two years ago, I went to climb Mt. Whitney with several friends and each of us carried tents, pots and pans etc., but I struggled and gave up the summit climb. For Machu Picchu or Kilimanjaro hikes, I hired porters. For the Aconcagua hike, I hired a porter to carry my gear. What's more, I also put all my clothes in their sack. Walking without enough layers, I caught the wind, developed altitude sickness and had to be helicoptered o

Ho Chi Minh, the president of Vietnam whose picture is on all of Vietnamese currency has a city named after him, and it was originally named as Saigon. It is almost to the southernmost part of Vietnam and at a population of close to 10 million, it is the most populous city in the country. As one walks around the city, it is hard to miss the busy, relentless traffic, mostly composed of mopeds and motorcycles. There is a fair share of cars, buses and vans. Vinfast, the car with

On a four day, 500km mini motorcycle ride across the picturesque Ha Giang region of northern Vietnam, I encountered many beautiful vistas and many kinds of road conditions. Some roads were well paved, had clearly marked lanes, medians and road markings following international standards like the one pictured above near Lung Ca, next to China border. Some roads were made of tar and were in great condition. Many roads also had guardrails on one or both sides. Sometimes the mount

Before the Dubai's Burj Khalifa was completed in 2010, the Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world and is first one to cross half kilometer in height. I walked in its direction from the Taipei main railway station and it was a seven kilometer walk away. I took it as an opportunity to see the Taipei neighborhoods as I made my way to this iconic building. It was a hot day with 92F temperature but the roads were full of people. I saw a glimpse of the building from far

Davao, the main city of prior Filipino president, is a mix of modern buildings as well as older structures. Lots of new late model cars are seeing along with traditional transportation. There are a lot of areas with trees and greenery, mountains and the sea (Davao Gulf) is close by. Just off the coast is the Samal island, which was occupied by the Japanese during World War II. There were so many Jeepneys plying the road providing reasonably priced transportation along predef

On the huge island of Borneo, which is part Malaysia and part Indonesia, about 1% of the land area is occupied by the country of Brunei, a prosperous nation which levies no taxes on it's citizens, provides free education and medical services and has $2/gallon gasoline. Brunei has a monarch ruling it since 1968 and it has huge proven oil reserves. Bandar Seri Begawan is Brunei's capital city. The Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah is seen on the currency and all the restaurants and store

The iconic harbor bridge of Sydney Harbour has always looked so beautiful in pictures. Today when I landed in Sydney, I discovered that there was a ticket I could buy to go climb it. It is illegal to climb the Harbor Bridge and so you always have to go with the company named BridgeClimb. For the privilege, you get to pay them 347 Australian dollars. It is a good thing that US dollar is pretty strong so the pain is not that much compared to my last visit. Last time, there was

Japan Rail offers an excellent, reasonably priced ticket for foreigners called the JR pass which can be used on local, express and the fast Shinkansen trains all over Japan, and it can be purchased for 1, 2 or 3 week validity. I had been to Honshu and Shikoku islands of Japan's four main islands so far and so decided to go to the wesetern island: Kyushu. I read about the natural beauty of Kagoshima , which is almost the southwestern point of the island. Using the JR, in the f

Called the Venice of Japan, Kurashiki is a walking city. The kurashiki river flows through it and has a few bridges like those in Venice. You can see people in a small boats, similar to Venetian gondolas, enjoying the views of the city. It is a cute and quirky place, I saw an antique shop with hundreds of dog statues on the roof. It is also dotted with many cafe's, traditional Ramen, Soba, Izakaya, and western restaurants. I saw a new swanky Hungarian goulash place, which se

The castle named after the city, Kochi castle, is over 400 years old and still intact with original tower and construction. As I walked towards it on the rainy morning, I got a glimpse of it from a far distance, and it looks majestic. I reached at 8:30am while the castle is open to visitors at 9am. Walking the grounds and around the fortress, I could admire its location and the view. The castle is well preserved. Like the ryokans I visited, the castle also requires all visito

Founded in the year 815AD, the 11th temple in the pilgrimage is named Fujidera, which means Wisteria. It is surrounded by a dense forest and looks very serene. The Wisteria was in full bloom, as I was lucky to be visiting during the month of their glory. The temple was the gateway to the start of the pathway to the 12th temple, Shosan-ji , which was up the hill, needing a six hour hike, including a 4000 feet vigorous climb. I had decided to continue seeing other parts of t

On the second day of the pilgrimage, I was up by 4 AM, a vestige of the jetlag, by 6am I was pretty hungry. I decided to go to the Sobe...

In a Seinfeld episode, I had seen the cupboard like spaces in which the Japanese tourists had spend the night. The capsule hotels in Japan, in my instant, in Tokyo gave me a similar experience. I was in Tokyo at 9 PM and wanted a place to spend the night before leaving for my pilgrimage to Shikoku. I found there was a very cheap hotel close by which was a $26 a night capsule hotel. I decided to try it out. I walked to the location and there were cops outside. However, a tour