My trip to africa started when i was 6 years old, my dad was a missionary and my brother and i were just adopted from chicago in the U.S. We had never been out of the country before so it was amazing. The trip was the longest, but it was so exciting. Once we got there we had moved into the house that my dad had bought before we moved there. It was a nice house. It was really fun my dad worked but we went to many resorts and beaches. The african natives were not only plight but they were welcoming also. It was not hard to adapt to a place like that because of all of the things you can do there. One of the most memerioble moments was when my brother was picked up by an arangatang and it carried him to my parents. The arangatang played with us for a long time till it was time to go home. There were so many different speices that you could find a new one everyday and still look for more. I will never forget my trip to Mama Africa.

Some 25 years ago, in 1985, a newlywed bride sat upright in her honeymoon bed and exclaimed, “What’s wrong? What happened?!?” Her husband, who had just closed their picture window drapes because he feared that the morning sun, which had been streaming in, would wake her, replied, “Nothing is the matter, dear, everything is fine. Go back to sleep”. She answered with another question, “Why are we not moving?” He answered, knowing that yesterday she had been quite exhausted, “Don’t you remember the party yesterday when we left?” She thought for a moment, and asked, “What happened? Why are we not moving?”

At this point, he opened the drapes and answered, “Nothing is wrong. See, we left. We are out at sea.” She then asked, “Then why can’t I feel any movement? Why can’t I feel the motors?” He laughed as he replied, “Probably because you are on the biggest cruise ship in the world, we are up very high in the honeymoon suite, and I am not in the bed to make it move”. She then laughed, “Come back to bed then after you close the curtains, the Sun is beautiful, but I want to sleep.” So started a saga that resulted in some 36 cruises, to locations that included the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Europe, and the Pacific. The itineraries were always somewhat different but the similarities were what made coming back to an already visited location quite pleasurable.

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While I was living in London, Uk I met a young Irish Lad who invited me to stay with him and his friends for the weekend in Dublin. Me being the travel bug that I am jumped to the oportunaty!

The next weekend after work I boarded a plane from Luton and landed in Dublin where I was greated with an Irish Coffee and transfered to my weekend home.

Of course we went out to the local pub to absorb the Irish chear, and later staying up to chat with my new friends for hours and hours. I noticed the clock at 5am, I had to catch a Train to Belfast at 7! so i readied myself and hopped in a cab to the Dublin Train station where i joined my tour to Northern Ireland. I visited Belfat, the Giant Causway, drove along the beautiful coast and visiting the Bush Mills distillery. The day was filled with good people and great Irish food!

I arrived back into Dublin around 1030pm where I met my friends at The Barge, then on to a small gathering which turned in to classic Irish Jigg fest! I was amazed by the local culture and night life! I was having so much fun I failed to sleep again, getting an early start on my sight seeing, I was toured past St Patric’s Cathedral, Trinaty College, and into the bricked pub area for some Guiness + potatoes. On the way back to the airport we drove by the Guiness Factory and through a majestic Deer filled park which I was told is full of pixies. Long storey short, I went to Ireland for 53 hours, and I stayed awake and enjoyed every minute of it!

Once on an Insight tour of Egypt…The sun was blazing down on us and it was only 10am. We had boarded the coach with expectations of visiting one of the oldest wonders of the world, the pyramids of Giza. What I did not expect was seeing an even older pyramid…the steps pyramid. We took our pictures and collected our souvenir sand with the option to ride some camels in this amazing desert.

Feeling adventurous I decided to sneak away from the group attempting to see something completely original. (This makes for great dinner table stories). As I wandered over the sand dunes passing some ancient tombs and passage ways I also wandered into what seemed to be another world…one of no tour directors or security guards, then our eyes met.

She couldn’t have been more than seven years old but her eyes told stories of a lifetime of fighting to survive on very little means…stories of doing ANYTHING to endure. Straddling a donkey her gaze never left me, we where locked in; both contemplating who would make the next move. She shouted something I could not understand, then I heard the words “money…NOW”.

Feeling alone and vulnerable I did what was to be expected…PANIC!! I turned and began walking quickly recalling the sand dunes I had passed earlier…her heels flew into the air and crashed into the donkeys belly driving him into a mad dash towards me. .That’s when I RAN…I ran until I saw anything that was not more sand!!! Anything that was not chasing me on a donkey was a welcome sight!

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In the summer of 2009 I took a trip to Gruene, Texas with my sister Sandra and best friend Patti. They had never been to this most beautiful part of the Texas hill country that fronts the mighty Guadalupe River.

We spent four wonderful days touring the local areas and listening to country music bands. Most notable was Tanya Tucker. What a performance.

The afternoon prior to Tanya’s performance we were sitting in the adjoining beer garden area adjacent to the world famous dance hall. This place has seen the likes of Willie Nelson, Ray Price, and Waylon Jennings over the years. Still has the old wooden oak floors, open air screen windows and original stage. Plus the crowd is exciting and the lone star beer flows smooth.

What about the butterfly? I was just setting the stage for this story.

Mid afternoon the sun was warm as we set in the garden. My sister began to look across the picnic table strangley. As she looked at my left shoulder she stated there was a butterfly sitting on my shoulder. We continued our conversation when she again said the butterfly was still their. We laughed and I swatted. It flew away briefly only to relight in the same spot. This activity continued for another half hour or so. We found it most amusing. At the same time we considered it an angel perhaps. See my wife had passed away about six months earlier.

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I had been living in the city of San Francisco for the past twenty-one years. My mom and dad recently passed away, and I felt a need to be connected to mother nature. Something was calling me to the mountains, the Northern California Mountains. As I was thinking about moving to the mountains and searching for places in Northern California to live, the name Hayfork popped up on the map. For some unknown reason I was drawn to the name. I did a little more research and learned that there was going to be a County Fair going on in the town in the month of August. I could bring to life two events in one adventure; check out the town of Hayfork and attend the fair. I had no idea where I was going. I rented a car and drove up to the town of Hayfork, with my sister and a friend, which I had no knowledge of except that it is rural and has only one motel. The one road up to Hayfork was a continuous zig-zag along a cliff side. It was a frightfully laborious drive up the mountain with the twists and turns along the road and the 110 degree weather, and not to mention my lack of driving skills in the past twenty-one years. This was definitely a monstrous challenge. The whole time we were driving up the treacherous road we prayed. It was definitely one of the less pleasant times in my life with the uncomfortableness of the 110 degree heat blaring through the front windshield, and the unfamiliar road. But I did not give up my faith believing that we were protected by God’s Love. With barreling fifty-five feet delivery trucks and speeding locals climbing past us at seventy or more miles per hour, we made it all the way to Hayfork untangled. Well almost untangled, we arrived exhausted and greeted, at the one-and-only shanty motel in the town, by a savage dingo howling and expressing wariness as we drove into the driveway. Unhurt, we unloading our suitcases, slept and dreamt. The next day we attended the fair. It was a small town County Fair, and, just as well, it felt good to be up in the mountains with the fragrant scent of pine trees and away from the city noise and chaos.

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This story is real, and is based on my own personal true account as I was one of the witness of this.

This took place perhaps in 1998 or so. I don’t quite remember the exact year anymore. My family made a trip to Shenzhen, and had a guide to take us for a day’s tour around the city.

As usual they brought us to the few touristy sites such as Windows of the World. Then I do remember, the most scary one we were taken to was a chinese medicinal research lab and manufacturing site. I remember many of them put on the white lab research coat on that site. We were brought into a visitor’s room, almost like a classroom. The chairs were placed in classroom style setting, with no tables. In the front, was a table, on the ground was a cage, and a few men in white coat entered the room and closed the door. We were about to witness something scary soon…..

The introduction came, and the guy started talking about this lab, and what they did here. They research and make medicine here. Then they started to introduce their latest medicine, somewhat they consider a miracle medicinal powder. They told us that they are going to prove to us how miracle this medicinal powder was, by doing a live demonstration in front of us.

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While staying in New Delhi, I had hired a driver for the day to give me a city tour. Sometime in the afternoon, he stopped me by a “carpet factory”. I went inside, and a man inside told me to take a seat on a sofa, and so I did. They gave me tea and some kind of cookie / bisquit to eat. Then they had people come out and roll carpets on the ground, and asked me which I would be interested in to buy. I explained that I was not interested in buying a carpet. They did not listen and continued to do this.

Eventually, maybe after the 12th carpet, they saw I wasn’t interested. So then they had me go upstairs. I kept telling them over and over again I was not interested in buying anything, so if they are trying to sell me something, they are wasting their time. They told me no problem, they just want to offer their hospitality to me, as is the Kashmiri custom. They gave me more tea and cookies, which were quite good. Then one of them started asking me basic questions, and made small talk for a while.

Then they brought me to some Jewler on the 2nd floor, who started showing me a certain stone. He talked in a sort of hypnotic way, and by then I was quite tired and exhausted. I suspect by some of the words, language and tone he was using, he was trying to put me in some kind of hypnotic trance. I kept saying no, though felt a bit dazed. After the 10th no, he finally gave up.

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I was on a flight from Manila to Hong Kong. Sitting next to me was a girl, who looked quite upset and distraught. She kept crying. I asked her why she was sad, and if this was her first time to leave the Philippines. She told me that she was going to HK for the first time, to start working as a helper (maid) there, and felt very sad to be leaving her family in the Philippines. During the trip I tried to help her to feel better. And there were some Filipino women sitting behind me, I introduced them, and they also helped to try to make her feel better. When we arrived in HK, we all walked together to the passport control. Then I said goodbye, and the girl walked off wit the couple filipino ladies we had met on the plane. Hopefully she has met many more friends in HK, and has been able to adjust to her new life.

I was in a subway station in Seoul, waiting for a train. There were a number of people on the platform, most of whom where in their own little world. I noticed that there was an elderly blind man with a walking stick, who was walking straight towards the platform. No one else seem to be paying attention, so I went to stop the man, simultaneously with this girl who popped out of nowhere. Had we not stopped the man, he would have walked over the ledge and fell onto the tracks, and I imagine he would have died there because the train came very shortly thereafter. No one else around seem to notice or care.

When the train came, we boarded, and I noticed that the girl kept looking out for this elderly man. Eventually he came to his stop. After he got off, I tried to tell her she did a very good job with the old man, but she didn’t speak any english. So I just gave her the thumbs up sign, and she did the same to me. I was highly impressed with this person, as often people live in their own realms even when there is something so obvious happening in front of their eyes. It is very nice to know that there are caring Samaritans out there who are looking out for others, and even a small act can save the life of another.