World Travelers Forum (click here)

I've created a group on Facebook called the World Travelers Forum, for travelers to post photos, videos and stories, as well as interact and share tips and ideas about where they've traveled, where they want to go and how best to go about it. Click on the subject line above to go to the page and check it out (you'll need to have a Facebook account). While you're at it, feel free to add me as a friend if you like. And, go ahead and post some of your favorite or most interesting photos and videos for others to see.

Slideshow Greece 2009 (click here)

I did some more organizing of my photos, including creating separate slideshows for each country that I went to during my 4-month trip this past fall to Greece, Egypt and Turkey. (Previously the photos were all jumbled together in no particular order). So you can now see them in chronological order, and from each country separately so that you know where they're actually taken. Click on the subject line above to see my best photos from Greece. And then look below to see the slideshows for Egypt and Turkey.

Slideshow Egypt 2009 (click here)

A slideshow of my best photos from my three weeks traveling around Egypt in the fall of 2009 (click on the subject line above).

Slideshow Turkey 2009 (click here)

A slideshow of my best Turkey photos from my three weeks there in fall, 2009 (click on the subject line above).

Downtown Fernie, B.C.

I just arrived today in Fernie, British Columbia, where I plan to stay for the winter and perhaps longer. Here's a video of the quaint little downtown area.

in Fernie, B.C., Canada

I made it to Fernie. So far it looks really great and I'm glad to be here. As it turned out, I didn't take the bus at all. The day before I was going to leave by Greyhound bus, I decided to put up an ad on an online rideshare board. About 30 minutes later, I got a call from a girl who was driving from Portland up to Vancouver the next day to visit her boyfriend who lived there. So we made plans to leave the following day at noon. From there I was hoping to catch the same bus that I otherwise would have been taking out of Vancouver anyway. However, due to a few delays we left later than expected and wouldn't be able to catch that bus, so I made plans to stay at a hostel in Vancouver for the night, and then would catch the bus the next day.

Fortunately however, I got a call while we were driving, from someone else responding to my other ad that I'd posted on the Vancouver rideshare site. He was leaving the next morning, driving from Vancouver to Alberta, and would be going right through Fernie. He had a friend in Nelson along the way, and was planning to stay there for the night.

We left a little later than planned, as it tends to go, drove all day and then pulled into Nelson around 6pm. We hung out there for the evening, I got in a much-needed shower, slept in the guest room, and then we got up early and discovered that it was (not all that surprisingly) snowing. Not too much and not too hard, and besides the guy I was with had a Ford F150 with snow tires, so it handled the snow well. The first couple of hours of driving was all in the snow, then we dropped down in elevation and it was all clear roads the rest of the way to Fernie. As we pulled into town about noon, I saw the Greyhound bus that I would have been on all night if I had taken it.

The town looks like pretty much what I was hoping for, and it's a real relief to have no future travel plans for a while. I've been corresponding with someone online the past week or so who needs a housemate, so I'll probably check that out in the next day or two. In the meantime I'm staying at the Raging Elk hostel.

Although there's a little less snow than normal apparently, there's still plenty around, so I'm looking forward to getting out on my cross country skis. There's snow right in town so hopefully I can find somewhere to ski that I can just walk to, since I'm now without a vehicle. But it's a small town and easy to get around. And the runs for the downhill resort can be seen from town, looks pretty tempting so I'll hope to get a job soon enough that I can afford to buy some used downhill gear, and then hit the slopes sometime this winter. But for now it's fun just to be in the mountains in a small town, a long ways from the city. Seems like there are some pretty cool people, restaurants and shops, etc. around here as well, so I think it has everything I was looking for.

Slideshow of my travel photos (click here)

I've added a few older travels photos to my flickr account, from my 2007-2008 trip to Asia. Click the link above to see a slide show of my all-around best travel photos from Thailand, India, Nepal, Greece, Egypt and Turkey.

New publication (click here)

I have a new short piece in a book compilation of spiritual writings from 111 different authors (although mine of course manages to weave in a lot about traveling). Titled "One Page Wisdom", it also features Mike Dooley, the actor from the movie "The Secret", which explores various spiritual concepts and phenomenon. Click the link above to go to my writing website, where there's more info on the book (as well as my other publications). The book was just recently published, and so is now available.