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Petra was the main topic in John William Burgon’s Poem Petra. Referring to it as the inaccessible city which he had heard described but had never seen. The Poem was awarded the Newdigate Prize in 1845 :

" It seems no work of Man’s creative hand,
by labour wrought as wavering fancy planned;
But from the rock as if by magic grown,
eternal, silent, beautiful, alone!
Not virgin-white like that old Doric shrine,
where erst Athena held her rites divine;
Not saintly-grey, like many a minster fane,
that crowns the hill and consecrates the plain;
But rose-red as if the blush of dawn,
that first beheld them were not yet withdrawn;
The hues of youth upon a brow of woe,
which Man deemed old two thousand years ago,
match me such marvel save in Eastern clime,
a rose-red city half as old as time. ”

I went into Petra blind, no r... Read more »

As I walked through Hamam street, I could feel everyone’s eyes on me. Maybe it was the blond hair, maybe it was the big camera strapped around my neck, or maybe it was the fact that I was solo; I’m not exactly sure. However even though the tourist sites of Salt were well marked with signs (a complete oddity so far in my Jordan travels), I felt like I was the only tourist to come through Salt in the last 2 weeks. The brave people would ask "Would you like to have tea with me?”, and the rest of the people would continue to stare.

This was my introduction to the Saltines, the people who inhabited the town of Salt.

Nestled in the hills outside of Amman is the charming town of Salt. An ancient town, Salt was once the most important settlement in the area between the Jordan Valley and the eastern desert. Because of its history as an important trading link between the eastern desert and the west, it was a significant place for the region’s many rulers. Today, it’s... Read more »

The more I travel in Asia, the more I realize how much of my days are planned around food. As I recently wrote to someone asking about my routine in Chiang Mai, "in between my delicious street food meals, I write.” This wasn’t always the case. At home I rarely did anything of the sort – my days were spent at my desk and I while I wrote a post about cheap eats in New York City (Asia-focused, shockingly), I rarely cooked. But my love of food percolated under the surface, primarily focused on spices and how they can so effectively transform one item of produce or food into a staggering amount of dishes. So it’s no surprise that during my recent trip to Laos, food figured prominently.