Joe's Trippin'

Remember what i've said about following locals advice? I wish i did. Time and time again, i ask locals "So, what should i see in your country?" and time and time again the place is... shall we say... substandard. Whether it's Lake Sevan in Armenia, Shaqlawa in Iraq or whatever other place, locals ha

I keep saying it. If i see one more church or one more mosque or one more temple, i cannot be held responsible for my inevitable actions brought upon by my over reaction associated with the emotions of "COME ON!!! Another one?" More often than not, this is true. Personally, if you've seen one, you'v

The second biggest, second oldest or anything second place is hardly brings up feelings of awe and spender. When travelling, this rule is generally true as well. A country's second city (outside the capital) is often ignored, that is, with a number of exceptions. Istanbul kicks Ankara's ass. Zurich

Maybe I should go back to places more often. After nearly decades on the road, i have recently found myself revisiting places i had already seen, more out of lack of options than anything else. A revisit last year to Skopje, Macedonia kind of reminded me why i don't go back. But 8 years after my fir

In the Northern most parts of Iraq, the landscape defies every image we are bombarded with by mass media. Towering mountains, snow-capped hills and lush green valleys. Countless caves swiss cheese the mountain sides. These are not necessarily cave systems, more like pot holes in the rock. But there

We don't usually think about just how much the places we grow up in fundamentally shape even the most basic of concepts. Growing up in Canada, history is something that began in 1492. We use words like "old" and "heritage" for buildings and monuments that are a whooping 100 years old. But living in

Part of the problem with constantly living, working and travelling in off-the-beaten track destinations (whatever that means) is it's hard to find information. Guidebooks either don't exist or are severely lacking. Local tourist information is a completely foreign concept. Nothing seems to have pene

While the details may be a little fuzzy, pretty much everyone is now aware that Saddam Hussein was not a nice guy. While the global focus remains on his threat on regional security, it is his domestic policies that should be in the spotlight. While many lived in fear during the regime's reign, it is

Few stories out of Iraqi Kurdistan have made more headlines then that of 3 American hikers. Story goes, while holidaying in the region they opted to check out a popular waterfall, Ahmed Awa (about an hour and a half west of Sulymaniyah). While hiking the area near the Iranian border, they were detai

Around the world, far too many testaments stand symbolizing man's inhumanity to man. Whether it's Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz or the Cambodian Killing fields or the Hiroshima memorial in Japan, tributes pop-up around the world with the hope that we will not forget the falle