CAN THIS BE LOVE?-ADVENTURES IN CYBERSPACE-This is a modern day article about meeting a member of the opposite sex on the internet. This story is a little more unique than going across town for a dinner with your new e-mail friend, as I travel from Sweden to Beijing to meet a girl I met a few weeks earlier on a dating site. It goes into the strangeness of the experience of strong emotions developing very quickly with a person who one only knows through this amazing new medium.

HIGHWAY 395-Highway 395, designated by the state of Californian as a “scenic route”, runs north-south along the Eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains. This road played an instrumental part of my youth, as it was part of our family’s summer ritual of traveling from Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe. In this article, I nostalgically retrace the path of this childhood sojourn. The route passes such interesting sights as Red Rock Canyon in the Mojave Desert and Mt. Whitney,the highest mountain in the continental U.S. The highway continues past the ski resorts of Mammoth and June Mountains, and Mono Lake, an alkaline body of water known for its bizarre looking tufa towers. Highway 395 is also the gateway to such attractions as Death Valley and Yosemite National Park, as well as Lake Tahoe, of which Mark Twain wrote, “to obtain the air the angels breath, you must go to Tahoe.”

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HIKING IN THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION-Israel is most often thought of as the stormy focal point where three of the world’s major religions meet head to head. It is visited each year by large numbers of tourists on some kind of religious pilgrimage, and is also a popular destination for people with a historical interest in the region. More recently, the diving and snorkeling possibilities in Eilat have also become exploited for tourism. Nevertheless, very few people know of Israel as a place to go hiking amidst spectacular desert scenery that makes up much of its landscape. In this article, I describe the obligatory hike to see the ruins of Masada, where the Zealots committed mass suicide rather than face certain defeat at the hands of the Romans in 72 A.D. We make additional hikes in the En Gedi Nature Reserve and near Mt. Sodom, which provide panoramic views out over the Dead Sea. We explore additional sites for short and longer hikes in the moon-like crater of Mizpe Ramon and amidst the strange and beautiful rock formations of Timna Park. We also enjoy a short excursion to the Flour Cave, which is certainly fun for children. Finally, we cross the border into Jordan and hike around in two locations of unrivaled desert scenery--the ancient city of Petra and the cliff laden orange colored monoliths that decorate Wadi Rum, where Lawrence of Arabia once was at home.

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OFF -SEASON IN ÅRE-This article is about the Åre lifestyle during the non skiing months. Sweden’s oldest and top ski resort is visited during the fall, when the autumn colors are at their best. The locals are into an active and adventurous lifestyle all year around, and the author experiences and describes river rafting, riding on Iceland ponies, mountain biking, hiking, and a tandem paraglider flight during this article. The article concludes with the thought that Åre may be one of the best places to live in this day and age in which a premium is put on proximity to the nature and wilderness. Even if one does not have the possibility to live here, it is well worth a visit and a short sampling of the life style that the natives enjoy 365 days a year.

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SOUTH AFRICA: OUTDOORSMAN’S PARADISE-This diverse and beautiful land is on its way again to becoming a major tourist country, now that it has stepped back into the favor of the rest of the world with the change to full democracy in the mid 1990s. The article includes separate sections on hiking in the Cederberg wilderness area, a visit to see one of the last South African tribes of Bushmen in Kagga Kamma, hiking in the Blyde River Canyon national park, an interesting personal experience with a local witch doctor, and river rafting on the Tugela River. There is also a side bar about skiing in South Africa. This feature is meant for either the summer issue of a ski magazine or for a travel publication. An editor may easily choose to use a few, but not all, of the sections of this article to create a feature most suitable it its readership.

THE GIANT SLEEPS NO MORE--THE DENG DYNASTY-Beijing, China, is a city most often visited by businessmen, but it is an interesting and worthwhile destination for a family as well. In this article, I use an unusual format, as I share the writing chores with my son Erik, and his mother, Eva to present Beijing as a family destination from three different perspectives. Eva discusses some of the shopping attractions, tips on bargaining, as well as the positive aspects of exposing one’s offspring to the amazing culture of China. She also mentions some characteristics of Beijing that could be negative to a Western woman. Erik recalls the panda bears at the zoo, the incredible acrobat show, bargaining for Pokeman cards, riding a rickshaw, the poorly translated menus, and the odd foods that one can purchase in a restaurant. He also writes about his visit to the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. In the bulk of the article, I present the capital city of the world’s most populous country as a surprising place where the former communists are out-marketing the West. The face of the city and the way of life here is changing faster than most things in our computer age. I give a somewhat tongue-in-cheek accounting of a typical day on our vacation, which touches on a few of the pitfalls that a tourist could well fall into.

TRAVELING INTO THE 21ST CENTURY--A QUICK GUIDE TO INTERNATIONAL DATING-This feature proposes the idea of meeting a member of the opposite sex on the net for the purpose of spicing up a vacation to a foreign city. Would you like to visit Prague this summer? How about a trip to St. Petersburg or Berlin? Why not establish contact with a local person, and even if no romance develops, you will get an insider’s view of an interesting place instead of wandering around alone without a clue.

WHERE FEW HAVE PASSED BEFORE-India is a fascinating country with more faces than most people can imagine, and a government that works in mysterious ways. Every now and then, the bureaucracy suddenly opens a remote area of India that had been off limits to tourism since day one. That happened to us a few years ago, when the Nubra and Dahanu Valleys were suddenly made available to visitors, and we were among the first non Indians ever to venture into these areas that had no tourist infrastructure whatsoever. One had to knock on doors to find a place to sleep in these military sensitive zones close to where India and Pakistan have been fighting an undeclared war at 6,000 meters altitude for a number of years. The drive into the Nubra Valley was an adventure in itself, as it passes over the Khardungla Pass on the world’s highest motorable road. (5400 m.)

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