As a young man, I can still remember sitting in the auditorium of my medical school listening to the Dean calling out our draft numbers for the war effort in Vietnam based on our birthdays. Mine was 315-whew!!! Little did I know at the time that I would develop a fascination with South East Asia.
An Excursion Up the Niger River...
Here's the situation. Cliff, Kunta (our guide), the boat driver and I are traveling up the Niger River in Mali on our way to Timbuktu. This is a three day excursion with no electricity, no grocery stores and no shelter! I was glad that I had three camera batteries that were charged and twelve memory cards because what we saw was worth photographing.
The Lightbulb Goes Off!
In 2005, my friend Cliff and I went to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. This is a closed society under despotic rule that has strict regulations and limits regarding travel by foreigners. You might then wonder, how would two Americans like us end up in this Asian country?
The Journey Begins...
When I was 27 years old, I took a year off between my undergraduate studies and my first year of medical school to travel throughout Western Europe and the British Isles using "Europe on a $24 a Day" as my Bible. I did not know it then, but this experience would shape my young life.