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Discovery Adventure Insights Observations Stock Photos Come travel with us Travel Journals from Nepal, Tibet, Thailand Havana, Galapagos, Rio Carnival, Fiji Elephants, Dolphins Fun times, Spirit Profiles of our favorite travelers:  Barb Fraser- Origin: South Africa Strength: Can travel anywhere Comic flaw: Trouble seems to find her Heartwish: The healing of her country Travel memory: Going native with Yao women in Thailand.  Barrett Bartell- Profession: Physicist, RF engineer Wakes up in: Pacifica, California Early development: Schoharie Creek, NY Passion: Surfing overhead waves, guitar Remote destination: The Caves of the Canary Islands Nastiest scrape: Getting hijacked by banditos south of the border Latest acquisition from Inspired Planet: Protective bone and eye bead necklace.  Sarah Jane Kincaid- Raised in: New England Presently: Madrid, Spain, atop a 16th century villa Recent Adventure: Spring escapade to Morocco Passion: Spanish culture and literature Paradox: Stunning beauty and brains Latest Book Read: The Early Diaries of Anais Nin Latest Purchase: A Cambodian silk scarf in shades of purple from Inspired Planet.  Zak Zide- Origin: Boston area Field: Environmental education Last position: Academy of Sciences, San Francisco Current whereabouts: The national parks of Malasia Contradiction: Professionally accomplished/contagiously silly Important acquisition: A Siamese healing stone from Inspired Planet.  Eoin- Expertise: Computer graphics Homeland: England Longterm gig: Copenhagen design studio Flight of Fancy: Reveling at the colorful Spring Holi Celbrations. Rajasthan, India.  Ruby (and Fuzzy) Age: 6 1/2 Realm: Riverdale, New York Passion: An adorable white rabbit Last book read: Are You a Ladybug? Latest purchase: An Ethiopian wand and peacock feather from Inspired Planet. |
"I've always been sensitive to nomads, the inhabitants of
Mongolia as well as globetrotters or punks...To travel is to shed preconceived ideas; it's
mixing with others and getting mixed up--physical travel or traveling in your head."
Photo locations on this page include the western Sahara desert in Morocco, a Sunyasin in South India, the high plains in Peru, a remote Buddhist temple in Myanmar, a Canyari grandmother in Ecuador, a Katakali dancer in Kerela, Kikuyu hunters in Kenya, a Himalayan valley in Nepal, the mountains of Ethiopia, and the ruins of Angkor in Cambodia. All photographs are copywrited by Inspired Planet and Dudley Levenson. It is forbidden to use these images without our agreement. They are available for purchase or may be leased on a per use basis. Please E-mail us for permission, details, and special requests.
"Let the tourist be cushioned against misadventure, but your true traveler will not
feel that he has had his money's worth unless he brings back a few scars." Extreme Adventure in the Himalayas We like excitement, but why would anyone in their right mind go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, swim with sharks along the Great Barrier Reef or mountain bike in the Amazon jungle? This answer to this question is approached through a true life tale of extreme sport in the Himalayas, The Last River, by author, Todd Balf. Check out this review by David Hachman: "One hundred thousand years of human exploration hasn't made things easy for the turn of the millenium adventurer. After all, with Everest conquered, the oceans fathomed, and earth already crisscrossed by foot, rowboat, and hot-air balloon, what's left to conquer? That quest is the driving force behind The Last River: The Tragic Race for Shangrila, Todd Balf's heart-pounding account of the ill-fated 1998 kayak attempt on Tibet's fabled Tsangpo River, a raging, never before ridden torrent in the dark shadow of the Himalayas. The Last River is a page-flipping odyssey fueled by the adrenilin and near madness of a team of well-heeled world class thrill seekers hot on the trail of an unspeakably dangerous (and ultimately deadly) challenge. And like Mount Everest, the Tsangpo, which roars through a razor thin gorge three miles deep in places, is among the planet's most inhospitable and untested environments--impossibly remote, endlessly mysterious and complete with its own Death Zone. This isn't just any river, but the Great River, beginning as a near frozen trickle on the 22,028 foot summit of Mt. Kailas (the universe's cosmic center, according to Tibetan Buddhists) and diving 10,000 feet at speeds upwards of 50 mph through a chasm three times deeper than the Grand Canyon. With its sheer mossy walls, 50 degree water temperatures and torrential falls, the river had never been fully explored, let alone kayaked. Balf digs in to what drove these men-- with their Harvard educations, Olympic medals, and families back home -- to fool with devil waters that would eventually claim the life of one of the team's strongest paddlers. - excerpted from a review by David Hachman in Entertainment Weekly. The Last River by Todd Balf is available at the Inspired Planet Bookstore. "Could it be, I wondered, that our need for distraction, our mania for the new, was, in essence, an instinctive migratory urge akin to that of birds in autumn? All the Great Teachers have preached that Man, originally, was a 'wanderer in the scorching and barren wilderness of the world'---the words are those of Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor---and that to rediscover his humanity, he must slough off attachments and take to the road. My two most recent notebooks were crammed with jottings taken in South Africa, where I had examined, at first hand, certain evidence on the origin of our species. What I learned there---together with what I now knew about the Songlines---seemed to confirm the conjecture I had toyed with for so long: that Natural Selection has designed us---from the structure of our brain-cells to the structure of our big toe---for a career of seasonal journeys..." -Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines. "I wanted to be something that I was not. I even wanted to be a poet and a middle class person at the same time. I wanted to be an artist and a man of fantasy, but I also wanted to be a good man, a man at home. It all went on for a long time, till I knew that a man can not be both, and have both, that I am a nomad and not a farmer, a man who searches and not a man who keeps. A long time I castigated myself before gods and laws which were only idols for me. That was what I did wrong, my anguish, my complicity in the worldís pain. I increased the worldís guilt and anguish, by doing violence to myself, not by daring to walk toward my own salvation. The way to salvation leads neither to the left nor to the right: it leads into your heart, and there alone is God, and there alone is peace." -Herman Hesse, in Wandering. |
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