Friends and vagabonders, January finds me back in India, headed northeast out of Bombay en route to the epic Kumbh Mela pilgrimage on the banks of the Ganges River, near Allahabad. This colossal Hindu sin-cleansing festival takes place every 12 years, and some sources are predicting a turnout of 70 million people (I didn’t tell…
by Rolf Potts When my Vagabonding column debuted in Salon.com, lots of readers wrote to ask me how they, too, could get jobs as travel writers. This, I’ll admit, was a tough question to answer. After all, travel writing is not really something you can study for in college, and there are certainly no travel…
Friends and vagabonders, Welcome to my newly redesigned website! It’s been a long time since I sent everyone an update — June, in fact, when Salon closed down its travel department just as I was boarding a freighter for India. Thanks to everyone who sent messages of support for Vagabonding to me or to the…
Taken under the wing of a Lebanese detergent tycoon, Rolf learns that there’s a fine line between hospitality and kidnapping.
At a 1-dinar cinema in Amman, Jordan, the real story has little to do with the movie itself.
Armed only with curiosity and a stained pair of pants, Rolf tries to make sense of the Islamic Feast of the Sacrifice in Aqaba, Jordan.
In Egypt, Rolf discovers that even the simplest experiences sometimes carry a price tag.
With Flaubert’s 1850 letters as a guide, Rolf explores the enduring allure of opera, orgasm, belly-dancing and other Cairo clichés.
An unorthodox tour of the second and final tomb of Lazarus puts a strange twist into Rolf’s Larnaca layover.
Leo’s new movie may be fiction, but its portrayal of a crowded travel world is based in fact. Rolf reports — from the unlikeliest of places — on just what is happening.
Rolf retraces the thin threads that led to his being drugged and robbed in the heart of Istanbul.
