Taken under the wing of a Lebanese detergent tycoon, Rolf learns that there’s a fine line between hospitality and kidnapping.
Dancing at the blood festival
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.
Backpackers’ Ball at the Sultan Hotel
With Flaubert’s 1850 letters as a guide, Rolf explores the enduring allure of opera, orgasm, belly-dancing and other Cairo clichés.
Live from the trans-global Beach Nation
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.
Turkish Knockout
Rolf retraces the thin threads that led to his being drugged and robbed in the heart of Istanbul.
On the Trans-Siberian Express
Amid an epic Beijing-to-St. Petersburg train trip, Rolf parties with librarians, tracks down the fate of Genghis Khan’s testicles, and (among other things) embarks on a madcap race to catch up with the train after getting stranded on the Mongolian-Siberian border.
Horse races, open spaces and the fate of Genghis Khan’s balls
In his first dispatch from an epic Beijing-St. Petersburg train trip, Rolf explores the mysteries of Mongolia.
Goodbye, Khao San Road
As he leaves Southeast Asia, Rolf reflects on the evolution of the middle-class travel revolution.
The Barbecue Jesus and other epiphanies
Wandering off the Vietnamese budget travel trail in search of authenticity, Rolf finds that authenticity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Apocalypse Not: One Month on the Mekong
In a quixotic attempt to re-create Mark Twain’s “Life on the Mississippi” in Southeast Asia, Rolf invests in a Laotian riverboat and attempts to drive it 800 miles to the Cambodian border.
Up Cambodia without a phrasebook
On the pleasures and paranoia of being a mostly clueless white guy in the company of Third World hosts.