Join Me

Not always solo.

When I'm not going solo I lead a number of trips to the Middle East and Central Asia, below are three trips I have planned for 2008. Click on the links to learn more about each amazing trip or contact Geographic Expeditions 1-800-777-8183

Upcoming trips

May 15 - June 5 & Sep 17 - Oct 8 - 2008
The Silk Road Across the Turugart Pass (China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan)
We take great joy in creating thematically booming trips like this. The Great Silk Road Across the Turugart Pass ties together whole passels of civilizations, epochs, and sceneries. And it tells a story, the grand tale of one of humankind’s great arteries of trade and culture.

Anchored at its ends by Beijing and Tashkent, capital of what used to be Soviet (and before that, Russian) Central Asia (at least three major themes right there, from the Mongols to the Great Game to Marx), this epic journey traverses the heart of Asia, following one of the Road’s major branches. It skirts deserts (New Frontier Province’s Taklamakan is perhaps the world’s fiercest), lopes over great mountains (cutting the Pamir Knot’s northern strand, the Tien Shan Mountains), and crosses rare borders (the Sino-Kyrgyz frontier at 12,300-foot Turugart Pass, which GeoEx pioneered some years ago).

The roster of cities and sights we visit is bracingly exotic: Dunhuang’s Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, Urumchi (the most landlocked place on earth), Kashgar, Samarkand, Bukhara, Uzbekistan, and Kristina’s still-little-visited Kyrgyz Republic. As one of our leading Silk Roaders, Kristina Tuohey, notes, “Much has been said of the history- laden mystique of China’s west and the jewels of Uzbekistan, but Kyrgyzstan is an unexpected highlight. Its grand landscapes, its broad valleys, its impressive mountains, its deep red canyons, and its welcoming folks are a great travel secret.”

Oct 21-Nov 2 - 2008
Syria
Carolyn McIntyre is set to lead this deeply informed look at the landscapes and relics of the heart of Syria. Private dinners with locals, private visits and tours, conservation, and restoration will be the hallmarks of this passionately led classic where we’ll not only be taken by the impressive sites but we’ll surely be overwhelmed by the traditional Arab courtesy and hospitality. Details regarding visits and lectures with local community leaders will be confirmed closer to departure as they do depend on individual schedules. However, some of the special events in the planning stages include a visit to a local home in Damascus, a tour of the National Museum of Aleppo with an archaeologist as well as a private visit to the Aleppo Citadel with Adli Qudsi, meeting with a local Syrian journalist, dinners with local leaders in Damascus, private music and dance performances, among others.

Nov 6-24 - 2008
Saudi Arabia
We join our intrepid colleague Carolyn McIntyre in Saudi Arabia, a country just now opening its doors to nonbusiness and nonmilitary travelers. Carolyn knows the kingdom intimately, having lived and worked there for more than a decade. Her comprehensive look at the pivotal desert kingdom brings us into contact with her Saudi friends and takes us from deserts to mountains, from skyscrapers to goatskin tents, reveling in the country’s massive, intriguing contrasts.

Contrasts: the bustling commercial capital of Jeddah and the tombs of Meda’in Salah, carved from living rock, a proud rival of Petra. The deserty ruins of Dawmat al-Jandal and the glass-sheathed towers of Riyadh, rising in “optimistic thrust.” And much more, on a deeply informative, beautiful, and rare journey to one of the world’s most fascinating and crucial countries, in the company of a fine and sharp guide.