Places • Have Camera Will Travel

City on the Mekong

Vientiane’s waterfront seems purpose-built for beautiful sunsets. With a wide promenade and park, it’s well used. And right across the river is Thailand.

For a big city–12 million people and counting–Paris doesn’t have the kinds of skyscrapers you might expect. Aside from a few carefully segregated clusters, most of Paris’s buildings aren’t more than five or six stories tall. But the things that do stand out are world class landmarks.

Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum

Even Uncle Ho needs a holiday. Even while he’s away on his annual autumn sojourn in Moscow, his mausoleum in downtown Hanoi still gets the royal treatment.

Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala

Just outside Antigua, Pacaya is one of several active volcanos that make up the Central American Volcanic Arc.

A Washington Winter Wonderland

Heavy snow shuts down Washington DC, but it also transforms the National Mall, its monuments, and other Washington landmarks like the White House into a winter wonderland.

Washington DC’s Cherry Blossoms in 2012

Every spring, the 1,678 Cherry Blossom trees lining Washington DC’s Tidal Basin reach peak bloom in an explosion of floral fireworks lasting only a few days. Information, forecast for 2012, and photos of the 2010 and 2011 peak blooms.

Cu Chi Tunnels

I don’t usually have issues with claustrophobia, but this isn’t fun anymore. I find it amazing that people could live down here, spending all day below ground in what were not only hot and wet and stifling, but were infested with rats and provided a near ideal environment for incubating disease.

The Lakes of Hanoi

Hanoi has a lot of lakes. And as you’d expect from a bustling, industrialized city of several million people in a country with a decidedly mixed record of dealing with environmental challenges, most of those lakes are severely polluted. But the lakes provide a respite from the crushing traffic and incessant bustle in other parts of the city.

Sydney Harbour at night

A collection of images of Sydney Harbour at night, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, and Luna Park.

The Hanoi Hilton

This is not a place of sweetness and light. Hao Lo Prison, better known in the west as “the Hanoi Hilton,” was first a French colonial jail for Vietnamese political prisoners and later used during the Vietnam War for American pilots held as prisoners of war. And it’s a place with an especially grim history.

Vietnam’s Perfume River

I’m standing right above the middle of the river, 25 feet above the water surface. And I don’t smell a thing. The Perfume River, it turns out, is only fragrant at a specific time of the year, in the autumn, when the flowers in the orchards up river lose their blossoms into the water.

Town of 1770

It’s an odd name for a town, but then Australia has a lot of unusual-sounding place names (see: Wagga Wagga, Bong Bong, or Humpybong). It’s sometimes listed officially as “Seventeen Seventy.” Locals often write it as “1770″, which gives a better hint as to the history behind the strange name.

The River Outpost of Nong Khiaw

We’d arrived late at night, after about eight hours of driving on bumpy, dusty, windy roads through the mountains of the northern Laos provinces of Luang Namtha and Oudomxai. In the dark, there hadn’t been much to see–it’s not exactly lit up like Times Square. There was a bridge. Somewhere far below was the river. And then we were there. Seeing what Nong Khiaw was like would have to wait for morning.

Narita-San Temple

The Narita-san Temple is a 1000-year-old Shingon Buddhist temple complex in the heart of Narita, about 40 miles east of Tokyo.

The Rugged Charm of the Top of the Land of a Million Elephants

The rugged, mountainous terrain of northern Laos is beautiful. While well off the beaten track and not really on the road to anywhere else, Luang Namtha and Oudomxai provinces are well worth seeing.

Gallows Point Resort

Gallows Point Resort on St. John in the beautiful US Virgin Islands is a fantastic place to watch some stunning Caribbean sunsets.

Hoover Dam

The Hoover Dam was one of the great engineering feats of the Great Depression of the 1930s in the United States.

A Caribbean Island 100 Miles from the Sea

With the heat, humidity, water, and laid-back lifestyle, Flores feels like the Caribbean. Which shouldn’t be surprising–this is the trunk of the Yucatan Peninsula, after all, not far from Mexico and Belize. But still, it is 110 miles inland. It’s also a tiny place.

Capri, Italy

From the winding walkways through the village and along the tops of stunning cliffs over the Mediterranean (there are virtually no cars in the main village of Capri), the traditional wooden fishing boats in the harbor, the scrumptious seafood, the Roman ruins, and the role it has played in more modern history, Capri is somewhere I can’t wait to get back to.