How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
Author: Franklin Foer
Who knew you could learn so much about globalization, economics and politics from soccer? Great read.
Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Author: Julia Cameron
One possible path to re-discovering the creativity you never knew you had.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, New Edition
Author: Jared Diamond
An admirable crack at explaining why the world is the way it is by way of an anthropological macro-history. This book probably comes up the most in conversation as we travel.
The Cathedral Within: Transforming Your Life by Giving Something Back
Author: Bill Shore
Inspiring profiles of social entrepreneurs and projects we all can learn from and hopefully replicate to give back to community.
Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation
Author: John Carlin
Although the storyline is built around the South African rugby team and the 1995 World Cup, this book is more about Nelson Mandela and how he was able to unite a divided country. Inspiring.
Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown
Author: Paul Theroux
The author re-visits Africa and re-assesses the place he once knew... and judges it once and for all. Well written, poignant observations of the thumbprints left by career politicians, aid workers, and everyday people.
Outliers: The Story of Success
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
A look at the internal and external factors of how extraordinary people got to be, well, extraordinary. One of those books that challenges assumptions and makes you think differently.
Shantaram: A Novel
Author: Gregory David Roberts
Administering first aid in a Bombay slum, selling fake passports and running guns to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Technically a novel, but closely linked to the Author's own experiences. Fantastic read.
When you toast someone or something in Georgia with a beer, it’s more like a curse than a traditional toast for good health and prosperity.
I wonder, How many Georgians are drinking beers and clinking to Russia, Putin, and Medvedev right now?
Find out what happens when Vladimir Putin’s nickname sounds like the English word for a part of the female anatomy… Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Caucasus, Georgia, NAST by: Audrey Scott
No Comments | 15 August 2008
We met Leila (center) in Zugdidi, Georgia over a year ago. Like so many others, she and her friends at the market have probably been evacuated recently. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Caucasus, Georgia, Perspectives by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
8 Comments | 11 August 2008
Before this journey, our experience with the disputed regions in the Caucasus – Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh – amounted to a few news articles and flashpoint body-count news tickers drifting across the bottom of our television screens.
Something bad had happened, people had died, but we never truly appreciated or understood the details. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Caucasus, Georgia, Perspectives by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
6 Comments | 21 September 2007
When you get there, you’ll meet the Afghan at the telephone pole.
These instructions given to us in Mestia by the Svaneti Mountaineering Tourism Center left us baffled. Is our mountain guide a member of the Mujahideen who’d lost his way and made his home in the mountains of Georgia? After all, in Svaneti just about anything seems possible. Continue Reading »
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Filed Under: Audio Clips, Caucasus, Georgia, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
12 Comments | 19 August 2007
As the first tourists to take advantage of the Svaneti Mountaineering Tourism Center (SMTC), we planned our arrival in the town of Mestia to coincide with the organization’s inaugural party. Because of our exceptionally long ride from Zugdidi to Mestia, we barely arrived in time for the opening speeches, including one which singled us out and unexpectedly turned the local crowd’s attention to us. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Caucasus, Georgia, Hope for Humanity, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
No Comments | 19 August 2007
Some cities seem to exist in two dimensions, best taken in with a camera from afar. Not Tbilisi. Its turbulent history is a veritable bullet list of invasions, destructions, occupations, and reconstructions. As a result, it tends to reveal itself in layers, both architecturally and culturally. Labyrinthine and tactile, Tbilisi invites visitors to dig into it like urban archaeologists intent on determining its composition and its narrative. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Caucasus, Georgia, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
15 Comments | 17 August 2007
The town of Akhaltsikhe itself doesn’t offer too much excitement for the visitor, but it serves as a jumping off point for Vardzia and Sapara. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Caucasus, Georgia, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
1 Comment | 15 August 2007
Many Georgians seem to sing the word Borjomi, THE Georgian mineral water and spa town, with a longing in their voices and a hands over their hearts. What we learned is that most people haven’t visited in 20 or 30 years…some things have changed since the time when Borjomi was one of the most famous spa towns in the Soviet Union, a place for the elite to drink the waters and recover from all the drinking, smoking and poor eating the rest of the year. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Caucasus, Georgia, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
No Comments | 15 August 2007
Between embassy queues for visas, we’ve been taking advantage of Tashkent’s surprising supply of wifi and internet cafes.
As a result, we finally have some photos to show from Armenia and Azerbaijan, thereby completing our visual tour of the Caucasus. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Caucasus, Georgia, Photography, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
No Comments | 15 August 2007
I tell you, the Svanetians are crazy. Their brains are deficient in oxygen.
- A Tbilisi resident describing how the high altitudes of Svaneti have affected its people.
Svaneti, the high Caucasus mountain region in the northwestern corner of Georgia, has a long reputation of fierce independence characterized by the 12th century defensive towers that still dot many of its villages. More recently, Svaneti has been feared as outlaw territory where bandits and escaping terrorists from nearby Abkhazia, Chechnya and Ingushetia took refuge as locals holed up in their homes with guns at the ready. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Caucasus, Georgia, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
4 Comments | 15 August 2007
