I’ve heard the saying ‘what a difference a year makes for,’ well, years.  It always sounded so cliché, so trite.  It’s a year, people.  A mere 365 days.  How much can actually happen?  A year [...]

When I received word that I’d been cleared to attend the 2011 James Beard Awards, I had to sit down and compose myself.  Like the rest of you, I’ve been overspending my paychecks on good food and [...]

Canada. I know a few things about this place, this country that shares our border and in many ways, our sensibilities.  Canada knows hockey.  Canada’s citizens have free health care.  Canada’s [...]

I know, I know… It’s been a long time since I’ve given my Marie’s World blog any love. I’ve been running around countries and cities trying to make a living, but [...]

The next day, we woke early to meet Michael Terrien, a contact sent my way through an old HarperCollins author named Michael Sanders.  Terrien had assisted Sanders on his wine books, and was a [...]

A stop at the annual Food & Wine party on our second night made me realize that regardless of the open-armed, accessible experiences in Sonoma, the snooty wine mentality still exists in some [...]

Ever wake up on a vineyard?  Me neither.  Well, until a couple of weeks ago.  I won’t lie; it didn’t suck.  Sleep in my eyes, my country house bed was super-duper-comfortable, but I just couldn’t [...]

California Wine Country.  Those three little words have been elusive for decades.  Well, the two decades during which I’ve been legal.  Once I ditched my dream of moving to San Francisco [...]

A wonderful thing happened on the way up the FDR… Once upon a sleep evading night circa 2 or 3 AM, I made a whole bunch of workout mixes on my iPod.  Thing is, I usually don’t make it down to [...]

When I first met with Sherry Ott and Michaela Potter of Briefcase to Backpack earlier this year, they were toying with the idea of hosting a night in San Francisco and New York that explored [...]

I wasn’t sure what to expect before I left for Africa in June.  It was the only continent I hadn’t visited, and the one I was most eager to go to.  Now, having spent 5+ weeks in Kenya and [...]

 When I arrived at the Nairobi International Airport in early June, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  A travel writer, I’d seen the likes of five continents, but this was my first trip to Africa and [...]

Four days on a beach in Mombasa leads back to Njabini and Flying Kites.  Only this time, we’re prepared for the Gimwa, our home away from home.  We’re not surprised when it takes two hours to [...]

A rainbow of blues—marine, turquoise, sea foam, sky, and royal—undulate gently to meet the reef.  Defunct rowboats idle along shore.  A concentration of tin-roofed houses opens onto vibrant [...]

Accompanied by the three babus, Sam (babu Thomas’s son), and Sandy, we head off to Tarangire National Park.  Guides Dennis and Rajai will transport us, and in Rajai’s Rover we speed over some of [...]

As we pull onto the long dirt road leading to the village, a haze of dust kicking up in our wake, Sandy is dismayed.  Uh-oh.  I’ve only seen Sandy dismayed once before, on Kilimanjaro, and it [...]

Day 6: Barafu Camp to Uhuru Peak to Mweka Camp Hike: 10 miles Altitude: 15, 331 feet to 19, 341 feet to 10,065 feet Midnight.  Elias turns up at our tent.  His usual “How you doing?” disrupts our [...]

Day Five: Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp Hike: 2 miles Altitude: 13, 105 feet to 15, 331 feet Oh what a beautiful morning.  Oh what a beautiful day.  Finally.  Darryl gives my face the once over and [...]

Day Three: Shira 2 Camp to Lava Tower to Barranco Camp Hike: 6 miles Altitude: 12,500 feet to 15, 190 feet to 13, 044 feet The mornings are cold and misty.  And this morning, particularly, I’m [...]

Day One: Machame Gate to Machame Camp Hike: 7 miles Altitude: 5, 380 feet – 9,350 feet It’s raining.   “Good luck,” says someone within earshot of my complaints.  Tell that to the bride, I [...]

Darryl met her on the corner of Flying Kites Road while I was exchanging dollars into shillings at the local bank.  She was dressed in a red and white checked skirt and navy blue sweater – a [...]

We’re here!  Africa.  Well, Kenya to start.  At first glance, it reminds me of India: abject poverty, haphazardly placed bundled garbage, potholes, unrecycled plastic, roaming goats, cows, and [...]

I’ve done this already.  Multiple times.  And yet, the mixed feelings inevitably come.  Kenya, Tanzania, and Mount Kilimanjaro loom large on my horizon, but I’m torn on leaving a very settled New [...]

I hadn’t done the solo travel thing since last year’s trip to Mexico when I left my very worried mother (“Honey, they have DRUG WARS here.”) in a cab to the airport as I hopped a bus from Puerto [...]

Flying into Tahiti for my transfer to Bora Bora couldn’t have been a more anticipated arrival. The South Pacific was full of gems, but Bora Bora was the crown jewel and I absolutely couldn’t wait [...]

Time has given me perspective; distance altered my outlook. Now, I’d go back in a heartbeat. However, when I was in the Cook Islands, it felt far from easy… The Cook Islands stint began as my [...]

Rocky shorelines, crystal blue water, eco-friendly resorts, stunning coral reefs, swaying palm trees and the warmest, loveliest people I’ve ever met. That’s a tip-of-the-iceberg portrait of the [...]

Leaving Wellington in the wind, I began my northern climb toward Auckland, where I’d fly out on March 1st to Fiji. Dependent on buses, opting not to further push my automotive luck, it felt good [...]

In my beaten vehicle, I pushed forward from Blenheim, moving from East Coast to West. My destination was Collingwood, New Zealand, a small town in the area of Golden Bay described as being “at [...]

When the drive to Franz Josef began, I was on a natural high. The weaving, winding roads that made “S” shapes up and down mountain passes didn’t phase me, the hairpin turns on opposite road sides [...]

New Zealand. Wow. Wow. Wow. I know that seems an elementary description, but there’s no way that I can adequately do written justice to the plentiful natural beauty of New Zealand. Sure, I’ve [...]

So, it’s over. Australia, that is. It’s flown. I can’t believe I’m moving on… Almost six weeks spent in Australia (!), beginning with a celebration of the New Year with a view favoring the fabled [...]

While the cities of Melbourne and Sydney have stolen a good deal of my attention, it was the last two trips that truly captivated my senses: Darwin and Ayers Rock. Both part of the Northern [...]

Melbourne, Australia. Once the capital before it was moved to Canberra, Melbourne is a world city in its own right. No, it’s not as pretty as Sydney, it’s not as hot as Cairns, it’s not as [...]

Oh, the Whitsundays… Australia’s northeast coast is dominated by islands that flirt with the fringes of the Great Barrier Reef. The Whitsundays were supposed to be one of the most beautiful [...]

Brisbaine loses the ‘East Coast, Big City’ contest. I guess it’s hard to compete with Sydney, but Brisbaine’s too slick to even be in the running. While waterside, and potentially beautiful, it’s [...]

Australia’s East Coast is a virtual wonderland of beach towns. From small, sleepy little hamlets to glitzy, designer promenades, the Coast is rife with a beach community for even the toughest of [...]

At 7:20 AM, Sarah and I awoke startled as my phone rang. Simon the Stranger. Downstairs. “You don’t have a big bag, right? I’ve got my bike in the back.” Uh, now you tell me…? Scraping the last [...]

Continuing from where we left off post-New Years, my days in Sydney have been nothing short of thrilling. Taking the ferry from Sarah’s flat in Abbotsford (a suburb) each morning was divine. I’m [...]

Happy New Year! I’ve landed safely on the other side of the world (again) and I feel great. It was such a natural recapturing of self to get off that plane, don my travel hat, and do my [...]

It’s almost midnight. December 26th, 2006. I’m leaving for Sydney, Australia in one, yes one, day and…I have absolutely nothing to wear. Sydney is chic, as is Melbourne. The Outback is rugged, [...]

Lisbon was followed by Lagos, a southern ocean town in the Algarve that offered much less frenzied a pace than the northern city of my flight lessons. It was breathtakingly beautiful, rocky [...]

Warning: this is a long, but fun blog. Enjoy at leisure… A city of seven hills, like San Francisco and Rome, Lisbon is a high-low adventure of altitudes (very hard to determine on maps: you start [...]

Madrid. I’ve been here before. It’s semi-familiar, but I feel as if I’ve grown so much since that trip that I’m seeing Madrid through new eyes. Now that I have the knowledge to actually compare [...]

Hi, hi…I’m back, sorry this took so long. I seem to have a lot of worried friends from lack of blogging, lack of photos.I’m fine, I’m fine…I’ve just been in my [...]

If I liked Bogota, Cartagena astounded me. It was a Technicolor odyssey of architectural sights, set inside a fairy-tale-like wall that surrounded the city like a fort. Well, it WAS a fortress [...]

Like most people, I had my ideas about Colombia. I knew of the horror stories dealing with drug cartels, burning coca fields, drug “mules”, Pablo Escobar and his empire in Medellin, political [...]

I guess I had a right to be worried… How does one compare of week of jet-setting amongst fabulous friends; three cities, five days, countless faces, places, and spaces to a rainy Panama? One [...]

The past week is a total blur…Living life, Ecuadorian style, takes stamina. At least the way I was living it!This was Ecuador, Round 2. From the plane, I was whisked to Sake, a restaurant ala [...]

After a month plus of New York City, wherein I came to find that manicuring, lunching, gyming and gossiping with people you run into who ALSO don’t work on the Upper East Side wasn’t doing it for [...]

I have learned a few things on my way from Lake Atitlan (which was nice, but very hazy…) to Flores, which is a teeny-tiny island that juts out into Lake Peten Itza in northern Guatemala.: 1) [...]

Day three brought me to Antigua, a mountain town about 30 miles out of Guatemala City. As I emailed hotels for lodging, a small villa/hotel next to the hotel I had my eye on emailed me back in [...]

Back in Latin America…and it feels good. After a hectic couple of weeks in New York wherein my sister got engaged, my best friend got married, and I had lot of friends and family to catch up with [...]

I left Singapore, watching the city disappear as I passed overhead in the plane, looking like a replica of a model community made of plastic below me. The perfection of the trees and lakes and [...]

I know how to shop. This we know. But… Singapore overwhelmed me. God, did it overwhelm me. I think I’m still recovering from shop shock. And, outside of two beautiful tea sets and a magnet for my [...]

I can now die happy. The Maldives are all that and more. The most AMAZING place I’ve ever been, beach-wise. They are what, in my ‘suspending-non-religious-beliefs-for-just-a-moment’ reality, I [...]

Everyone warned me not to go to Varanasi, the most religious city in India, the spiritual soul of the country. As you may have heard on the news (I’ve gotten many emails making sure I was [...]

At some point, it was bound to happen, I guess….My awful, awful experience in India. So, here goes. Being a woman here just sucks. Everyone warned me on taking trains, but in the same breath, [...]

After my days in crazy Mumbai, I was eager to take some time out in Goa, the beach district on the mid-western coast of India. Founded by the Portugese, and a hippie colony in the 60’s and 70’s, [...]

I’ve gotten about 10 emails in the last 20 minutes remarking on how clever my Soundtrack was, how did I pick the songs, etc… Those are the songs THE DJ PICKED in the Mumbai club in my [...]

So, I’m sitting in my hotel room in Mumbai as I write this, The Gordon House, a charming little boutique hotel in Colaba, the downtown area of Mumbai, which is constantly jumping. Street bazaars, [...]

So, I decided that to get to Agra to meet the Hanfts (Rikki’s parents who are in India for a month, the coolest parents around besides my own (well, there’s also Bob Schwartz, my email buddy, but [...]

I’m in INDIA. That, to me, blows my mind. I don’t think at any point in my life did I ever think I’d be visiting INDIA. And yet, here I am. I know so little about Indian culture, that I’m awed by [...]

A little book called “The Beach” gave the islands of Thailand a magical aura that wouldn’t subside. Friends who I rendered potentially illiterate read “The Beach.” Possibly, it was due in part to [...]

The shiny, sleepless city of Bangkok has become my second home. I think it’s fair to say that it’s the second home of most Asia-bound travelers, as all (direct) flights originate in Bangkok. So, [...]

The New York Times published a travel piece about a week or so ago called “Why is everyone going to Cambodia?” (or similar…) I wound up reading it out here and found myself enormously pissed [...]

Luang Prabang is giving Hoi An a run for it’s money as my favorite city thus far. There’s a tranquility and peacefulness here, a pace of relaxation that envelops you the second you land in this [...]

Chiang Mai is a city that is getting it’s share of air time in the world right now. Any trip to Thailand seems no longer SOLELY about the islands, but also a trip north to Chiang Mai and the [...]

Everyone warned me about Bangkok… (except Sarah, yes…) “Get in, get out.”“I guess you have to SAY you’ve been to Bangkok, but it sucks.”“It’s a dirty, gross city. Stay overnight. You’ll hate it.” [...]

Speechless perfection…. PS. Thai food, a close second.

After Hue, I was curious to see what Hanoi could possibly offer . . . Thinking on it, it’s amazing how much of Vietnam I’ve seen in the last few weeks. I don’t know that I thought I’d see so much [...]

It’s funny how when you expect the worst, you always wind up surprising yourself and having a blast. For me, that was what Hue was all about. I arrived into Hue after sleeping late in Hoi An to [...]

Ok, hi — I’m back. After recovering from the unbelievable culture shock of Ho Chi Minh City, as NOTHING is familiar on this side of the world, I began to adapt to the city. I would [...]

(what did you think I’d call it …. !?!?!?!) And so….Round two. Sorry for the delay. I’ve been a little busy, you know, adjusting to a) Asiab) a 12-hour time differencec) [...]

Right now, I’m on a plane to Tokyo. Ready to begin the next leg of my trip, SouthEast Asia. I’ve dreamed about visiting places like Vietnam, Thailand, and Bali since college and today is the [...]

My baby, My baby goes to RiO! Rio de JanierO! La la la la la la la……Hugh Jackman, shaking what his momma gave him, always springs to mind when I think of Rio. But, now, having DONE Rio, that’s no [...]

The road from Punta del Este led to Iguazu Falls, the 300+ waterfalls that border three countries: Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. I took the bus from the fantastic Punta to Montevideo, where I [...]

I know, I know….I’ve been offline, doing my thing. In Punta del Este, no less. Not a bad place to do anything…..Trust me. So, as mentioned, Tony called Bruno who called [...]

Would you believe it….I’m still in Buenos Aires. I cannot escape, I don’t want to escape, I never want to leave.But, alas, tomorrow I head off to Punta del Este in Uruguay to [...]

I am 100% convinced that, in my past life, I WAS Evita Peron…. Buenos Aires. Love it. I’m easily obsessed with this country, more so now that I’m in Buenos Aires.The 20 hour bus [...]

So, I’m totally over my last blog angst, and Thanksgiving dramas…as I’m in Argentina.Aaaaah, Argentina. I think I’ve already fallen in love with Argentina!!! The [...]

So, Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Thought it would be best to get online and write mine out, because well….let´s be honest…it was heinous. I´m in Puerto Montt, the port town in the [...]

I made my way from Santiago to Pucon, Chile in an overnight bus two days ago.Yes, you read correctly, an overnight BUS. I asked my concierge at the Santiago hotel to book me an overnight TRAIN [...]

So, a few nights ago, I went out with Tony, a Chilean friend of a friend from HarperCollins who lives in Santiago.He was born in Chile, but has lived everywhere from New York and Miami to Rio, to [...]

Santiago…. I wasn’t sure what I expected from Santiago. The word on the street is that there’s nothing to “see” here, it’s a city you’ll pass through. [...]

Hi there… I know, I haven’t been online in a while…I’ve been running around South America, what else…? Anyway, I’m going to try to play catch up today. I have [...]

I´m leaving Cusco at 8 in the morning, to head off to Santiago, Chile. Spending the day in Lima, as my flight to Chile isn´t until 9 PM. Gets in at 2:30 in the AM. Gotta love Taca, right? Last [...]

So…she surfaced. Bad, NYC Marie. BUT….only for a bit.And, then she was gone. Here goes… I decided that since I was going to be in Cusco for a week until I could get on my Inca [...]

Since I last left off at the cafe, I was having a hard time adjusting to the altitude.It´s better now, but now it feels like I´m getting a cold. Sniffles and watery eyes. It´s a mild version of [...]

So… I’ve been hearing all about this blog for the past week now and am just getting on for the first time today. I must say that in preparing for this trip, l’ve been [...]

So, I’m totally pampering myself tonight even though I was thorougly pampered in the Galapagos by JoseLuis and rest of the Gipsy Cholos. Right now, I had the Marriott (where they upgraded [...]

Sorry I have been MIA. The Gipsy Cholo posse have adopted me, literally. I don´t have a phone in my room and they call the front desk and the hostess of my hotel comes knocks on my door and goes: [...]

i have some new friends today from my first dive. 8 ppl from Ecuador that areall different ages and have different lives. They´re great, very very nice and havetaken me in. I spent last night in [...]

Yesterday was great. Getting to Lan airlines, checking in, making myself a little window-aisle-seat-bed on the mostly empty plane. Lemme tell you kids, Lan is one heckuva airline. So spacious. [...]

So…I get to the airport this morning. Bright and early, 5AM. Rearing to go. Check in, play-using my Spanish, acting the part, rocking the Martinez (yes, my dad’s puertoriqueno)… [...]