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International travel has been a significant feature of our professional lives since the first year of our marriage, over 40 years ago. As a humanities professor (Elizabeth) whose focus is the cultural expressions of diverse peoples and a travel photographer (Phil), we have been fortunate to enjoy experiences abroad at least once a year, sometimes more, seeking destinations around the globe that would offer primary material for our work. Studying, learning and documenting propelled us to the far reaches of the globe. However, since March 2020, like most, we have remained largely at home....

Some opportunities present themselves once in a lifetime. When the invitation arrived for me to visit my dear friend Hilal, whom I met years ago in Delhi, and his family in Srinagar, India, in November 2019, without blinking an eye, I jumped at the opportunity. 

Often referred to as “paradise on Earth,” Srinagar is the largest city of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, nestled below the snowcapped Himalayas in northwest India. A main attraction there is the luxurious houseboats that can be found along the shores of the lakes Dal and Nageen.

Starting in...

Though our November 2019 tour would be the first time that Road Scholar offered a hiking trip in Japan, their local partner, Walk Japan, was an expert at this type of trip. Offering a great hiking experience on clean, well-maintained trails through fields with lovely vegetable gardens and terraced rice paddies, forests, streams and waterfalls, the journey was planned to take in the fall colors, and they were near their peak, with bright-red and salmon-pink maples, bright-yellow ginkgos and evergreens.

Pre-trip materials described the path conditions and the elevation gain for each...