Stories, sounds & pictures from around the world captured by Russell Johnson & friends and the magazine of TravelMedia, a multi-media communications company and WorldWorks, developing World Wide Web services for international clients.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia - Photo: Russell Johnson

Jewels of the Mekong

I have been away on an Asian marathon: Hong Kong, Nepal, Thailand (six times through the airport) Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar (Burma to most of us) and Southern China. As my Swedish-American mother would have said. Oof Dah.

The purpose of this dance through the destinations was a project called "Jewels of the Mekong", organized by the Pacific Asia Travel Association and supported by American Express, the Asian Development Bank and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

My job was to produce a video and WWW site, and do the photography for a book on the Mekong countries...all of which want to build their economies with tourism. ONE HOPES THEY ARE CAREFUL! I took some of my favorite pictures, not with my battered Nikon or my nifty new Sony digital camera, but with the tiny Olympus panoramic "point-and-shoot" I kept in my shirt pocket. Have a look at Mekong Panorama.

Few travelers venture north of San Francisco except to taste wine and that is simply a sin. I spent last year videotaping, photographing and savoring Northern California and Southern Oregon for the Redwood Empire Association. The Redwood Empire Gallery contains some of the results.

I also stopped in the sleepy burgh of Boonville to "harp some Boontling" (talk the local lingo) at the Horn of Zeese.

Bad Day in Borneo

Far away but not long ago, after a sleepless night in a Borneo longhouse with reminders of "the good old days" dangling from the rafters, there was nothing like slip-sliding away through the Borneo underworld.

Writers' Cramps

No poolside Mai Tais for Georgia Hesse when she bundled up like the Michelin Tire Man to discover the magnetism of the Far North. Peter Mayle found he had to move away from his paradise Provencal because people just wouldn't leave him alone. And the legendary Jan Morris has constructed a composite of probably the worst trip any human being could ever have taken. All courtesy of our friends at Book Passage.

A rthur C. Clarke, author of fantasies that often come true is as prolific as ever. We visited Clarke in Sri Lanka.
Art of Travel features a collection of photographs from around the world.

Environment & Heritage includes Jean-Michel Cousteau's views on Responsible Tourism the 1995-96 programs of the PATA Foundation, and a fun but enlightening day I spent on the Indonesian Island of Lombok, which may be poised to go up in a puff of tourism.
Humor features Sign Language A collection of fractured English from hither and thither.

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