Passionate Travel

It seems like I have barely slept in my own bed for the last few months, with a whirlwind of travel and happily all for good reasons. My travels have taken me to several times to New York and Seattle, and also to Los Angeles,Vietnam, Cambodia, San Francisco, Philadelphia, London, Paris, the South of France, Budapest, and the least touristed but most hospitable countries of Albania and twice to Kosova (Kosovo to the rest of the world except Albanians), and for a very fast but exciting day and a half in Geneva Switzerland which took me to meet with representatives for a major pharmaseutical company and hospital about the book that my grandson and I wrote about his experience with type 1 diabetes.

I also just returned from a cruise with my family to Alaska and Victoria, BC. We celebrated 4 birthdays, 3 anniversaries and had a really special family bonding. It has been many years since we first took our two young children on their first cruise on board Royal Viking where they were the only two children on board. I am thrilled to say that the magic is still there as we initiated a new generation to the joys of cruising and spending all sorts of quality family time together.

I am also thrilled to be coordinating an amazing trip to Ethiopia with the former Israeli Ambassador to Ethiopia planned for October, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Falashmura (Black Jews) exodus from Ethiopia-and there is still space for a few lucky people who want to literally travel through history with one of the most amazing statesmen of our time. For 2010, we will also be scheduling trips to the Far East and to the Baltic where his tenure there helped to shape some of the most dramatic events and small groups of lucky participants will be able to learn from him how to make the word more powerful than the sword. Please contact me if you are interested in participating in any of these special unique travel experiences.

My own personal journey has been something that I could never have even remotely imagined in my wildest dreams when I set out to try to make a difference in the world every day.

I truly have been blessed to be working on some amazing humanitarian projects, especially the Eye Contact Foundation, whose current project Panha's work which highlights the largely untold story of Albanian/Kosovo Besa (their code of honor which literally translates as "keeping the promise") currently has at least 6 photo exhibitions travelling the world, is currently up for Jewish Fine Arts Book of the Year by the Jewish Book Council, and whose movie God's House should hit the big screen by the beginning of 2010. The Founder, Norman H Gershman has taken his passion for photography and a love of Jewish life coupled with a desire to honor those who risked their lives to save people and has done what many others could not do, bring Jews, Muslims and Christians to look towards each other with a caring eye, searching for goodness.

In New York and Cambodia, I was privileged to work with Panha Ou of Amazing Angkor Tours and Jenni Lippa who have respectively set up the Cambodian Child Dream Organization, and in North America Friends of CCDO. Panha's work in the area around Siem Reap with providing clean water from reliable wells for communities in need, providing education, training, food and shelter for over 70 children in the Little Angels orphanage, is nothing short of incredible and most inspiring. I would like you to know what a difference as little as $125-150 a year can make to the children in the orphanage, or up to 40 people who are the beneficiary of a well that ends up providing so much more than just clean water. I just shared with my condo where I was going at our end of year get-together, and they helped me travel with one whole suitcase full of school and personal supplies for the children of the orphanage and the other children we met all along the way.

I have stayed in some incredible properties around the world, and even more memorable were some of the hoteliers, whose passions for hospitality runs through their veins, and goes directly to their hearts-in their desire to please their guests and also give back to their communities. Special Kudos goes to Nick Downing at Hotel de la Paix in Siem Reap, which is happily now a well deserving Virtuoso property. Their agreement with Mastercard has resulted in hundreds of bicycles being donated to needy children. In New York, Muyo Pereszic not only is overseeing a total renovation and upgrading of the Kimberly Hotel, including a new Rooftop bar, but still managed to find time to help and welcome some most promising up and coming young entrepreneurs from Albania and Kosovo.

I have also been travelling a lot by boat...or rather a most unusual assortment of water crafts, including a river boat up some very unusual and isolated areas along the Mekong River between Vietnam and Cambodia. Then a few weeks ago, I spent a week with six other people from around the world on a small Dutch owned barge along the most southern parts of the Canal Du Midi, in record weather so hot, that even the flamingos took refuge away from the heat and their normal habitat. On the barge I was privileged to meet and spend time with the recipient of the Order of Australia, a neurokinesiologist, Margaret Stuart.

Then last week, we took a major turn and spent a week with our family, children and grandchildren as we sailed on board the Celebrity Infinity. For one glorious week, the weather was spectacular as 8 of us sailed from Seattle to the ports of Ketchikan, Juneau, cruising through Hubbard Glacier and Victoria. We shared the boat with another 2092 people. The crew was so accomodating for Jared's special dietary needs as a type 1 diabetic. His face upon seeing a special no sugar baked alaska and Maya's prize winning seaworthy vessel were definitely top 10 material, although catching fish in Ketchikan as they jumped all around our boat, seeing the fish ladders, the Mendenhall Glacier, the Hubbard Glacier and the wildlife plus a fantastic two hour vintage car ride through Victoria will forever be part of the family lore.


My time in Kosovo was nothing short of extraordinary. It has actually been 10 years since the war in Kosovo, and in the course of tracking down people involved in helping tens of thousands of refugee children, I was privy to some of the most inspiring people I have even met, including the former Deputy Prime Minister, a man currently a member of the parliament, who for 14 years was imprisoned an tortured strictly because of his political views, school pricinciples, heads of communities, the family of Mustafa Rezniqi, who The Eye Contact Foundation helped Yad Vashem recognize as the first righteous family in Kosovo, an American-Israeli psychologist who has, since the war, been responsible for most of the growth and development of the field of psychology in Kosova. I also met with government officials to try to help develop sports tourism in Albania and Kosova in order to help them grow their tourism in a positive and sustainable way. Most of all, I was impressed with a very dedicated group of young people, journalists, students, translators, teachers, entrepreneurs, film makers, authors and entrepreneurs who willed things to happen, and miraculously they did. They are truly these country's future and living proof that Besa is still alive and well.

It seems hard to believe that just a scant year ago, I was not getting too far with a new full hip replacement and just two years ago that Jared was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. I am filled with love and gratitude for everyone who has shared my journey, and who is allowing me to share my passions with them in a way that along with my family and my clients who love to travel passionately will reach out and in turn, touch someone else with the gift of sharing and caring.

Remember to always let your passions be your guide!

Photos and much more to come....