Resources

Tour operators I've used and enthusiastically endorse:
(click on a name to go directly to the site):  

• Journeys Within (custom private tours in Southeast Asia, based in Siem Reap, Cambodia)
• Duma Explorer (custom private tours in Tanzania, based in Arusha, Tanzania)
• Tropical Feathers (custom private birding tours in Costa Rica, based in San Jose, Costa Rica)
• Wilderness Travel (small group adventure tours worldwide)
• Galapagos Travel (small ship natural history adventures in the Galapagos Islands)
• Cruise West (small ship Alaska adventures)
• Travel Exploration Morocco (custom private tours of Morocco, based in Ouarzazate, Morocco)

My favorite charities that support those in need: 

• Direct Relief is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that provides medical assistance to people around the world who have been affected by poverty, natural disasters, and civil unrest.
• Kiva empowers people around the world with small loans:  $25 is all it takes to help someone.
• Women for Women International helps women survivors of war to rebuild their lives.
• Journeys Within Our Community provides clean water in Cambodian villages, increases educational and economic opportunities for children and adults, and inspires ongoing social change.

Travel publications I like:

• International Travel News is a monthly foreign travel magazine, based upon international travelers keeping each other informed with reviews, articles and lots of useful information. 
• Ultima Thule,  Journal of the Farthest Places, is the newsletter of high-end U.S. travel company GeoEx (Geographic Expeditions).  While I enjoy reading GeoEx's enormous booklets advertising fancy trips and destinations, I don't book their trips because of their high prices and big groups.  Ultima Thule, however, is a delightful newsletter written by the likes of Dan George, with fascinating stories of travel.  I've kept every issue.

The U.N. Climate Summit film:  "What's Possible," presented to world leaders in New York September 2014.

If I could choose a song for a travel mantra, this would be mine:

Trip the Light

"If all the days that come to pass
Are behind these walls
I’ll be left at the end of things
In a world kept small

I'll travel far from what I know
I’ll be swept away
I need to know I can be lost
and not afraid

Remember we’re lost together
Remember we’re the same
We hold the burning rhythm in our hearts
We hold the flame

I’ll find my way home
On the Western wind
To a place that was once my world
Back from where I’ve been

And in the morning light I’ll remember
As the sun will rise
We are all the glowing embers
Of a distant fire

We’re gonna trip the light
We’re gonna break the night
And we’ll see with new eyes
When we trip the light"


Listen and Watch the video here:

Want to see more?  Here's Matt's 2008 video: