In the fall of 2013 I left home for a 4th winter, this time to complete a scuba diving dive master program with Wicked Diving in Thailand. 
My intention was to become a safer scuba diver, in order to become better at underwater filming. During this program I was trained on 5 live aboard trips to the Similan Islands and Richelieu Rock. 
After completing it, I obtained a one month Visa in Bangkok to travel to Burma (Myanmar), where I filmed Burmese dance and marionette shows, and the peacock dance in the Shan States new Hsipaw. 
After that I made my way back to Thailand, and on to Laos via a two day journey down the Mekong River, arriving in Luang Prabang, a Unesco protected city, and 
home of the Tak Bat, where the monks are offered alms in a daily ritual at dawn. From Luang Prabang you can also visit the Elephant Village Sanctuary, where elephants that worked in the logging industry are well cared for and thriving. 
From there I flew to Malaysia, Borneo, to dive at Sipadan, and then on from there to Indonesia, to Ubud, Bali, to film
the Kecak monkey dances, film the monkeys in the Sacred Monkey Forest, and learn some batik techniques. From Bali I traveled to West Papua New Guinea, to Sorong, the gateway Raja Ampat, where you can find some of the best 
scuba diving in the world. Called the “Wild West of diving” because of it’s remote location, the name Raja Ampat means “Four Kings”, after the four large islands in the region. Divers there boast regular sightings of Manta Rays, the Tassled Wobeggone Shark, Pygmy Seahorses, Ghost Pipefish, incredible arrays of soft corals, schools of Giant Trevally and tornado shaped formations of Barracuda, as well as many more incredible sights.
Author Archives: elizabeth
Madagascar, Mauritius, the Seychelles, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Borneo Solo Travel
In the winter of 2012-13 I began my travels in Madagascar, the 4th largest island landmass, located off the coast of East Africa. My intention for traveling there was to film the dances in the villages of Southern Mada, and to take film footage and photos of several species of lemurs, in particular the Sifaka, or dancing lemurs. 
I began by spending 2 days in Antananarivo, or “Tana”, both to acclimate and to make a few travel arrangements/contacts. I flew to Ft .Dauphin, and took the 8hr 4WD drive trip to Berenty Reserve, where National Geographic and David Attenborough filmed these lemurs. I was lucky to also get some footage of village dances. From there I traveled to Cape St. Marie to see the eggshells of the extinct Aepyornis, a bird 
whose rookeries lined the windswept cape beaches and grew to a height of over 10 ft. tall. Traveling north to Tulear, and then on to the reefs of Western Mada, to scuba dive and to learn about the subsistence fishing villages of the nomadic Vezo fisherman. Heading inland, I photographed and fimed the Indri-Indri, and ten traveled north to Nosy Be for photos of chameleons and Black Lemurs. 
From Mada I flew to Mauritius to film the Sega dances, and was there to witness the Tamil tradition of Cavadee. 
After this I traveled to the Seychelles, where I was lucky to film the til end of their Carnival, scuba dive with mating octopi, and visit the land tortoise sanctuary. The island is home to the Coco de Mer, an unusually shaped coconut (!), and after visiting the Valle de Coco de Mer, to a side trip to 
the small islands of La Digue and ——for more scuba diving and kayaking. From the Seychelles I traveled on, via Dubai, to the Maldive islands, spending one week on Embudu Island and one week on a live aboard for some of the best scuba diving I had ever experienced. 
I was able to film the Bodu Beru drumming dance, and to visit one village where there had been a tsunami the year before, so repairs were still being made. Next I traveled to Sri Lanka for several weeks, and visited the 
coastal areas near Hikkaduwa, in hopes of spotting the Sri Lankan Leopard, and take boat trips out of Mirissa to see the Blue Whales. Leopard photo by Steve Garvie. After this I flew to Cambodia, to visit Angkor Wat, outside Siem Reap, and film traditional dance in the capital city of Phnom Penh.
Africa, India, Nepal & Thailand Solo Travel
In the second winter of my travels, 2011-2012, I departed for Senegal, India, Nepal & Thailand. After arriving in Dakar, and watching some dance performances which were unfortunately forbidden to film, I followed local advice and traveled to the Casamance. Senegal proved to 
be a much more difficult environment for travel, and the cultural differences were vast. Even the most basic opportunities for women’s education were lacking in many areas. I spoke no Wolof, and I had to use my rusty high school French in many towns. There were plenty of opportunities to trust my intuition, which guided me safely through a variety of difficulties. I finally arrived in the village of Abene, and 
local contacts helped me arrive via boat to Tiobon, a village where I lived 
for 10 days in a mud brick hut so that I could film a dance called the Cumpo. After that I studied a bit with a local dance teacher, and stayed with some Djembe drum makers. Although I had had no original intention of visiting India during that winter, my good friend contacted me through Facebook to ask if I would attend his wedding in Andra Pradesh near Madras (Chennai). I was overjoyed at the prospect of having a chance to film his wedding! Getting the Visa 
while in Senegal proved to provide a bit of red tape, but the US Embassy finally granted me the Visa (and an extension to my passport pages!) Filming and photographing my friend’s wedding proved to be an extraordinarily rich experience. I found myself dressed in a full sari, on a 
crowded stage, vying for space with at least 7 other photographers, but in the end we all made room for each other. The wedding lasted 3 days, and amidst ceremonies and pujas I was truly happy to be a part of it all. After that I traveled to Tiruvannamali, to visit Ramana Maharshi’s ashram and film the lighting 
of the Arunachala mountain festival, Deepam Karthagai. In order to film this I had to climb and then sleep on the mountain, highly unusual for a 
Westerner, but absolutely necessary, since after dark it would have been extremely risky to attempt a descent among the boulder strewn paths. After Deepam came the holiday of Pongal, where colorful Rangoli chalk drawings were made at each doorstep. Then I traveled to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, magnificent!
Visiting the Red Fort, and then later on to Bodh Gaya, site of the Bodhi Tree, where the Buddha reached enlightenment, I was 
stunned by the details in the architectural elements. The way the light came through the window lattices, and the pink dawn at the Taj, provided amazing possibilities for photographing light. Following that, I traveled on to Varanasi, in order to see the bodies burning on the ghats, and to take a dawn trip on the River Ganges to see the light change on the Ghats and to photograph the men washing the laundry in the river at 5am. The rhythmic syncopated swatting of the wet clothes against the rocks was a hypnotic accompaniment to the rising sun and the many boats plying the river.
From India I took a short plane ride to Kathmandu, Nepal, and after visiting a few local sites such as Bodnath, ventured on to Pokhara to practice paragliding above the lake, and then trek into the Annapurna Wilderness Circuit.
After visiting Nepal for several weeks, I flew to Bangkok, and began traveling through Thailand, and ended my time there with an advanced underwater scuba certification, diving off of the Similan Islands, and Hin Dang off of Koh Phi Phi and Koh Lanta Islands in the South.
South America Solo Travel
I visited South America for
seven months in the winter of 2010-2011. I originally thought I would circumnavigate the globe, but I found that I fell in love with South America, and there was no looking back.
From my first landing point in Macchu Pichu, and then on to Lake Titicaca and down through Bolivia, I was stunned by the beauty of the Andes, the ancient cultures, and the incredibly friendly people. 
I visited Antarctica, and rode in small zodiacs next to whales; hiked in Tierra Del Fuego and Torres Del Paine in Patagonia; took the Navimag Ferry up the fjords of Chile, danced tango in Bueno Aires, skydived in the outskirts of Santiago, went ice climbing on the Viedma Glacier 
in El Chalten in the Fitzroy Range, visited the Moai in Easter Island, and went scuba diving with hammerhead sharks in the Galapagos.
I came home to teach summer art camp, but I knew something in me had been reawakened, and I knew I would travel again the following winter!
On that first trip, I traveled to 8 countries, and 3 offshore islands/land masses (Antarctica, Easter Island and the Galapagos) – and chose my itinerary based on natural wonders, dance culture and safety.
You might notice that Venezuela is missing, that’s because I was concerned about traveling alone there. However, many countries that people think are unsafe – like Columbia, or Uruguay- were actually very safe and easy to navigate for a woman traveling solo.
