Larry Habegger Flying Carpet Articles

Mohammed’s Shirt
Larry finds that the process of haggling is more rewarding than the purchase. [Read on]
Added on June 03, 2009

Speaking Spanish
Larry gets a language lesson from his daughter in Puerto Vallarta. [Read on]
Added on April 06, 2008

Who's Aging?
Larry looks in the mirror to discover his father's face, and reflects on the passage of time. [Read on]
Added on June 18, 2007

What Are the Chances?
Larry hears a funny story from a friend, and remembers one of his own. [Read on]
Added on March 19, 2007

The Big Lebowski and Great Writing
Larry gets some cool news from Phil Cousineau and The Dude. [Read on]
Added on September 08, 2006

Introduction to 30 Days in Italy
The editors address the lure of Italy. [Read on]
Added on September 05, 2006

Heading for Home
Larry experiences a baseball dream come true long before tightened airline security. [Read on]
Added on April 03, 2006

A Parcel from India
a note from a friend reminds Larry of a parcel he shipped from India a long time ago. [Read on]
Added on February 20, 2006

The Pull of the World, and Family
Larry reflects on the tension between exploring the world and staying close to extended family. [Read on]
Added on February 20, 2006

Small Travels in the Neighborhood
Larry learns a lesson about generosity. [Read on]
Added on February 20, 2006

A Seat at the Table
Larry comments on an evening out listening to a conversation between Huston Smith and Phil Cousineau. [Read on]
Added on November 30, 2005

A Trickle of Time and Water
Larry discovers that life in the south of France can slow down to the pace of a 300-year-old canal. [Read on]
Added on November 02, 2005

Tranquility in Manhattan
Larry takes a moment to appreciate his favorite place in New York, Bryant Park. [Read on]
Added on September 16, 2005

The Nature of History
Larry reflects on his recent visit to the World Trade Center site. [Read on]
Added on August 28, 2004

Is This a Great Country?
Larry reflects on the privileges we take for granted. [Read on]
Added on July 29, 2004

The Cycle of Life
Larry takes his youngest daughter on her first bike ride, and reconnects his links with the past. [Read on]
Added on May 19, 2004

Our Changing World
Larry catches up with a friend and learns about the new wonders of Tibet. [Read on]
Added on May 06, 2004

Yellowstone in Winter
Larry visits the famous national park to form his own opinions about banning snowmobiles from the park itself. [Read on]
Added on January 23, 2004

What Is Narrative?
Larry discovers surprising confusion in the newsrooms of America. [Read on]
Added on December 12, 2003

A Tourist in Town
Larry spends the night at the Hotel Monaco to see the city from a different perspective. [Read on]
Added on December 01, 2003

Swiss Family Habegger: Luzern and Mount Pilatus
Larry and family hone their skills at missing trains and discover central Switzerland. [Read on]
Added on October 24, 2003

Swiss Family Habegger: At the "Top of Europe"
Larry and family explore Grindelwald and the Jungfrau region, coming face to face with the Eiger. [Read on]
Added on August 30, 2003

Swiss Family Habegger: More Adventures on Swiss Trains
Larry begins to get a handle on using the Swiss rail system, embarrassing himself along the way. [Read on]
Added on August 15, 2003

Swiss Family Habegger: A Tale of Mountains and Roots
Larry Habegger takes his family to Switzerland to see big mountains and search for clues to the past. [Read on]
Added on August 04, 2003

Thoughts on the World, Pico Iyer, and Iraq
There are so many universes at work on any given day. [Read on]
Added on February 11, 2003

The Art of Lincoln Park
Honneur et Patrie. Honor and Country. The words were drifting through my mind as I contemplated The Sculptor and His Muse, a brilliant and troubling bronze sculpture by Rodin. The poor sculptor (Rodin himself?) was being tormented, or loved, or consoled, it was hard to tell, by a petite and beautiful woman. She stood hard on his thigh, leaned with all her weight on him as he bent away in despair, or longing, or frustration, her flowing hair draping his head while he covered his mouth with one hand.

[Read on]
Added on February 07, 2003

The Horns of Kaziranga
At 4 a.m. Calcutta is quiet. There is little activity in the streets: a few rats scurry in the gutter searching for food, clambering over the mounds of sleeping people who crowd the pavement. Calcutta quiet is rare. The congestion here seldom permits the city to relax.

[Read on]
Added on January 28, 2003

Treading Water
I'd never seen anything like it. The surface of Puget Sound boiled with turbulence, then was calm as a pond. One minute waves rocked the kayak and I had to brace with the paddle, the next minute the surface seemed pocked with rain. Ahead, the waves ripping the sea looked like a river dropping into rapids, to the left and right, upwellings belched like the breath of serpents.

[Read on]
Added on January 21, 2003

A Home in the Himalaya
I first saw Mount Everest from a 12,000-foot ridge on a trek near Darjeeling, India. From ninety miles away it was just a bump on the snow-capped Himalayan horizon, but it was a siren that drew me, by agonizing overnight bus, to Nepal. Many people I know who have traveled extensively throughout the world have had a reaction similar to the one I had when I tumbled off that bus at dawn not far from Kathmandu's Durbar Square: I was never the same. [Read on]
Added on January 13, 2003

Christmas Carols in Adelaide
I didn't have high hopes for Adelaide. No one I knew had ever said anything good about it. They'd raved about Melbourne and Sydney, even Darwin, but Adelaide hadn't generated much enthusiasm. So I planned just one quick overnight before... [Read on]
Added on December 24, 2002

The Importance of Stories in Travel Preparation
When computer book publisher Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly & Associates was heading to Australia for a conference many years ago, he intended to bring his family along and take an extra week to explore the Great Barrier Reef. He read... [Read on]
Added on November 21, 2002

A Wild Ride in Arnhem Land
It was the transition time between dry and wet seasons. The sun was hot, the air humid, the bush green, bursting with new life. Flies buzzed around us. A hundred birds sent up a greeting: a barrage of squawks, whistles,... [Read on]
Added on October 21, 2002

A Tale of Two Parks
I can't say for sure, but I'd swear that the gristled carnival barker who took my two-year-old's ticket for the car-carousel was the same guy who took my ticket when I was two years old almost fifty years ago. I had returned to Como Park in Saint Paul, Minnesota for the first time since I was a child, this time with two young daughters of my own in tow, and to my jaded 49-year-old eyes nothing had changed. Not even the staff.

[Read on]
Added on August 22, 2002

A Pretender in One of Europe's Finest Hotels
It's easy to be seduced by exceptional service. [Read on]
Added on April 13, 2002

Some Thoughts on Travel Writing
Story ideas are like dogs nipping at your heels... [Read on]
Added on March 01, 2002

Introduction to Thailand
Thailand should satisfy just about any traveler’s hunger for the exotic, the beautiful, the thrillingly different. But it is a country whose very lure for the foreigner threatens to make it a parody of itself. It is a country with... [Read on]
Added on January 10, 2002

Merle Haggard and the Ambassador
Colonel Wakefield wore a faint smile. "Anyone want to see a leopard?" We nodded, cold but still eager after hours of bouncing around the forest in a jeep. The Colonel shone his flashlight on a sign at the entrance to... [Read on]
Added on November 22, 2001

Introduction to India
We confess a deep bias towards India, an attraction which goes back, for one of us, to teenage years spent reading Aurobindo and Tagore, meditating and doing hatha yoga, to the other roaming India as a young man, a temporary... [Read on]
Added on November 22, 2000

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