Yesterday, I watched a semi truck driver slowly maneuver his massive freight trailer around a residential Brooklyn street corner. While he was ultimately successful, I bit my nails down to nubs.
There are more than 277,000 trucks on Pakistan’s roads. The country depends on these trucks for most of its transportation needs, but they also serve as a platform to parade the country’s culture. Most trucks are vivid showpieces of extravagant design, decorated with ornate striping, fishes, peacocks, flowers, politicians, movie stars, and more.
What is life like in one of the world’s northernmost permanent settlements? In this dispatch, Explorers Club member Dr. Benjamin Pothier takes readers to Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard—a former coal mining town that has become a global hub for Arctic science. From cutting-edge climate research to the realities of living alongside polar bears, it’s a fascinating look inside one of the planet’s most extraordinary communities.
Did you know? AO has partnered with The Explorers Club, whose intrepid members from around the world are sharing their travel stories on our site! Read more here.
A hospital and rehab center for birds in Manhattan started with a woman who just wanted to do all she could to help an injured goose. Decades later, it has become an institution.
This small section of road is about seven miles long and ends abruptly at a quarter-mile tunnel in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in the middle of nowhere. The road was never finished due to environmental concerns: Someone noticed that snowflakes melted unusually quickly on the newly exposed rock, as well as a strong smell of sulfur. The only solution was to stop construction.
Southwest Louisiana is where culture comes alive. Dance to zydeco, join a traditional Cajun Mardi Gras, feast on a crawfish boil, drive through wildlife-rich marshes, and discover the foods and traditions that helped shape America.
