Seventeen years ago today, October 9, 2003, I had the privilege to meet and have an unforgettable conversation with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  It was at a luncheon hosted by India’s Ambassador to the US at his residence in Washington.  His Holiness loved my telling him how I had passed out over a thousand pictures of him during my three overland expeditions crisscrossing Tibet.  “Illegally, yes?” he asked, as the Chinese make this a crime.  “Oh, very illegally!” I answered as we both chuckled.

The Ambassador asked where he was born. His answer, “very remote village in far northern Tibet.”  He was startled when I interjected, “Yes, I know, I’ve been there – I even bought a doonchen (telescoping 15 foot-long Tibetan prayer horn) in your village.”  “A doonchen?” he exclaimed.  “You mean…?” and put his hands to his lips to make this really loud WHOOOH like the horn makes. I nodded and did the same, WHOOOH.  We belly laughed, while all the diplomats and Congressmen did not know what was going on.

Then he wrapped his hands around mine and I felt an electric energy run through my body.  It was his blessing. I will treasure it all my life. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #60 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

This is the interior of “Gur Emir,” the tomb of Tamerlane (1336-1405) in Samarkand, the great Silk Road city now in Uzbekistan.  Tamerlane was the last of the nomadic conquerors of Eurasia, a Turkic-Mongol whose conquests extended from New Delhi to eastern Turkey.

Gur Emir is only one of a multitude of extraordinary sights in legendary Samarkand that make being here a life-memorable experience.  We’ll be here during our exploration of Central Asia next May. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #59 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

The Kayan tribal people live in a remote roadless valley in the Shan Hills of Burma.  Kayan women practice their tradition of beauty starting at age five.  The young girls have a few brass coils placed around their necks, adding to them progressively as they grow until in older adulthood they are wearing as many as two dozen – becoming what the world knows them as Giraffe women.  (The Shan people call them "Padaung" meaning "long-necked," but they call themselves Kayan.)

We are not here to gawk.  We are here to make friends, treat them respectfully, and learn about their traditions.  It is an intensely memorable experience to meet these ladies.  We’ll be here again in early March next year. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #58 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

The Wodaabe are cattle-herding nomads in Niger, West Africa.  Their Gerewol festival features Yaake dances by the men to impress marriageable ladies with how ideally handsome they are.  Those ideals include being tall and athletic, having white eyes and white teeth, decorating themselves colorfully, and having a winning smile.

The Wodaabe are a fun-loving, friendly, and hospitable people.  You’ll meet them on our Trans-Sahara Expedition when we’re next able to operate one.  (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #57 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel “Dracula” described Count Dracula’s home as a castle located high above a gorge perched on a rock in Transylvania’s Carpathian Mountains.  And here you are, Bran Castle, built in the late 1300s near the town of Brasov in Romania, and traditionally associated with Vlad Dracula (1428-1477).

His father, Vlad Dracul (Vlad the Dragon), as the ruler of Wallachia (southern Romania), led Christian knights fighting Ottoman Turks called the Order of the Dragon, or “Dracul” in Romanian.   His son succeeded him as Dracula – “son of the dragon” – waging war upon the Moslem Ottomans so brutally he became known as “Vlad the Impaler” for impaling his enemies.  They began spreading rumors of his being literally bloodthirsty, drinking his enemies’ blood.

Over the centuries since, Vlad Dracula has been celebrated by Romanians as their national hero in his liberation struggle from the Ottomans.  But was Bran Castle his home?  He had many homes, and was here many times during his campaigns.  Visiting Dracula’s Castle is always a highlight of our explorations of Eastern Europe. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #56 photo ©Jack Wheeler)