Elizabeth Willoughby's Page

In the dank heat the drumming starts, beating life into the dark night air. The ceremony begins...

Three alabés (drummers) in brilliant red shirts and stark white pants are perched at the head of the room and belt out a…

Ancient sea ports and Jesus' ministry, Israel has much to offer besides its famous southern elements of Jerusalem, desert and dead waters:

I've arrived in Tiberias and am following my guide around, struggling to recall the bible stories I'd heard as a child. Some come more easily than others. Here in…

Jerusalem and the names of its landmarks were familiar to my ears through years of news reports on war, terror bombings and clashes between Jews and Arabs. Even so, I really knew nothing about it, so in preparation for my visit I poured through historical literature. It was worse than I'd imagined: a battle-scarred place of religious extremism, thousands of years of violent conflict, an eternal turmoil over possession up…

Flying into Siem Reap, Cambodia, the vista from my window is of vast stretches of land at various stages of submersion. The paddy fields that aren't under water appear as a quilt of shallow, square pools. It's December; the waters are still receding. I'm on my way to the Jayavarman, the ship that will take me by river from whence I just departed by air: Saigon.…