Chances are that you’ve heard the story of the tortoise and the hare before… at least you’ve heard ONE version of it. In this classic Aesop folktale, the speedy, cocky hare challenges the slow-poke tortoise to a race, and the tortoise shockingly agrees. The race begins! Halfway through the competition, the hare becomes so overconfident at his giant lead that he takes a nap, dreaming of his glorious and easy victory. When the hare awakes- oh horror of horrors!- he realizes that the perseverant tortoise has passed his napping self […]

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“People try to insult me by saying my success is from a falang (foreigner),” said Nate, smiling as she steered us through the moped-filled traffic, “but it’s just me.” The story that emerged as Nate (in her taxi-service capacity) drove me from her restaurant to the Phuket bus stop was inspirational. But was also a desperately welcome antidote to the uncomfortable Older-Western-Man-funding-Younger-Thai-Woman situation thick on the island. Nate grew up in a rural village in the center of Thailand, and had a daughter. “One day I decided I needed to […]

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