An American backpacker braves a bowl cut (almost) from a proverbial Third World barber. . . . The man in front of me, shivering in the swiveling chair, was almost completely bald with two bushy fluffs upon either side of his noggin, resembling a sad circus clown with no friends. Or, Bozo. Or, Krusty. Or, Larry from "The Three Stooges." Then The Man with the Haircut eyed himself with envy, congratulating himself on now almost … [Read more...]
Jurassic Poop
With the success of Steven Spielberg’s box-office juggernauts (“Jurassic Park” and “The Lost World”)—as well as the notable sale by Sothebys of “Sue” (the world’s most complete T-Rex) for $8.3 million--dino fever right now is downright epidemic. No surprise then that, even after the unfortunate flop of the “Land of the Lost” remake, business is booming for Boonman Poonyathiro, a Thai entrepreneur capitalizing on the prehistoric craze, but … [Read more...]
A Journey of the Senses
Ears There is a moment of silence just before an announcement. It is that quick pause when the airline ground staff takes a breath—the gap between the crackling of the PA system and the sweet voice with calculated intonation, calling on a passenger: “Paging (insert name). You are needed at gate (insert number).” I am standing inside a store, surrounded by aisles and aisles of eco-friendly school products when I heard a page. I look up … [Read more...]
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em
My husband Gaz and I donned our raingear and headed to Nanjing Lu, the main pedestrian thoroughfare and shopping district of Shanghai. Big, bright, neon and modern, much of Shanghai’s architecture resembled a caricature of what someone in the 50s thought “The Future” would look like. Shimmering glass buildings covered in a rainbow of glowing signs flanked the wide walkway. The streets heaved with people, and in the sea of short, black haired … [Read more...]
A Quotable Vacation, Nepal
Tihar, or Diwali, came and went last week and I went to Pokhara for a mini vacation. After a rainstorm, dinner at a Nepali family’s house, and an impromptu whiskey with an old friend passing through Kathmandu, Kendra and I headed out to Pokhara via microbus on Tuesday morning. A day of travel on each end, we spent three full days in the town and it was a relaxing respite. We didn’t realize we chose to travel on the biggest day of the Diwali … [Read more...]
Traffic Jam in Manilla
John M. Edwards trades in his Jeepney for a cab ride to a connecting flight through the traffic-jam capital of the world: Manila! On my way back from Cebu in the Philippines, with my then preggers girlfriend, we received word from the crackling cockpit that our plane was making an unscheduled stop in Manila, so all passengers could connect from another airport to their intended destinations. “WHAT?!” my now-ex girlfriend Susan Shrike (not … [Read more...]
Wrinkles and Dimples
Entering through the gates of our destination, I stopped in my place. Through the gleam of nature in the dainty courtyard was a tiny old woman, approaching us. She was welcoming us but my heart wavered, quickening a beat or two. An earlier encounter with an old Chinese woman was one I would not soon forget. It had been only days earlier when we were waiting at a bus stop, fully laden with our backpacks, moving onward. People were going about … [Read more...]
Sumatran Blend, Ripples on the Edge of Time: Toba or not Toba?
An American backpacker treats Sumatra, Indonesia’s “Lake Toba”--filled with crunchy Elysian entrepots --as a writers’ retreat where backing off comes with the territory “Characters are just like black marks on paper. . . --William Gass, Fiction and the Right of Life I arrive by high-speed hydrofoil across the Malacca Straits to Medan, the ersatz capital of Sumatra, during Ramadan. I was, of course, on my way to flop down and relax at the … [Read more...]
Body Laotian
John M. Edwards sings the Buddha electric, embarking on a quest in the Laotian capital for the world’s most unique body posture. People thought I was a lunatic for coming all the way to Laos, a landlocked nation without any beaches, for a “vacation”? Even I thought I was out of my mind. After a couple of days lying on the wavy grass in the hazy egg-yolk-shaped sun of Vientiane, a Southeast Asian Wild West boomtown, though, I was bronzed … [Read more...]
Uncovering Seoul
The best travel experiences are those of discovery. It does not have to be a life-changing discovery as those recounted in a lot of romantic stories nowadays. Simple, small discoveries will do. It was with the longing for a simple discovery that my friends and I planned our winter trip earlier this year. We were all born and raised in a tropical country where the sun shines all year through, so we wanted to find out what a snowy winter would … [Read more...]
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