Well, its that time of the year again. Summer holidays are over and I’m all set to leave for another semester of College in the States. No Bombay for the next 4 months and I better have everything I need. As I zip my suitcase the aroma of a dozen intoxicating Indian spices escape to me and I know with the ingredients of my favorite foods intact, home will never be too far away – even in my messy dorm room kitchen in the middle of Lancaster, … [Read more...]
Kodagu (Coorg) Southwest Karnataka, India
PART ONE Nature’s show On long circuitous winding roads, close your eyes to keep away the tumultuous feeling that erupts as bile climbs the ravines of your own inner system. Suffer motion sickness on a mountain road or keep Avamin and lime ready. Or just stick your eyes out, arrest your breath and stare in awe. This is for what you’ve escaped the humdrum of your congested city life. Wide vistas of undulating green and inhabitation of small … [Read more...]
How to Avoid Getting Bad Bowl Cuts Abroad
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...]
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