An American Abroad
Mobile phones are rapidly making the payphones of Kuala Lumpur obsolescent. They look lonely now. In five days of walking the city, I never once saw one being used. Their days are numbered. They stand stoically on the streets waiting to be ripped off … [Continue reading]
After walking a circle around the Petronas Towers, I was ready to call them the most beautiful skyscrapers to be built in the last 25 years. Maybe even the last 75. I mentally catalogued the influences I saw in their design. Art Deco and the … [Continue reading]
My hotel was in the Chow Kit district of Kuala Lumpur. My hotel doesn't advertise that fact. Some guidebooks and websites suggest that Chow Kit is a seedy and even dangerous place. Maybe those descriptions are out of date. Maybe the people who wrote … [Continue reading]
In the States we celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day, but in China they celebrate Children's Day. Shane English Yuxi marked the occasion by cancelling classes last Sunday and having and an offsite party. The event was held at a hot springs … [Continue reading]
I have just one more month left of teaching here in China at Shane English Yuxi. I've already begun the process of handing off my students to other teachers. Today was my last class with some eight-year-olds I have grown very fond of. I wish them all … [Continue reading]
Elephant unemployment is a real problem in Laos. There used to be many, many elephants there -- some say upwards of a million. Today there are about 1,600. Many of those that remain work in the logging industry, but now the logging industry is using … [Continue reading]
I had a long, late conversation about Buddhism with Manichan, the proprietress of the guesthouse where I was staying. She's very devout, very sincere. Her face glowed as she spoke about the Buddha. She was a very good teacher and persuaded me and … [Continue reading]
I spent the day exploring Luang Prabang. Where the Mekong joins the Nam Khan River, I saw a bamboo bridge across the latter waterway and just knew I had to cross it. It was one of those crazy-rickety bamboo structures you've seen in every movie … [Continue reading]
Luang Prabang would be the perfect place to live life in the slow lane, to write a book, or to cultivate an image as a mysterious eccentric. The buildings are French colonial with some tropical Asian touches, dating to the 1930s. They give the town a … [Continue reading]
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |