August 20, 2006
Sunday Morning
I am cranky this morning. I was up all night because of a very noisy wedding party in the courtyard below my apartment window. So I went to my favorite...Read this update
August 18, 2006
Lovely Oaxacan Family
Last night I visited a gentle sincere Oaxacan family that lives about 20 minutes in the mountains northwest of the city in San Andreas Huayapan. The couple roasts fragrant locally...Read this update
August 15, 2006
The Women
I have been hanging out with Francisco who is from Mexico City but loves Oaxaca and comes often to sell books in Spanish at a cut rate to the teachers....Read this update
August 12, 2006
Whats To Love About Oaxaca
Juanita, the Mexican-American woman I met at Pachote Market, will ride down here with me in my car in September...a road trip to Las Vegas to see Greg, to Phoenix...Read this update
August 09, 2006
Long Bus Tour
Took a tour of Colonial Reforma today...in the northern part of the city. Went to immigration to get my year-long visa and on the way the bus driver got into...Read this update
August 04, 2006
Serendipity
When I was in China a couple years ago, I met a lovely British woman in her 30's using an internet next to me in the bar at the Camellia...Read this update
July 26, 2006
Unexpected Adventures
At Pachote Organic Market while sampling Mezcal, an alcoholic beverage made in Oaxaca from the agave plant, I met Juanita, a lovely Mexican-American woman, who was here visiting her daughter....Read this update
April 15, 2006
Sangkren Water Festival
Day before yesterday was New Years in Lao. Yesterday was New Years in Thailand, although the celebration continues for several days in these countries. We get it again! Leila took...Read this update
Tuk Tuk Tour
After the Lao Cotton Company party, Villa, the driver, took a nap in his tuk tuk while we rested in our room. Later that night we toured the city under...Read this update
April 12, 2006
Thai Rock Band
After dinner with Susan, Leila and I looked for some music and found a night club with a terrific Thai band playing Rod Stewart, Eagles and Pink Floyd's "The Wall."...Read this update
April 03, 2006
Lao "Disco"
Last night a lively 50 year old woman that teaches kindergarten in Alberta Canada, a young woman from California who is a consultant to a California educational testing company,...Read this update
April 02, 2006
Luang Prabang Lao
The last time I was here was in 2002. There are few changes and not as many tourists as I expected but then this is the off season. I'm...Read this update
March 25, 2006
Breakfast at Smile Guesthouse
I have changed hotels. I am now at the brand new Bau-Tong Lodge with free WiFi that is down little soi 3 off Loi Kroh...for half the cost of the...Read this update
March 07, 2006
Walkabout
Yesterday morning I walked to the Post Office around the corner and down the street and then slowly swung a wide path through the city...dawdling in used book stores, Jonesing...Read this update
February 25, 2006
International Night
We're back on Samui and I have rented a brand new furnished one bedroom house for $12.00 a night at "Solitude Resort" on a mountainside about a mile from Doug...Read this update
July 14, 2005
"11 Minutes" Outranks Mao
On my way to my BTS Skytrain station, I stop for lunch at The Emporium, an upscale indoor shopping mall where there is a variety of restaurants on the 5th...Read this update
April 14, 2005
A Talk By Shirin Ebadi
Bob has been in the north for the last week so I joined the Foreign Correspondents Club the other day as a way of meeting other English speaking people in...Read this update
April 01, 2005
Familiar Old Quarter Hanoi
I had to check out of Thailand...thought my visa was 90 days that I got in Kunming in December but it was only 60 days. So at the end of...Read this update
Keeping Body and Soul Together
In Bangkok we got a good deal for a month in a beautiful completely furnished apartment on a dead-end street in the upscale Saladaeng area...close to the Skytrain and the...Read this update
December 08, 2004
Miao Village In Guizhou
In Shanghai, exploring the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree web site, I noticed a query from a young woman from Kaili in Guizhou Province who was offering to arrange a...Read this update
December 07, 2004
Shanghai
Spent about 3 weeks in Shanghai in a lovely small hotel behind the Shanghai Library on a tree-lined street of the former French Concession. The US Embassy was next...Read this update
December 06, 2004
Yangshau
Currently in a delightful city (Yangshau) that is on the Yangtze River about 100 miles north of Shanghai. China's autumn has been fantastic, the people interesting (and challanging) and...Read this update
November 14, 2004
Tai Shan Sacred Mountain
Located midway between Beijing and Shanghai, "Tai Shan" is probably the most famous of the five sacred mountains of China. According to legend Tai Shan represents the head of...Read this update
October 31, 2004
Lao Shan Mountain Climb
Spent 3 days in Quin Dao...one in new part of town, one in old town and one on a mountain north of town called Lao Shan--subsequently took train to...Read this update
October 30, 2004
Kindred Spirits
Walking by the Foreign Language Bookstore in Quindao, just up the street from my comfy clean hotel room that a tout from the railroad station led me to...80 yuan...Read this update
October 24, 2004
Overnight Train to Xuindao
Xuindao is also spelled Quindao From Beijing, I take an overnight train alone to Xuindap. Quindao is a weekend getaway for well-to-do Communist party cadres and the train is...Read this update
October 23, 2004
Coffee Taxis & New Friends
I take a taxi to the upscale Lufthansa shopping centerin Beijing to see if a bookstore had the Lonely Planet "Shanghai." They didn't of course...there were a few Lonely...Read this update
October 15, 2004
Far East Youth Hostel
The last time I was in China it was freezing cold in January 2003. The weather is fantastic this October day in 2004. After slogging it out across Russia...Read this update
September 30, 2004
The Tajik and Olga
The Tajik and Olga In Irkutsk, when we find our seats on the train to Ulaan Baatar, we find a good-looking 40 year old Muslim man from Tajikistan in...Read this update
September 25, 2004
Five Hours to Olkhon Island
The next morning we are picked up at our homestay in Irkutsk by a sullen driver who drives us five hours over pot-holes, through the taiga and across a...Read this update
September 22, 2004
To Irkutsk With Vladamir
The evening we are to leave Yekaterinburg on the train, Bob loses his change purse containing a credit card getting out of a mini-bus. Olga's son drives us in...Read this update
September 18, 2004
Free-Wheeling Moscow
2004-09-2004 Like in the big Central European cities we visited, there are cranes everywhere... old soviet buildings built during the Stalin era are scheduled to be razed and new...Read this update
December 28, 2002
Ruili
Coming down out of the mountains we were happy to see Ruili lying in the green lush valley below...a larger city than I thought...a Chinese/Burma border town with a...Read this update
December 24, 2002
Xmas At Re Hai Hot Springs
We went to Re Hai Hot Springs..a short half-hour bus ride from Tengchong. The Asian and European continental shift also resulted in over 80 crystalline hot springs...grand Boiling Hot...Read this update
December 21, 2002
Volcanos in Tengchong
A young Chinese woman on the bus had struck up a conversation in English...telling us about the sights around Tengchong. We thought that maybe we could pay her to...Read this update
December 20, 2002
My Name is Zhuy Yu Ping
On the way to Tengchon, the bus climbed high up into the Gaoligong Shan Mountain Range on a winding narrow two lane road...dropping down and then higher up again...beautiful...Read this update
December 16, 2002
Conversation With Roland
Had a final dinner at familiar and cozy Sekura's Cafe in Old Town Lijiang...splurging on Western food...sharing our beer with Roland, a 30 year old economics teacher in a...Read this update
December 14, 2002
Conversations In The Gorge
Wednesday Dec 11 In Old Town Lijiang, Bob joined us for breakfast at our hotel at 9am; met Li at her hotel at 10:30 for minibus trip up the...Read this update
December 06, 2002
Zhondian to Baishuitai
Friday Dec 6 2002 There were no street lights so we walked the equivalent of several blocks to the Zhongdian bus station in the dark to catch the 7:50am...Read this update
October 20, 2002
The Communist Party
People everywhere in Viet Nam confided in me, as a foreigner who would not know who to tell anyway, that they hated the corrupt officials in the Communist Party that...Read this update
October 16, 2002
Tourism Vietnamese Style
From the 200 kilometers of the Cu Chi tunnels, six layers deep just outside Saigon, the Viet Cong (South Vietnamese communist fighters) planned their campaigns on the South Vietnamese...Read this update
October 12, 2002
Making Friends in Lang Co
spent the night in a backpacker hotel before boarding an air conditioned tour bus the next morning for Danang. On the way to Danang though, we pass through Lang...Read this update
October 05, 2002
Viet Kiew
In Dong Ha, my motorcycle taxi driver and I talk about Vietnam and America and the Viet Kiew, the Vietnamese Americans that return to visit. He greatly resents these...Read this update
October 03, 2002
Getting Blessed
Getting into Hanoi late on the train after visiting Sapa, I walked into a hotel down the street from the train station because I was going to leave again the...Read this update
September 25, 2002
Hanoi City Tour
Wasn’t excited by the city bus tours so spent an entire day riding behind a motorcycle taxi guy to visit the One Pillar Pagoda, Temple of Literature and the Martyrs’...Read this update
Hanoi
September 24 2002 Bob left Hanoi right away on the train for Sapa near the Chinese border to do some trekking among the colorful minority villages and then to...Read this update
August 28, 2002
Repression & The People
Next door to the restaurant in Taunggyi I struck up a conversation with a young university student who was tending a a small bookstore. “Can everyone speak (out) in...Read this update
August 06, 2002
Expatriates
There are many expats in Bangkok who love this city and it’s people for many reasons. One day I struck up a conversation with a Brit woman sitting next to...Read this update
July 18, 2002
Migrants & Beggars
Continuing our taxi tour with Asane, he takes us to a part of Mumbai where we will see many migrants and beggars...and the red light district. As is happening all...Read this update
Asane's Taxi Tour
In Mumbai, we took a three-hour government sponsored tour in an Indian-made Ambassador car with “Indian A/C” which is a fan that sits on the dashboard. While we were waiting...Read this update
Bombay Renamed Mumbai
July 13-18, 2002 India forces you to look beneath the surface of things...there is more here than your eyes see...a midnight ride into the city from the airport in the...Read this update
May 11, 2002
Back To Snake Park
The next morning, on the road back to the Snake Park there are small villages and shops; give me pen; give me something; what do you have to give me...the...Read this update
March 23, 2002
9/11 & Two Muslims
The next day, we spent the day in Marrakech waiting for our favorite night train back to Tangiers. I spent all afternoon at the Ali Hotel Internet Cafe while Bob...Read this update