Asia
(All Asia Entries)
Sins in Saigon
August 18, 2008 ·
It began to drizzle when the toothless motorbike man asked to take me home. It was about midday and I had wondered around the city most of the morning finding my way to Reunification Palace, a white square building no more than 7 stories with a retro 1950’s kind-of feel.
A child of the eighties I had a fascination with the Vietnam War, and I couldn’t leave Saigon without finding the places that lit my mind in Hollywood grandeur. Really, it was everywhere. The American GI Zippos that sold at every corner, the... [Read more]
Life in Durbar Square, Kathmandu
August 13, 2008 ·
My first impressions of Kathmandu were nothing to write home about. Scenes of suicidal drivers hysterically tooting loud horns, buffalos crossing the road and open sewers reeking of stale urine did very little to impress me, as I sat speechless in a rattling tuk tuk, swerving its way through the crowded, chaotic labyrinths of Thamel, Kathmandu.
Even more shocking was the bus station. I was horrified at the scene I was witnessing that very second. Hundreds of men squashed themselves into a rusty, blue and white... [Read more]
Olympics Stabbing in Beijing
August 10, 2008 ·
Several years ago, I took a trip the Davao City in the Philippines. By all accounts, I should not have gone. Davao and Mindanao was considered to be an unsafe place — according to the State Department of the U.S. I think a journalist had been murdered and there was some terrorist activity going on. Whether it was a good or bad decision, I went anyway. I had decided that the likelihood of something diabolical happening was wildly unlikely. Overall, I had a great time.
Beijing and China have no such State Department... [Read more]