TAIWAN 2009
We arrived in Kenting the previous afternoon and settled in at the A-Gong Resort Hotel for NT$1500 a night, just NT$300 more than the homestays on the same main strip, but much nicer. The strip came alive after dark. We strolled past food stands, trinket booths, dancing girls in front of pubs; there was a Seven-Eleven, an array of international eateries and beach souvenir shops; and there were also bicycle rental, scuba diving tour companies and no shortage of homestay apartments. At the farthest end were two swanky hotels, but where was the beach? And who was playing the bluesy songs? We walked down some wooden steps, and suddenly there it was! The breathtaking beach, clean and calm. The waves, soothingly rhythmic. At the landing, too, was the world’s most well-placed bar! Sunlight was settling, and then the beach was fading to darkness. Jeanette and I exchanged some stories, but mostly we sat in silence, smoking and sipping wine or beer. Four school girls were at the beach taking photos and hanging around for several hours. It got totally dark and quiet when I looked for them again, but I could make out only two couples left on the beach; one couple had lit cigarettes all night long. We moved our drinking down to the beach to see how it was by the waves. The smoking couple greeted us--the guy had just met the girl sitting there alone. For the rest of this special night, from strangers to strangers, we shared each other's painful experiences of love and life. (The photo was taken the next evening. When visiting Kenting, you must stop by to say "hello" to
i-Mark and have a few drinks at his mobile bar.
VIETNAM 2008
From Hanoi airport to Hanoi central, I saw two accidents. Imagine a family of four could sit comfortably on a single motorbike--baby in the front of the father (driver), another child, and then the mother at the back--going the speed of any car or bus. Imagine a motorbike driver with 7 bottles (think giant Arrowhead) of water! Imagine talking on the cell phone while driving a motorbike!! Now pull back wider and imagine plenty of honking and all the motorbikes in the world on the same road with cars and buses. Well, there was a traffic jam, and by the time I got to take a look, two women lied on the side of the road, about 10 feet apart, one dead. The other one moved a little in a pool of blood. Plenty of folks just stood around to look. The other accident was a truck blocking multiple lanes with the front totally smashed. When we got to town around rush hour with a million motorbikes, cars, and buses, our tour guide thought it a marvelous idea for each of us to ride a pedicab to see this hub. The pedicab sits the passenger in the front with the driver behind. Imagine forging onto the herds of cars and bikes and street people; it was a wild ride and I inhaled a pound of dust and exhaust fume, but I felt incredibly alive and calm!! In the morning I saw the Ho Chi Minh memorial; it was a nice square, perhaps not as grand as the Red Square or Tiananmen Square, but impressive too. In the afternoon, I did the unthinkable, I crossed an intersection in Hanoi and was not killed. As we stepped out from our exquisite dining experience back onto the wild sidewalk, a very thin man with nothing on his brown skin but a tattered pair of shorts stood looking on people eating noodles al fresco.As soon as one stood up to walk away, he grabbed the leftover and ran to the opposite side of the street. Seconds later he came back, returned the emptied bowl, snapped up a piece of scrap on the ground into his mouth, and quickly dissolved into the crowd. Today I'm in the middle section of Vietnam, a city called "Hue." Here I'm in a beautiful hotel after another great dinner--I'm being fed like a thanksgiving turkey 3 meals a day. Tourists are well taken care of as we carefully step over muddy pools and cracked roads into our 5-star hotels; I asked the tour guide how he slept last night; he said he found a local inn where he rented a bed, but he was kept awake because the ceiling dripped rain water most of the night. It is late evening, my 10 travel companions have bid me good night. I am in the hotel lobby making use of the free internet. About 10 feet from me is a band playing romantic Schubert sonatas.
CAMBODIA 2008 - Excerpt:
HELLO from Siem Reap, Angkor Wat! The Khmers had one great dynasty back in the 800's to 1400's, and then..did the people and the land just took a long snooze? The magnificent Angkor Wat Temple was left to be swallowed up by trees and devoured by the jungle. In more recent history, the tour guide explained, the government just gave the whole country to the French. Unbelievably, when they asked for it back, the French gave it back. Now the country survived Khmer Rouge and begins to heal. Time to go see Angkor Wat. Tomorrow will be in Hanoi. 11/12/08.
INDIA 2007
JAPAN 2006
GALAPAGOS 2004
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