Last updated Jan 20, 2020 | First published on Jun 5, 2017 | Sumatra
Grip tightened, throttle open, lowered helmet cutting through black diesel. I was the last in the three-motorbike convoy that left the Harau Valley at high speed. I kept up for maybe an hour or so before the mad tentacles of Sumatran traffic separated us. It came in...
Last updated Jan 8, 2018 | First published on Oct 14, 2012 | India
I knew the Dalai Lama was coming when the photographers stood and the huddled Tibetans stooped lower. Murmuring hushed. From my front-row seat, I first saw his entourage of very watchful bodyguards with short-stock AK-47s; they scanned the crowd nervously enough to...
Last updated Feb 15, 2021 | First published on Jul 25, 2011 | Thailand
Tap. Tap. Tap. I was lying flat on my back, watching two hungry geckos devour bug after bug on the thatched ceiling. Meanwhile, a man was tapping a sharpened bamboo stick with into the sensitive part of my inner arm. Bucket list goal of “Get a Traditional Bamboo...
Last updated Feb 24, 2020 | First published on Oct 30, 2008 | China
Sim: “What is a good Halloween tradition in America?” Greg: “Hmmm…well carving faces into pumpkins is a very old tradition.” (I failed to mention that so is smashing them) Sim: “Really? Will you carve some pumpkins for the...
Last updated Nov 15, 2018 | First published on Nov 1, 2007 | China
OK…so there were no ridiculously sexy adult costumes, no kids with bags, very little candy, and no goblins.. But there were some carved pumpkins. And bourbon. And coke. I was hanging out at Sim’s Guesthouse with some new friends, when David — a very...
