Prolonged exposure to the frenzied pace of Southeast Asia’s mega-metropolitan areas is perhaps best remedied by a detour to Hoi An in central Vietnam. In addition to the beautiful Cua Dai Beach showcasing views of the Cham Islands, the former port trading center offers a picturesque and historic, UNESCO-designated downtown featuring centuries-old Vietnamese homes, museums … Continued
We needed two days to get to the peak. Three, if you counted travel. We spent the night in Huaraz, Peru, a small mountain town in the Andes, and before the sun rose the next day we were in a van built for eight but filled with twenty Peruvians. Our bags were strapped to the … Continued
Arizona is a living, breathing place. She isn’t simply desert, spanning out over miles and miles. She is an oxymoron: the marriage of practicality and mysticism over a wasteland of scorched earth, seemingly barren yet teeming with life. The passing of the day is contingent on Arizona’s temperature and the vitality that she inspires. Your … Continued
At first light, a flock of birds broadcast their sandpaper calls from the tops of two tall palm trees next to the house. Soon after, the neighbors begin sweeping the shared courtyard, the swish-swish of twig brooms insisting that we get up, too, and start the day in the relative cool of an African dawn. … Continued
Guyana has had an inspiration for me ever since I came to know about it in 1959 as a teenager. It was then called British Guiana, a name which is regrettably used, even now, by many folks, educated but ignorant of the world-wide explosion of freedom from colonialism in the last sixty odd years. Missionaries … Continued
To Sway with the Island in Massachusetts Up on Martha’s Vineyard I sleep with the windows open. It allows the tempo of time to continue like a cool jazz symphony with unexpected rhythms and riffs. The breezes play in the curtains, thunder arrives unexpectedly yet there’s always the ocean, always, in the distance, keeping pace … Continued
Travelers knew long before scientists that time is not a constant. There are places, everyone knows at least one, where time runs slow. Granada is such a place, and the rushed travelers who file into the city fight the pace of the city and invariably lose. I was lucky to be a student in Valencia, … Continued
Just as the wind began to pick up speed and the sun began to set, Jun and I made out way to the iconic Olympic hall. The journey there fuelled my imagination of the grandiose and spectacular image of arriving at this national pride. My body was motivated to keep moving as it surged with … Continued
There are times, when my mind is free from occupation and my heart yearns to reminisce, that my memory will alight to that horror. Bodies pale and shriveled staring back at me, staring through me. Signs, scribbled in German, barking their orders at me. My face reddens, my stomach churns, and my brain is unable … Continued
When I first meet the American sisters, I wonder why they would ever move here. Everyone in this tiny Jordanian village belongs to the same Bedouin tribe. Everyone except them. My friend and I sit cross-legged in a shadowy room, our knees flirting with the edge of the crackling fire. Eight others perch around us … Continued