I arrived in the painful, bitter cold of winter. It was far below freezing! It was the first day of snowfall of the year and school was cancelled. I walked my little Bhutanese students’ home as we shielded our wind-burned cheeks against the stinging frost. However, my layers upon layers of clothes couldn’t stop the … Continued
Tripe Soup My husband and I were wondering through the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul, a few streets from the now infamous Taksim Sqaure. The multi-colored flags strung diagonally across the intersections and alleys waved calmly with the Bosphurous breeze. We came to this part of town on a tip from a friend. We were hunting … Continued
“Om Mani Padme Hum, Om Mani Padme Hum . . . (Hail to the lotus one!).” For several months, every morning I blissfully woke up to the repeating hums passing outside my window; the beloved morning routine of a vibrant seventy-seven year old Buddhist nun circumambulating the nunnery with a prayer bead in her left … Continued
Searching frantically for scraps of food, like ants trapped inside a lunchbox, it was that all too familiar look of confusion mixed with a hopeful desperation that brought us together. We were the only Americans in the international terminal of the Manila, the Philippines Airport, five minutes into a four-hour layover on Christmas Eve. There … Continued
Maybe you never should have trusted a hot air balloon company whose name translates as Balloon Balloons. Maybe you should have backed out when the sunrise tour became the brunch tour. “Everybody in the basket,” the mustached Turk claps his hands. You and your best friend beeline for the balloon, trying to get a “window” … Continued
There’s no real reason to explain why I lost my mind one sunny afternoon in Bangkok. Maybe it was a vitamin deficiency, a desperate plea for action, or perhaps just a deep longing to get under the tough skin of Thailand’s capital city. Much like a scabby mosquito bite, Bangkok is an itch you already … Continued
He is pleased to see me. From the toothy grin that melts across his weathered face and the way he clasps his hands together in front of his heart before opening his arms to welcome me, that much is clear. I smile back, delighting for the umpteenth time in the so-called language barrier between us, … Continued
ON THE BANKS OF RIVER GANGES Rishikesh is a religious place at the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India. The great river Ganga (Ganges) flows through Rishikesh. Hindus worship the Ganga and believe that its water is blessed. They also believe that taking a bath in the river Ganga can wash away all their … Continued
As kids – Vietnamese refugees in Connecticut – our parents warned us not to get too tan: “You’ll be dark like a Cambodian,” they’d sigh after we had baked outside all day. So when, decades later, I swerved into Cambodia from my Vietnam-to-Thailand path, I didn’t expect much. I wasn’t a backpacker who considered himself … Continued
Miles off into the distance, atop a snow-capped mountain and beneath a clear blue sky, was a brightly colored two-story wooden Tibetan house where I was to spend my holiday week away from Beijing. I was fifteen years old. It was the winter of 1999. And I was oceans and worlds away from home – … Continued