You are minding your business on the dirty town center beach, climbing jagged rock faces to try to get to the first of the pristine hidden beaches of Ko Phan gan which are tucked miles apart, wedged behind the rockin’ town, accessible only by boat or jungle trek. You are getting extremely sweaty, dirty, and persecuted by weird dog packs.Suddenly: “You want water taxi?” says the Thai man, holding up a [...Read More!]
1. It’s September. Who ARE these tourists?
I’ll tell you one thing: they ain’t Americans. I’m the freak again! Woo hoo!They are, however, a ton of Europeans (English, Irish, German, Italian, in that order, I’d estimate), Aussies, Israelis (tons!), and Canadians.
On the boat to Ko Samui, I had a lovely chat with a Colombian couple who have been travelling for ten months (!!!) to every country ever created (including [...Read More!]
“People try to insult me by saying my success is from a falang (foreigner),” said Nate, smiling as she steered us through the mo-ped-filled traffic, “but it’s just me.”The story that emerged as Nate (in her taxi-service capacity) drove me from her restaurant to the Phuket bus stop was inspirational. But was also a desperately welcome antidote to the uncomfortable Older-Western-Man-funding-Younger-Thai-Woman situation thick on the island.
Nate grew up in a rural [...Read More!]
“How old do you think zat man is?” Hans hissed at me, pointing to his equally white-haired, equally German chum. “Um, fifty?” I guessed politely. Hans threw his head back and cackled. “NO!” he hollered, “Fritz is seventy-five! And he is living viss a twenty-eight year old Thai girl!”
What else could I do, being the only young, female, American guest here at this party, but smile and [...Read More!]
Yowza! It has been amazing to see two major cities of Japan for the past ten days! Despite the articles on Japan my cousin kindly handed me before coming, there were still endless elements of Japan that came as a surprise. Here are a few for your perusal.
1. Toilet extremes. The majority of toilets in Japan are squat toilets, where you crouch awkwardly over a porcelained hole in [...Read More!]
Gordon is originally from Boston, but has lived in Japan for five years. For the first several years, he was teaching English through the JET Program (which my wonderful cousin also did and loved). Since then, Gordon has started working in the translation department of a patent company, and has burned up the Osaka Salsa dancing scene.He has really made a life for himself here in Japan, and his fluent Japanese [...Read More!]
There comes a time in every traveler’s path when she must cease and desist freeloading off a kind benefactor’s floor. To this end, I spent 9 hours of last night “sleeping” on the night bus from Tokyo to Osaka. Read: Night bus = cheap place to stay, and cheaper transport than the bullet train. Also read: I am perhaps the only six foot tall human in this country.
Long [...Read More!]
“AGHHH!!!!” I screamed, throwing myself underneath the low restaurant table, “IT’S STILL ALIVE!!!”
Sure enough, the sparkling silver fish atop [...Read More!]
I’m not much of a sight-seeing gal in the sense of “ROBOTICALLY MUST SEE ALL FAMOUS PLACES IN MY GUIDEBOOK!” Rather, I dig the approach of wandering til your butt is near ready to fall off from the miles accrued, and seeing what happens along the way. Today, after maybe or maybe not getting locked inside Shinjuku Park, I escaped (or maybe was free the whole time) and briskly meandered 5 miles [...Read More!]
Hey, remember when you got locked inside Shinjuku Park in Tokyo cause you didn’t realize the barred doors sealed at 4:30pm? That was fun.
Remember how you were innocently doing headstands in the lush, plush expanses of grass, then writing, full of peace, while the mosquitoes lovingly sucked your blood?Remember those GIGUNDO crows, and the deafening opera of cicadas for all four hours you were there?
Remember the first time you used [...Read More!]