Worries

On Koh Tao, still among the less heavily touristed of Thailand’s deservedly famous islands, alongside the development evident everywhere — of almost entirely guesthouses, resorts and other facilities to serve short-stay tourists — there is what seems to the casual eye palpable worry that a line is being crossed beyond which this gorgeous little island [...]

Spirits in the house

Spirit houses are found on nearly every property, shrines to spirits residing there past, present and future, so far as I understand them. This one was in a vacant lot in Kanchanaburi and I wasn’t sure if it remained from a prior construction or was part of a future project.
On a bus ride [...]

Slow train, take it easy

I thought this about captured a lot of how Kanchanaburi, away from the tourists, on slow day at the train station when sheep grazed across the tracks, felt like to us:

Bad in Bangkok

Bangkok, like all major cities, has a current of illicit possibilities running strong through its streets and alleyways, lurking by the docks and posing its questions from dimly lit windows down dark side streets.
At the Hotel Malaysia, where we stayed the first night, that current was strong and in it bobbed any number of single, [...]

Bangkok by water

The khlong (canal) taxis used to be the prime way to get around Bangkok, but they’ve unfortunately dwindled to, as far as we can tell, one main route that cuts through the city from east to west. The pilots hot dog the long taxi boats down dirty, narrow canals between rotting wooden [...]

Heroism

As ridiculous as it sounds, we had a very hard time finding flip-flops for Langston that either fit him or that he would accept. Eventually, at a stall in Hanoi’s Old City, we met both criteria — with a red and black pair stitched with the word “Marlboro.” We bought them with a [...]

Cinemas fit for royalty

Our movie experience in Bangkok was a true first for us.
A bit chagrined at having spent $11 a ticket to see “Hancock” — but relieved that we’d not fallen for the $23 tickets — we were ushered into a theatre where we enjoyed the flick from the comfort of plush love seats with foot-recliners and [...]

Graveside

I visited my grandfather Alistair William Hay’s grave today for the first time. It seems somehow auspicious that the visit falls on the 20th anniversary of the day I quit drinking and got sober. Maybe I would have visited otherwise, though that’s unlikely given where I was headed, but even if [...]

The family

I’m sitting in a little Internet cafe on a sidestreet in Kanchanaburi attached to a guest house called Stuart Little Room. The proprietor, a pretty woman who introduced herself to me as Ice, and gave me a glass of water, was saying goodbye to two friends as I came in. They were [...]

Bangkok street sweets

On the street tonight around midnight, near our hotel not far from Siam Square,  we stopped for a delicious snack, working our way through the many to be found here.  This one was fresh corn tossed in sweet condensed milk and little sugar.
The day before, as we walked to Chinatown, schools were letting out and [...]