Kathmandu
[Nepal] I had a letter of introduction to a number of senior diplomats at our embassy in Kathmandu. The Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) is the number two person, and is a career diplomat (Vs. the Ambassador who is a political appointee of the current administration). One of my favorite interactions was with the Kathmandu […]
Kathmandu
[Nepal] I’m interested in the generalizations people make about each other, which in the worst cases becomes a kind of profiling or stereotyping. As I traveled around Kathmandu practicing my Nepali with shop owners, I heard continual stories of bad interactions with “Israeli” travelers. I learned that many, many shops have two bottom prices: the […]
On the way home
[Nepal] I would walk four miles every morning through the heart of Kathmandu from the Gauchan’s house to my lessons at Raj’s. I loved every second of this walk. While my nostalgia for many of the experiences and people of my earlier life has lessened, sauntering the streets of Kathmandu brings back incredible memories. Adventure […]
Raj & Champa in Kathmandu
[Nepal] I arranged to spend three months in Kathmandu studying Nepali. Raj Shresha was my language teacher and I’ve stayed in touch with Raj and his family for years. In 1994 I brought him to Seattle for six months and arranged for him to stay rent free at my old friend Betty Jane Narver’s. I […]
The Gauchans
[Nepal] I did a “home stay” at the Gauchan family. Once a year, there was the “tika” ceremony, in which daughters and wives bless sons and husbands. They had a big family gathering. I went with Manish, the son, to buy the goat. I helped the father and son do the entire butchering process, including […]
Vending machine message
[Japan] What draws us to places so different? Is it the fascination with oulandish juxtaposition? Anyone can feel clever as they experience the coarse aesthetic of cultures interacting. It’s too easy. A lot of times it’s just cheap profundity, although mightily entertaining. Another example: Vending machine message found in the Rapongi District of Tokyo, an […]
Into a Canyon
[Lake Powell, USA] There came a week of the sublime. The main body of water – Lake Powell – has 96 slot canyons to explore, all the result of the Glen Canyon Dam built in the early 60s. 700 feet down is/was the original Colorado river. An ecological abomination to many, but strangely, artificially beautiful. […]
Women selling
[Bolivia] I’m sitting with women who come down each day to La Paz from El Alto, which is the fast-growing town 1500 feet up at the top of the canyon above La Paz. I talk to one and I understand her question: “Why would rich people want to come to Bolivia and take pictures of […]
We connect to Art
[Italy] We went to the Lucien Freud show at the main museum in San Marco Square. Lucian Freud’s grotesque nudes, the realism of the faces, the bodies, the pointillist perfection of the clothes worn in some of his paintings -each contributed to the four of us being temporarily mesmerized. “I can’t look at that,” Jack […]
Venice
[Italy] Jack brought his ball, and for every mile we walked, he bounced and walked. “What a fun place, this is,” we exclaimed. Even with all the tourists, the absurd prices, the Disney sense of it all, we were excited. Getting lost walking the non-tourist outskirts of the city through a labyrinth of narrowness, dilapidation, […]