Curiosity, Travel and Change
May and me, Day 1. I awoke this morning to a thick grey mist covering the abundantly green valley below me. A thunderstorm had roared through last night, leaving everything glistening in the muted sunshine. Morning view from the homestay after a heavy rain I was in the village of Tà Phin, about seven miles …
Trying to understand a huge, messy, sprawling city like Bangkok as a tourist is like being the proverbial blind man with the elephant- you might figure out an ear or the trunk, but you’ll never get the whole thing. And a elephant seems an apt metaphor— for elephant imagery is everywhere. This is about one …
In December of 2024, I was in a classroom in Oaxaca de Juarez with eight other immigration advocates from the United States. This was my third visit to Oaxaca, but unlike the prior two. I came as a student of MANOS: Migrantes Apoyados, No Olvidados (Migrants Supported, Not Forgotten), a Oaxacan nonprofit that supports migrants …
There is a Balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole, There is a Balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul [African American spiritual] Once, when I was a child, I ran briefly away from home. I got no farther than the wooded ravine on the far side of Salisbury Road, two blocks from …
January 7-9. I spent my last weekend in India near the Munnar hill station in the Western Gats of Kerala. We were grateful for the calm and welcoming presence of our hosts at @mistletoehomestay. View from our room at Mistletoe Homestay Ayurvedic tourism is very big in this part of India. All along the road …
Continue reading "Munnar Hill Station and Final Thoughts: India Travels Part 5"
January 3, 2023: And we’re off! Day 1 of a four-day bike ride through Kerala with my sister @naomicb98 . This part of South India is lush, tropical, and steamy. It is, as the Kerala tourism bureau says, “God’s Own Country”. Perhaps it is because every mile or so there is a Hindu temple or …
Continue reading "Cycling Through Kerala: India Travels Part 4"
Me in the hot springs There is something disconcerting about that helplessness you feel when you learn you will spend the next two days without access to email or social media. You don’t want to believe you are one of those people so hopelessly addicted to your phone that its loss causes anxiety. But you …
We arrived at Caleta Tortel and parked at the edge of this tiny town near the end of the Carretera Austral, having driven another 12 miles on a dirt side road till we reached the porous coastline of Patagonia. We strapped on backpacks with our stuff for two days, and started walking. Walking to our …
Continue reading "Chile Part 2: Caleta Tortel, the end of the road."
Swept Away Inn, Port Alberni, Vancouver Island, BC In the late afternoon, the sea-chilled air rushes up the Alberni Inlet from the Pacific Ocean, and when it meets the warm inland air in Port Alberni, fierce gusts of thermal wind blow across Harbour Quay. Moored to the pier is a 70 year old tugboat, now …
Continue reading "Two Nights on A Tugboat: Port Alberni, BC"
What could be more picturesque than those lavender fields and bastides—the medieval fortified villages hugging hilltops— of Provence? Cezanne and Van Gogh marveled at the luminous light and the ever-changing purples, vermillion, and ochres. Provence is the stuff of travelers' dreams, of memoirs of rejuvenation and inspiration. But on a recent trip through the south …
Old and On the Way 