Vientiane, Laos
January 12-16, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
Sabai Dee,
Here's a good one:
"The reason I didn't recognize you, Jan, is because when we met six years ago, you were fat. Now you are slim and younger looking."
So said my friend Kia, a lovely Laotian woman, who with her husband Wisai, runs a small restaurant in Vientiane.
So what am I doing in Vientiane?
{C}
Cartagena de Indias
Bolívar Department
Colombia
November 14, 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
From time to time, my curious friends ask, "Jan, how are the ladies there?" (Wherever "there" is.) So their "inquiry" regarding "Las mujeres Colombianas" was no surprise.
How shall answer the question about Colombian women without exacerbating my own proclivity for hypertension and without interfering with any cardiac control devices out there? I'll do my best:
{C}
Wilton Manors, Florida, USA
October 31, 2008
My dear trick or treaters,
Halloween is a big thing in Miami.
Sure, kids get dressed up and collect their mountains of sweets.
What I mean is that Halloween is a big thing for adults. Bars and clubs in Miami are crammed with costumed revelers.
What I really mean is that Halloween is a big thing for gay adults.
From Key West to Fort Lauderdale, thousands of gussied-up gay men and women parade the streets in creative, colorful, comely outfits.
Udon Thani
Thailand
March 8, 2005
Dear Family and Friends,
I got tired of just sitting around at The Honey Inn so after a few days of R&R I hit the road again, this time heading to northeast Thailand.
It was a short but "monumental" ten day trip. Even a little bizarre.
Chaiyaphun. I thought was going to see a silk-weaving village outside of town but in the searing heat and under the penetrating and debilitating sun I lost my patience. (Another couple I met later in the day had the same problem. On the way out of town, on the bus, we saw the sign, facing the "wrong" direction.)
Jaipur to Bikaner
Rajasthan, India
February 24, 2007
Dear Family and Friends,
The phrase "Horn Please" is emblazoned in huge, colorful and artistic boldfaced letters on the rear end of every powerful, solid, steel-framed intercity truck. Or "Sound Horn" appears. Or "Blow Horn." My favorite is "Blow Horn." India is a nation of one billion horn blowers.
It is good form. Everyone is encouraged to sound his horn to alert the truck driver ahead that his rig is about to be overtaken. And, (and this is a big "and") every driver of every type of vehicle alerts everyone else of his presence and his insistence to proceed unimpeded according to some preordained universal master transport plan known only to himself.
Amber
Rajasthan,
India
February 23, 2007
Dear Family and Friends,
It just keeps getting better!
"The magnificent delicate-pink, fort palace of Amber (pronounced Amer), a beautiful, ethereal example of Rajput architecture, rises from a rocky mountainside about 11km north of Jaipur." [*]
As Adit and I drive into Amber, the walls and the towers, more golden than pink, sit high and imposing on the mountains to my left.
