Stinky Advice

Now that it’s time to transfer the money into my old folks Depends fund from my Chinese bank, I’m getting stopped at the Border Control.

Gung Ho

What is it like living in a country with no guns? Well, there are guns in China, usually in the hands of guards at the airports or in kids like at this virtual reality sniper game at a local Kunming mall. And oh yes, the military have guns, too. Armed soldiers marching in goose step are as common as roasted […]

Pho-get the pho.Try the…

  How can you describe Hanoi in five bites or less?  Put it this way: I passed thirteen coffee shops (all equally as funky as any in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood) before I found a hole-in-the-wall that dished up pho, the trademark noodle dish. Hanoi–just like Ho Chi Minh or Da Nang–is about teeny little cups that’ll keep you buzzing […]

The Second Time I Thought I Was Going to Die

I always wonder if once you get to heaven, if God shows you a video of all of your close calls. Skydiving. Horseback riding in Scotland. Hitching a ride from a toothless woman in the middle-of-nowhere-Thailand. Add to the reel yesterday’s mishap in Sapa, Vietnam. It started in a small Black H’mong village tucked away in the rice paddies surrounding […]