During our ten day China trip, we had three different guides in three different cities. Olivia was the first. You’ve met Oliva. Of all the guides, Olivia was the most fervent at finding western toilets. “Here!” she would say. “This one!” I didn’t have the heart to tell her the squat toilets are cleaner than …
Notes
A FEW NOTES: Dumplings are delicious for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The older and shorter a Chinese woman is, the harder she will shove you out of her way. This theory includes, but is not limited to, old women in wheelchairs. Every Chinese city is the “Best” at something. As are Chinese museums, roads, trains …
Olivia
Oliva collected us promptly on the morning of our first day. She bustled us down the alley and loaded us into our emperor’s van. This time she wore a long dark wool coat with a felted shapes on the back, mostly a rather menacing and undernourished Santa Claus-like figure holding a scroll that said …
Arrive
We landed in Beijing at 7:00 on Friday night, and even though I had sent the budget tour company the wrong arrival time, our guide met us anyway, a tiny young woman in the shouting airport throng, wearing a bright red hat and scarf and smiling a smile that took up most of her face. She …
Borneo: Profiles in Courage
I DID see a leech. I found one in my pants during lunch. I stood up to get a cup of coffee and my thigh itched. When I scratched it, a soft tootsie-roll-thing slid around under my fingers. I thought at first it was the spare toilet paper that I keep tucked in my wasteband …
Borneo: Belief
Even on vacation I struggle with goal-setting and achievement. I love to bird watch. But what sort of spotting should give me the most satisfaction? A half- glimpse of what what might possibly be a rhinosaurus hornbill or a face to face conversation with what definitely is a common sparrow? And if I see …
Borneo: Wildlife Spotting Protocol
Afiq arrived in his van the next morning to take us to the jungle. Afiq is an earnest young man who was born in a village alongside the Kinabatangan River. He is affable, but intense about his job as a jungle guide. Once he and his father caught malaria on a hunting trip because …
Borneo: How to Earn a Nap
We flew from Brunei to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, an easy on twenty-minute Royal Brunei Airlines flight, half-full of serene passengers enjoying their free newspaper and plastic cups of apple juice. From the airport we took a “Grab”, which is the Asian equivalent of Uber, downtown to our hotel, a giant pink monstrosity of condos. The …
Borneo: Traveler’s Notes
We flew from Portland to San Francisco to Tokyo to Singapore to Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital city of Brunei. During the SFO-Singapore section our seats in the very back row jiggled like water balloons on a trampoline which led to some uncomfortable vomiting, but luckily Japan Airlines supplies plenty of barf bags. Traveler’s note: …
Abundance
Banos, Ecuador Monday, January 19, 2015 Maybe the Galapagos would be better off if we all just left it alone. I can't get around the irony of hundreds of thousands of people paying a bunch of money to come to a place that is special because it is "untouched", and then touching it …
ICEBOX PLUMS: Moments, sweet and cold 