Dancing With Myself
I moved out of my parents’ home and in with Dorothy on my 18th birthday, the first day it was legally permissible. That makes it sound like I was fleeing an abusive home life, which…
Wat Phra That Doi Suthep
Wat Phra That Doi Suthep is considered Chiang Mai’s most important temple, founded in 1383 by the Lanna kingdom. Hang on, because its origin story is… special. The official story is that a monk named…
Direct Current. No, Wait… District of Columbia…?
When last we left our heroes, they had had their smashingly successful designer hosiery business, Gambit by Dorothy Jones, cruelly snatched away by the evil Dr. Howard. Destitute in New York City, they were forced…
Like Etsy IRL
Java has been a thicket of arts and crafts. Silver, glass, weaving, painting, basketry, leather, puppets… Java has had the richest mix of crafts of anywhere we’ve been, on a par with Morocco or Oaxaca,…
Meet The Betels
Indonesia is not exactly a drug-friendly country. When we were landing in Denpasar our steward asked us to fasten our seat belts, raise our seats, and lock our tray tables before cheerfully announcing that bringing…
Bali? Hi!
Bali, land of deep, resonant culture, jaw dropping natural splendor, and breathtaking coral extravaganzas. Also, land of wellness centers, yoga retreats, and invasive tourists. Getting the one without the other is a challenge, happily accepted.…
The More Things Change… The More Different They Are
We started with an idea: we would travel until it was no longer fun, and then we’d stop. We ran on that idea for two years before we realized how profoundly stupid it was. We…
Cát Bà: So Long, Hạ Long Bay
You know Hạ Long Bay. Maybe not by name, but by iconic representation. It’s like Bayon Temple in Cambodia. The name probably causes a puzzled look, but once you see a picture of those massive…
Temples All Around, Barkeep
This region of Cambodia, the beating heart of the ancient Khmer Angkor kingdom, reminds me of nothing so much as Carthage (here and here), in the sense that you can’t swing a cat without hitting…
Performance Review
One of the most fun things about our adventures is the constant exposure to the, to us, unusual and unknown. Other than Mexico, a culture we were already deeply familiar with, every place else we’ve…