A smear on the map
In a few weeks I will celebrate two extraordinary years in Asia. I say Asia even though my base has been Hong Kong because so …
Up in the air
I have a short list of things I want to do before I die, and on that list is riding a helicopter. It’s been a …
Adventures on the Chao Phraya
I was supposed to lay by the hotel pool or duck into an air-conditioned mall or maybe get another massage. This is my bubble in Bangkok. …
Bubble bursting in Bangkok
A weekend trip to Bangkok is a temporary escape into fantasy. The services here that cater to tourists are so good and the prices so …
Rabbithole Coffee
Ah coffee. Alluring, complex, divine. I call it the urine of the gods – and I drink it happily.
I was spoiled in San Francisco, where …
The mists of Beitou
Just a 20-minute subway ride away from Taipei is a small town called Beitou, which is famous for its geothermal hotsprings. And in the town …
Man’s best friend
“You are not at all like my rose,” he said. “As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no …
A son’s apology
At first I think it’s a bad connection. Hello, I keep repeating in Korean. Then some seconds later I realize that she’s crying silently. She knows …
The 7 culinary wonders of my world
Once in a great while I come across a dish that I find so utterly delicious that it produces a tectonic shift in my culinary …
Shanghai, USA
Of all the countries I’ve been to in Asia, the one that has been most startlingly different has been China. It might be because I …