Mandalay is a name that is present in people’s mind, if not for the works of Rudyard Kipling than at least for the prominence of Las Vegas and her casinos in present day society. Whatever romantic evocations the name may hold were quickly quashed for me in the functional but somewhat listless city. Regardless of… Read More Relics of an Empire
Having reached Bangkok, Tori and I passed the time exploring Khao San Road, the backpacker hub of the entire country, and a place that frankly I could do without. it is the epicenter of tourism in Southeast Asia, the place where all those weird, disturbing things one may have heard about in relation to Thailand come… Read More Onwards to Burma
Tori and I made our way over the border from Thailand into Cambodia, where we paid far more than a person should for the 2 hour taxi ride out to Anlong Veng. Anlong Veng is the capital of Preah Vihear province, though in this case capital is a bit of an optimistic term for a… Read More Kampuchea Once Again
One of the major goals of this trip, for both Tori and myself, has been to explore the many, many ruins of the Khmer Empire. In Vietnam there are none, but in Laos it is another story. Thus from Savannakhet we moved south to Pakse, our operating base for a trip to the ruins of… Read More Of Temples, Crickets, and Hitchhiking
As alluded to previously, our hope was to reach Savannakhet before the sun came down on us. This seemed relatively straightforward, a seemingly direct line between Vinh and our destination were there. As can happen in Asia, simplicity was overrated. The journey began with us seeking out a ride at 2.30am in Vinh. Cracking out… Read More 24 Hours In Motion
Spring festival vacation snuck up upon me, and soon after my final class I met with Tori at the train station and we were off to guangzhou. from there, after being stared at eating dinner, we boarded a night train to Nanning, our final stop in China. We passed the day as any Chinese would:… Read More Like a Well-Worn Shoe
With apologies for a lengthy layoff, I have refrained from writing for the simple purpose that I have very little news of note to share with the world at large. There are the small victories of acclimitization and adaption that I have written about before, the joys (and pratfalls) of teaching, and the ongoing challenge… Read More The #18 Twilight Blues
The flight out from Shenzhen was a piece of cake. The return flight, some five long days later, was not quite so simple. But more on that later. In what seems to be the fall fashion for inland cities, we landed in Chongqing in the morning, greeted by a blanket of fog and smog. Tori… Read More The Sichuan Episode
Once again, I have been granted a bit of vacation as a result of a school event wiping out several days of classes. My kids now have red banners in their classrooms from their Sports Day successes. I on the hand have a few pictures, a slight cold, a pullover, and a trilingual copy of… Read More A Hazy Shade of Winter
I’ve been somewhat inactive the past few weeks on the blog. This is in part owing to the current firewall block of Facebook in China, which I’ve been using to host my photos. The other component of this is that there has been little big news of note. The days and then weeks have gone… Read More Etched in Lore
Zak Abroad 