Jumping Through Buddhist Hoops in Burma
Posted on 30. Aug, 2010 by admin in Curious Travel
INLE LAKE, Burma “Come on Brochette, jump through this hoop. Arnold Schwarzenegger can do it – it can’t be that hard.” My friend’s ginger cat in Geneva was doing what cats everywhere do – exactly what she felt like. Which at this moment was not jumping through a hoop. I was trying to accomplish a [...]
Read MoreLast Great Elephant Hunter Achieves Indochine Glory
Posted on 30. Jun, 2010 by admin in Curious Travel
He’s notched up 298 pachyderms, and a lucrative product endorsement contract BUON MA THUOT, Vietnam. Stardom can be defined in many ways. For Ama Kong it is a number, 298, the sum of wild elephants he has captured. Now 90, with failing eyesight but still with a healthy head of hair, Ama Kong is the [...]
Read MoreUzi Fever
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by admin in Articles, Curious Travel
Letting the macho urges go out with a bang in Cambodia PHNOM PENH, Cambodia In this uncertain world of drive-by killings, high school massacres and gonzo postal workers, is there nowhere a guy can go to blast an Uzi for fun without being labeled a politically-incorrect barbarian? Well, there’s always Cambodia, where Taiwanese entrepreneur Victor [...]
Read MoreThe God Who Flew Off With a Mountain
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by admin in Articles, Curious Travel
It takes chutzpah for an Indian villager to stay angry at one of the most popular gods in the Hindu pantheon, but Padhan Patti wants her mountain back DUNAGIRI, India It takes a bit of Hindu chutzpah for a remote Indian villager to stay angry at one of the most popular gods in the pantheon, [...]
Read MoreThe Sultan and the Mermaid Queen
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by admin in Articles, Curious Travel
A love story for the ages SOLO, Indonesia The instructions, given by a friend of Javanese nobility, were tantalizingly vague. If you look really carefully, and if the wind is blowing right and you are of good heart and you let yourself “switch mode” into a semi-trance, you just might see a tenth dancer. That [...]
Read MoreSearching for Small Folk at the End of the Trail
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by admin in Articles, Curious Travel
A visit with three types of Hobbits on the isolated Indonesian island of Flores FLORES, Indonesia Imaginary short people fascinate us, and they take up an inordinate amount of space in literature and mythology. We’re all familiar with the Lilliputians who entrapped Gulliver, Snow White’s pals Dopey, Sleepy, Grumpy and the rest of the Seven [...]
Read MoreMoses Dreams of Reversing Jewish Exodus in Burma
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by admin in Articles, Curious Travel
Caretaker of Rangoon’s only synagogue dares to dream. Will his children go forth and multiply? RANGOON, Burma “Ah, you want to see Moses Samuels,” says R., the front desk manager at a Rangoon guest house. “He’s an old school friend. He’s a Jew and I’m a Moslem, but we all got along just fine. Give [...]
Read MoreSearching for Orwell
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by admin in Articles, Curious Travel
A backwater town in Upper Burma was the site for Orwell’s Burmese Days, a book that takes no prisoners KATHA, Burma There are worse travel strategies than to visit places with evocative names. There’s Timbuktu, Congo and Okavango in Africa; and Salvador de Bahia, Darien and Patagonia in Latin America, names which purr with history [...]
Read MoreBurma’s Generals Hope White Elephants Provide Jumbo Support
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by admin in Articles, Curious Travel
Burma’s Generals Hope White Elephants Provide Jumbo Support Trying to restore some of the good vibes that come with rare pale pachyderms RANGOON, Burma Most new national capitals feature monumental architecture, statues to independence heroes, broad boulevards, cultural centers and shopping malls. Burma’s new, deliberately-isolated and rarely-visited capital, Naypyidaw (which means “royal capital” in Burmese), [...]
Read MoreThe Skies are Alive in Lanka
Posted on 30. May, 2010 by admin in Curious Travel
Sri Lanka is Ground Zero for hard-to-explain aerial phenomena ANGULLUGAHA, Galle, Sri Lanka I was swimming, just after sunset one night, with my friends Dhanapala and his daughter Vidhisha. One of us, I forget who, pointed to the clear sky and said: “Is that a plane?” No, it seemed, it wasn’t. Nor were about ten [...]
Read MoreMona Lisa On My Mind
Posted on 30. Mar, 2010 by admin in Curious Travel
Vietnamese artists search for that enigmatic smile HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam ______________ She has many identities and genders. She was kidnapped, maybe by Picasso. She lived in the Palace of Versailles. She spent time in Bonaparte’s bedroom. Nat King Cole, Cole Porter, Santana, Bob Dylan and Britney Spears sang about her. She appeared, twice, [...]
Read MoreWhen Too Much of a Good Thing Can Be Way Too Much
Posted on 30. Aug, 2007 by admin in Curious Travel
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe While the world has been focusing on the horrors of AIDS in Africa, a bit of medical good news has burst forth from Africa. Zimbabwe traditional healer George Moyo has become a media star by selling vuka-vuka, a concoction of plants that he claims are a powerful aphrodisiac. Vuka-vuka (pronounced VOO-ka VOO-ka), which [...]
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