The Skies are Alive in Lanka
Posted on 30. May, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski 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 MoreThe Girl by the Side of the Road
Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Articles, Personal essays
The Girl by the Side of the Road Thirty years on, searching for the girl whose eyes said “I’m going to surprise you.” LADAKH, India In 1979 I took a black and white photo of a young girl in Ladakh. She was perhaps ten. She wore a rough robe of homespun wool, she carried a […]
Read MoreChina’s Emperor is Tanned, Rested and Ready
Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Articles, Personal essays
China’s Emperor is Tanned, Rested and Ready Homeless Hawaiian heir to the throne seeks financial support to restore Ming Dynasty greatness HONOLULU, Hawai’i I had naively thought that China’s 2,000 year old imperial system ended when 12-year-old Pu Yi, the last emperor, was overthrown in 1912. “Not so,” declares Elmer. “I’m the last emperor.” I […]
Read MoreAlmost a Knight to Remember
Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Articles, Personal essays
Almost a Knight to Remember I rather liked being called “Sir Paul” SOON-TO-BE-NATION OF SAVANTIS, Can’t-tell-you-where I turned down a knighthood recently. It was a tough decision – I liked the sound of “Sir Paul.” I had replied to a notice in the International Herald Tribune that had offered “an economically available, State Sanctioned Hereditary […]
Read MoreAunt Sarah Rather Liked Her Original Childhood Name
Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Articles, Personal essays
Aunt Sarah Rather Liked Her Original Childhood Name Popping balloons instead of Chinese firecrackers; “mystic influence to the center” HONOLULU, Hawai’i I filled out the forms and wished my ancestors had been Burmese or Chinese. I was changing my name to my grandfather’s original, and Win or Wong would have been a lot easier to […]
Read MoreSearching for Enigmas
Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Articles, Personal essays
Searching for Enigmas It’s everywhere, it’s nowhere, it’s dancing in three-quarter time EN-ROUTE TO PULAU VALSE PISANG, Indonesia Some people with stardust in their eyes and too much red wine in their veins spend their lives searching for Atlantis or Eldorado. Other adventurers windsurf across the Pacific. Yet other men and women seek an elusive […]
Read MoreMona Lisa On My Mind
Posted on 30. Mar, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski 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 MoreKill Mosquitoes ‘Til They’re Dead
Posted on 30. Aug, 2009 by Paul Sochaczewski in Personal essays
Choreographing the singing chicken, goat and twin rabbits JAKARTA, Indonesia Incense is far from a simple commodity. It’s an essential component of Indonesian meditation. But add a swig of insecticide, manufacture it into coils that emit an insect-defying smoke, and you get that wonderfully Asian invention dubbed the mosquito coil. Ridding the world of little […]
Read More“My Kid’s Gonna Be a Star”
Posted on 30. Aug, 2009 by Paul Sochaczewski in Golf
In Zimbabwe, as in New Jersey, all fathers live their dreams though their kids HARARE, Zimbabwe On the parched fairways of the Wingate Park Golf Club in Harare, Zimbabwe, Lewis Muridzo takes a break from his afternoon of lessons and does what fathers everywhere do. He brags about his son. Tall, articulate and immaculately dressed, […]
Read More“Find ze kom-plee-ci-teh”
Posted on 30. Aug, 2009 by Paul Sochaczewski in Personal essays
Wearing a red nose helps business leaders love their inner warrior and avoid the “b” word NEW YORK “Take me out to the ball game…” I sing while approaching 17 other workshop participants who stare at me, partly in collegial encouragement, partly out of voyeuristic pleasure that it is me up on stage and not […]
Read MoreImmortality: The Kid Could be the Key
Posted on 30. Aug, 2008 by Paul Sochaczewski in Personal essays
Designer sperm banks; nature vs nurture DALAT, Vietnam The creation of Dolly the Cloned Sheep a few years ago stirred our imagination – we were suddenly closer to cloning people than anyone had imagined. Since Dolly, cloning technology has advanced with such staggering speed that she seems almost anachronistic. The latest news in the cloning […]
Read MoreInto the Frying Pan
Posted on 20. May, 2008 by Paul Sochaczewski in Curious Travel
Vietnam’s street kids learn the restaurant business HANOI, Vietnam “Postcards, mister?” I explained to the teen-aged boy outside a luxury hotel in Hanoi that I didn’t need any more postcards. “Please mister.” So I bought a few more postcards, hoping my dollar would buy the young man a meal or two. Officially there are some […]
Read MoreWhen Too Much of a Good Thing Can Be Way Too Much
Posted on 30. Aug, 2007 by Paul Sochaczewski 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 […]
Read MoreThe Detective, the Suburbanites, and the Kid who Failed Mugging 101
Posted on 30. Aug, 2006 by Paul Sochaczewski in Personal essays
WASHINGTON, D.C. I almost got mugged the other night. After dinner with a friend in the Washington, D.C. area, I took the Metro to Friendship Heights. It was about midnight and I decided to walk back to the house where I was staying. I strolled through one of the better neighborhoods of the well-heeled Northwest […]
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