Traveler Reads: The Unwanted by Kien Nguyen
Kien Nguyen’s memoir The Unwanted reminds readers of the struggles many faced to survive following the fall of Saigon.
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Books
Traveler Reads: The Quiet American by Graham Greene
Review of Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, one of Anthony Bourdain’s favorite books, which is set in Vietnam during its war with France.
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Traveler Reads: Burmese Days by George Orwell
The categorization of expats is what makes George Orwell’s Burmese Days relevant today. The scenery and situations may have changed, but there is much more with which to identify as we travel the world.
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Survival Guide: Taipei Now Available
The perfect Taipei travel guide for adventurous travelers — “Booze, Food, Travel Survival Guide: Taipei” is now available on Amazon.
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Traveler Reads: Apologies Forthcoming
Shiao Su leaned his forehead against the closed door and shut his eyes. The vibration of the Zheng strings passed through the door to his body. He lost the courage to knock on the door. -Snow Line, Apologies Forthcoming The following review is revised from one written years ago. As this marks the 50th anniversary
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Traveler Reads: The Body by Hanif Kureishi
“I’d been alive a long time but my life, like most lives, seemed to have happened too quickly, when I was not ready.” I was introduced to the work of Hanif Kureishi when I studied in London — a course on colonial literature included his first novel, Buddha of Suburbia, which I found thoroughly entertaining.
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Traveler Reads: Invisible Cities
A review of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities from a travel perspective.
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Meeting Du Fu in Chengdu
My photo opportunity with the classic Chinese poet Du Fu while visiting his thatched cottage museum in Chengdu, China.
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Traveler Reads: River Town by Peter Hessler
A traveler and former China expat’s review of River Town, the first book on China by The New Yorker correspondent Peter Hessler.
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New Year, New Plans
Happy 2013! Now that we’ve all recovered from our New Year’s hangovers, we can plan for the year and make those resolutions. Of course, I’ve never been much for resolutions–every year is more or less the same: travel more, read more, stay healthy, find new experiences… Reading is high up on that list because I
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Linguist Olympics
For a short time before the Beijing Olympics in 2008, I taught at a language center in Shenzhen. It wasn’t entirely legal as the company couldn’t get me a residence permit and had me apply for business visas for which I was labelled a consultant. Fortunately, while stories circulated about visa crackdowns across China, I
Hablas Español?
More than a few people asked me if I speak Spanish prior to and after my journey to Panama. My answer was rather jumbled.