Guest Post: Hot for Crimson

Sunny, our affable hiking guide, told the Brazilian Princess (BP) and me we had two options: spend the first trek night in a local villager’s home, or sleep over in a Buddhist monastery. Immediately visions popped into my head of spunky young novice monks waking us with gentle Burmese chanting in a bright, sunlit building …


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Guest Post: On the T56

Somewhere in a flat or house in China is a Lonely Planet phrasebook in Mandarin which used to belong to me. It has ‘Anis Ibrahim, Feb 2005’ in big, happy letters on the inside cover. I met Fan on the T56, the overnight train from Xian to Beijing. When I first saw him, he was …


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Ice Storm

We interrupt this month of guest posts for some pictures from the ice storm in Seattle.

Guest Post: Consider the Sailboat

Consider the sailboat plying the waters off Waikiki. With its billowy sails unfurling in the wind, a bow pointed toward the wide-open oceanic spaces of points unknown, the sailboat evokes a certain set of feelings and passions and desires. There are few images as iconic. For some, the sailboat represents romance—locales of tropical and forbidden …


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Guest Post: Keeping the Light On

A driftwood sign at the end of the beach trail has an arrow pointing back towards the mainland: “Reality, 5 miles.” After hiking two and a half hours to the tip of the longest natural sand spit in the United States, you do feel removed from the rest of the world. For the general public, …


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Guest Post: The Figs on the Train from Vienna

A boyfriend and I once attended a three-day wedding in Krems, Austria during the summer solstice. It took place at the groom’s father’s castle. One of the events of the weekend was a masquerade ball; we dressed in costumes rented from the Vienna Opera and were treated to a waltz lesson in the ballroom by …


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