Introspection
Epiphanies on the Road - A collection of revelations while traveling
- Auschwitz Death Camp January 1, 2013 It’s the bleakness of the place that startles you first. Auschwitz II (Birkenau) – The "Gate of Death" The gas chambers There’s nothing more I can write about Auschwitz that hasn’t already been written: It really is devastating. Like the Killing Fields and Tuong Sleng Prison of the Khmer Rouge, Auschwitz is a depiction of humanity’s potential for ...
- Monsoon Watch December 13, 2012 I am fully preparing to jump into a monsoon in two weeks’ time. That is to say that I will be traveling with sixteen fellow backpackers and one Calvin Sun, whose rousing story and headstrong travel philosophy – “monsooning” – were recently featured in USA Today. The trajectory of this particular monsoon will take us from ...
- The Revolutionary April 12, 2012 He was a youth in 1979, toppling the statue of Reza Khan in defiance of the Shah. And as one of the many emerging activists of 1979 , he supported the historic regime change that led to the era of Ayatollah Khomeini. But before he was to bear witness to the events that would follow ...
Post-travel Reflections - The usual symptoms of post-travel withdrawal
- Ukraine & Poland, You’re Going to Miss It… January 11, 2013 Pictures courtesy of Mandy Cheuk, Simon Lu, Kai Tan, Cynthia Koo, and yours truly. With contributions by Cynthia Koo. Press play. And then start reading. “…Because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who ...
- Why I Move (Pt 2) December 18, 2012I’ve been to more places in the last year than I have been in my entire life. And in another seven days, I will board a plane for my fourth Monsoon in the last year, this time to Eastern Europe, as a third-time veteran of The Monsoon Diaries’ family–and with newly granted co-blogging privileges. So Calvin has ...
- How to Get into Trouble in Iran April 23, 2012 I had said in a previous entry how “normal” everything seemed when I was in Iran last week, but about a week since I’ve returned I’ve noted some exceptions. Of course, some of these are via word of mouth through our interpreter, but this is the closest I’m ever going to get short of actually living ...
