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Plastic Planet
Plastic is not the first word you’d associate with New Zealand. You think instead of the mountains, the rivers and lakes, the astonishing coastline. And yet plastic is on my mind as we travel through the South Island of this astonishingly beautiful country. During a whale watching expedition, I hear about plastic bottles lodged in…
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Isolation
I’m writing to you from the isolation ward of Auckland City Hospital. My husband Frans has pneumonia. No worries: he’s healing though it’s taking time. First, get the fever down, rehydrate the body, and find the nasty bug that’s causing all the trouble. Then, match the bug to the right silver bullet. Finally, wait for…
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On Island
Our plane has just landed in Kauai when the message arrives. The owner of our holiday rental won’t be there to greet us. She’s off island but not to worry. She has plenty of local contacts in case of an emergency and we can always reach her if we keep in mind the time difference.…
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Los Angeles
When I tell people about our round-the-world itinerary, there are always oohs and aah’s for the far flung destinations like Angkor Wat in Cambodia or Gwangju, South Korea. Los Angeles doesn’t fit in that lineup. I was, after all, born and raised in the City of Angels. La La Land, Lotusville, Shaky Town, El Pueblo.…
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Kyoto Craft
There’s something about Kyoto that pleases me. There are grand castles and breathtaking gardens. The people are kind and the food is great. There are more places in Japan like that but Kyoto is special. The lamp glow is soft, the paper screens crisp, the incense seductive. It can’t all be a coincidence. I suspect…
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Country Life
The first time I went to Japan, I was 10 years old. We were on our way to visit my maternal grandfather in Taiwan, stopping for 3 days in Tokyo. I remember a hotel high in the clouds and a city more modern than LA far below. This is my fourth visit to Japan and…
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On the Condiment Ledge
Every self-respecting Korean cook has a condiment ledge. Any sunny place will do: in the garden, a parking lot or on your roof. On that ledge, you keep your onggi. These earthenware jars are made from clay fired at 1200 degrees, which allows the jar to breathe. Onggi earthenware makes the best container for traditional…
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Gwangju Spring
Our hotel is mere steps away from Geumnam-ro, the main thoroughfare in Gwangju, South Korea. We’re in this city because of a novel written by Han Kang. Human Acts documents 9 days in May 1980 when a student-led democracy movement was brutally suppressed by the military junta then in power. 7 years later, in 1987,…
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The Last Emperor
Today is our last day in Vietnam. We started in the south in Saigon, traveled through central Vietnam, to end our 1 month stay in the capital of Hanoi. A month is hardly long enough to grasp the history of any country, let alone one with such a long and tortured past. I struggle to…
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Into the Kitchen
When my husband and I first considered this mad round-the-world adventure, the kitchen was always at the heart of the plan. For at least some part of our journey, we’d stay at a place where I could cook. Some travelers like to volunteer as their way of getting to know a country and its people.…