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Apsara
An apsara is a female spirit of the clouds and water. You can find their images in both Hindu and Buddhist temples. In Khmer, the language of Cambodia, you call them tep apsar (ទេពអប្សរ). Apsara appear in paintings, bas-relief and in three-dimensional sculpture. Angkor Wat is rich in apsara. The complex spans an area of some 400…
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Saigon Stories
Every city has its own creation myth and Saigon is no exception. The name alone offers so many possibilities. Saigon could reference the forest of kapok trees that once stood on this site, an embankment on the river or a royal city. Today, Saigon is not a beautiful city. Crowded, noisy, thick with scooters. The…
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Taiwanese Beauties
This is my third Taiwanese visit. First, as a child in 1969, to visit my maternal grandfather in Taipei. I can still remember a trip to Sun Moon Lake, the aborigines performing for us tourists, and my very first site of a typhoon. 7 years ago, I returned with my mother on a sentimental journey.…
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The Curious Monkey
Meet the Curious Monkey. He’s going to be my avatar for the next 7 months as my husband and I travel the world. If you live in Amsterdam, you might recognize this little guy as Artis de Partis, the mascot of the local zoo. Artis de Partis is a strange sort of monkey. According to…
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My Favorite Things
I’ve never felt homesick before. Not when I went to China for the first time. Not when I moved to the Netherlands. Sure, there were people and places I missed but I never felt sick to my stomach or anxious or unable to repress a desire to return. These are, apparently, all common ways of…
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Novel Navigation
Reading and writing is what I do. Every day, all day, seven days in the week. My husband does the same thing and our house in Amsterdam perfectly accommodates us both. So why leave home? And yet that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Travel around the world for 7 months. Go to countries we’ve…
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Homeward Bound
Last month, I went home to California. It’s an odd word to use, home, given that I’ve lived in Amsterdam for 30 years. But what else can you call the place where you were grew up or your parents still live? Home is not so much a location as a spot on the space-time continuum.…
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How to Get Lost
I have done a fair amount of traveling in my time. Most of Europe, parts of Asia, the United States, of course. But a round-the-world trip is a whole other thing. Our plan is simple. To start from home and keep on going until we make it back. Easy, right? Yes, if you’re a free…
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2018 | My Year in Food
In 2018, I published no books and made no book tours. What the hell did I do with my time? I wrote and traveled, read and gardened. But above all, I ate. So why not take a look back at 2018 and a sneak preview of what’s to come in 2019 by way of my…
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Home on the Range
Texas, for me, has always been a fly-over state. Aside from a long-ago business trip to Irving, I’d never set foot in the Lone Star State. I imagined Texas to be one great stretch of arid land with only tumbleweeds to break the monotony. A place only Wile E. Coyote could love. Well, folks, I…