I arrived at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City two hours before closing, so only had time to see half the items on display. Out of all the amazing pre-Colombian artefacts, my favourite was the 3-metre-tall basalt sculpture of Coatlicue, the Aztec goddess who gave birth to the moon, stars, and Huitzilopochtli, the … Gary Jennings, the Mexican Museum of Anthropology, and my new Mousepad
1 Siem Reap The City Once out of the airport, your first glimpses of a new country are precious. Hopefully, the sense of novelty causes a dopamine release. As you visit more countries more regularly, the buzz lessens. My first new country in years, I could feel the dopamine buzz in Siem Reap, Cambodia. According … Cambodia 2023 Trip Report
Phongsaly In 2003, I trekked in the highlands of Phongsaly, the Northernmost province of Laos. The leather work shoes I’d bought in Hong Kong for my six-month stint working in Shanghai didn’t serve me well. Greatly amusing my fellow trekkers, I slipped and fell on my arse multiple times while descending muddy jungle paths. Referring … 2003 Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, NZ
I enjoyed the slow train to Hua Hin, the seaside town 200 km south of Bangkok. Scheduled to get there in five hours, the train made it in six. I bought 2nd class sleeper fan tickets and got two wide seats facing each other. Travelling by day, we didn’t fold them out to create a … Hua Hin
The Grand Palace is a tourist attraction living up to the hype – as in yes, it’s worth visiting. Although other temples around Bangkok Old Town have equally impressive golden buddhas and multi-tiered roofs, not to mention fewer Chinese tour groups, their (cheaper) entrance tickets don’t include entry to two museums and a dance show. … More Bangkok Observations
Earlier in 2023, I wrote a review based on what I remembered from having read “Off the Rails in Phnom Penh: Into the Dark Heart of Guns, Girls, and Ganja” in 2003. This book had popped into my mind many times over the years, and with a first-ever trip to Cambodia coming up, I thought … Off the Rails in Phnom Penh: Into the Dark Heart of Guns, Girls, and Ganja Reconsidered
In ‘Civilization and its Discontents,’ Freud tells us that civilisation necessitates the curbing of the natural expression of the libido, and this repression leads to neurosis. The answer is to redirect the libido into work or artistic expression. For author Isham Cook, the state keeps us in fear of our libido as a mechanism of … Sexual Fascism
Unwelcome by Quincy Carroll My rating: 5 of 5 stars In ‘Unwelcome’ we follow Cole Chen through his awkward misadventures in California and Changsha, China. The twenty-three-year-old has come back from his second stint in China and is crashing on his brother’s couch. Our introduction to Cole is through the eyes of his more successful … Unwelcome
Links go to my GoodReads reviews. Magical Disinformation: A spy novel set in Colombia. Shades of Graham Greene. Law of the Jungle: Medical research and revenge in the jungles of Venezuela and Colombia. Crimechurch: Psychos and troubled teens in NZ’s earthquake-hit city. Teacher, We Girls!: The experience of being a woman from New Zealand teaching in … 8 great self-published/small press books I reviewed in 2021
Originally published in the Los Angeles Review of Books China Channel as When Malaparte Met Mao. A former fascist sees only the good in Mao’s China. In 1956 Italian novelist Curzio Malaparte received an invitation to travel to Beijing for a commemoration of the death of writer Lu Xun. Malaparte is most famous for his … Eyes Wide Shut: Malaparte in China
