It always upsets me a bit to realize how little I know about the world. This realization springs up from time to time during my travels, whenever I stumble upon a certain festival or custom or religion that I had never before even had the slightest inkling that it existed. I recently took an organized …
The streets of Saigon have been eerily quiet the past couple days. Most of the city’s residents have gone to their hometowns and the ones that have stayed are busy eating and drinking with their families in their houses. I headed out to District 1 on New Year’s Eve to see downtown after dark. Although …
So, I’m back in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, to be exact. Got an apartment. Got a cell phone. Got travel insurance. Got plenty of TUMS. Got a helmet. What I don’t got is a plan. Or blood pressure meds, which I’m starting to think that I’ll need to simply cross …
Christmas is a holiday that has always been widely celebrated, but it seems that only recently have many countries started to celebrate it on the same scale as we do in the West. The concepts of a commercialized Christmas are even starting to pop up in predominately Muslim nations like Turkey. It’s interesting to witness …
One never really appreciates their own culture until they spend some time away from it. Well, that’s the case for me, at least. As sad as I was to leave Korea, it had been 18 months since I had been home and I was eager to be with my family and friends. I was even …
Six sumo wrestling tournaments are held in Japan every year and only three of those are in Tokyo. Seeing as I was in Tokyo when one of them was being held, I decided that it would be wrong of me to pass up a once in a lifetime chance to experience this quintessential Japanese tradition. …
Despite the nation’s rapidly changing society and uber-modern facade, tradition still remains to be an important thread in the intricately weaved fabric that is Japan. It is noticed in the food, in the clothing, in the sports, and in the very movement of its people. Yet, tradition makes its strongest presence in Japan’s most familiar, …
Tokyo wouldn’t be the same without its legendary skyline of flashing signs of neon and seemingly indecipherable characters, at least to us Westerners. Yet, in a city where uniform electronics shops, yakitori vendors, and kareoke rooms adorn every street block, sits a neighborhood bursting with character and personality, unique in every meaning of the word. …
McLeod Ganj is a suburb of Dharamsala, a market town in northern India, situated in the beautiful Himalayan Mountains. It’s most well known for being the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile and the residence of His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama. Not only is it shrouded with natural beauty, but it is veiled with a …
… can there be one without the other? For many Indians, yes. And there is. While the concept of “love marriages” is starting to become a reality in some areas of India, it’s still very much an unattainable fantasy for young, infatuated couples. Something like 80%-90% of Indian marriages are arranged, each with a varied …