Category: Travel
-
First Night Africa
the dancers moved us to the center of a great circle, surrounded us singing and shouting and dancing, a lump forming in my throat
-
Without a Country
Just that morning, without a visa, I’d talked my way across the border. A little patience, a little humility, small Kwacha, and Dunhill cigarettes solved the visa problem.
-
Around the World & Right Here
I would visit corners of this strange land not unlike my hometown: unknown and invisible to the world, no place of pride on any map, unsung in the guide books. Places nobody came from and nobody went to. Corn farms. Tobacco farms.
-
Travel Writing on Kingdoms
All travel writing is essentially the same. The essence shifts away from plot and in favor of setting.
-
Three Guys Diagnose
Backing into my driveway yesterday, I heard the kind of metal on asphalt screech you get when your muffler is falling off. My driveway slopes a bit, so I stopped immediately to prevent driving the tailpipe in on itself like a telescope. Then I nudged forward and the same scraping sound came again. Of course…
-
Acts of Papyrus
Why should I think of this ancient on a rainy afternoon, two days after Christmas? The answer involves a breakfast of bananas, milk, and avocado, the wrapping of gifts in discounted paper, the sound of metal scraping against asphalt beneath my car, a podcast featuring Egyptologist Kara Cooney, the aroma of black bean soup filling…
-
Where Fact Meets Fiction
—
by
My personal journeys work best as parody. I am a very unserious traveler. I board the train for the potato cutlet, not the arrival in Bangaluru.
-
Return of Light
What lifts my spirits during these cold, dark times is this: tomorrow we will have one second more of daylight than we have today.
-
-
Surf Report
a low and diminishing will to push out and paddle, there will be no board wax today
Ben East Books 