The swanky Las Vegas hotel which apparently lifts its name from Mandalay will be the furthest thing from your mind as your vehicle pulls in.
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Yangon’s Shwedagon Pagoda
Around 500 years before a certain Messianic baby was born somewhere in the Middle East, legend has it that two Burmese merchants visited India, gave the Buddha honey cakes and took a few of his hairs back with them. Their reward? A 30-story, solid gold pagoda.
Continue ReadingIs Pattaya More Than Its Seedy Reputation?
As a 60-something tourist explains, “All tourists spend money and get exactly what they want in return. I just happen to come to Pattaya to fuck.”
Continue ReadingRenegade Piece
“Usually,” Bianca said, “Swiss people sit as far away from others as they can. The train is completely full now, so that’s really not possible.”
Continue ReadingHow I Learned To Write About Love
An old Middle Eastern woman named Rabeeha told me everything I needed to know about romantic writing when I met her in Amman, Jordan in 2010.
Continue ReadingChina’s Spring Airlines
A humorous account of my June 18, 2010 flight on Spring Airways, China’s first (and, thankfully, only) low-cost carrier, from Xi’an to Shanghai.
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