I just finished reading Beyond the Last Village by Alan Rabinowitz, one of the more moving and inspirational books I’ve read in a very long time. Although it describes the author’s journey into the jungles of Northern Myanmar, and details his efforts to save endangered wildlife in that area, Beyond the Last Village is much [...]
One of the great joys in visiting Kuala Lumpur for me is the food. I’m an unabashed foodie, so I delight in sampling the myriad choices of sumptuous cuisine available throughout the greater KL area. Of course there any many places for authentic Malay food, but there is also an abundance of wonderful Indian, Chinese, [...]
On Tuesday a woman walked into my bookshop and while scanning the shelves, told me that “a Burmese friend recommended your shop to me.” “Really? Who was that?” I asked. “Ma Thanegi” was her reply. That of course led to more conversation and introductions. She told me her name was Naomi, was from Canada, but [...]
I received an e-mail yesterday that brought a really big smile to my face. It was from Kazuko, a friend from Japan, who just returned from a visit to Myanmar. I met her last year at the anniversary ceremony for the primary school in Shan State’s Tat Ein village. Kazuko, nicknamed “Ma Zabei” by the [...]
I’ll post more about my trip to Kuala Lumpur next week, but I thought I’d update you on a few things right now while I’m thinking about … and have nothing else to do on this last night in town. I have another early morning flight back to Bangkok, so I’ll attempt to get to [...]
I was doing some serious flip-flopping earlier today. I wanted to post something before I left for the airport early tomorrow morning (Where? You’ll have to wait for that one!). Should I write about some of the bizarre books that have passed through my shop this week? Maybe a rant about the deluded outspoken Christian [...]
If you thought that I’d stopped posting photos from my most recent trip to Myanmar, ha, think again! Actually, I am getting down to the scraps and don’t have much more left to post, but I today I have some more fun shots that one of the novice monks took in Shan State’s Tat Ein [...]
At first I thought it was a mistake; another example of the editors at the Bangkok Post asleep on the job again. The article in the World News section of the paper on Monday was titled “EU to reward Myanmar for reform efforts.” In the past the Bangkok Post has always referred to Myanmar as [...]
Some notes from my last trip, plus another excuse to post more photos, some of which have no correlation to the text. Justin Bieber rules Myanmar! We all know how massively popular the teen singer is in many countries around the world nowadays, but I was surprised to find that he’s also huge in [...]
It may be the equivalent of an urban myth, but as the story goes, during the 1992 US presidential campaign, an MTV News reporter asked the Democratic candidate, a dude named Bill Clinton, about his favorite musicians. The ex-governor, sometimes sax player, and future president replied that he was a big fan of Thelonious Monk. [...]
