The Temple Bell Rang at 4:30, and That Wasn’t the Hardest Part
The first sound I registered in Gyeongju wasn’t birdsong or chanting or the wooden clack of a moktak—it was the…
2026
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Stall 47’s Eel Ajumma Was Not Impressed by My Empty Plate
The woman at the eel stall didn’t smile when I sat down. She was in her sixties, maybe older, with…
One Bowl, One Table, One Street in Seoul
Late October, a Tuesday afternoon. I’d taken the wrong exit from Jongno 3-ga station and ended up in a tangle…
The chicken coop and the napkin
The trailhead wasn’t where the guesthouse owner said it would be. I stood at the end of a dirt track…
The Night the Elephants Walked Through Us
The first thing you notice at the Khao Yai salt lick after dark is not the elephants. It’s the quiet….
Battling leeches and bamboo roots on the Doi Inthanon jungle trail to the hidden pagoda of Kew Mae Pan
The rain started about forty-five minutes in, which was almost exactly when I realized my boots were a size too…
The Wrong Island, and the Right One
The diesel fumes hit first, before any view of the water. That’s the smell of a real ferry terminal, not…
The hour before the long-tail boats start
The canal was the colour of a used tea bag and the smell was something between river silt and the…
The handwritten sign on corrugated metal
The first time I tried eating khao soi with my hands, I ended up with broth dripping from both wrists,…
The Same River, a Different Taste
I was on my third prawn before I realized I hadn’t looked at the water once. The floating market at…