On the road in the Mountain states, in fabulous weather (heat wave threatening – very unusual for June), we head south from Yellowstone, stop in the Grand Tetons for three days of biking, hiking, staring up, up, up at the 13,000 ft snowcapped peaks and floating down the Snake River. Read More
EB Lande
Smarter than the average bear: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
There aren’t many clichés you can add to the spectacular-ness of nature. And there aren’t many places where you can get the full impact of its largesse than that of the Lamar Valley in the northeast corner of the first US National Park. From a core herd of 24 genetically Read More
Sicily: Ancient Empires
The three highlight antiquities we’ve seen this trip are the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento (Greece 2400 BCE); the remarkable Roman mosaics (300 CE) at the Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina, and the rarely open Houses of Augustus and Livia with their delicate wall frescoes in the Read More
Sicily: Festival of San Giorgio
Everywhere I look I see someone who reminds me of someone I know in Boston. Occasionally it seems like the North End of 30 years ago (Boston’s Little Italy) has teleported itself to Sicily. It’s a testimony to the extent of Italian and Sicilian emigration to the Northeastern US over the past Read More
Sicily: Religioso
Full disclosure – I love churches – the gloomier, darker and more intense, the better. It must be related to childhood in Montreal and short winter days stomping in and around St. Joseph’s Oratory – the Shrine – with as many bleeding martyrs as you can find, including Brother Andre’s Read More
March 2014. Jet lag in translation: Tokyo early days
Sunday March 16. Land in Narito after a 14.5 hr flight sitting in a coach middle seat next to the only fat man on the plane, who also is missing the fingers on one hand. Sasha picks me up in a borrowed car and we hit the road (drive left, look Read More
Afterward. Burma Books. If you go…
Afterthoughts: I have a Burmese student who told me that Myanmar is hosting the Southeast Asian games (SEA) next December (2013) and has just eliminated Ping Pong and Gymnastics as events. Why? Because these events will easily be won by the Chinese. (Is China a SE Asian country?) True? Not Read More
Rangoon/Yangon: First and Last (Burma 6)
The Kayan Women of Kayeh State (bordering Thailand) have traditionally worn brass neck coils to elongate their necks (actually shortening the rib cage by pressing down on the clavicle starting at around age 8). The practice is largely abandoned and discouraged, but it remains a part of Kayan culture and a Read More
Following Buddha’s Footsteps (Burma 5)
The Buddha Burma is a very Buddhist country. There are monks everywhere with shaved heads, sienna brown robes and mustard shoulder wraps. There are nuns everywhere as well – looking exactly like monks except in pink robes. Basically, if you want an education, you have to spend years in Read More
Bagan (Burma 4)
We arrive in Bagan, site of 4,000 crumbling pagodas, stupas, pavilions and temples mid-morning after a 6:00 AM flight from Rangoon. The weather is still winter and gorgeous – mid 80’s — but the locals are bundled and wrapped in blankets. Bagan is dusty red earth with a high desert feel Read More