MANILA, Philippines — Guidebooks paint two-dimensional portraits of Manila: Intramuros here, Chinatown there, traffic everywhere. Online accounts reveal all her glaring flaws: she’s noisy, highly disorganized, a little suffocating, and totally insane. Yoshke Dimen takes a leap of faith in this sorely misunderstood megacity in search of her good side and finds that only those…
PARIS, France — “Promise me you’ll come to Paris,” she managed to say in between strides. Each step was swift and fleeting. We were chasing time, trying to catch the opening of a puppet show. It was astonishing how we could still have a conversation in the middle of the erratic barrage of motorbike traffic…
KRABI, Thailand — “Wow, that’s all you’re gonna eat?” He is not judging, probably just a bit surprised how a man with a belly that perfectly resembles a watermelon (among others) would not even touch any of the platefuls that paraded on the Lazy Susan. “The fish is delish,” he recommends. I proclaim I’m not…
Dear faithful reader, It is with deep regret that I must inform you that I, the last among my comrades to stage ineffectual resistance, have fallen hostage to Taylor Swift. I successfully evaded capture a couple of years ago when she released Red and pelted my unsuspecting ears and vulnerable soul with anthems of toxic…
Other than taking a break from the joyful impermanence of the nomadic lifestyle, the only good thing about my self-imposed travel ban is the opportunity to desperately long for the road again. The wait, the crave, the anticipation, the minute before a cartoon show begins and the wide-eyed child stares at the screen, hoping for…
It was a decision that baffled many people around me. I myself struggled with it too. Halfway through the year, I traded back my passport with a company ID, my backpack with a messenger bag. But such a move was inevitable. For almost three years, I had wandered aimlessly. But given the circumstances, I could…
TAOYUAN, Taiwan — An old woman and two suitcases have become the great divide between impatience and emptiness. Confused and frazzled, the petite lady unintentionally blocks the aisle to the Economy Class of that KLM flight to Amsterdam. The pressure from the growing line isn’t helping. She doesn’t know where to put the bags. The man…
When he wakes up that balmy morning, he fears he lost a part of him the night before but he is not sure what exactly. All he knows is that there was big mob, there was a screaming tune, there were drinks – potent cocktails of various colors – and they were overflowing, there were…