Posts tagged "travel"
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Panic at the Disco
Gay clubs were for flowers. Update: I wrote this piece before we learned more about what happened. I'm sorry about misgendering or mis-identifying the victims. I'm 31 in a few months. Not old, but old enough to remember how coming out was not on Tumblr, it was at Taboo. I would go with my best friends, all of us so…
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Kolkata Kalling
12 years ago I came to Kolkata for the same time. At the time it was still mostly referred to as Calcutta. Kolkata, where every return feels both familiar and new. The city doesn't change; but you do. Every picture I have of it from 12 years ago still looks like it could have been from December, when I last visited.…
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In Small Rooms with Betawi Women
Not for the first time, I found myself in a tiny room on a hot day, the youngest among old women. Each with a different thing to say to me, also the only person not from around these parts. You're so old now! And unmarried! Your hair is too white! Eat more soy beans! One woman rubbed my tattoos, making a screechy sound…
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When I Was Young
I'm seated now by the side of an old vending machine in Jakarta airport, with power sockets so dirty and old I had to think twice about plugging my cables in. Yet in all of Terminal 1, one of the oldest airport terminals in a country not known for modern aviation facilities, there was only this one socket free.…
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Paths
12 years ago this time I was deciding where I should go, what I should study, at university. I was also four months away from deciding I would try to be happy in spite of my newfound queerness. 11 years ago this time I was in Kolkata, volunteering with an organization, not knowing I would go on to do that in the…
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The Borneo Express
For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be somewhere else. In all of my childhood day dreams, of which I had many, daily, and often, I imagined being an explorer out at sea. Being a pilot about to set off for yonder. Even the short stories I scribbled all had to do with stowing away, seeing new lands,…
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Lying on a Sack of Rice
I had one of those days today. The day when your to-do list is piled so high that you can't see the end of the tunnel. The day when your caterer cancels your big order a few days before Culture Kitchen. The day when all of your mega business problems are on the verge of getting solved, but almost. The day when you feel…
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My Life on a Bike
Every morning, I get on a bike to work. Except I don't ride it. I bargain with someone on the street, or use an app to book one at other times. Do you want masker? They ask. It's the Indonesian word for face mask. Gak mau masker, makasih pak. Sekarang pergi ke Jalan Hang Tuah bisa? A string of words that I sometimes…
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Stress Balls.
Some time ago, some people (read: entrepreneurs) I follow on Twitter posed a seemingly innocuous question. What drives us, as so-called entrepreneurs, to do what we do? Is it hubris? Ego? Is it an out-sized and unrealistic view of one's abilities? For most of us, choosing this life also means the opportunity cost we…
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A Tale of Two Cities
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was a bit of both, really. I'm not one for the mumbo-jumbo of the Myers-Briggs test, but I suppose it was striking that when I did it before my startup I rated very strongly as INFP, and yet now I'm very much on the ENTJ spectrum. It appears that having to do shit…
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Do You Know About Galau?
I was just telling someone tonight: I force myself to meet a different stranger in Jakarta every single day that I'm here. Even if I'm exhausted after work (which I usually am), I try to meet a new person, or eat a new food. Go to a new area. The first time I lived outside of Singapore was when I moved to Dubai in 2007…
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Mahabandoola
At the hotel I had the receptionist scribble the name of my lunch spot in Burmese. Lunch that day was to be outside my sphere of Yangon familiarity: I had never been there, but I had been told by some locals that I must have a typical Burmese lunch at Aung Thu Kha. Yangon in motion: traffic, heat, and everyday rhythm.…
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Rebuilding
Almost exactly two years ago I was, too, on a flight to India.Only then I did not know exactly how drastic a turn my life would take on when I returned. More and more of my friends are getting diagnosed with diseases similar to mine. Autoimmune diseases are the new black.Across all of these experiences the one we've…
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An Indian Decade
I've been coming and going from India for the last ten years. In 2004 I started to hatch the first plans to flee the terrifying life laid out for me - that of a student in a Singapore university, doomed for the corporate world or for the civil service - into the wide open arms of India, which changed everything, and…
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I Follow Cities
When I think of the 1980s, I think of the news. In English and Mandarin, both brought to you by Raymond Weil. When I think of the 1990s, I think of Michael Stipe's sonic-drenched wailing about his religion, or his lack thereof. And about the one sorry period of global history when everyone wondered too much about…
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Strange Damascus Memories
2009. "If you are really a lesbian, proveeeeittt! Kiss me NOW!" A giggly girl shrieked, rather loudly, flapping her long, luscious hair about as well. She also had the Arabic equivalent of a Valley Girl accent. In most situations, this might have been a proposition to consider. Except we were in Syria. And I…
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Back in the SL
I have become one of those people. For the fourth time this year, I am sitting at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf at Colombo airport drinking the world's worst coffee and the worst food. I am also strutting around in heels. Here. Also in Indonesia. In the Philippines. Everywhere. I walked into a TASMAC in dodgy…
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Another List of Things
(63 Random Things in 2012) 1. Causeway I still remember the day you drove me across the Causeway with our dog and all of my life's belongings in your little car. We made that journey many times, usually in the other direction. Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. Happiness, not desperate anger. We were even talking back then. I…
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A Weekend Getaway
As many of you will know by now, I have spent a substantial part of the past decade travelling through India. I still feel like I'm barely done with scratching the surface. There's just so much to see in that vast, amazing country that I call my second home. For some time now I've wanted to go to Coorg. Coorg, also…
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The Belated Bangkok Diaries
In several status updates Admittedly I have posted very little on the everyday occurrences in my travel. Here are some snippets, culled from Facebook. Day 1: Two sleep-deprived people board a plane full of evangelical missionaries offering ‘free healing' in the plane (true story), dinner in the streets and accidental…
91 posts tagged "travel"