It seemed like a ghost town after the bustle of HCMC, stretches of pedestrianless streets (under a ferocious early-afternoon sun mind you) and significantly less traffic but the air was breathable again. This was the back half of my trip. I cabbed it to my guesthouse, a calm and clean family business a four-minute walk…
Category: Writing
Ho Chi Minh City
It’s been on the vacation radar for a while, partly motivated by others’ travel photos. The emerald greens and grottos of Halong Bay in the north, the hydro economy of the Mekong Delta to the south. In fact, I wouldn’t make it to either but split my time between Da Nang (the site of the…
In Taiwan
In some ways Taiwan was the Asian experience I’ve been waiting for. For a greater metropolitan size of nearly 7 million, there’s a relief in its order and its kindness. I was approached four times in as many days, twice for conversation and twice more with offers of help. Rachel then was a Taiwanese mother…
Tokyo Mem’ries
My first and only trip came and went in 2014, maybe a year earlier. That detail matters less and less, than the memories. Tokyo is a city I’m sure I wanted to live up to the fantasy, mine built mostly on recycled images: bird’s-eye views of pedestrian rivers, billboard neon and noodle bars, punk hair…
The House of Usher (2007)
A Day in North America’s Oldest Theatre The pants come first. It makes sense. Once the street slacks are off and the pressed blacks are on, you can see yourself in the role. The shirt is pleated vertically, seven folds on either side like pairs of cloth ribs. White plastic buttons run the middle though…
The Two Towers
From the top you’ll see what’s in every brochure worthy of the name Busan: the world’s fifth largest container port, the country’s second largest fish market, and the layer cake of nature’s simplest ingredients of land, sea and sky. You’re in Busan Tower. Since 1973 it’s been here, guarding the southeastern tip of Korea’s Gyeongsangnam…
Bukhansan
After supporting the demands of the 12th largest economy, Koreans look to the weekend to recharge, or gallop. There are choices – wining, dining, singing and supra malls – but a purer escape is enjoyed by millions each year. It promotes itself just by being. Bukhansan National Park is a shared distraction, overlapping both Seoul…
Goodies (2016)
I was reminded why I travel on a recent trip to Fukuoka, Japan, that is as much for the small unexpecteds as what the brochure racks plug. A gruesome statue straddling the brother townships of Hakata and Tenjin was the give-away. Just shy of the sidewalk and under an eyebrow ridge of street-level architecture (a…
Busan Cinema Center (2012)
To the question whether it’s still open for business now that Busan’s international film festival (BIFF) has wrapped – absolutely. In front of me, I hold two brochures. The first is an upcoming schedule of film screenings and live performances both theatrical and musical, the second lays out the complex itself. How many square meters?…
Korean Sports Bars (2010)
With the cold still snapping at our heels there’s little motivation to exercise, we know. Better to sit with a pint and leave it to the professionals. The question is where to find a stooltop without the same old deja view? Here are a few suggestions to get you through the thaw. Rocky Mountain Tavern…
Colin Moore 