Adventures In Southeast Asia

by | Oct 14, 2019 | Articles | 2 comments

“A writer never has a vacation. For a writer, life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.” ― Eugene Ionesco

 

I first began visiting Southeast Asia over twenty years ago, so it probably comes as a surprise to readers that I haven’t written about my adventures (or misadventures) there. In fact, I have written while in Asia, and about Asia when back home―but I haven’t published any of it. Besides, when you’re on vacation, who wants to work? Mostly I just wrote some poems.

My SE Asia adventures date back to 1998, when I immersed myself in a foreign culture for the first time. No matter how much I studied that part of the world, I still hardly knew what to expect. Excitement, apprehension and curiosity accompanied me all the way there.

Initial impressions of far-flung lands always begin from the airplane window, and with their emerald tropical greens surrounded by the bluest of waters, the islands I first saw drew me in immediately. By contrast, Hawaii looked like a tourist trap, even from the air.

 

The Opposite of the Car Culture

America is truly a car culture. But like a fish that doesn’t know it’s in water, you don’t think about it until you’re no longer in it. Much of Southeast Asia’s public transportation is by tricycle—a motorcycle housed by a metal frame that can seat as many as four passengers behind or beside the driver―or simply on the back of a motorcycle, which locals call a “motorbike” in English.

For longer trips, or on major thoroughfares, travelers can typically ride in a larger vehicle: a songthaew in Thailand or jeepney in the Philippines, a colorful jeep-like bus. Automobiles are a rare sight here, with the exception of taxis or vehicles belonging to the wealthiest of residents.

 

The Myth of Universal English

The idea that you can easily find people who speak your language quickly dissipates when you visit a small town: unless their business happens to require it, so few locals have any command of the English language that a translator is almost essential. If not for the luxury of having someone with me providing translations constantly, I would have had to endure long waiting periods while someone went off in search of an English-speaking person.

Of course, that was the case in the late 1990s. Nowadays one can use a smartphone app for basic translations from any language to another. Still, these programs are unlikely to take into account the many subtle regional dialectical differences among Southeast Asian provinces.

 

Culture Shock

Above all, the massive cultural disparities between North America and Southeast Asia provide the biggest shock to the system. These days, the “woke” culture in particular would be horrified to learn that lighter skin is still considered more favorable than darker skin all over SE Asia. People ranging from local beauty pageant queens to ordinary citizens are known to bleach their skin in an effort to look “caucasian…” or, at least, less “Asian.”

Whatever the ongoing challenges in this developing part of the world, there is always much charm and beauty to be found. And even in the busiest places, the pace of life somehow seems less frenetic than here in the west. Perhaps that’s why, whenever I reflect on my many trips to Southeast Asia, I always feel relaxed—and thereby somewhat disinclined to put myself to work writing about them!

But I’m Too Busy to Blog!

If you're like me, you're a committed writer: maybe you keep to a rigorous writing schedule, or maybe you have actually written a full-length book or books. Chances are good that if you're reading this, you're also a blogger. Maybe you even have a blog like this one....

How Do You Write A Book?

This past week I had the chance to talk to a fair number of business owners. That's normal for what I do, but the interesting thing this week was the similarity of the conversations. Not all entrepreneurs ask me the same things. Some ask me what I do. Many of them end...
process

Create A Process That Works For YOU

This week’s topic: create a process that works for you. I can’t tell you how many times a fellow author’s quote has upset me for the simple reason that their opinion is presented as fact. Here are a few examples: “Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by...
music

Music, Music, Music, and “I Could Write a Book”

I woke up thinking about Turkish drummers. It didn't take long—I don't know much about Turkish drummers. —Bruce Cockburn Music has always been a big part of my life. Maybe not everyone who reads this blog knows that, but anyone who knows me does. From the time I was a...
fumes

Running On Fumes: Pandemic Fatigue

Let’s face: the past four years have been exhausting. But 2020 is a whole other level of exhausting. If you’re running on fumes right now—and I’ll be the first to admit that’s the case for me—who can blame you? Ordinarily, I have a schedule for these blog posts, and...
20/20

2020 Vs. 20/20: What We Saw Then, What We See Now

Grinding through the first few months of 2021, I presume nearly everyone wants to shut the door on 2020. After all, the tragic COVID-19 pandemic and—at least in the United States—chaotic election drama left millions exhausted, overwhelmed, and just plain traumatized....
spirituality

Spirituality in the Fictional World

Almost two years ago, I wrote a post called Talking About A Metaphysical Work where I tried to discuss spirituality in fiction. At least, that's what I thought I was doing. See, I had just published my fourth novel, Whizzers, and I knew I needed to promote it. I had a...
censorship

Write Whatever the @#$% You Want

I’ve been stewing on this for a while. It’s been brewing for quite a while. I could probably write a song about it (how about a rap?), but I don’t think I will. This is more of a blog post topic, and it might even deserve a series. And that’s the title and topic of...
dementia

There’s Not Much Funny About Dementia

I must admit, I never thought I’d be writing a blog post on a topic like “how maintaining my sense of humor helped me deal with my mother’s dementia.”  Not that I was oblivious to the possibility. My grandmother on my mother’s side developed dementia in her early 80s,...
scared

Write Whatever the @#$% You Want, Pt. II

In last week’s post, I mentioned a pretty well-known author who has publicly reported his publisher “wouldn’t touch” a new release, in part because a character in his novel referred to herself as “fat.” I heard this story on a podcast, and I remember thinking, “Wait...
self-promotion

What’s The Problem With Shameless Self-Promotion?

While I still find it somewhat hard to believe, I've been on Twitter for almost eight years. I know this not only because Twitter shows Joined March 2015 on my profile but also because, even if they eliminate that feature, I use a tracker called Who Unfollowed Me? If...
MLK

MLK Day 2023

Here’s wishing everyone a safe, sane Martin Luther King Jr. Day. For many of us, today is always something of a day of mourning: not only mourning the loss of a great civil rights leader, but also mourning the turn our great nation seemed to take in recent years....

Twitter Tips for Authors in 2023

If you follow my blog, you probably connected with me via Twitter, whether you’re a fellow author or not. In 2020, I wrote a post about Twitter for fellow writers that got a good response. Three years later, the landscape has changed, but some Twitter best practices...
rails

Going Off The Rails (But Not On A Crazy Train)

Last April, I wrote a blog post called Back on Track With a Work-In-Progress. Part of that post was to talk about the difference between a “plotter” and a “pantser” (and to describe myself as a hybrid of the two, a “plantser”). Another, less obvious motive, was to...
French

Those Tricky French Authors and Their Obsessions

Today’s blog post was originally going to be Write Whatever the @#$% You Want, Pt. III. However, after seeing parts I and II lined up, I decided to call an audible and make it something less repetitive. Somehow the SEO gods have gotten into my head. As I’ve mentioned...
scared

Write Whatever the @#$% You Want, Pt. II

In last week’s post, I mentioned a pretty well-known author who has publicly reported his publisher “wouldn’t touch” a new release, in part because a character in his novel referred to herself as “fat.” I heard this story on a podcast, and I remember thinking, “Wait...
censorship

Write Whatever the @#$% You Want

I’ve been stewing on this for a while. It’s been brewing for quite a while. I could probably write a song about it (how about a rap?), but I don’t think I will. This is more of a blog post topic, and it might even deserve a series. And that’s the title and topic of...
gratitude

Should Every Month Be Gratitude Month?

When I was a kid, I loved Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. I read it daily and collected nearly every paperback volume of the cartoon, so I could see what I’d missed since the comic strip’s inception in 1950.  Certain things stuck: quotes like “happiness is a warm puppy”...
robot

More Thoughts On Robot Writers and The Tech Dystopia

A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog post here called When Will the Robot Overlords Replace Us? Apparently, I’m fairly obsessed with this stuff, because every time I come here and empty my brain, it seems to come up again. Today is no different. Part of the reason,...