What's over there?
BALI, INDONESIA – Recently I participated in a silent meditation session inside a beautiful domed pavilion in northern Bali.
The introduction to the meditation was punctuated by brilliant lightning flashes, startling cracks of thunder and cascades of torrential rain outside.
Continue reading “Into each life a little rain (or maybe bird poop) must fall”
BALI, INDONESIA – Last week Melanie and I went to a local photo studio to get ‘mugshots’ for our new visa application. The required package included four photos in three different sizes – 12 photos in all – for each of us.
I can only guess why they need so many photos. One of the smaller ones will go on our new ID cards. Another one could be incorporated into the new visa sticker that goes inside our passports.
As for the other 10 pictures, I suppose they will be attached to terribly important paperwork and filed away in various official government archives. How could we survive without bureaucracy?
DANANG, VIETNAM – I’ve been seeing red this past week.
No, I’m not angry.
What I mean is I’ve been seeing red flags all over.
They’re not the figurative ‘red flags’ you see mentally when something seems amiss.
No, I’m talking about literal red flags, as in the national flag of Vietnam. The simple bright red banner with a brilliant yellow five-pointed star in the center.
DANANG, VIETNAM – A while back I read a story about the ‘money game’ described by an expat living in Mexico.
It was all about the challenges of acquiring and keeping enough small-denomination bills to be able to shop in local markets and stores.
We play that same game here in Vietnam.
DANANG, VIETNAM – We awoke Thursday morning to sunshine and blue sky… a welcome change from the challenges of Wednesday’s typhoon.
Continue reading “Riding The Storm Out: Our Typhoon Close Encounter”