The Luxpats

Tag: travel journal

  • If You’re Homesick, will a Home Base Help?

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    Every few months David and I have a stupid argument. Well, we have a lot of stupid arguments, but every few months we have one particular stupid argument. It usually starts in one of two ways: either I’m sulking around, generally homesick and looking to pick a fight, or, David’s annoyed that I haven’t done the…

  • Wish You Were Here: Zagreb Emergency Room

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    In the Sveti Duh emergency waiting room, the lights are off and the fans are on. This feels appropriate for a late Sunday afternoon. Most of us don’t want any more light or heat than we’ve already had today. Sunday emergencies should be as informal as natural disasters; should leave us free to pace, or whisper, or sit…

  • Missed Connections in Budapest

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    Budapest has character. It has gargoyles and leafy hidden walkways between the busy streets. It has the Danube, separating Buda and Pest. You can ride the tram from one side of the city to the other, gazing down upon the silvery Danube as you cross, for little more than a dollar. On our first tram…

  • Nomad Trade-Offs: One Day, Two Ways

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    You’re a middle class stay-at-home Mom. What is a typical spring day like for you, at home and on the road? What are the nomad trade-offs? It’s interesting to me to compare the benefits and difficulties of both lives–the trade-offs, habit changes, and general trends. This is my entirely personal comparison of the ups and…

  • Wish You Were Here: Penang, Malaysia

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    It’s 10 p.m. and our street in Penang is stirring to life. The two girls on the corner have been chopping vegetables and heating big pots of frying oil since early evening. They’re settling into the rush now, stirring, dishing, carrying plates, taking money, coaxing the smells further and further out of the pot and down the…

  • Wish You Were Here: Huay Tung Tao Lake, Thailand

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    Winter never touches Thailand. From November through February, Thailand’s cool season is a perfect summer of endlessly sunny days that peak in the upper eighties. Chiang Mai is blessedly devoid of the shirt-sticking humidity Bangkok is known for, and so going to Huay Tung Tao lake is a lot like going to a lake back…

  • Wish You Were Here: Nara, Japan

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    It is winter in Nara, so the light that falls on Tōdai-ji temple is peach colored and hazy with wood smoke from the black steel carts that roast sweet potatoes for tourists. We are among the temple tourists, and we’ve also come to feed the messengers of the gods, liminal deer who inhabit the Nara temple…

  • Getting Dissed by a Dolphin

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      Growing up, there were two kinds of kids in the world: kids who had been to Disneyland and kids who hadn’t. If you were in the first group, we poor kids naturally hated your guts. My own family’s version of a vacation was a 13-hour non-stop drive to Salt Lake City to visit relatives…

  • Hong Kong Laid Over: A Exploration of the Senses

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    luxpat
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    The airline gave us a dark plush room in a nice hotel located in the heart of Hong Kong. There were two shower caps, one sewing kit in a hard plastic case, two free bottles of water, one large can of peanuts for eight dollars, two paper bags on a peg next to the toilet…