Category Archives: Asia

July 20, 1994 – Penang – Journal

Knocking the door by the Chinese desk clerk of the Swiss Hotel. Danny tells me that I have a phone call. It’s 8:21 a.m. I had difficulty getting to sleep last night. For some reason garlic keeps me awake. I got out of bed wrapped the towel around my waist and walk down the corridor […]

July 17, 1994 – Penang – Journal

Kept on playing basketball this afternoon with the Filipino sailors. We beat some Americans but I got brutally sunburned. It’s hotter there than in New York in the summer, but despite being trapped in Penang, I’m actually happy to be here. I don’t really know how I’m going to get out of here. Maybe I’ll […]

Penang Gone

Sumatra was a lost world in 1990. Tigers prowled the western jungles of Indonesia’s largest island, active volcanoes glowed in the night, and I drank Bintang beer with the ancestors of headhunters on the shore of Lake Toba 1500 meters above the sea and the night air was chilly after months along the equator . […]

July 17, 1994 – Penang – Journal

div class=”separator” style=”clear: both;”> Rod called and said that he had wired the money to Thomas Cook in Bangkok. But that he had to rewire it to the Hong Kong bank in Penang. I went there. Nothing. I have serious doubts you ever sent it, but I’m not mad. By having money is my responsibility. […]

July 16, 1993 – Penang – Journal

Over Chulia Street lightning crackles across the tropical purple black night like electric river systems flowing through the sky. A heavy rain cleared away the oppressive humidity. I’m barely sweating I walk by the Hong Kong Bar. The old banci whores hiss at me to join them in a drink. My No Beer Week continues. […]