I’ve found myself on an island somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean in a country most people couldn’t point out on a map much less have even heard of. I don’t really know how but here I am. It all happened quite fast. It was Christmas night and rain thrashed on my window in my dark room as I watched silent lightning illuminate white amorphous and pulsing light beyond a black oceanic abyss west of Colombo. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Solitude
DOH
It was still the dark before morning when I walked into one of the terminals of DXB. Dawn had yet to break and dusk will have faded into the darkness of the night by the time I land in Colombo. Continue reading
Where fire fell
“Swim dis way! C’ mon!” This crazy Hawaiian in a sarong whom I paid 20 bucks to take me out surfing at night says. It’s my very first time on a surfboard and I’m on my belly paddling as hard as I can in warm black water. “We need to swim past dat jetty and stay dher. Dah tide will keep pulling us back.” We’ve stopped and I’ve propped myself up to sit on the surfboard. I’ve never quite experienced anything like this. There’s so much activity, so many lights on the shore from towering hotels. So many starbursts from far off boats out on the horizon. Yet it’s quiet and hear only the sound of gentle waters. I wonder for a split moment if this is what paradise in outer space would feel like. Continue reading
Sino-Portuguese
The past 12 hours found myself wandering through one Chinese luxury mega casino after another Chinese luxury mega resort. When I first arrived on the island I simply thought it was like a more humid and naturally lush Chinese Vegas, put crudely. Gambling resorts aren’t that much different regardless of where they are in the world.
Each Chinese luxury mega resort comes replete with several large, aesthetically pleasing constructed illusions meant to awe. Usually these grand and beautiful areas are packed with people milling around and mindlessly taking pictures but here I am, the only lonely soul around. Alone and dwarfed by this massive hall of glamour in a fusional world of Sino-Portuguese history and ambition. Continue reading
Sōlō
Hello everyone. It’s good to be with you all and home once again. I’ve been quite busy working on a little something for all of you that follow this humble site and those who may be peeking in for the first time. Continue reading
The delirious dancer
“You have to jump now if you want to make it. The driver does not wait.” The small woman working the boat admonishes as she’s about to latch the rope to block the exit. The vessel and dock rise, fall and separate unpredictably as I hear the sound of the boat’s engine revving to take off. A larger craft bulled its way along close to our boat causing it to rise higher than usual. Taking a step forward and being lifted to the apex of the ascent, clutching the handle of my GoPro, I go for it. Jumping down off the boat and over the water to land with a strong bang on the metal below, only to realize that I’ve gotten off at the wrong stop. All I can do is turn my head to watch the boat pull away. I have no idea where I am. I could get a cab but cab drivers in Bangkok are an ordeal even when you know where you are. I’ll just wait for the next water taxi. Continue reading
Küçükçekmece
The doors shut and the aggression and anger of the other 300 worried, disgruntled people in the lobby is immediately silenced. It’s quiet until the whir and dull hum of machinery lifts me into the guts of the hotel. When the doors open, I walk into the middle of a dim but contemporary hallway with plush carpet and soft light looking left in silence and right in solitude. It’s eerily dark with no music playing, no sound from the TV or voices behind any of the other doors. I’m on the fourteenth floor but I could be on the 200th for all I know. Coming to my complimentary room, it’s another key card in another lock hearing another beep and click to open the door into another world. Continue reading
