Asia Does It Better

I just erased a paragraph of things I was going to say. Don't you wish you knew what it was? Maybe it was dirty? Maybe you could learn some dirty secret that would cease to be a secret upon its publishing? Ok, so instead of teasing you with vague possibilities, I will tell you a little story.

I just got back to New York after a 3.5 month long trip through Asia (Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Palau and India). Here are some of the highlights:

• My first night in Tokyo the hotel receptionist recommend that I go to Denny's for dinner. I did eventually go and the waffles were great.
• Also in Tokyo, I went through a magnitude 5 earthquake just a few days after the tsunami in Sendai. The next day, emotionally distraught, I went to the airport and felt aftershocks. The monitors which showed the flight schedules were shaking fairly violently and I was worried they were going to fall on my head.
• Kyoto happens to be one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. Every 50 steps there is another temple with a perfectly manicured gardens and silence.
• Kyoto has the oldest bar in Japan. It had some good scotches and the old bartender gave me some on the house.
• I stepped into a wooden building built in the 700's in Mt. Hiei. This is the oldest building I have ever been in.
• I scuba dove with Manta Rays in Indonesia. These Manta Rays were about 10 foot across (for the biggest ones). The current actually took me straight into a massive manta and I apologized to him.
• I met some really cool photographers in Jakarta and became friends with them. We wandered around the city, taking photos and eating street food. My boy Ready inspired me with his kindness and hospitality.
• A guy told me to try a new vegetable in Taiwan and it turned out to be binlang (aka betel nut). I got really pissed off that he tricked me into using a drug. I couldn't sleep all night and threw up the next day.
• A prostitute in Saigon offered her services to me in a sweet high pitched voice but after forcefully telling her no her voice became really low as she scooted off, mumbling something in Vietnamese. I think it is safe to say that she was one of those ladys with a ding-dong.
• Speaking of ding-dongs, a mother held her little sons weener while he peed so as not to get the urine on some vegetables that were close by. This was in a market in Ben-Tre, Vietnam.
• At the same market, another woman was cutting the skin off of some frogs and putting them into a pile. There was this gigantic pyramid of skinless frogs and once she threw another one on top, the pile of pink automatons started hopping in different directions ruining the structure of the pyramid.
• The Mango in Vietnam is the sweetest mango I've ever tasted. In India they used crushed mango instead of sugar to make things sweet.
• Imagine eating new fruits! I really fell in love with Jack Fruit. Strangely, they cook it in curry and it looks like chicken flesh but the flavor is outstanding. Also, dragon fruit is super tasty and yellow water melon top notch as well.
• There was a week long program in India where I did yoga for 3 hours a day, 1 hour of mediation and 2 hours of hiking through the mountains. While the majority of my trip was spent absorbing external stimuli this time was to introspect and I found new places inside of myself that I want to visit more often.
• I swam with thousands of stingless jelly-fish in Palau.
• I became a vegetarian (3 weeks going strong!). I am not very militant about it but it helps keep me trimmer.

I really loved Asia. The people there are without pretense. I miss all of my good friends there and hope to return one day.