Letting the Dead Fly in Kalimantan Tenga The claw in her righthand was still dripping of blood from where it had recently been separated from the rest of the chicken. Darkly tanned, wrinkled, and with leathery skin that hung from her boney frame, she appeared even more menacing with her sunken eyes. Her face was…

Myanmar (fka Burma) is the Land of Four Million Pagodas I woke up in Rangoon on my birthday.  I had promised myself some timeago that I was going to be here for just this occasion.  At my age,birthdays have become private affairs.  Although I have no problem injoining in on the revelry to celebrate someone…

In the summer of 20024 there were 11 international expeditions trying to climb K2—including the one-man Hawai’i Expedition, which consisted of Honolulu Magazine’s own contributing editor, Guy Sibilla. “I think it’s a leg bone and a hip joint,” I said to Rozi Ali, my Baltistani guide, while pointing at my own leg for emphasis.  It…

Life in a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery Kushinagar in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India, is as remote as it is small.  It is not a tourist destination.  It has no airport.  It does not even have a train station, which is saying something in a country that boasts one of the world’s most extensive railway systems. At…

How To Build a Nation from Rubble             It never occurred to me that there was a real possibility of getting shot here.  I was on assignment to write a story on what has happened since East Timor gained its independence from Indonesia just one year ago.  Nationhood had proven to be a difficult birth. …

Precious Water in the Middle of the Great Thirst If the Kalahari Desert of Botswana Africa had an emotion it would be hate. It hates the color green. It hates hills and valleys. It hates water. It hates anything easy. The name “Kalahari” comes from the Setswana word Kgalagadi, meaning “the great thirst.” The San…