Leaving Taipei: Tropical trees mingle with dense brush growing through giant, ancient boulders; gentle curving rivers meander below the green landscape in a quiet rhythm of eternity. This is Formosa. This is a busy land of high-speed rail, modern technology and independence. This is Chiang Kai Shek’s land. This is a place made for train travel. Going fast or slow, you will enjoy the old temples peeking out from ledges and the endless, endless green. Continue reading
Travel
The Sun
People respond to the sun in many different ways. I fully enjoy it. I like the heat, I tan easily and I never forget the magic of living within the perfect proximity to an enormous star of almost infinite power. I have baked myself on rooftops, beaches, parks, rafts, docks, boats, rocks, car hoods and the sidewalk. The sun is always strong, as my freckled shoulders can attest. The sun is reliable and predictable. Continue reading
SCUBA in Thailand
The videos prepare you for the worst, the instructor prepares you for the dive, the panic prepares your concentration, the excitement prepares your anticipation, and yet nothing can truly prepare you for the quiet, pulsing energy of breathing underwater. The barnacle crusted line leads downward toward the dark, sandy bottom. Equalizing the pressure against your ears as you swim, the calmness begins to envelop your body. Continue reading
American Thoughts Abroad
America. It was always home, and when it becomes the place that you only read about or hear about, it takes on a special, enchanted vibe. A place where there is delicious food from every country in the world, a place where pizza is sold in slices, a place with ice hockey rinks, water parks, and Whole Foods stores. It is a place where English is spoken widely, a place with crowded highways filled with massive cars—not crowded public transit filled with skinny people. Continue reading
Leaving America: 2011 version
It’s never easy escaping the shores of the land of the free; it’s never easy flying over the home of the brave away to a strange land. My belief that I find myself through being alone, out of my comfort zone, with strangers, forced to figure things out, speaking new languages and eating weird food is what propels me to travel. Continue reading
Spring Break
Spring Break is a common ritual for American college students. Perhaps the Europeans or Aussie’s do it, but they’re not Americans and therefore could barely imagine the immature debauchery and self-justified indulgences in which Americans engage their young bodies. Working out the month before, applying self-tanning formulas and maintaining a strong alcohol tolerance (almost by accident of going to an American University), we prepare for the yearly rite. Continue reading
William Sabia 