Monthly Archives: June 2009

Bangkok Duty-Free Thrives despite Tourist Downturn

Bangkok Airport or Cobra Swamp Sanam-Krueng-Ban was empty of tourists at midnight. My flight was the only one landing at the showcase of Thai technology. The usually lengthy immigration process took less than two minutes and the officials were actually smiling. No one was buying anything at the duty-free shops monopolized by King Power. Tourist […]

Beijing Landing

I flew into Beijing yesterday over the northern mountains and across the swathes of high-rise blotting the plains without seeing the Great Wall. That legend about the barrier being visible from Space is a myth or perhaps I didn’t know where to look for it. Our 747 disgorged its passengers into the new airport built […]

The Reach of Jocko

Michael Jackson left Neverland DOA. Millions of THRILLER fans around the globe mourned his passing with flowers deposited before US embassies. My younger friends in New York reported that on the night of his death club-goers danced to a frenzied and endless cascade of Michael Jackson hits from the Motown years on into the 21st […]

Death to Beermas

My friend Miguel had an opening Thursday night at his Orchard Street gallery. Esoteric bread sculptures. I surveyed the works for several minutes and then grabbed a beer. The sky was clear for the first time this month and I stepped outside. New York has been experiencing a very English summer. This evening air was […]

Eden Roc

In October of 1985 I weekended on Cap d’Antibes. Bridgit’s husband owned a house on the water. She made sure that I went with her. Guy was sexually obsessive and she figured that my presence my temper his libido, but on the first night her screams echoed down the hallway to my room and I […]