Asia
Road Junky has 67 Asia articles. Scroll down to view.
Dating Asian Girls and Guys
A good number of travelers are known to be of the ‘Asian Persuasion’ and choose to live in places like Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Thailand less for the Buddhism, the ...
The Chinese Tea Ceremony Scam
Ok I admit it – I got suckered bad.
Maybe I’ve just grown soft and let my guard down a little. It’s embarrassing for me to admit getting ripped off. Over ...
Don't Mess with Monks in Myanmar
As of 1 October, the US State Department didn’t yet issue a travel warning against going to Myanmar (Burma), but if you’re already traveling across neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Laos, ...
Almost Getting Beaten Up Over a Girl in Pai, Thailand
“There are a hundred guys around that corner and they coming to fuck you up!”
There turned out to be about ten guys, small Thai fellows loaded up on three bicycles ...
Israelis, Palestinians and the Myth of Cultural Identity
“A nation is a society united by a delusion about its past and by a common hatred of its neighbours.” (Dean Inge)
I met an old Israeli friend the other day ...
Consumer Travel in Thailand and Laos
One of the great things about being on the road is the adventure, the uncertainty, the independence you learn from standing on your own two feet, traveling the world and ...
Rumi's Tomb: Fever in Konya
A man was on his way to market when he passed a mosque. He realized it had been a long time since he´d been to pray and so he left ...
India - An Overcrowded Continent
If it could be said that I lost my heart in Africa then it must be said that I found my soul in India. Now I know at least one ...
Cambodia Travel Story - The Real Cambodia
There’s a huge hotel on one of the beaches, The Independence Hotel. It’s deserted and derelict. Marked down for demolition. I ask the Cambodians standing around the entrance selling soft ...
LSD in the Himalayas - World's Highest Acid Trip
We were nearing the tree line when Dmitri insisted that we take a break. There would soon be no more shade to protect us from the Indian summer sun and ...
Khao San Road Patpong Thailand Travel Story
Khaosan Road
What infamy a road can bear. A Disney Land for backpackers, the strip for bar goers, a long brothel for whores. Lady-boys cat-call, preachers scream, drug dealers whisper, ...
A Portrait of Bangkok, Thailand
Friends of mine in their 50’s spoke of the early 70’s in Thailand like some lost paradise. Maybe everyone feels like that about their early days but still I wished ...
Teaching English in South Korea
South Korea was the only country I remember that anyone expressly warned me not to visit. Several people had mentioned that it was about the most hung-up, sterile, joyless society ...
Petra, Desert Castles - Jordan Travel Story
The Kingdom of Jordan offers a dazzling array of sites despite being such a small country. From the ancient ruins of Petra, to Roman ruins, to the desert castles of ...
A Beijing Travel, China
Back in Beijing, the girl playing the ancient “xun” instrument inside the main hall of the Confucius temple is playing “Old Lang Syne” to attract buyers. Outside the hall are ...
A Beijing Journey. China Travel Story
“Have you been to the Greek War?”
The 19-year-old Chinese waitress in Frank’s Place was trying out her English and that was the question she’d hit me with. I had been ...
Cambodia Train Surfing
Proper The Fugitive stuff, the movie I mean. Or could be from some old wild west flicks. Backs up the Cambodia wild west theme anyway.
The train ride from Cambodia’s ...
Cambodia Border
One of the things I most love about Thailand is the unpredictability of the place. It is possible to go out at night for a beer–just one beer–and have an ...
Lost in Translation, Tokyo
I recently re-watched “Lost in Translation” (2003) on DVD thus marking the year anniversary of its release in Japan
. Watching the movie again, it reminded me of ...
Kyoto Zen - Japan Travel Story
Time flies like and arrow, so do not waste energy on trivial matters. Be attentive. Be attentive! — Zen Master Daito, 1337
I am from Canada but I now live ...
Ronin & Samurai in Japan
Every country has at least one story that strikes a deep chord within the heart and soul of a culture resonating through out the entire being of its society. It’s ...
Israel Religion
There’s a street in Tel Aviv called Shenkin street which is where all the young and fashionable go to pose and parade. It’s lined with clothing stores, jewellery ...
Israeli - Palestinians and the 2000 Intifada
In September 2000 my friend Shanee and I were driving north in her VW van to a music festival. By this time of year the whole of Israel is ...
Looking for Sufi Dervishes in Kurdistan, Iran
I went to the Kurdish province of Western Iran in search of Sufis. The Sufis are a mystical order of Islam that could once have been found all over ...
Kurds of Iran, Sonedad
The bus squeezed its way through the rippling foothills that lay to either side of the road. The relief of the slopes against the dawn sky reminded me of the ...
Calcutta Travel Railroad Riot in India
“It is possible to grow up and mature in a culture with little or no knowledge of the basic laws that make it work and differentiate it from all other ...
India Travel Stories: Holy Cows
I remember having a strange conversation with Vijay, the second-hand book merchant on the central drag of the main bazaar in Delhi. We stood next to the piles of books ...
India Travel Story Sanjay Dutt in Tamil
This is a story about television and fame and begins in the unlikely setting of a humble eatery in South India. I was famished and stopped at the first street-side ...
Fake Visa in India Escape Story
How to avoid the nasty implications of overstaying your visa, some sweating it out required.
It was always a good idea in Goa to look down at your feet once ...
Seasons of the Himalayas - Spring, Summer, Monsoon and Winter
When you live in the city the passing of the seasons are distant, almost irrelevant affairs that technology hasn’t managed to control yet. You dress sense changes, your mood is ...
House in the Himalayas - India Stories
My house was a two story construction of clay with a wooden balcony and attic. It had been well lined with cow shit for insulation and the balcony looked out ...
Syria Travel Damascus
The closer that I came to the Syrian border the harder it became to find. The Turkish language is these days written with the Western alphabet but the sign posts ...
Katmandu Travel Nepal - Hashish
One night in Katmandu, my friend Mark and I, weary after months of third-world travel, felt the need for a cozy bit of the homeland: we wanted to rent a ...
India Travel Story Rickshaw
It had just topped 45 °C, the sun was blazing high above us in a clear blue sky and a hot wind was blowing across the cracked dry plain drying ...
Road to Nowhere India Travel Story
Before I came here to India, my Mum said “You must go to Sujangarh where your father was born. And when you do, ask for the ‘Head Man’ – when ...
India Stories: Pahar Ganj World's Craziest Street
There is a very special street in Delhi that is a curious mixture of the old and the new, the best and the worst of what the city has ...
India Bus Nightmare Travel Story
Our bus is due to leave at 3.00 p.m. so we have made sure to arrive early, around 3.00 p.m. We inquire of the bus. “Ah!”, says one worthy, ...
Third World India
I remember clearly the panic that hit as I stepped outside Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi for the first time. Although it was night the sultry heat swallowed ...
One Night in Saigon
Our flight landed at Tan Son Nhut international at 10:00 p.m. and we were tired.
I liked being in Saigon. It was an exhilarating city, but this time I was just ...
Bangkok Canal Communities, Thailand
“To the front of the boat, to the front of the boat” Joop, the captain, gestured vigorously as we approached a low bridge. I scrambled out of the seat next ...
Japan, Travel, Bars and Women
It’s hard to be expressive when you are living in a room just seven foot square. I have tried to grumpily pace but covering the length of the room with ...
Selling Fake Rolexes in Japan for the Israeli Mafia
It’s said that a fool and his money are soon parted. And that’s exactly why there are so many Israelis selling jewelry on the streets of Japan – they’re making ...
Hooligans Japan World Cup
Leave it to the Japanese to show us the meaning of panic. For months prior to the World Cup of 2002, the word hooligan sent shivers through the nation. ...
West of the Sun - Kyoto, Japan Travel Story
Hysteria Siberiana: an illness affecting Siberian farmers overwhelmed by the distance of the plains of Siberia, heading off ‘like someone possessed’ for a land west of the sun. The monk ...
Japan Airport Travel - A Fragile Gaijin
I feel fragile and glassy.
Outside the rain is falling down and tattooing on the Arrivals Hall. I feel like the next person to jostle me is going to fracture me ...
Ropponghi Japan Nightlife
Love it, hate it, loathe it, leave it. Roppongi is a people magnet. Perhaps it doesn’t attract the most savory of characters, but all walks of life rub elbows and ...
Israeli - Origins, Pressure and Identity
When people in Israel meet for the first time one of the first things they ask each other the origins of their families. It’s quite typical that someone will ...
Israelis Abroad - Travelers with attitude
The golden age of imperialism and foreign empires may have passed but it seems that no one remembered to tell Israel. With every passing day they consolidate their strangle-hold ...
DDT in the Himalayas - India Stories
In the early days of DDT it was thought to be the wonder pesticide to kill all creepy-crawlies that threatened our crops. Smiling PR men poured it on their ...
Village in the Himalayas - India Gods and Mountains
In 1998 I found myself in India with no visa and just $200 to my name. Summer had unleashed itself on the plains of India and the
