What’s something you do completely differently from how you were raised?
Travel.
PROMPT: Completely Differently
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Category Archives: Adventure
BOOK: “Among Warriors” by Pamela Logan
Among Warriors: A Woman Martial Artist in Tibet by Pamela LoganMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Author Site
This is an interesting travelogue describing Logan’s 1991 journey through Tibet and Nepal via bicycle, foot, and hitchhiked rides in trucks. It’s reminiscent of Alexandra David-Néel’s description of a journey in Tibet, though Alexandra David-Néel’s trip was both successful in ways Logan’s was not (e.g. in 1924 the former reached Lhasa, which Logan is turned away from,) and Alexandra David-Néel had to go full native — i.e. she couldn’t have completed her trip without convincing all the locals she interacted with that she was, in fact, from the region, herself. Still, Logan comes across as no slouch, heading out even when permits were denied or stalled, getting turned back, and making legitimate attempts to sneak her way to her objective. One must acknowledge that late 20th century China is a very different world than early 20th century Tibet, and so it may not be a fair comparison.
It is Logan’s stating of her objective that sets this book up to be anticlimactic, despite its thrilling elements. Her initial objective was to come into contact with Khampas — nomadic Tibetan warriors who were legendarily hard. While Logan has many adventures and fascinating experiences, she doesn’t succeed in her stated objective. I found it bold, but perhaps ill-conceived, to so ardently discuss said objective (even in the back blurb,) knowing that — adventures or no — it would feel like a let-down to many readers.
If you are interested in learning more about the highways, byways, and villages of Tibet, particularly how it was back in the early 90’s, I’d recommend reading this book. However, I wouldn’t go into it with any blurb-generated expectations.
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FIVE WISE LINES [October 2025]
I had better never see a book
ralph waldo emerson; The american scholar
than to be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit,
and made a satellite instead of a system.
Free should the scholar be, — free and brave.
Ralph waldo emerson; The American Scholar
If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine, it is lethal.
Paulo coelho
What you’re supposed to do when you
Maya angelou
don’t like a thing is change it.
If you can’t change it,
change the way you think about it.
Don’t complain.
No man ever steps in the same river twice,
Heraclitus
for it’s not the same river
and he’s not the same man.
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PROMPT: Security or Adventure
Not sure what to do with this one. It reads to me much as would, “Would you prefer air or water?”
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On Tourists & Travelers [Free Verse]
A tourist looks back fondly upon
A favorite destination;
A traveler is always at it.
A tourist loathes travel hiccups;
A traveler calls them stories.
A tourist jumps from one
Postcard vista to the next;
A traveler moves through the world.
A tourist collects knicknacks & geegaws;
A traveler collects experiences.
A tourist, between sights, seeks
A life experience as close to
Their homelife as possible.
A traveler wants a life experience
As close to local as possible.
A tourist has a favorite meal;
A traveler assumes he hasn't
Crossed paths with it yet.
A tourist leaves nothing to chance;
A traveler embraces the spontaneous.
A tourist takes comfort as a main course;
A traveler uses it like a condiment.
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PROMPT: Positive Events
Daily writing prompt
What positive events have taken place in your life over the past year?
Just, oh so many of them. Virtually all of them. I’ve succeeded in every breath I took (so far, fingers crossed.)
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BOOK: “Mad About the Mekong” by John Keay
Mad About The Mekong: Exploration and Empire in South East Asia by John KeayMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Site
This book is largely, but not exclusively, an accounting of the Mekong Exploration Commission’s two-year (1866-1868) expedition of the Mekong River. The French undertook this expedition in the expectation that the Mekong, like other of the world’s major rivers, would allow ocean-going ships to traverse deep inland — possibly even up into Yunnan, China. The explorers were quickly disabused of this notion, but they relentlessly kept going – despite suffering from disease and the exhaustion of a trip that involved a lot more portaging and other intense physical activities than they’d hoped for.
As I mentioned, Keay doesn’t stick purely to description of the activities of these nineteenth century explorers. Along the way he also brings in fascinating stories from other periods as well as discussion of what the river is like (e.g. its ecology, infrastructure, role in geopolitics, etc.) these days. So, while it would be excessive to call the book a history of the Mekong, it is in some regards — albeit the highlights reel. Some of the diversions were among my favorite parts of the book. Perhaps my favorite was the story of Tony Poe, whose story is said to be the model for Col. Kurtz of Apocalypse Now. I’d long heard that that movie was based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and it is (the name “Kurtz” is clearly from Conrad’s novella, though Poe’s occupation more closely mirrors the Col. Kurtz character played by Marlon Brando.)
While the book sometimes shines the light more broadly than he Mekong Exploration Commission Expedition, it also narrows its focus much of the way, putting the expedition’s most colorful character, Francis Garnier, front and center. Garnier was not only the most intriguing member of the leadership, he also led the group to what was the end of the line for the expedition, deep in China, when the Captain, Ernest Doudart de Lagree, became incapacitated by disease.
If you’re interested in history, travel, or exploration, I’d recommend this book.
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“Excelsior” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow [w/ Audio]
The shades of night were falling fast,
As though an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!
His brow was sad; his eye beneath,
Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,
And like a silver clarion rung
The accents of that unknown tongue,
Excelsior!
In happy homes he saw the light
Of household fires gleam warm and bright;
Above, the spectral glaciers shone,
And from his lips escaped the groan,
Excelsior!
"Try not the Pass!" the old man said;
"Dark lowers the tempest overhead,
The roaring torrent is deep and wide!"
And loud that clarion voice replied,
Excelsior!
"Oh stay," the maiden said, "and rest
Thy weary head upon this breast!"
A tear stood in his bright blue eye,
But still he answered, with a sigh,
Excelsior!
"Beware the pine-tree's withered branch!
Beware the awful avalanche!"
This was the peasant's last Good-night,
A voice replied, far up the height,
Excelsior!
At break of day, as heavenward
The pious monks of Saint Bernard
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,
A voice cried through the startled air,
Excelsior!
A traveller, by the faithful hound,
Half-buried in the snow was found,
Still grasping in his hand of ice
That banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!
There in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,
And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell like a falling star,
Excelsior!
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PROMPT: Excited
Tell us about the last thing you got excited about.
Going for a walk this morning. (I’m like a dog that way…. except I don’t pee during my walks… usually.)
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PROMPT: Every Day
Move playfully.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 